BUSH, RUMSFELD CONFRONTED IN U.S., EUROPE, ASIA
The first week of June was not a good time to be George W. Bush or Donald Rumsfeld.
Bush was in Europe, ostensibly for 60th anniversary celebrations of D-Day, but really to continue begging the European imperialist allies he dissed last year to send troops to aid the embattled U.S./British occupation of Iraq.
At least 200,000 people came out in Rome June 4 to call Bush by his right name: War Criminal #1.
The next day, tens of thousands in Paris did the same.
And Rumsfeld? The U.S. defense secretary was in Dhaka, Bangladesh, June 5 as part of a six-day tour to pressure Asian governments to do more for the "war on terror."
But Rumsfeld, one of the neocon architects of Bush's preemptive war doctrine, only managed to display his feet of clay. Thousands of protesters filled the streets in the majority Muslim country, reportedly
cutting short his visit.
The duo must have wished they could return home to Washington June 5, right?
Wrong.
Both the White House and Rumsfeld's D.C. mansion were besieged by thousands of protesters, responding to a call for emergency demonstrations by the ANSWER coalition (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism).
The protests were called to press the demand to end the racist occupations of Iraq, Haiti and Afghanistan, at a time when the Bush administration and the U.S. ruling class are wracked with infighting over declining support and the sorry state of the Iraq occupation.
They were all for war on Iraq last year, when none of them believed the people could resist the Pentagon's power. Now that the Iraqis have proven them wrong, they're all looking for someone else to blame.
June 5 also marked the 37th anniversary of the Israeli blitzkrieg, backed by the United States, which led to the occupation of the Gaza Strip and Golan Heights. So the Palestinian people's national liberation struggle took center stage as well.
ANSWER demonstrations were also held in San Francisco, where up to 10,000 marched, and in Los Angeles.
Bush and Rumsfeld wouldn't have been able to sneak into Kolkata (Calcutta), India, if they'd wanted to. Anti-war forces there answered the call of the West Bengal State Committee of the All India Anti-
imperialist Forum to mobilize in solidarity with their ANSWER comrades on the other side of the world.
The AIAF organized a June 5 march to the American Center in Kolkata. "With colorful festoons and posters and raising spirited slogans condemning these unspeakable war crimes, crimes against humanity,
justice and peace, the march started from Raja Subodh Mullick Square in the afternoon and ended in a demonstration before the American Center. Effigies of George Bush and Ariel Sharon were burnt at the rally," the group reported.
--Greg Butterfield
*****
WASHINGTON: PROTESTERS MARCH THROUGH THREE WORLDS
By Greg Butterfield
Washington, D.C.
The skies opened over Washington on June 5. Torrential downpours greeted protesters coming into the city by car, bus and train from the East Coast and as far west as Chicago. The weather mirrored the stormy mood in official Washington. The U.S. military occupation of Iraq is in crisis, thanks to the growing popular resistance there and wide exposure of Pentagon war crimes.
Thousands of anti-war activists, community activists, students and workers showed they could weather both storms. Harsh skies didn't deter them from heeding the call of the ANSWER coalition. Neither did the bitter clash within the Bush administration and broader circles of the capitalist political establishment, which resulted in the June 3 resignation of CIA Director George Tenet.
The rally showed that a significant sector of the anti-war movement believes this is the time to be in the streets against the war-makers. They are not diverted by elections, Congressional hearings and political
maneuvers.
Demonstrators gathered in Lafayette Park, facing the White House. Wearing plastic ponchos and holding umbrellas, they hefted banners and signs demanding, "Bring the troops home now," "Stop the torture," and, "End occupations from Iraq to Palestine to Haiti." The flags of those nations were prominently flown, along with Venezuelan, Puerto Rican, Mexican and rainbow lesbian/gay/bi/ trans flags.
Even before the rally began, international solidarity was on display. A bus from Brooklyn, N.Y.'s Haitian community arrived just as a group of Palestinian women faced off against a tiny right-wing counter-protest. The counter-protesters held red-baiting signs and a racist banner that read, "There is no Palestine." The Haitian group, mostly women, immediately joined their Palestinian sisters, chanting, "Free, free Palestine," and drowning out the racists.
HOLMES: AVOID THAT SUCKING SOUND
Larry Holmes, co-director of the International Action Center and an ANSWER steering committee member, pointed to the White House and declared, "We are speaking truth to murderers, terrorists and
torturers."
