As the anti-war movement gathers steam heading into a crucial
period of the Iraqi conflict, protesters from all walks of life are
emerging to voice their opposition.
Two days before President Bush threatened Iraq with war if
Saddam Hussein doesn’t leave the country, average Americans
““ from store clerks to social workers, from students to
lawyers ““ took to the streets of downtown Los Angeles to urge
Bush to pursue a non-violent course of acntion.
But there is another side to the anti-war movement, a side that
is a more radical than the moderation many organizers call for.
Some who protest the war are communists and anarchists. Others are
far-leftists who accuse the U.S. government of being fascist and
advocate its immediate overthrow.
Act Now to Stop War and End Racism and Not in Our Name, two
highly visible organizing committees, are undersigned by hard-core
leftists such as the Revolutionary Communist Party and Refuse and
Resist, which accuses the United States of being distinctly like a
fascist police state.
Though the anti-war movement isn’t totally characterized
by the extreme groups connected to ANSWER and Not in Our Name,
there is no denying their presence ““ and no denying the
movement is growing among moderate Americans anyway.
Paul Ahuja, an organizer with ANSWER coalition, vehemently
denies the anti-war movement is pushing any covert socialist agenda
or that it is sponsoring the overthrow of President Bush.
“It’s just not true,” he said, responding to
accusations of radical ulterior motives among protest
organizers.
Ahuja explained ANSWER, which has a mailing list of thousands in
the L.A. area, acts as an umbrella organization that rallies groups
opposed to war, no matter what their political orientation.
“Really ANSWER is a coalition of groups that represent
different communities, such as labor and lesbian and gay
groups,” he said.
Edith Lagos, a coordinator with Not in Our Name, said the group
doesn’t advocate any one solution to the Iraqi conflict,
although some of the groups it encompasses do.
“Not in Our Name doesn’t have a solution. Not in Our
Name is broader, where people have that room to come in with their
own conclusions about what needs to happen,” she said.
“It’s not asking for revolution. It gives people in
society the freedom to resist the war in their ways.”
People from differing ideologies were much in evidence at the
Saturday anti-war march downtown, united beneath peace slogans and
the pouring rain.
Sally Marr, a volunteer with both ANSWER and Not in Our Name,
said she tends more toward the socialist end of the spectrum
because she is disillusioned with the United States.
“It’s totalitarian and capitalistic, and they
don’t care about anybody,” she said. “We need to
come up with something that’s more inclusive, that
doesn’t have the old “˜isms.’ I guess we’re
moving towards that. These new peace movements are becoming more
inclusive.”
Among the groups attracted to the march was a knot of ski-mask-
wearing, flag-toting anarchists who said they felt
“welcome” at rallies such as this.
“A lot of people are specifically anti-war, but they
don’t see the real problem,” said one anarchists who
refused to give his name. “A war is just a symptom of the big
picture, which is the real problem.”
And while the open-arms policy of peace groups succeeds in
uniting many different people, it also alienates others who
don’t join visible peace groups such as ANSWER for fear of
being stereotyped into one ideology.
“I like to stay independent so I can get a lot of input
from other organizations and do my own thing,” said high
school senior Chris Olsen, who added he would never consider
joining a peace group.
Ultimately, however, the inclusiveness of the movement seems to
serve more as a factor in uniting activists, not a detractor.
Matt Dowling, a graduate student at the UCLA School of Public
Policy, said what matters to him is the symbolism of unification,
not necessarily the politics behind it.
“All I know is that their message is clear: stop war and
end racism, and I can stand by that,” he said.
As for those who accuse protesters of being anti-American, peace
advocates quickly point out there is nothing wrong with voicing
their opinion.
“I’ll tell you what you can say to the
critics,” said Ron Kovic, author of “Born on the Fourth
of July” and a Vietnam veteran. “For what it’s
worth, protest is as American as apple pie and the Fourth of
July.”