The writer is the National Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism).
The Sept. 15 March on Washington was unique.
The energy, the youth, the multitude of new people who were joining a protest for the first time; the large number of Iraq
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The people who attended knew this to be true. This was not the same crowd strolling down the street. What the people saw and felt and experienced and knew to be true could not be easily erased by the typically bad, cynical and misleading corporate media coverage.
Before the action the government tried to suppress and repress the organizing ef for ts. The ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) was slapped with $38,000 in fines for putting up 194 posters that were legally wheat pasted announcing the Sept. 15 action.
When we held a press conference in front of the White House to protest the fines, the police from the Nat ional Park Service arrested the speakers and organizers—and horse-mounted police charged into the assembled media.
Ironically, this police attack in front of the White House came hours after Laura Bush gathered the media together inside the White House to condemn the police crackdown of “pro-democracy activists” in Myanmar.
If anything, the government attempts to suppress these efforts not only failed but drew additional thousands, and perhaps tens of thousands, of angry people to the streets.
A true united front
When the large crowd, with so many high school and college students in attendance, poured into the streets on Sept. 15 the excitement and buzz was palpable. People knew they were part of something very special; something different from the earlier anti-war marches. The march was impressive and new at other levels as well. ANSWER initiated the action and provided hundreds of organizers and volunteers. These people were the organizational and administrative anchor of the protest. But this was not an action of one group or entity.
Sept. 15 was a genuine and broad coalition of diverse organizations. Iraq Veterans Against the War, D.C. Chapter; Grassroots America, Veterans for Peace, Camp Casey Peace Institute, Hip Hop Caucus, National Council of Arab Americans and the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation worked together in joint planning.
The groups achieved an admirable level of cooperation and comradely working relations based on mutual respect and shared responsibility. Many other organizations also contributed. Ramsey Clark and many in the ImpeachBush movement mobilized as well.
As a response to the fascist mobilization of the so-called Gathering of Eagles, numerous local and national organizations joined together to offer a united security team.
Sept. 15 may be a harbinger of an even greater unity in the anti-war movement among Iraq war veterans and military families, the Arab American and Musl im communit ies, students and youth, the immigrant rights movement and other oppressed working-class communities—among those who are already unionized and the millions who need to be.
As we evaluate the action, we will assess not only its strengths but any of its defects, weaknesses and mistakes. It is not possible to have such an energized action with many tens of thousands of people without there being a fair share of mistakes to learn from.
At the barricades
ANSWER leaders, including Party for Socialism and Liberation members, were among the first people arrested for going over the police barricade that blocked the path to the Capitol building. Some also were among the first of the 197 people released from custody.
The rest of the night those released earlier and other solidarity activists had the great privilege of welcoming people as they got out of jail and shuttling individuals to the bus station between 1:00am and 8:00 am the next morning.
We got a chance to meet and learn the stories of these brave souls. Many were Iraq war veterans and young students for whom this was their very demonstration and their first arrest. They were inspired, pumped up and eager to keep mobilizing. They were proud of what they had done.
Many people told us in person, and in subsequent emails, that Sept. 15 was an event of great importance in their life and outlook.
There is no scientific method to assess how many people fit into this broad category, but by the anecdotal feedback we believe this was a large group.
People come into the streets, risk arrest, join a movement and become act ivists because they have certain hopefulness that their actions can make a difference.
We have been through a period of pessimism and political apathy—hallmarks of generalized mood where the mass of
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Build a working-class movement
On Sept. 20, just five days after Sept. 15, tens of thousands people traveled to Jena, La. to stand with the Jena 6 and the African American community.
These two events coming within one week’s time are the first signs that we are waking to a new morning of action, resistance and militant struggle. New movements are not born in the minds of social critics and Ivory Tower observers. They are forged in the streets. Real people, volunteering their time and ignoring the armies of naysayers, are the ones who ignite new historical processes. This movement is coming together because it is needed. Its time has come.
By acting together against war and racism, and linking this movement to all the needs of society that are being sacrificed and destroyed by the power of corporate domination, we can fill the void and vacuum left by the earlier collapse of the progressive movement.
Sept. 15 in Washington, D.C. will be remembered as historically relevant if it emerges as a step toward an even greater development. That is the goal and task of all those who are committed to waging a broad struggle for the radical transformation of this country.
That, and nothing less, is the order of the day.
Click here to read an Iraq veteran’s account of the Sept. 15 protest.
Click here for more photos and a slideshow.
