【９・11機にＡＮＳＷＥＲ創立】
ＡＮＳＷＥＲがどのようにして生まれたかを理解するには、９月11日以前の米国の状況を考えるとよいと思います。
ＡＮＳＷＥＲ創立前の２００１年１月20日、現ＡＮＳＷＥＲの構成団体ＩＡＣ（Ｉｎｔｅｒｎａｔｉｏｎａｌ Ａｃｔｉｏｎ Ｃｅｎｔｅｒ)はブッシュ大統領の就任日にデモンストレーションを行いました。アメリカ支配階級の中で最も反動的、人種差別的なグループの代表であるブッシュの不当な当選に抗議するため何万人もの人民がワシントンに集まりました。
そして、その年の９月21日に予定されていた国際通貨基金と世界銀行の年次総会にむけて抗議デモを計画していると、９月11日にだれも予想しなかったことが起こりました。
われわれは、（倒壊した世界貿易センタービルの）ほこりがおさまらない時点で、この事件が巨大な政治的転換期をもたらすだろうと予測しました。ブッシュ政権がアフガニスタンと中東での大規模で無制限の戦争を進める口実としてこの事件を利用しないわけがないからです。
９月11日以降、連邦政府は全米の大都市に警察と国家警備隊を配備し、中東系の人びとを中心に千人以上を逮捕しました。彼らは依然として裁判も弁護士との接触も絶たれています。
しかし、戦争の脅威に積極的に反対しようと考える人もいました。これをきっかけにＡＮＳＷＥＲという新しい連合体が生まれました。数日のうちに全米と世界中から５００以上の組織が参加しました。
９月29日、４万人以上がアフガニスタンと中東での戦争に「ノー」を言うためにアメリカ中でデモを行いました。ワシントンでは、ブッシュと国際通貨基金と世界銀行に対する２万５０００人の抗議闘争が反戦運動に転化しました。
この３月22日には全米で数十万人もがイラク侵略に反対してデモを行いました。ニューヨークでは25万人、サンフランシスコでは７万５０００人、ロサンゼルス、シカゴ、シアトルなどの主要都市ではそれぞれ数千人が参加しました。
３月20日以来、毎日のように地球上で大規模な抗議デモが行われています。木曜日（３月28日）、何百人もの学生がパークアベニュー（ニューヨーク）の交通を止めるダイインをやりました。
３月20日に米軍がバグダッドにミサイルを発射して以来、反戦の波が地球を覆っています。２月15日に力を示したこの運動は、より深く、より広くなってきました。
アメリカと世界の人民がこのような情熱で、このような人数で反戦を表現したのは、人類史上初めてです。世界中で星条旗が燃やされ、アメリカ大使館が爆破されたり、放火されたりしています。
19世紀、イギリス帝国主義は“大英帝国に陽の沈む時はない”と豪語しました。今や３月20日以来、“アメリカ帝国主義に対する反戦運動に陽の沈む時はない”と言えます。
困難のりこえ反戦運動爆発 ＡＮＳＷＥＲの将来は多くの条件にかかっています。まず、イラク人民がどのくらい米軍に抵抗できるかという問題があります。これは、世界の反戦運動の発展につながります。
ギリシャ、イタリア、スペイン、ドイツまたはイギリスのような国ではゼネストが可能です。これはわれわれの運動への助けになります。イラク人民が長く抵抗すればするほど、世界の反戦運動は成長し、より戦闘的になり、反帝国主義的になるでしょう。イラク人民のこれまでの英雄的抵抗は素晴らしい模範です。
帝国主義に対する闘いは一方では複雑ですが、他方では単純です。
それはカップ一杯のお茶を沸かすようなものです。台所に行き、水をやかんに入れ、コンロに火を付けて待つ。水が沸騰するのを待つ。長い間、何も起こらないようです。しかし、突然、沸騰するのです。
人間社会も同じです。変革のために頑張って、頑張っても何も起こるようにはみえない長い期間があります。そして突然、水が沸騰し始め、多くの事が起こり始めるのです。このように厳しいけれども重要な時代がまさに今なのです。
徹夜までしてデモを準備したり、ビラを書いたり、配布したり、警官と闘ったり、他の団体と話しあったり、新しく人脈をつくったりします。
忘れてはいけないのは、10年前が本当に困難な時だったことです。ソビエト連邦の崩壊により、米国はより一層軍事化し、世界的規模で侵略を拡大しました。反戦運動のあきらめムードが深刻化し、お湯が沸くのを待つしかなかったのです。しかし、絶対にお湯が沸くことは分かっていたのです。やかんの下に火があることを知っていたからです。
４・12世界同時デモに決起を 現在、われわれの運動は沸騰し始めています。今後の課題は、イラク戦争の実状をアメリカ人民に実感させることです。戦争に対する政治意識を高めることです。
ＡＮＳＷＥＲの次のステップは、４月12日に予定している世界同時デモへの呼びかけです。
すでにデモが予定されているのは、ブラジル、メキシコ、ニカラグア、プエルトリコ、韓国、フィリピン、イタリア、スウェーデン、イギリス、ドイツ、アメリカです。４月のデモに参加してください。
イギリスで４月12日のデモを主催する団体は英国戦争阻止連合(Ｓｔｏｐ ｔｈｅ Ｗａｒ Ｃｏａｌｉｔｉｏｎ ＵＫ）です。１５０万人以上が参加した２月15日のロンドンでのデモを実行した団体です。
米国では、われわれは４月12日にホワイトハウス包囲と各都市でのデモを呼びかけています。
われわれの作戦は、長期にわたって圧力をかけ続けることであり、コンロの火を強くすることです。あらゆる人に街頭を占拠せよと訴えましょう。
米国での軍隊への支持は少ない。労働者の多くは反戦の炎に身を投じようとしています。彼らを迎え入れたいと思います。
私は、三里塚芝山連合空港反対同盟の強い意志と成田空港拡大に対する粘り強い闘いに非常に感動しています。
日本に来る前に、私は米国に拡大予定の空港が３０００あることを知りました。そのうち４００は主要都市にあります。
