DRANT #215: CORRECTED - PENTAGON DEMONSTRATION MARCH 17

On October 17, 1967 I left my wife and infant son at home in New York, and got on the 5am train to Washington DC to March on The Pentagon.
I had 1967-esque "long hair," not yet the waist length ponytail it was soon to become.
Now my ponytail is even longer, but has decided, with no plausible explanation, to turn grey.
I first began marching in DC on October 25, 1958. I started marching because something really wrong was going on. The wrong had to end, and I felt compelled to be part of ending it. To be silent was to be complicit. To do nothing was to contribute to the wrong.
Deep inside, I felt that we could cause change, and that sooner or later, right would prevail, and the wrongs would end. I was 16.
I remember following Jackie Robinson (who had been my great hero since I was 6), and A Phillip Randolph and Bayard Rustin and Roy Wilkins and Belafonte (my god, is he the only one left ?) down Constitution Ave. on the first Youth March for Integrated Schools. There may have been 3-4 thousand of us.
Belafonte tried to deliver our petition to Eisenhower, but the guards turned him away. Eisenhower had far more important things to do that day. I think he shot an 83.
Coretta gave a killer speech, invoking Gandhi, Moses and Harriet Tubman, and we all ate lunch and went home on the bus.
There was a next time, April 1959, there were many more thousands, and Martin was there. He was just warming up for 1963.
So by 1967, between these and others too many to count, I had done a lotta marching. Down Fifth Avenue, up Broadway, circles around buildings and offices. Once I started making enough to have to report to the IRS, I refused to pay, and the agents would show up, and seize my tiny checking account, and take their money.
Still, I convinced myself that we the people, united, could cause change.
I have never spent the night in jail. Aside from a few good whacks from a wide assortment of cops, some tear gas here and there, I have never been tortured or beaten.
It has taken me every minute of these many years to realize that -- at last-- change is not going to come from protest. Certainly not from the kind of demonstrations or marches going on these days.
And as is pornographically obvious, change will not come from anywhere within smelling distance of Capitol Hill.
I fervently hope that change can come from intervention and passive resistance, for if it does not, the consequences, horrid to imagine, will be violent and unprecedented.
During the last sixty years of America's repeated and unending global military interventions, overthrows, regime changes, occupations, embargos, and mass murder, the overwhelming majority of Americans have not suffered a scratch. We have largely sacrificed nothing, felt no pain, paid no price. A very few of us have been touched by the death or dismemberment of someone close, but the only price most of us have paid for Iraq or Afghanistan has been at the gas pump.
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Ehren Watada wasn't even born until 1978, but his dad had refused to serve in Vietnam. His military Judge has declared a mistrial. Now the USA is moving to start the prosecution case all over again.
On the 23rd day of his hunger strike, Dr. Sami Al-Arian collapsed and was later awoken by medical personnel. Dr. Al-Arian was then moved to a federal medical facility in North Carolina run by the Bureau of Prisons.
36-year old New-York-born Jose Padilla claims three years and eight months of torturous detention have left him incompetent to stand trial in Miami. Padilla was held without charge as an "enemy combatant" at the U.S. Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., beginning in June 2002. Padilla's attorneys said brig staff members told him Padilla was so "docile and inactive that his behavior was like that of 'a piece of furniture."
In May 2005, Iraq war resister Navy sailor Pablo Paredes was sentenced to three months of hard labor for refusing deployment to the Persian Gulf. He was also demoted from petty officer third class to seaman recruit, the lowest rank in the Navy. His lawyers call it a victory for war resisters around the country.
Agustin Aguayo is a US Army medic now charged with desertion. After deployment to Iraq in 2004, he applied for recognition as a conscientious objector, without success. During a year in the war zone, he refused to put ammunition in his weapon. Today, he is looking at the prospect of up to seven years in prison.
Adel Hamad was a teacher of elementary school orphans, a hospital worker, and someone who coordinated the delivery of food, medicine and blankets to refugees. He has been imprisoned for 5 years and classified as an enemy combatant, despite the lack of any allegations or evidence that he ever acted against the U.S. or its allies, or even had political sympathies for those who did.
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And so, we know who we are, and what we have to do.
We know what real courage is, and we know that most of us have done nothing -- or at least nothing we have done has made the slightest difference.
The killings go on, the poisoning and starvation of entire generations of children, the torture and imprisonment, the invasions and genocide.
Goes on.
And as we whimper for "Congress" or the "Democrats" to do something.
As we moan about the "media" and the "elite" and how unfair it all is-
One thing we know-
We must surgically wean ourselves from our self-delusional and self-destructive expectations for the so-called "Democrats" "Congresspeople" -- the Pelosis, Hoyers, and Reeds etc.
The Congress and The President ALL work for the same people, and do NOT WANT to stop the global Regime Change/Globalization/Occupation machine that has been the M.O. of the USA since (at least ) 1898 ?
The US Armed Forces are an arm of US/Global business interests and have been so historically since Slavetrader Tom Jefferson destroyed Haiti to aid the US slave trade. We must confront the fact that the "Democrats" are part of the plot, have always supported our most horrendous wars, invasions, occupations and regime changes, and will continue to do so.
Iraq and Iran and Lebanon and soon enough- Venezuela and Bolivia, are just some new names to add to the long list of Invasions, Overthrows, and Regime Changes (some of them more than once): Haiti, Hawaii, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Phillipines, Guatemala, Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Chile, Iran, Iraq, Vietnam, Korea, Mexico are just a few.
Putting our faith in the co-conspirators to end the conspiracy is self-defeating, and serves only to make us feel better about our own complicity.
We must NOT rely on others, we must stop this ourselves, every single one of us.
On March 17, there will be a mass civil disobedience in Washington, where thousands will be not just going there, and demonstrating (again !!)
We will be lying down in the streets, and STOPPING the machine. You must join us.
Or, you can keep whining, and then bemoan how Congress did nothing, and then next year, bitch about the lesser of two evils running for office.
Enough !
It is not enough to admire Ehren Watada. It is time to emulate him.
For what is he doing but individual civil disobedience ?
Does the Nuremberg Doctrine apply only to soldiers ?
It is not enough to decry the torture of Jose Padila and thousands of others.
It is time to break out of our self-imposed solitary confinement, and stop the machine.
It is not enough to weep for Sami Al-Arian, or the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi or Palestinian children we have ripped to pieces.
Do Pablo Paredes or Agustin Aguayo possess some magic gene that allows them to have the courage and strength to stand up and act on what they know is right ?
It is time.
It is time to stop the useless "demonstrations," the "protests" and the "marches" --
The pithy signs and witty t shirt slogans and the endless ego rants from the podium.
None of that works.
It is time to stop the machine.
It is time for you to join us in Washington DC, starting March 12, 2007.
And to not just GO to Washington, and march on the Pentagon, but to STAY there. We must stop the funding of the war. NOW.
Or, you can just do nothing, or some of the same stuff that hasn't changed anything-- and blame someone else.
They are counting on it.
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Troops out now
http://encampmenttostopthewar.blogspot.com/

