[Peace-discuss] Fwd:[ANSWER]: JAN. 18-19 MASS ACTIONS in DC: No War in Iraq!

[jencart]

NO WAR IN IRAQ

Tens of thousands will converge in Washington DC
January 18-19, 2003
for a MASS DEMONSTRATION
and the Convening of the GRASSROOTS PEACE CONGRESS

We wanted to let everyone know that momentum is growing  for the January 18 Mass March and the January 19 
Grassroots Peace Congress to say "No War in Iraq."  Buses,  vans and car caravans are being organized from 
communities, high schools and campuses all over the East  Coast, South and Midwest.  More than 150 cities organized  transportation to be at the protest of 200,000 in DC on 
October 26 -- and those organizers left the protest 
pledging to continue to mobilize for an even larger 
turnout on January 18-19.

Millions of people outside of DC watched the rally on 
C-Span or listened to it on Pacifica Radio's live 
coverage.  Many more found out about it through other 
media coverage -- including a major article that appeared  in the October 30 edition of the New York Times (a much  better article than the biased article that appeared on 
October 27 after the Times received thousands of angry  phone calls and emails) -- and are now beginning to 
organize.  50,000 people have registered on the 
VoteNoWar.org website.  This is in addition to the tens of  thousands who have filled out paper ballots/petitions on  October 26 and in the days since. A.N.S.W.E.R. offices 
around the country are daily being contacted by organizers  and volunteers whose commitment to mobilize makes us  confident that January 18-19 will be a massive outpouring  of opposition to war in Iraq.

To ENDORSE the January 18-19 Mass Actions in DC, fill out  the easy-to-use form at:
http://internationalanswer.org/campaigns/j18/j18endorse.html#endo

If you plan to ORGANIZE TRANSPORTATION from your area to  be in DC January 18-19, fill out the form at:
http://internationalanswer.org/campaigns/j18/j18endorse.html#transp

WHY YOU SHOULD BE IN DC JAN. 18-19:

When Congress rejects the will of the people, the people  must act themselves.  Congress has rubber-stamped Bush's  criminal war that seeks to conquer the oil, land and 
resources of the Middle East. Bush and Congress have shown  that they represent the interests of Corporate America  rather than the people of the United States.

A people's movement is growing to stop them.  On January  18 and 19 tens of thousands of people will participate in 
mass protest activities on the Martin Luther King Jr. 
anniversary weekend.

Dr. King publicly condemned the U.S. war in Vietnam, 
providing a powerful connection between the civil rights  movement and the anti-war movement. In his "Beyond 
Vietnam" speech at Riverside Church in 1967, he stated, 
"The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today [is]  my own government. . . [F]or the sake of the hundreds of  thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be 
silent."

Dr. King believed that it was impossible to successfully 
wage a war on poverty at home while waging a war of 
aggression in Vietnam. The same can be said today about  George W. Bush's global war drive. Social programs and 
services are being looted as Bush and Congress provide  record-breaking sums for weapons of mass destruction and  war. Bush has signed into law Congress's new defense 
budget that transfers a billion dollars a day from the 
people into the hands of the military-industrial complex.

The thousands who are coming to Washington, D.C., honor  Dr. King and his legacy by opposing a criminal war in Iraq  -- this time not in Vietnam, but in the Middle East -- and  by demanding instead that these hundreds of billions of 
dollars earmarked for war instead be spent on jobs, 
education, housing, health care a