Antiwar Protesters Regrouping (FR, Support Our Troops Rally Mentioned)

The Washington Post ^ | Sunday, October 19, 2003 | Manny Fernandez

[kristinn]

Protesters from more than 135 cities in 38 states are expected to converge on Washington on Saturday, as busloads of antiwar demonstrators return to the capital for the first time since the fall of Baghdad in April.

Organizers said the rally and march will draw tens of thousands from across the United States and Canada. It is the first event of its kind co-sponsored by two major antiwar coalitions, International ANSWER and United for Peace and Justice, both of which coordinated some of the country's biggest peace marches this year. The demonstration will coincide with a rally and march in downtown San Francisco.

"The antiwar movement is becoming ascendant again; it's rising once more," ANSWER organizer Brian Becker said. "Our demonstration against the occupation on April 12 drew 30,000 people. We will draw substantially more than that for this demonstration."

SNIP

The D.C. chapter of a grass-roots conservative group, Free Republic, is holding an 11 a.m. counter-demonstration at the West Front of the Capitol, near the reflecting pool on Third Street. About 1,000 people are expected.

Kristinn Taylor, 41, local co-leader of the group, said the rally will show support for troops overseas. "The biggest thing we want to do is give voice to the good things that have been happening over in Iraq, which we think are not getting out," Taylor said.

Among the many antiwar groups, ANSWER, which stands for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, is one of the most controversial, enraging critics such as Taylor, who say it is a bastion of communists and anti-Semites. Among hundreds of ANSWER's coalition co-signers, including historian Howard Zinn and city council members from Boston and Berkeley, Calif., are the socialist Workers World Party, the New Communist Party of the Netherlands and the German Communist Party.

ANSWER organizers say the group is made up of activists of all political and religious stripes, and they view attempts to paint the group as anti-American or anti-Semitic as groundless accusations aimed at dividing the movement. "We would never consider excluding organizations or individuals who share our opposition to this war," Becker said.

[kristinn]

Link to the announcement thread for the D.C. Chapter's Freedom Rally Against Terror and Tyranny.

The number of people who show up this Saturday to support our troops is up to you. They're sacrificing for you. Will you sacrifice a day for them?

[kristinn]

D.C. Chapter ping!

[concerned about politics]

Most of the protestors are there for other causes. They just group together to make the support for their "cause" look bigger.
Every low life scum one could think of will show up there. I suppose most of the normal people in this country would find it rather sickening.
The more they act like children, the better the Republican party looks to the sane folks.
Then, there's the cost to the taxpayers. That's a bundle. The Republicans should make this a big issue if these kooks are going to play their ignorant games. I don't want to have to pay for cleaning up the dirty needles, AIDs riddled condoms, aborted babies and various other "toys" they leave behind. Those people are a public health hazard! Peeeeuuuuwww!

[armymarinemom]

"We would never consider excluding organizations or individuals who share our opposition to this war," Becker said.

Yeah, right!! If memory serves correctly they turned down speakers of the Jewish faith during one of their big rallies before the war.

[kristinn]

Here's what ANSWER had to say about that: "One of the first agreements that was made between the groups organizing the Feb. 16 anti-war protest was that none of the coalitions would propose rally speakers who had publicly attacked or worked to discredit one of the coalition groups. When members of the Tikkun Community, who have actively participated in the organizing meetings for Feb. 16, suggested to Bay Area United for Peace and Justice, that it propose Michael Lerner as a speaker, it was explained by members of UFPJ that since he had publicly attacked A.N.S.W.E.R in both the New York Times and Tikkun community e-mail newsletters, his inclusion in the program would violate the agreement among the Feb. 16 organizing groups.

"It was this issue -- Michael Lerner's public attacks against one of the anti-war coalitions - that resulted in his not being formally proposed as a speaker on Feb. 16; his views on Israel and Palestine had nothing to do with it. Within the anti-war movement, there is a wide spectrum of diverse and opposing views regarding Israel and Palestine, and those views will be heard on Feb. 16. On that day, two rabbis, David Cooper and Pam Frydman-Baugh, both of whose views are similar to those of Michael Lerner, will be speaking. To reiterate, the fact that Michael Lerner was not invited to speak on Feb. 16 was not the consequence of a veto by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition. None of the coalitions have veto power over the Feb. 16 program."

Lerner statement.

[JoJo Gunn]

Wanna kill half of them? Throw a bar of soap into the crowd!

[staytrue]

If memory serves correctly they turned down speakers of the Jewish faith during one of their big rallies before the war.

An Iranian opposed to the ayatollahs rule asked ANSWER to speak at a rally and they laughed in her face.

Kristinn knows the details of this. Is she speaking at our rally ?

[kristinn]

Let's just say that ANSWER does not share the Hard Rock Cafe's motto: Love All, Serve All.......

[RandallFlagg]

Here's to missing the fun of FReeping in Colorado!

You DC FReepers have the most fun....I'm jealous.

I'm working; will it be on CSPAN?

[kristinn]

Offer them soap? Then we'd be accused of being bigoted against the hygenically challenged.

[kristinn]

We won't know about C-SPAN until the end of the week.

[RandallFlagg]

OK. Why are you up so early??

[armymarinemom]

You have to love the spin used by the organizing groups about this topic. Lerner and Corn had criticized this group concerning anit-Zionist statements made by ANSWER concerning the Palestinian issue.
I think if it weren't for drugs and alcohol these people would kill each other at rallies.

[kristinn]

Up so late, actually :-)

Pre-rally energy, I suppose. Got alot to do this week.

[RandallFlagg]

Wish I could be there.

:(

[ladyinred]

Of course they fail to mention that most of these groups are backed by and relate to communists, but hey, what's in a name?

[kristinn]

I can see why Lerner and Corn were upset. And I can see why ANSWER would spin it this way. What ANSWER can't spin away was that a speaker opposed to the war on Iraq was banned from their stage, contrary to Comrade Becker's statement in the article.

[kristinn]

Wish you could be here, too.

[kristinn]

Actually, Manny's getting a little better. One of these days he'll report that ANSWER and UFPJ are headed by communists. Manny might even start looking into who funds these groups--maybe.

[basil]

A big ping for a big-hearted group of freepers!