Reality and fiction are routinely confused by the corporate media. Although the anti-war movement in the United States is on the upsurge right now, you would think exactly the opposite if you get your information from the “mainstream” media.
A recent Reuters article, which was picked up in many newspapers and web sites, did the usual Alice-In-Wonderland
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Using almost precisely the same facts and analysis, the International Socialist Organization wrote a fallacious article bemoaning the supposed “weakening” of the anti-war movement. It is notable that the ISO has never taken the initiative to mobilize a national mass anti-war action. Intstead, the group is content with criticizing the work of others from the sidelines—a vantage point of pristine observational clarity, no doubt.
Both the Reuters and ISO articles are similar in tone and political outlook; both proclaim the current anti-war movement dead. But an honest look at the facts shows otherwise.
On Sept. 15, 100,000 people marched from the White House to the Capitol. When the police tried to block their path on the way to Congress, more than 200 people were arrested at a dramatic Die-In. Most significantly, Iraq war veterans and parents whose children were killed in Iraq led the march.
The demonstration was charged with energy. Unlike other anti-war protests that have been disproportionately middle-aged people, tens of thousands of students and young workers filled the ranks of the protests. A huge part of the crowd was participating in their first or one of their first demonstrations.
People who had been coming to demonstrations for a long time noticed the difference, despite the corporate media’s deceptive coverage.
As one participant wrote to the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) following the action: “I am age 68 and have not been in a D.C. demonstration since the 1970’s for ERA events. Those were powerful, but this exceeded those. I definitely felt the energy of the movement and I do not believe the powers that be can stop this. In spite of a hip replacement I knew I HAD to be there. I wrote a letter to the editor of our local paper because the only coverage of September 15 was a photo of the Gathering of Eagles on an inside page. NOTHING about the ANSWER event.”
Following Sept. 15, there were smaller actions nearly every day throughout September. On Oct. 27, the major anti-war coalitions are jointly organizing for large-scale regional mass protests in more than 10 cities. The ANSWER Coalition and United for Peace and Justice both issued calls for these protests last June. In some cities UFPJ has taken the leadership and in other cities the ANSWER Coalition has initiated the regional or local coalition. Hundreds of groups and organizations are organizing full throttle for these important actions.
The anti-war movement is entering a period of heightened activism, protest and resistance. Hundreds of thousands of people will be in the streets in the coming weeks. Every day people are putting up posters, handing out leaflets and carrying out all the work of mobilizing. Their work in the communities, workplaces and schools receive no promotion in the corporate media, which dutifully report every pro-war utterance by Bush and his collaborators in Congress.
Both the Republicans and the Democrats have decidedly backed the continuation of the criminal occupation for years and decades to come. They have limitless resources to pump out the propaganda to justify the continuation of the war. They work every day to minimize the growing people’s movement against the war. And yet it is the anti-war movement that has attracted the support of the vast majority in this country who want the immediate end to the carnage in Iraq.
It will not be in the halls of Congress or through the corporate media, but in the streets that the anti-war movement will succeed. The Party for Socialism and Liberation is deeply involved and urges everyone to become an organizer for the upcoming Oct. 27 protests and in all the other street actions that are gaining momentum across the country.