ニューヨーク市の郊外では小規模の空港を拡大しようとする動きがあります。これは、９００万人のニューヨーク市民の飲料水の９割を供給するケンシコ貯水池を汚染することになります。貯水池の周りの土地がなくなるだけでなく、水道を汚染するのです。
私は、成田空港に反対する同盟の皆さんの闘いの歴史を読んで勇気づけられました。私が最も奮い立たせられた点は、第一に、皆さんが集団で闘い続けたことです。
第二に、皆さんが非常に献身的に団結していることです。皆さんは、多くの困難を克服して成果を上げています。
第三に、皆さんが多くの戦線で活動し、さまざまな戦術を用いていることです。
第四に、皆さんが他の諸団体と同盟を結んでいることです。人間らしい生活のために闘う人びとと結合していることです。
第五に、有機栽培の促進を、搾取、グローバル化、帝国主義戦争などに反対するより大きな課題と結び付けていることです。
われわれＡＮＳＷＥＲは困難に負けない、断固とした労働者と農民との連帯を築くこのような機会をもてたことをうれしく思います。
成田空港の拡大に反対する三里塚芝山連合空港反対同盟の闘い万歳！ 日本とアメリカ合衆国の労働者と農民の団結万歳！ 世界のすべての人民の団結万歳！
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週刊『前進』（2097号6面1）
直ちに行動し戦争とめよう 新入生諸君！ 全世界の変革のために立ち上がろう！ 新入生のみなさん！ 今、アメリカ帝国主義はイラク侵略戦争を強行し、世界戦争に突き進んでいる。そして労働者人民への首切り、賃下げ、生活破壊の攻撃が吹き荒れている。この戦争と大失業の攻撃に対して、全世界で何千万人もの人民がデモやストライキに立ち上がっている。４月12日に全世界で国際連帯行動が呼びかけられた。戦争をとめるために直ちに行動しよう！ 恐慌と世界戦争に向かうしかない帝国主義を打ち倒し、戦争も搾取も差別もない、私たちが主人公となる社会を自らの手でともにつくり出そう。
４・12イラク反戦国際連帯へ 中核派とともに闘おう マルクス主義学生同盟・中核派はすべての新入生、青年・学生諸君に訴える。
４月12日、アメリカの反戦行動団体・ＡＮＳＷＥＲが、ホワイトハウスを包囲する１００万人デモを呼びかけている。イギリスの反戦行動団体・戦争阻止連合はロンドンの中心街を埋め尽くす１００万人デモを呼びかけている。４月12日はイラク侵略戦争を直ちにやめさせるために全世界で一斉に行動に立ち上がる日である。日本においても、ＷＯＲＬＤ ＡＣＴＩＯＮによる４・12東京・渋谷の反戦行動をはじめ、全国各地で４・12反戦行動が呼びかけられている。
すべての新入生、青年・学生諸君。４月12日は、あなたの反戦の意志を行動として示す時である。――イラク人民への無差別・大量虐殺を直ちに中止せよ。米軍は直ちにイラクから出て行け。この戦争はまったくデタラメであり、何一つ大義はない。これは米帝・ブッシュによる百パーセント不正義の戦争であり、大国同士が石油をぶんどり合う戦争だ。日本の参戦を許すな。自衛隊の派兵を認めないぞ。北朝鮮侵略戦争のための有事立法の成立を阻止せよ。戦争と大失業の小泉政権を倒せ――このことを声を大にして叫ぼう。街頭を埋め尽くす大デモで訴えよう。イラクの人民と全世界の労働者人民と固く連帯して日本の地で一大反戦行動を巻き起こそう。
戦争か革命か 始まった戦争と激動の本質を根本的なところで把握しているのはマル学同・中核派だけである。
時代は、再び三たび人類が世界戦争という破局に転落するのか、それとも戦争の元凶である帝国主義を打倒する世界革命に向かって前進するのか、という歴史的な選択をめぐって激動している。そして、今この瞬間の私たち一人ひとりの行動の選択、生き方の選択が、その歴史の行方を決する時が来ているのだ。
戦争の原因は この戦争の根本的な原因は帝国主義にある。そして戦争をとめるということは戦争の原因である帝国主義を打倒することである。
アメリカという国が帝国主義であること、アメリカ帝国主義（米帝）の対イラク戦争が「石油のための民族虐殺戦争」であることがこの間、ますます明らかになっている。
この戦争は、米帝にとって都合の悪い反米政権を力ずくで転覆し、イラクを軍事占領し、イラク人民を徹底的に抑圧し、石油と中東の支配権を独占しようという帝国主義的な侵略戦争である。しかも、その基底には、アメリカやドイツ、フランス、日本といった帝国主義諸列強間の分裂と抗争という大問題がある。
米帝は、自らが戦後の世界支配のルールとしてきた国際法や国連をも無視する凶暴なやり方に訴えている。米帝は戦後世界体制を自ら破壊的に再編し自分だけが生き残ろうという凶暴な世界戦争計画を発動しているのだ。そして、米帝の戦争政策に追いつめられたドイツやフランスや日本などの諸帝国主義も独自の戦争政策に踏み出す以外にない。この戦争は第３次世界大戦につながるものだ。
帝国主義は自ら戦争をやめることも、とめることもできない。核とドルと石油を独占し世界を支配するという米帝のやり方がもはや完全に行き詰まっているのだ。経済はますます深刻な恐慌状態に落ち込み、新植民地主義支配はいたるところで崩壊し、帝国主義諸列強は分裂し抗争し、足下の労働者支配も破綻(はたん)している。米帝にとって、もはや戦争に訴え、一切を暴力的に破壊する以外のいかなる政策もない。
時代の転換点 今日の巨大な帝国主義的な生産力、帝国主義文明、高度消費社会はたしかに人間自身が生み出したものである。にもかかわらず人間がコントロールできない巨大な力となり、むしろ人間を超えて極限的に人間を支配し、戦争という破壊を人間にもたらしている。
これはどういうことなのか。資本主義・帝国主義がもはや歴史的な限界に突き当たっているということだ。資本主義がもはや命脈が尽きて死の苦しみにあえいでいるからこそ、凶暴であり、デタラメなのだ。
