More Gls sent to Gulf, antiwar protests grow

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Over 7000 demonstrated in San Francisco on Oct. 20 Today's rapid rise of the movement against U.S. intervention in the Middle East can be explained largely by the hard-won lessons of the Vietnam War era.

First among these is the simple idea that the United States, the self-proclaimed policeman of the world, has no right to intervene in the affairs of other nations; that these nations have the right to self-determination.

Support for the concept of self-determination today is captured in the slogan, "Bring the Troops Home Now," or alternately, "No U.S. Intervention in the Middle East."

These slogans—the dominant themes put forward during the national demonstrations of Oct. 20, 1990-express the deeply held opinions of a significant number of the American people that the United States has no rights in the Middle East whatsoever.

In opposition to and/or sometimes to "complement" the "Bring the Troops Home Now" slogan, a portion of those active in the new antiwar movement have raised a variety of slogans calling on the U.S. government to "Negotiate a Peaceful Solution."

This idea takes several forms, ranging from "Negotiate, Don't Escalate!" to "For a Peaceful Diplomatic Solution," to a call for a United Nations rather than a U.S.-negotiated solution.

At first glance, the idea of a negotiated solution in the Middle East seems reasonable and practical. Everyone who prefers peace to war should prefer negotiations to mass killing.

This sentiment is deeply rooted in the consciousness of the American people, who have indicated in every poll that they want the government to avoid a shooting war.

But the negotiations demand has another dimension, a fatal flaw, which poses a grave Bring the Troops U.S. war in Gulf, See pp. 10-11.

No War for Big Oil!

in San Francisco on Shakur All, Vietnam vet NOVEMBER 1990 50 CENTS The body bags are beginning to return home. Public support for war is eroding. But Washington is stepping up its war preparations, with plans to raise the number of troops in the Persian Gulf to over 300,000 by year's end.

On Oct. 20, successful antiwar protests took place in over 25 cities across the country and in many other cities around the world (including Paris, where 20,000 marched in protest of U.S. and French troop actions in the Middle East.)

The largest demonstration in this country took place in New York City, where 15,000 to 20,000 people marched and rallied. A giant yellow banner over the speakers' platform declared: "Fight for Social Justice, Not Big Oil! Bring the Troops Home Now!"

Several banners in the crowd demanded: "Free Jeff Paterson!" Paterson is a young Marine who is being held in the stockade in Hawaii for refusing to go into battle in the Gulf.

Seven army reservists who are refusing to fight were introduced from the speakers' platform. "I think the money we're spending to restore a royalist family to the throne of Kuwait could be better spent back home," said reservist Stephanie Atkinson in a press conference just before the demonstration.

Leslie Cagan of the National Campaign for Peace in the Middle East told the New York rally that there is a need for a diverse, mass, grassroots-based movement in this country demanding the immediate unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. military in the Persian Gulf."

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, 7000 protesters marched through sections of the city's Black and Hispanic communities. The main sponsors of the demonstration were the Emergency Committee Against U.S. Intervention in the Middle East and the Committee Against a Vietnam War in the Middle East (CAVME, which also organized a Sept. 14 teach-in at the University of California Berkeley, attended by close to 2000 people).

Smaller numbers marched in other cities, (continued on page 18, in “Our readers speak out”)