He demanded that the big-business media covering the rally "devote space to pictures of all the Iraqi people who have died, and Palestinians, and Haitians. We will not settle for less than the truth."
He warned the crowd: "If you hear a sucking sound, ignore it, because that's the elections. It's trying to pull you off the streets into a silly contest that doesn't mean anything. The movement is in the streets."
"Everything we have said has come to pass," said Husayn Agrama of the Free Palestine Alliance. "They said they would bring liberation and democracy to Iraq. We said they would bring exploitation and
humiliation. Haven't the prisoners of Abu Ghraib paid witness to what we said?"
AFSCME District Council 1707 President Brenda Stokely said of the war-makers: "They discount that where there is oppression, there is uprising and resistance. That's what they're overlooking in Haiti, in Iraq, in Palestine, and throughout the world."
Serge Lilavois of the Coalition to Resist the Feb. 29 Coup in Haiti declared, "The world has to know that U.S. forces were involved in killing peaceful protesters marching against the occupation."
The crowd chanted, "Aristide, Aristide, Aristide," demanding the return of the popularly elected Haitian president who was kidnapped and deported by U.S. Marines in late February.
Gloria La Riva of the National Committee to Free the Cuban 5 warned that the United States is preparing new aggression against the socialist island. "The Cuban people are not about to give up what belongs to them," she declared.
Omar Sierra of the Bolivarian Circle of New York called for solidarity against U.S. intervention in oil-rich Venezuela.
Several speakers were family members of soldiers stationed or killed in Iraq. One was Norma Castillo, whose nephew is imprisoned resister Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia.
Ismael Kamal of the Muslim Student Association addressed the plight of thousands of Arab and Muslim men still imprisoned in the United States without legal recourse. "As our predecessors brought an end to Jim Crow, McCar thyism and Cointelpro, we will bring an end to the Patriot Act," he vowed.
BERG: THIS IS A RACIST WAR
The protesters gave rapt attention to Michael Berg, a longtime anti-war activist and supporter of ANSWER. Berg's son Nick, a small business owner, had traveled to Iraq earlier this year. Nick Berg was detained by U.S. occupation forces. He was finally released after his family took the government to court.
In May Nick Berg was found dead. A mysterious videotape has circulated on the Internet depicting his decapitation by alleged Islamic radicals.
Invoking the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Michael Berg said: "America has been in touch with me, [and] the people of America told me they have a dream of peace. I am here to answer the people who offered to help. Don't let what happened to me and my family happen again.
"This is a war and it is racist. Let's act now to stop war and end racism," he urged. "And let's keep acting until we can raise a banner of peace that says, 'Mission accomplished.'"
Besides Holmes, ANSWER steering committee members who spoke were Yoomi Jeong of the Korea Truth Commission, Chuck Kaufman of the Nicaragua Network and Brian Becker.
Other speakers included Mahdi Bray of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, Cheri Honkala of the Ken sing ton Welfare Rights Union, the Rev. Graylan Hagler of Plymouth Congregational Church, Zack Wolf of the National Lawyers Guild-Lesbian/Gay/Bi/Trans Committee, and Ricardo and Noberto Juarez of Mexicans Without Borders.
Messages were read from Ben Dupuy of the National Popular Party of Haiti and ANSWER steering committee member Macrina Cardenas of the Mexico Solidarity Network.
MARCH THROUGH THREE WORLDS
The demonstration concluded with a vigorous two-and-a-half-mile march to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's gated mansion.
The march took protesters through three distinct worlds of Washington: the official world of government buildings, the super-oppressed neighborhoods of working-class D.C. with their boarded-up storefronts
and burned out apartment buildings, and finally the manicured lawns of the rich.
Spirits were highest marching through the communities--African American, Mexican, Salvadoran, Eritrean, Caribbean, white and more. Despite the foul weather, people came out of their homes and stores to watch, chant and take literature. Some even joined the march.
Workers World Party vice presidential candidate Teresa Gutierrez led a strong contingent of WWP and International Action Center activists. Her campaign distributed a colorful postcard declaring that the "road to getting U.S. troops out of Iraq lies through mass action, not electing a 'lesser' evil."
A group of Latin@ students from La Guardia Community College in Queens, N.Y., helped carry a banner from SNAFU, the Support Network for an Armed Forces Union, that read, "Support the right to refuse to fight." Daisy Nabarret told Workers World she had come because "I want to learn the truth about Iraq."