http://www.troopsoutnow.org/mar17.html

An International CALL From The TROOPS OUT NOW COALITION:
MARCH ON WASHINGTON...and STAY THERE
Beginning MARCH 12
Encampment to STOP the WAR!
March on Washington DC & worldwide on the 4th Anniversary of the U.S. Invasion and Occupation of Iraq
Troops Out Now!

Forge alliances with movements against the war at home.
An anti-racist, anti-imperialist movement is a united movement.
Stop the war at home and abroad.
End all occupations - from Iraq to Palestine to Haiti.
No sanctions and war against North Korea and Iran.
Full rights for immigrants.
Justice and reconstruction for Katrina survivors.
Money for Jobs, Healthcare, Schools, and Pensions--Not War!


MARCH 12

Encampment
to
STOP the WAR
New! - For daily updates on the Encampment to Stop the War, go to the Encampment blog at http://encampmenttostopthewar.blogspot.com

Congress is about to vote on Bush's request for another $245 billion to continue the war against the people of Iraq.
Congress has the Constitutional authority and the moral obligation to stop the war. They cannot hide behind "non-binding resolutions" and press conferences where they criticize the President while promising to continue to fund the war.
The politicians will not stop the war unless we force them to stop it.
We are calling on everyone who can to join us in Washington for an Encampment to Stop the War, beginning on March 12.
On that day, activists from all over the country will assemble at Congress and demand that they cut off all war funds and bring the troops home now.
Veterans, military families, clergy and religious communities, labor groups and others are all planning to participate with their own creative actions.
Youth organizations are planning direct action throughout the time of the encampment.
We have the opportunity to force the war to end if we act decisively.
How you can get involved:

1. Endorse the call for unity for March 17 - http://www.troopsoutnow.org/mar17endorse.html
2. Volunteer - http://www.troopsoutnow.org/mar17volunteer.html
3. Become an Organizing Center - http://troopsoutnow.org/mar17orgcentsignup.html
4. Donate - http://www.troopsoutnow.org/donate.html

Encampment site is on 3rd St. between Independence and Constitution Ave., directly in front of the Capitol Building.

