Bashir,
a Libyan citizen, had driven all the way from Colorado to Washington,
D.C., to deliver a simple message: “NATO is killing our civilians,
not saving our civilians.” Bashir was joined by hundreds of others
who picketed outside the White House on July 9 with signs that read
“No War for Oil,” “Money for Jobs and Education, Not War on
Libya” and “Stop Bombing Africa!”
Numerous
polls show that the people of the United States oppose the Libya war
by a 2-1 margin despite the extreme pro-war propaganda churned out by
the corporate media—which again has shown itself to be the fourth
branch of government.
But
this anti-war sentiment has not yet been reflected in mass anti-war
activity. This was the significance of the July 9 protest initiated
by the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism). Despite
the 96-degree heat index, for the first time hundreds of people came
together to stand up, be counted and register their dissent at the
President’s doorstep against the war on Libya. History has shown
that mass movements can quickly grow from such gatherings, and this
could again be the case if the war were to escalate. Over the last
few weeks, the resistance of the Libyan people and government has
only seemed to grow, exposing the imperialists’ vision of quick
regime change as an unattainable dream.
Several
protesters explained that Cynthia McKinney’s “Eyewitness Libya”
tour in June had moved them to take action. One was José, a
57-year-old Vietnam veteran from the Bronx, who sees in this war
striking parallels to the one he experienced. “Once again innocents
are being killed for the profits of a small group of rich people.
Vietnam touched all of us—let’s not let war touch this generation
the same way.”
Michael
Ben-Elohim, 28, of New Haven, Conn., explained his presence at the
march as an obligation as a descendent of Africa, which NATO was
hoping to “re-colonize” through Libya. Calling out the one-sided
media coverage, he asked, “Where are the pictures of the civilians
being killed by NATO’s bombs?”
A
significant majority of the protesters on July 9 were African
American or African immigrants, and several dozen Ivorians
enthusiastically participated in the march. In April, French and UN
troops moved into the Ivory Coast to help remove President Laurent
Gbagbo, who had steered the traditional French client state towards a
more independent foreign policy. This intervention, which placed the
pro-French opposition leader into power, was also justified on
“humanitarian” grounds.
For
Ben, 39, an Ivorian immigrant living in New York City, the
interventions in Africa are all about natural resources: “In the
Ivory Coast, they want our coffee and cocoa beans; in Libya, they
want the oil.” Ben, an unemployed college graduate, pointed out
that the U.S. government seems more interested in creating war than
jobs.
Albert
Josiah, 25, had seen a flyer for the July 9 protest lying on the
sidewalk in Baltimore, Md., where he lives. Josiah, who is of
Liberian descent, has opposed the war from the start, which he
believes is “for the government’s self-interest—for oil.” The
action at the White House was the first protest Josiah has ever
attended, but he was eager to get back to Baltimore and “get the
information out to our neighborhoods.”
Rakim
Jenkins, a 21-year-old activist in the Black Student Union at the
City College of New York, made the point, “When other people are
being oppressed, we are too. Some people might not believe that this
is their fight, but that could be your mother, father, brother or
sister being bombed.” While explaining that he was supportive of
Obama’s election, “Dr. King and Malcolm X would not sanction what
he’s doing in Libya.”
The
anti-war action was opposed by a group of about 50 pro-war Libyans
who waved the flag of the Libyan rebels and chanted “Thank you,
NATO!” One prominent sign, trivializing the death and destruction
wrought by the war, read “NATO: You’re the bomb (literally).”
The
pro-war grouping’s claim to represent the aspirations of the Libyan
people is clearly a lie, according to Khalifa Mohammed, a Libyan
citizen who came from Massachusetts to join the anti-war action. He
told
Liberation
:
“I will not respond to them. I will let the hundreds of thousands
who demonstrated in Sabha [in southern Libya] yesterday respond to
them. I will let the 1 million who came out in Tripoli last Friday
respond to them. The majority of the Libyan people have spoken and
they are against the war.”
After
two hours of chanting and picketing, the anti-war crowd marched to an
indoor rally several blocks away. There, speakers included Brian
Becker, National Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition; Akbar Muhammad,
International Representative of the Nation of Islam; Khalifa
Mohammed, a Libyan studying abroad in the United States; Leo Gnawa of
CRI-Panafricain-USA; Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, co-founder of the
Partnership for Civil Justice Fund; and Salim Akhtar of the American
Muslim Alliance Foundation. Masake Kane, a student at Towson
University and member of the ANSWER Coalition, chaired the indoor
rally.
The
action drew buses of protesters from Harlem, and vans and cars from
Baltimore, Md.; Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and State College, Pa.; New
Haven, Conn.; and elsewhere. On the ride home, each bus had a
speak-out that gave individuals a chance to reflect on their
experiences and address their fellow passengers. Juanita Thomas, an
activist with Afrikan Unity of Harlem, Inc., linked the war on Libya
with the continuous disrespect that the United Nations shows towards
the sovereignty of African countries. Jinnette Caceres, a
schoolteacher and ANSWER Coalition activist, explained that future
generations will want to know how the U.S. government got away with
yet another war for oil: “I don’t want to look my students in the
eye and say I did nothing to stop it.”
The
July 9 protest was coupled with a solidarity rally that took place in
San Francisco, Calif. Rather than a one-time event, the theme of the
day was to use the action as a jumping-off point for a summer of
anti-war activism. The next big rally scheduled is on August 13 in
Harlem. A broad coalition of organizations will be working together
to demand an end to the wars and sanctions on African countries, and
that the government use its vast resources to meet the need for jobs
and education.
