[Peace-discuss] Fw: Washington Post article on June 5 Coast-to-Coast People's Speak-Out

[jencart at mailstation.com]

All over the mainstream media.....I wish....

-----Forwarded Message-----
From: ANSWER at InternationalANSWER.org
Sent: Jun 4, 2004 12:02 AM
To: jencart at mycidco.com
Subject: Washington Post article on June 5 Coast-to-Coast People's Speak-Out

WASHINGTON POST ARTICLE ON JUNE 5 COAST-TO-COAST PEOPLE'S SPEAK-OUT

We are forwarding excerpts of today's Washington Post article (June 3) about Saturday's demonstration in Washington DC organized by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition. Please see below the article for details of the Saturday, June 5 Coast-to-Coast Speak Truth to Power rallies in Washington DC, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

* * * * *

Three Causes to Make D.C. Their Stage

By Manny Fernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 3, 2004; Page B01

Antiwar demonstrators will take to the streets, breast cancer survivors and their supporters will run or walk on the Mall, and families and community leaders in Anacostia will march to call attention to young victims of violence in the District.

Activists with International ANSWER, an antiwar, anti-racism coalition that has sponsored some of Washington's biggest demonstrations against the war in Iraq, plan to rally at the White House and then march to Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's home in Northwest Washington.

Organizers said they expect a crowd "in the thousands" for the noon rally and 2 p.m. march. Bus and car caravans are being organized from 31 cities in the East, Midwest and elsewhere -- far fewer than for some of the group's previous antiwar marches in Washington.

The antiwar organizers hope to capitalize on eroding public support for the U.S. occupation of Iraq amid continuing violence and the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

"We believe that our movement is getting stronger while the Bush administration's standing is getting weaker," said Brian Becker, 51, a national coordinator of ANSWER, or Act Now to Stop War and End Racism.

Organizers had initially called for a march to the Pentagon, but those plans were scrapped, they said, in favor of a Speak Truth to Power procession that will take protesters out of the federal corridor and into Northwest neighborhoods such as U Street and Dupont Circle.

The permitted demonstration will begin at noon with a rally at Lafayette Square across from the White House. Organizers said a featured speaker will be Michael Berg, who has spoken out against the war and the Bush administration following the beheading of his 26-year-old son, Nicholas, by Islamic militants in Iraq. Representatives of Muslim groups, labor unions and other organizations also are slated to speak.

After the rally, the march will proceed north on 14th Street NW, west on U Street and Florida Avenue and up Connecticut Avenue to Rumsfeld's home on Kalorama Road NW.

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, an ANSWER organizer, said Rumsfeld "represents the face of U.S. aggression and militarism." No civil disobedience is planned at either the White House or Rumsfeld's home, organizers said.

Becker said the organizing after the war has taken on a different tone. "Now that the war has happened and the occupation has become a reality," he said, "everyone realizes that the U.S. occupation will not be ended in a matter of days or weeks, that the drama of an impending war has been replaced by an understanding that the effort to end the occupation is a long-term struggle, as it was during Vietnam."

ANSWER organizers say the money being used to wage war should instead go to education, housing and health care. They condemn the rising death toll of Iraqi civilians and U.S. soldiers. And they say the war in Iraq and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip are manifestations of imperialism.

Staff writer Del Quentin Wilber contributed to this report.

* * * * *

JOIN THE SATURDAY, JUNE 5 COAST-TO-COAST SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER RALLIES:

In Washington DC:
Gather 12 noon at the White House (Lafayette Park)
March to Donald Rumsfeld's house
Contact 202-544-3389 for more information.

In San Francisco:
Gather 11 am at UN Plaza
(Market between 7th & Hyde, Civic Center BART)
Contact 415-821-6545 for more information.

In Los Angeles:
Gather 12 noon at Olympic & Broadway
March to Downtown Federal Building
Contact 323-464-1636 for more information.

Go to http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org for more information.

SUBSCRIBE to the A.N.S.W.E.R. email list at
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org/subscribelist2.html


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