Troops Out Now Coalition

The Decisive Battle this Spring - The Challenge for the Antiwar Movement
March on Washington
On March 17 (the 4th Anniversary of the War)

WE MUST FORCE CONGRESS TO
CUT OFF WAR FUNDING

And we can if we move from symbolic protest to mass resistance

* Not One More Dollar for War and Occupation!
* Bring ALL the Troops Home Now!

Forcing Congress to vote to cut off further war funding is the defining issue for the antiwar movement this spring and it is a struggle that we can win if we are bold enough to take it seriously.

The Troops Out Now Coalition calls on everyone to join the antiwar march on March 17 ... and come ready to STAY in DC!

ON MARCH 17, MARCH ON THE PENTAGON --
AND STAY IN WASHINGTON UNTIL THEY CUT OFF WAR FUNDING

An Appeal for Unity in the Antiwar Movement

Our chance of winning are greater if the antiwar coalitions unite!
A crucial factor in our ability as a movement to rise to this challenge is the willingness for all antiwar forces nationwide--especially the national coalitions--to renew a commitment to work for unity with each other. We appeal to all antiwar forces to take the high road and work together this Spring. The time has come for us to coordinate our efforts, and avoid competing dates and plans.
If we work and plan together--our chances of success will be greater.

More than at any time since the start of war, the antiwar movement is in a position to force congress to vote no on war funding. The people are on our side, the momentum is on our side, the whole world is on our side; the only question is whether we have the conviction and the courage to take our struggle against the war from the level of symbolic protest to real mass resistance.

Some time between now and early February, Bush is going to ask Congress to approve between $130 to $200 billion more dollars to finance the war to add to the close to a half a trillion dollars in war funding Congress has approved in a series of votes over the past three and a half years.

Sometime between February and May 2007, Congress will vote nay or yea to this request. This vote will be the most important war vote in Congress since a majority of both Republican and Democratic Party members of Congress voted to authorize the war in Oct. 2002.

Clearly, Congress has the authority to cut off spending for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and effectively make it impossible for the criminal carnage to continue. What makes the next war funding vote different from all the previous ones is that on Nov. 7, people voted to end the war.

As a result of the massive antiwar vote, Democratic Party politicians will take control of both houses of Congress on January 4. When that happens, the authority to either carry out the mandate of the elections to end the war and occupation of Iraq by completely cutting off all war funding or to betray the people by approving more funds to continue it, will shift to the leadership of the Democratic party.

The top Democratic Party leaders in Congress have already indicated that they are preparing to betray the antiwar mandate. Some members of Congress say they will support resolutions introduced in Congress that call for a phased redeployment of troops from Iraq or a time table for withdrawing most troops. But such resolutions are little more than symbolic, half- measures that won't end the war. However, the real fight is the war funding vote and we must force Congress to vote NO.

In the past, members of Congress who claimed to be opposed to the war have justified their votes for war funding by claiming they had to keep up the funding to “support the troops”. It's time for us to reject all excuses and rationalizations for voting for war funding. A vote for war funding is a VOTE FOR WAR. Moreover, voting to approve more funds for war will only ensure that more U.S. troops and many more Iraqis will be killed and maimed.

IN MARCH – WE MUST BE READY TO STAY IN WASHINGTON

We will be in Washington on March 17. And this time we must be prepared to stay there in the thousands to force Congress to vote NO on more war funding.

PAY THE PEOPLES' BILLS - NOT FOR WAR & OCCUPATION; BRING YOUR BILLS WITH YOU TO WASHINGTON

We are asking people to bring their medical, rent, heating and utility bills; student loan bills; credit card bills, and food bills that they can't afford to pay as well as shut-off notices, mortgage foreclosures, eviction notices to the march on Washington. It must be made clear to Congress that feeding more money to the war while more and more people cannot pay for their basic living expenses is a crime. The cost of the war is not the only reason why we oppose the war. We oppose the war because it is an imperialist war for colonial conquest and plunder. Yet the cost of the war is important because it's paid for by money stolen from providing social needs. The money that has paid for death and destruction in Iraq could have gone towards reconstruction in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.