"We've had the opportunity to talk with several members of the military and military families today," SNAFU's Dustin Langley told Workers World. "The movement against the war inside this community is growing daily. SNAFU is reaching out to provide support to resisters inside the military. We're also circulating a 'no draft' petition as part of our
new No Draft, No Way campaign."
On U Street, the march passed Sisterspace & Books, a progressive community institution run by Black women. Staff members came out to greet the cheering marchers. They waved a Black liberation flag and held signs calling for the removal of Mayor Anthony Williams.
Marchers chanted, "End the occupation, join the demonstration!" and, "Money for jobs and reparations, not for war and occupation!"
As rundown apartment buildings gave way to brick townhouses, the chant became "Donald Rumsfeld, you will see, Baghdad will be free!"
Police attempted to split the front of the march as it neared Rumsfeld's mansion on Kalarama Road. Fired-up protesters forced the cops to remove barricades and the line of march merged again.
Richard Kossally, who had been distributing Workers World newspapers to onlookers, was at the scene. He told WW: "When the first part of the march came back to join us, the cops felt the power. I started chanting, 'The people united will never be defeated.' The crowd went crazy.
"It shows that when we stay united, we can make things happen."
*****
SAN FRANCISCO: THOUSANDS RALLY AGAINST OCCUPATION
By LeiLani Dowell
and Brenda Sandburg
San Francisco
Some 8,000 to 10,000 people participated in a spirited march and rally in San Francisco June 5 to demand an end to the occupation of Iraq. Contingents of labor groups, veterans, Haitian activists and youths
marched from United Nations Plaza in downtown San Francisco to the beginning of the docks at Embarcadero Plaza. The protest was sponsored by the ANSWER coalition.
A brass band played the "International" during the march. A small counter-demonstration in support of the state of Israel was drowned out by chants of "free, free Palestine."
Lara Kiswani of the Free Palestine Alliance captured rally participants' sentiments: "You can put us in prison, murder our children, demolish our homes, but you will never crush the spirit of the Intifada. You will never crush the resistance that is rooted in our
history of blood, sweat and tears. Palestine will be free."
Henry Clark of the West County Toxics Coalition compared the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib to the torture that goes on in U.S. prisons. He cited the killing of Black Panther Party member George Jackson by prison guards and prison officials' refusal to provide medical treatment to Native activist Leonard Peltier. "The torture of Iraqi prisoners is business as usual," Clark said.
Families of U.S. troops also spoke. Maritza Castillo, whose son Camilo Mejia is a war resister, noted the irony of Mejia's prison sentencing. "For refusing to torture and kill people in Iraq, the Bush administration has condemned my son to one year in prison, the same as those accused of torturing the prisoners of Iraq," she said.
Fernando Suarez del Solar, whose son was one of the first U.S. soldiers to die in the war, reiterated that supporting the troops in Iraq means demanding their immediate return.
Pierre Labossiere of the Haiti Action Committee decried the media's silence on the arrest of Lavalas leader and singer Annete Auguste (So' Anne): "U.S. Marines went to her home and blew up the gate to her house with military explosives, arrested her and 12 people in her house, including her grandchildren, handcuffed her and put a hood over her head, and we've not heard about this. Where are the human rights organizations?" He also pointed to the U.S. government's attempt to paint the leaders of the Lavalas movement as drug lords.
LeiLani Dowell, lesbian anti-war activist and Workers World Party member run ning for Congress in San Francisco, urged the crowd to continue building an independent, anti-imperialist, revolutionary
movement, especially in this election year.
"With so many pressures on us at this period in time, with so many attacks on all fronts by the U.S. government, the most important thing is for us to stay unified, to not let anything divide us, to be strong
like a fist," she said to cheers from the crowd.
The Kabataang maka-Bayan (Pro-People Youth) Bay Area Organization Committee issued a statement at the protest: "The situation faced by many people here in the Bay Area, especially poor and people of color, is not far removed from the instability and insecurity faced by the Iraqi people in the face of a U.S. occupation. We also see an unstable future for our youth, with never-ending school budget cuts, and constant assault of military recruiters in the campus ... exploiting the youth's feeling of uncertainty to feed them into the imperialist war machine. ...
"We call on all youth and students throughout the world to expose, oppose, and resist U.S. imperialist intervention in Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, the Philippines and elsewhere."
