[NYTr] De-Fund the Occupations; - Protests on 3 Continents

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Workers World - Sep 20, 2007 issue
http://www.workers.org/2007/us/encampment-0920

Camp out on Congress’s doorstep to say

"No funds for racist occupation!"

By LeiLani Dowell

An exciting lineup of events has been announced to directly confront
Congress and its complicity in the wars at home and abroad. As Congress
meets to vote on spending billions more on the war in Iraq, people from
across the country will be participating in a week-long encampment at
its doorstep.

An article in the Sept. 6 New York Times shows exactly why actions
directly challenging Congress are so important. Entitled “Democrats
Newly Willing to Compromise on Iraq,” the article details the
Democrats’ newest double-cross of the anti-war voters who supported
them in November 2006.

Rather than call for a spring deadline for the withdrawal of all
troops—which in itself is unsatisfactory to a large part of the U.S.
population who want all the troops removed immediately—a new proposal
authored by Democratic Senators Carl Levin and Jack Reed would,
according to the Times, “order the administration to begin pulling at
least some combat troops out of Iraq, probably by the end of the year.”
The article states that these senators believe that the compromises
will somehow allow them to “keep pressure on President Bush.”

Apparently the Democrats envision the continuation of the war, which
will require troops to go back to Iraq after they have come home. A
proposal that is being revisited by Democratic senators would require
that troops can be returned to Iraq only after they have spent an equal
amount of time in the United States.

Convergence of grassroots forces

Meanwhile, the multinational, anti-imperialist Troops Out Now Coalition
(TONC) says in a recent statement: “As Congress debates Bush’s new
funding request, we must be there to let them know that ... [w]e cannot
wait for more phony deadlines—we need to set a deadline and demand that
the troops be brought home now.”

TONC activists throughout the country have been busy mobilizing and
planning for the Sept. 22-29 Encampment to Stop the War at Home and
Abroad. Activities include the construction of a giant billboard, on
the first day of the encampment, demanding “Congress: stop funding the
war—fund peoples’ needs.”

Sept. 27 is being billed as “Stop the War at Home Day,” in which
Katrina survivors from New Orleans and their allies will protest the
racism and neglect of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA);
and immigrant rights activists will denounce the raids and detentions
by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

Youth and students have called for a day of action on Sept. 28. A
statement explaining the action states: “Youth and students, from the
U.S. to Iraq, are underattack. Military recruiters prey on our
communities and our campuses, trying to get us and our friends to kill
and be killed in a criminal war. Money that should be being spent to
make education affordable for everyone and provide scholarships is
instead being spent to continue the four-and-a-half year old occupation
of Iraq.

“Police harass us for simply being young, for being a person of color,
or for being lesbian/gay/bi/trans/queer. Bush’s top war adviser, Army
Lt.Gen. Douglas Lute, says that ‘it makes sense to certainly consider’
reinstating the draft. It’s time to raise our voices and our fists and
fight back.”

The cast of “SiCKO”—Michael Moore’s movie exposing the depravity of the
for-profit health care system—will be present at the encampment,
holding a vigil on Sept. 28 for all the victims of that industry, and
organizing a “Healthcare, Not Warfare” contingent in the mass march the
following day.

Other actions planned include events against U.S. intervention in Latin
America, against a new war in Iran, and in solidarity with Cuba and the
Cuban 5.

In Los Angeles, a parallel encampment will be taking place, with two
tent cities in different areas of the sprawling city. Events there
include a 15-mile march between the two tent cities, a protest in
support of the Palestinian struggle, a teach-in on the war and labor
solidarity, and more. (Workers World, Sept. 9)

Cultural resistance

The encampment will also reflect the important and vital role that
culture plays in movements of resistance to capitalist oppression and
imperialist rule.

“Rock the Rulers,” an evening concert series of culture and resistance,
will be held each night of the encampment, featuring hip hop, soul,
r&b, funk, visual arts, theater and spoken word from artists throughout
the country, including Nana Soul, Spirit Child, Pam Parker, Public
Disturbance, Days of Rage, Bojah and the Insurrection, World War III
Arts Collective, Not Now Right Now, Enemy Combatant, The Foundation,
Nemiss, Hasan Salaam, Kahlil Khan, Phase One, Head-Roc, Rahula Today,
Rebel Diaz, Soul Cannon, Strike Anywhere, Songs for Peace, Children
United for Peace and more.

On Sept. 28, BAYAN USA, the New York Committee for Human Rights in the
Philippines, and TONC will host an outdoor concert billed “Never
Again.” A flyer for the event states: “Join Filipino-American artists’
call for withdrawal of U.S. military aid for Philippine death squads
and an end to the undeclared martial law under the Arroyo government.
This concert is dedicated to all victims of Philippine martial law past
and present.”