彼らのデタラメで凶暴な姿の中に、彼らの時代が終わりつつあること、労働者人民の勝利と資本主義から社会主義社会への前進の展望が開けつつあることがはっきりと示されているのだ。
団結した力で 米帝のイラク侵略戦争はイラク人民の抵抗闘争を引き出している。それはフセインなどのためではない。民族の解放のための闘いである。さらにイスラム諸国人民が続々と闘いに決起している。
そして何よりも帝国主義国の労働者人民が、このイスラム諸国人民と連帯し百万単位でデモに決起している。資本攻勢と闘う労働者階級が中軸となってイラク反戦闘争が爆発している。鉄道や港湾で軍事物資の輸送を阻止し、反戦ストが闘われている。一度に数千人が逮捕されるような実力闘争が闘われている。帝国主義国の労働者階級の闘いが自国政府の敗北と打倒を目指す闘いへと発展しつつあるのだ。
米帝は今や泥沼の侵略戦争に引きずり込まれ、絶望的に凶暴化している。それに対して、闘う人民が国際的な内乱を激化させ、被抑圧民族人民と労働者階級の団結した闘いによって打ち倒す時がついに来たのだ。
新しい社会を 時代は、世界戦争による人類の死滅か、帝国主義の打倒かをかけた歴史的決戦に突入した。このことを革命的な時代認識として徹底的にはっきりさせよう。そして問われていることは、戦争の元凶が帝国主義にあり、戦争を阻止するとは帝国主義を打倒することであり、戦争の危機が逆に帝国主義を打倒する好機であるということをつかみ取ることである。
イラク侵略戦争に参戦し北朝鮮侵略戦争のための有事立法攻撃に突き進む日本帝国主義を打倒することはわれわれの責務だ。有事立法阻止に総決起しよう。
今こそ、中核派に結集し、全世界人民とともに帝国主義を打倒し、新しい社会を建設する闘いに自らの生き方をかけて、ともに立ち上がろうではないか。
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We want to build firm solidarity with all
of you here today as well as with workers and farmers all over the world. We are
in the same struggle against the global banks and corporations who have been
destroying our local economies, robbing us of jobs, health care, education,
clean water and air, and stealing the farm land to build military airports like
Narita. To understand how A.N.S.W.E.R was born, it helps to look at events in
the U.S. before September 11.
I am a member of the International Action
Center, one of 11 groups on the steering committee of the A.N.S.W.E.R.
coalition.
Before A.N.S.W.E.R. began, the International Action Center
organized a demonstration on Bush's first official day in office, January 20,
2001. Tens of thousands of people gathered in Washington to protest the
illegally elected president, representative of the most reactionary, racist
group in the U.S. ruling class.
Later that year we began organizing a
protest for September 29 to coincided with the major annual meetings of the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Tens of thousands were expected
to converge in Washington DC, as they had a year and a half before in Seattle.
They would protest the destructive role played by the IMF and World Bank around
the world. This protest was gaining tremendous momentum when, on September 11,
something that no one expected happened. The World Trade Tower Event.
Our
main office is located in lower Manhattan in New York City. Many of our friends
worked in or near the World Trade Center. Some walked up to our office covered
in dust and soot. Others had planned to go in late that day.
Some who we
know never made it out and were among the thousands of missing whose pictures