Others speaking at the rally included Richard Becker and Nazila Bargshady for the ANSWER Coalition and a representative of Fast 4 Edu cation, a group that has successfully fasted for the past 26 days at the Capitol Building in Sacramento, resulting in an almost 500-percent reduction in the interest rate on state bailout loans for suffering school districts in California.
*****
LOS ANGELES: "NO EMPIRE IN OUR NAME"
By Sako Sefiani
Los Angeles
Thousands joined a June 5 march and rally organized by the ANSWER coalition in Los Angeles. They marched through downtown to protest the occupations of Iraq, Palestine, Haiti and other countries.
The protest, one of several throughout the United States, was held at a time when the multimillionaires, billionaires and corporate owners who pushed for the war in Iraq hoping to profit from it are losing patience with the way the occupation has been conducted.
On the day of the demonstration, for example, the Los Angeles Times published a photo showing U.S. troops lying dead near their smoking vehicle. Not long ago a photo like this would not have been published. For a major corporate-media organ to publish photos like this one, as well as pictures of the tortured prisoners in Abu Ghraib, exposes the frustration of part of the ruling class.
"We're here to say there will be no empire in our name," actor/activist Danny Glover told the protesters. He added that they were sending a powerful message to both President George W. Bush and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry. Glover denounced Bush for the occupations of Iraq, Palestine, Haiti and elsewhere.
Responding to news of former President Ronald Reagan's death, Glover said, "The groundwork for the move steadily to the right happened with the Reagan administration."
John Parker of the International Action Center and Workers World Party said the "escalation of U.S. atrocities in Iraq, Pales tine, Haiti, Colombia, the Philip pines and other countries demands urgent solidarity from working-class and progressive people in the U.S." Parker is WWP's candidate for U.S. president.
Parker also spoke of "the quiet occupation of U.S. youths, especially those of oppres sed nationalities, who languish in U.S. jails, often suffering treatment similar to those in the infamous Abu Ghraib prison."
He urged the anti-war movement to expose the link between imperialist wars of aggression and domestic policies. He gave as an example the bosses' attack on health and retirement benefits in the recent California grocery workers' struggle.
Famous Vietnam veteran turned anti-war activist Ron Kovic spoke. So did a veteran of the 1991 Gulf War and the brother of a soldier killed in Iraq.
Other speakers included Muna Coobtee of the Free Palestine Alliance and representatives of the American-Arab Anti-Discri mination Committee, Committee on American Islamic Relations, International Socialist Organization, National Lawyers Guild, Coalition for World Peace, Pacifica Radio, Bayan International, Mindullae Korean-American Organization for Peace and Reunification, Global Women's Strike and others. Preston Wood of ANSWER chaired the rally.
Several speakers pointed out that the U.S. handpicked "transition government" in Iraq is illegitimate. A close CIA ally, Ayad Allawi, has
been installed as prime minister to be at the beck and call of his bosses in Washington.
Giving an "Iraqi face" to the occupation will not work with the Iraqi people. They know what this occupation is really about: domination over the Middle East, protecting the apartheid state of Israel that acts as
the attack dog for U.S. imperialism, securing oil for the United States and its allies, and making big profits for the transnational corporations.
*****
ITALIAN WORKERS: NO BUSH, NO WAR!
By Leslie Feinberg
Rome
When George W. Bush, the emperor of today's imperial empire, visited the capital of the old Roman Empire on June 4, some 200,000 anti-war activists pro tested in the streets.
The lead banner of the massive march read "No war, no Bush." This was the banner of the umbrella coalition that organized the demonstration: Comitato Fermi amo La Guerra (The Committee to End the War).
U.S. Citizens Against the War was the second contingent in the line of march.
The entire demonstration drew cheers and applause along the long route from Italians and international tourists who lined the sidewalks and filled the crowded plazas.
Activists in the U.S. contingent were especially exhilarated that so many tour ists from the United States who were visiting in Italy cheered for them. Some even joined to swell the ranks of the march.
Two such people, who were in Italy on their honeymoon, were standing on the sidewalk as the march passed. They joined the demonstration and helped carry the U.S. contingent's banner.
The demonstration filled the wide avenues of Rome with its numbers and with songs of political resistance. The large numbers that turned out did so in spite of government and media warnings to stay away from the
event, which they said would turn "violent."
