March 20 antiwar demonstrations: San Francisco, L.A., Bring the troops home now from Iraq, Afghanistan!
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—Soraya Chadrack, 16 (left), with her sister Menji, 8, in an encampment in Petionville. Soraya was buried for several hours in the rubble of their home, while Meni survived nine days. International NGOs bypassing Haitian government officials and grassroot organizations have failed in delivering basic aid to this and most other encampSince the beginning of the year, Washington mounted an offensive in Afghanistan that was disastrous for the civilians of Marjah, declared that Iraqi election violence might slow their partial withdrawal, demanded devastating sanctions on Iran, escalated military aid to Yemen, announced military assistance to the discredited government of Somalia, pushed Latin America to recognize the coup government of Honduras, and occupied Haiti.
The depth and range of U.S. belligerency has sparked a modest but hopeful upswing in antiwar organizing, most of it focused on building the important March 20 marches in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Los Angeles, which will mark the 7th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
A significant step toward broad unity in the antiwar movement was taken in Cambridge, Mass., when the regional network New England United organized a March 20 building conference attended by around 400 people. And this process of united action will take another important step on July 23-25, the dates of the National United Antiwar Conference in Albany, N.Y., called by a number of organizations to discuss and approve proposals for future nationwide antiwar protests.
Speakers at the Cambridge conference (held on Jan. 30) included Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report and Black is Back; Bruce Gagnon of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space; Adaner Usmani of Action for a Progressive Pakistan and the Labor Party of Pakistan; Pardiss Kebriaei of the Center for Constitutional Rights; Executive Editor of MediaChannel.org Danny Schechter; and Palestinian activist Salma Abu Ayyash. The speakers presented explanations of the roots of Washington’s imperialist interventions and the real uses of Obama’s so called War on Terror.
Workshops were held on “Global Warming and War,” Haiti, Honduras and Columbia, the domestic costs of war, and other issues. The large attendance can be attributed to the nearly 45 endorsing groups, which included organizations from every (continued on page 5, in “Home Now!”) ments in and around Port-au-Prince. (More on Haiti, page 9.) Tony Savino / Socialist Action
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