All these events will culminate with a mass march on Sept. 29 to stop
the war at home and abroad, demanding an end to all occupations—from
Iraq to Palestine to Haiti and the Philippines—an end to racist police
terror, freedom for all political prisoners and money for social
services, not war.

For more information on all these activities, visit
www.troopsoutnow.org.

Articles copyright 1995-2007 Workers World. Verbatim copying and
distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without
royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww at workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe at workersworld.net


                              ***

Workers World - Sep 20, 2007 issue
http://www.workers.org/2007/world/protests-0920/


Occupations protested on three continents

By John Catalinotto

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
10,000 protest Bush at APEC summit

Despite a downpour, some 10,000 people protested at the Asian-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit Sept. 7 in Sydney. Demonstrators
particularly targeted U.S. President George W. Bush’s Iraq policies and
Australian military interventions.

Bush and Australia’s Bush-like Prime Minister John Howard were the
favorite protest targets. Howard has ordered Australian military units
into Iraq, Afghanistan, East Timor and West Papua, among other places.

As they set off on a march, the protesters chanted: “Howard, Bush, USA,
how many kids did you kill today?” A large banner carried by a group of
marchers read: “War criminals not welcome here—Bush go home.”

Among those protesting Bush were former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh
Habib, who was released without charges in 2005, and U.S. Marine
veteran Matt Howard—no relation to the prime minister—who had spoken of
his Iraq experiences at recent anti-war meetings throughout Australia.

The Australian regime had 5,000 police and soldiers on hand and a
three-meter-high fence to keep demonstrators away from the APEC summit.
The security operation was the largest ever mounted in Australia and
included jet fighter overflights, police on jet water-skis in Sydney’s
harbor, a water cannon and special laws aimed at repressing protesters,
of whom 17 were arrested.


BERLIN, GERMANY
Sept. 15 protest against Afghanistan War

The anti-war movement in Germany has called for a national
demonstration on Sept. 15 in Berlin, aimed especially at stopping that
country’s military intervention in Afghanistan. Germany is part of the
NATO military support for the U.S. occupation of the Afghan people.

A coalition of left anti-war forces issued a call supporting the
action, which read in part:

“We welcome the nationwide campaign against the German Federal Armed
Forces mission in Afghanistan and join the common call for a
demonstration on Sept. 15.

“The direct intervention in the war in Afghanistan is, however, only
the most visible participation of Germany in Western wars and
interventions. Our protest is directed of course against all
international missions of the German Federal Armed Forces.

“In addition, we also oppose German military, logistic and political
support of the war against Iraq, the war threats against Syria and
Iran, and also demand that intervention in Lebanon and the Israeli
occupation of Palestine be terminated.”


WASHINGTON, D.C.:
Arrested demanding right to poster

U.S. Park Police arrested three anti-war activists in front of the
White House on Sept. 6. The activists were holding a news conference to
protest fines of $30,000 for putting up anti-war posters calling for a
Sept. 15 demonstration in Washington, D.C.

The three arrested were Tina Richards, CEO of Grassroots America and
mother of Iraq War veteran Cloy Richards; Adam Kokesh, the co-chair
elect of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW); and Ian Thompson, an
organizer with the ANSWER Coalition. Richards and Kokesh had announced
that they would put a Sept. 15 March to Stop the War poster on a
lamppost following the media conference. Mounted police then charged
into the news conference to break it up.

The ANSWER Coalition’s goal, according to statements on its Web site,
is “to sponsor a large protest in Washington, D.C., timed to coincide
with the report by General [David] Petraeus on the ‘surge’ in Iraq.”

Petraeus’s report on Sept. 10—no surprise—called for keeping U.S.
troops levels high at least until next summer. Bush will make a
national address on Sept. 13, when he is expected to propose an
eventual cut of 30,000 troops, but only if the U.S. occupation
stabilizes.

Some movement activists protested as Petraeus was speaking, and Capitol
police arrested anti-war spokespeople Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., a
former Air Force officer and head of the Hip Hop Caucus; Cindy Sheehan;
and members of the IVAW and Code Pink who had been interrupting the
general’s demand for more blood money.

Other actions will take place in the week following Sept. 15. These
events, led by many different groups, include a “Truth-in-Recruiting
Day,” organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War on Sept. 17, and a
Moratorium on Sept. 21.

Starting on Sept. 22, a series of actions called an encampment,
organized by the Troops Out Now Coalition (TONC), will take place in
Los Angeles and in Washington, D.C. These actions are aimed at stopping
congressional approval of the war budget and are directed against the
war “at home and abroad.” They will culminate in mass demonstrations in
both cities on Sept. 29.


Articles copyright 1995-2007 Workers World. Verbatim copying and
distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without
royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww at workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe at workersworld.net