The rainbow flag of "pace"--peace--was everywhere in the march. It has become the official symbol of the anti-war movement in Italy. And the flag fluttered from balconies and windows, storefronts and newsstand
kiosks along the route of march and throughout the capital.
A PHONY PARALLEL
Bush's visit was timed to coincide with the anniversary of the landing of U.S. troops at the beaches of Normandy, France, in World War II.
The Commander in Chief tried to make a false historical parallel. Bush painted the Pentagon war and occupation of Iraq as "liberation." He likened this to U.S. military support to the Italian struggle against fascism in World War II.
The June 4 anti-war demonstrators spoke out loudly against this offensive comparison.
The organizers planned the route of the demonstration deliberately. They mar ched in protest past monuments that have been co-opted as symbols of right-wing nationalism. Police massed in rows three deep in front of the "flame of eternal freedom" at the tomb of the Italian "unknown soldier." They guarded the monument to ensure that no anti-war activist could place the flag of "pace" there.
Across the plaza from this monument used to whip up nationalism by the neofascists is the balcony from which Italian fascist Benito Mussolini spoke throughout his reign.
John Gilbert, a U.S. citizen living in Florence, talked to Workers World about Bush's phony claim to be "liberating" Iraq. "The majority of Italians want all the troops withdrawn immediately," including the 2,700 Italian troops the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi sent.
"Italians feel Bush is a threat to world peace. They feel very strongly about the liberation of Italy from the Nazis and that Bush is not appropriate as a representative of the U.S. part in liberating Italy from fascism."
Gilbert, a trade unionist and anti-war organizer, concluded, "Instead, there's more of a parallel to the Nuremberg trials charge of the war crime of deliberate instigation of a war of aggression."
BRIDGES OF SOLIDARITY
The June 4 protest united the Italian movement. Participants included communists and social democrats, anti-imperialists and pacifists, trade unionists and environmental activists.
North African immigrants marched in order to bring the struggle of immigrant workers to the anti-war movement.
The metal workers of the CGIL labor confederation who recently won a successful battle against their bosses at Fiat marched with their union flags.
Another contingent marched with a big sign that read "Defend Cuba! With Fidel and with Cuba; Liberty for the Five!" The Cuban Five are political prisoners held in the U.S. for their role in trying to monitor right-wing terrorism backed by Washington against their island nation.
The flags of Palestine, Iraq and Cuba flew at this march, as well.
The June 4 anti-war march ended at the Piazza di San Paolo, where anti-fascist partisans--with communist leadership--waged one of the fiercest battles against the Nazi German occupation.
Kurdish and Palestinian speakers addressed the final rally. Women in Black, a group opposed to the Israeli occupation of Palestine, performed.
An elderly Italian partisan fighter spoke. So did a U.S. soldier who had fought with the partisans.
U.S. SPEAKER: 'RESISTANCE IS GROWING'
Minnie Bruce Pratt, a U.S. writer and anti-war activist visiting Italy, spoke passionately to those gathered. Pratt is an organizer for the International Action Center, which is one of the 11 organizations on the steering committee of the ANSWER coalition (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism).
Pratt's remarks were cheered. "The U.S. government is trying to close its iron fist on the Middle and Near East ... to make profits for big business," she said. She added, "We in the U.S. stand with you to defend immigrants' rights, to defend workers' rights, the rights of oppressed nationalities--to build unity against the terror of transnational corporations.
"Your opposition to the war--you, the people of Italy--inspires us in the U.S. More and more people in the U.S. understand they have been lied to, and that this war is wrong. Resistance is also growing. More and more soldiers are refusing to serve, aided by groups like SNAFU, the Support Network for an Armed Forces Union. As a lesbian, I'm proud to say the first soldier to resist was Stephen Funk, a gay Filipino Marine reservist."
Pratt concluded, "[T]he people of an occupied and colonized country have the right to resist, and the right to defend themselves. Like the Vietnamese. The Pales tinians. The Iraqis. Like the Italian partisans who battled the Nazis right here in the Plaza of San Paolo.
"We also draw strength to struggle from their resistance."
ACROSS ITALY
In Milan on June 2, some 5,000 people demonstrated against militarism and the war on Iraq. Protesters burned the hated U.S. flag. Twelve were arrested.