In his famous speech declaring his opposition to the Vietnam war almost 40 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “It is disgraceful that a Congress that can vote upwards of $35 billion a year for a senseless immoral war in Vietnam cannot vote a weak $2 billion dollars to carry on our all too feeble efforts to bind up the wound of our nation's 35 million poor. This is nothing short of a Congress engaging in political guerilla warfare against the defenseless poor of our nation…”

MARCH AGAINST THE WAR AT HOME
STOP RACIST POLICE TERROR - STOP THE RAIDS AGAINST IMMIGRANT WORKERS

As we march to end the war abroad, we must also demand an end to the war at home. We must demand an end to the raids on immigrant workers like the recent massive military raid carried out by thousands of Homeland Security/Immigration and Custom Enforcement police on mostly Latin@ workers at six Swift and Co. meat processing plants. We must demand an end to the racist police brutality and terror that recently killed 23 year-old unarmed Sean Bell in New York City and 93 year-old Kathryn Johnston in Atlanta, both of them African American.

* Immediate, Unconditional, & Complete Withdrawal from Iraq--Out Now!
* End Colonial Occupation & Imperialist Aggression from Africa to Asia, from Iraq to Palestine, to Afghanistan, to Haiti, to the Philippines, to Puerto Rico
* No New Wars Against Iran, Syria, North Korea
* Hands Off Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, & Lebanon
* Solidarity with Immigrant Workers and Katrina Survivors
* Stop the War at Home -- Stop Racist Police Terror -- Stop ICE raids
* Military Recruiters Out of Our Schools and Communities -- No Draft -- Education, Not War

Troops Out Now Coalition
www.troopsoutnow.org
5C - Solidarity Center
55 W. 17th St.
NY NY 10011
212.633.6646

Free Speech Victory! Permits Secured for Pentagon Demonstration
March on the Pentagon, Saturday March 17

*please circulate widely to your friends, family, and email lists*

We have all won a tremendous victory! Contrary to what many people told us was possible, or impossible, we have secured the permit at the Pentagon for the March 17 demonstration. This has been a long, hard fought battle for months. Now there are nearly 100 transportation centers bringing people to Washington, D.C. on March 17.

The last thing that Bush and the Pentagon high command want is a mass march on the Pentagon on the 40th anniversary of the historic 1967 March on the Pentagon. The powerful symbolism of a March on the Pentagon is something that the war-makers fear and want to divert.

They tried to make people think that the March on the Pentagon would be blocked or diverted using all sorts of logistical, administrative and political tactics to create obstacles. We refused to back down. We made it clear that people had the right to march on the Pentagon and that we intended to pursue that right through legal and political struggle. The First Amendment is not a gift that can be given or taken away by politicians or bureaucrats.

Tens of thousands will now exercise this right directly at the Pentagon. This is the only route to end this criminal war. We can’t wait for the politicians. They talk and talk and maneuver for advantage while the death toll grows every day. The politicians and their vapid non-binding resolutions are working to harness the outrage of the anti-war movement to their own electoral ends. They want to defuse the potential of powerful mass opposition that can shake the foundations and end the war.

Standing Together at the Pentagon

Recently returned veterans from Iraq, veterans from Vietnam, and military families will be standing tall at the Pentagon on March 17. So will young people from college campuses and high schools who are mobilizing to come to the Pentagon. The Muslim and Arab-American community are organizing. Survivors from New Orleans are conducting a dramatic bus and car caravan throughout the south to be at the Pentagon demanding: “From Iraq to New Orleans Fund Peoples Needs Not the War Machine.” All will be marching together in a united showing in this historic demonstration. Be there March 17 March on the Pentagon!

Help spread the word and get involved today: Endorse, Volunteer, Organize Transportation, Find a Bus near you, Join the Student Mobilization, Download Flyers and Posters, go to MarchOnPentagon.org for more information.

We need your donation for the March on the Pentagon

Please make an urgently needed donation today. Thanks to everyone who donated a few weeks ago to give travel scholarships to young people who wanted to attend the antiwar demonstration in DC. Due to your generous giving, we were able to fulfill many of the scholarship requests from cities and towns across the country. If you're unable to come to Washington on March 17th, but would like to sponsor the travel of a young or low-income person -- or several people -- please make a much needed online donation, or click for information to write a check. We need funds not only for people to come to Washington, but for the many expenses of printing flyers, stickers, and posters, and to pay for the stage and sound on the 17th.


A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.answercoalition.org/
info@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
New York City: 212-694-8720
Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
Chicago: 773-463-0311
Seattle: 206-568-1661