Roberto Taddeo from Redlink told Workers World that on June 2 in Naples a demonstration against the war drew many union members and unemployed workers. SNAFU's call for troops to resist the war was distributed in Italian. This is especially significant because Naples is the headquarters for the U.S.-Mediter ranean military command.
The previous week in Naples, activists protested at banks that provide financial services for companies that are exploiting Iraq.
During Bush's visit, numerous smaller demonstrations took place in cities and towns. In Venice, professors and students from the university lined the banks of the Grand Canal wearing hoods like Iraqi prisoners are forced to wear. They held signs reading: "Out of Iraq! Everybody to Rome against Bush!"
Anti-war organizing in this country is ongoing.
In Florence, anti-war events are held three or four times a week in the form of discussions on tactics and strategy meetings, rallies and educational forums.
John Gilbert emphasized that more than 80 percent of Italians are estimated to oppose the war and occupation of Iraq.
This is born out by the "pace" flags visible in towns and cities across Italy. This demand for an end to war flies even in the countryside from the windows and roofs of farmhouses.
*****
HAITIANS SPEAK OUT IN D.C. ON JUNE 5
By G. Dunkel
Washington, D.C.
Haitian organizations enthusiastically joined the June 5 demonstrations to "End the Colonial Occupation in Iraq, Palestine, Haiti and Everywhere" called by the ANSWER coalition. These organizations came to express their opposition to the U.S. and French troops that are propping up the government of former Macoute death squads, ex-army officers and well-off U.S.-based businessmen now running their country.
But the groups showed a broader interest when a bus organized by the Brooklyn-based Coalition to Resist the Feb. 29th Coup d'etat in Haiti pulled up to the rally site. The people getting off the bus ran into a small band of right-wingers chanting "Palestine doesn't exist." The Haitian contingent's response was immediate, in English, French and Creole: "Long live Palestine!" "Vive la Palestine!" "Viv Palestin!" When the right-wingers fell silent, the contingent moved into the crowd waiting for the speeches to start.
Yves Alcindor of the New England Human Rights Organization for Haiti, one of the first speakers, pointed out, "Supporting the resistance in Iraq was to support the resistance in Haiti."
Serge Lilavois, representing the Coalition to Resist the Feb. 29th Coup d'etat in Haiti, also spoke. He said that the resistance in Haiti has not been defeated, it is just lying low and gathering strength. Big demon strations on May 18 in Port-au-Prince had brought out tens of thousands of demonstrators, who stayed in the streets all day, even after the cops, backed up by U.S. Marines, killed at least two protesters. A major slogan, according to Lilavois, was "The only solution is revolution!"
He ended his talk with these words: "Haitians are opposed to the suffering of the Palestinians, Iraqis, and all other oppressed people, as well as the suffering of their own people."
In a message to the demonstration that Jill Ives of the Haiti Support Network read, Ben Dupuy, secretary general of the National Popular Party (PPN), said that "U.S. military forces are stretched thin by resistance to U.S. occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan. And that resistance is growing in Haiti too."
He continued: "Now the U.S. is trying to pit Third World peoples against each other. It has convinced the governments of Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile ... and others to send so-called 'peace keeping' troops to Haiti. Even the corporate press has had to admit that the people of these countries don't support this mission."
He went on to say that even though a Brazilian has been named commander, the Pentagon would still be in charge of the military forces in Haiti. "But using troops from the Third World better disguises U.S. imperialism's moves."
WHY THEY CAME
Asked why he came to Washington, Menouch Lambert, who is a backer of Fanmi Lavalas, Aristide's party, in Brooklyn, told Workers World: "I came to support our sisters and brothers in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and especially Haiti, suffering under occupation. We want Bush to stop oppressing Haitians."
Pierre-Antoine Lovinsky, who was carrying a sign reading "George Bush fascist--stop killing Haitians" with a Haitian flag taped to the top of his pole, said in Creole he came to "denounce the criminal policies of Bush and to demand the physical return of Aristide to Haiti."
Jean-Claude Monastime, who also comes from Brooklyn, where he is active in the struggles of the Haitian community, said, "My country has been invaded like Iraq and Afghanistan. I am marching with my sisters and brothers to end this madness."
Larry Holmes, a member of the steering committee of the ANSWER coalition, said: "It appears that there has been a significant turnout from the Haitian community today. It is an important obligation of the anti-war movement to ensure that their contributions and their struggles are recognized."
- END -
Reprinted from the June 17, 2004, edition of Workers World
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