plastered every lamppost and bus stop in the city. Others were Emergency Medical
Workers and doctors who began working around the clock to help the
wounded.
We could tell it would be a major political event even before
the dust settled. It soon became clear that the Bush administration was using
this as an excuse to head towards a major, open-ended war in Afghanistan and
possibly the Middle East.
Before the bombs dropped in Afghanistan,
another war began within the United States. In the weeks following September 11,
thousands of attacks took place against Arab, South Asian, Muslim and Sikh
people. The federal government immediately stationed police and Natural Guard
troops all over cities, arresting what is now over 1,000 people--most of Middle
Eastern descent--who are still being held without charges or access to
attorneys.
Many progressive groups retreated or even collapsed in the
face of this dramatically changed political environment. Some denounced those
who wished to protest. Some said that it was no longer appropriate to hold
street protests.
They said the public would not understand demonstrations
anymore, that we would be brutally repressed, that this was different, that the
U.S. had been attacked, that we couldn't just start protesting like we did with
other U.S. wars of aggression.
In the face of this massive war threat
there were those of us who disagreed, who felt that action was not only
important but also imperative. We formed a new coalition called International
A.N.S.W.E.R. Act Now to Stop War & End Racism.
Within days it was
joined by over 500 organizations and prominent individuals from all over the
U.S. and the world. It includes major social justice organizations, religious
leaders, high school and college student organizations, antiwar groups and
more.
On September 29 just 2 weeks after 9-11, over 40,000 people came
into the streets across the United States to say no to a war in Afghanistan or
in the Middle East. In Washington DC, our protest against Bush, the IMF and the
World Bank became a protest of 25,000 people against war. 15,000 more
demonstrated in San Francisco, and thousands more in Los Angeles; Denver,
Colorado; Chicago; and Houston, Texas.
Many of us who protested the
Vietnam war are asking. How are these antiwar demonstrations different than
those during the 60's and 70's?
During the Vietnam War a U.S. commander
explained that U.S. soldiers were burning a peasant village in order to save it
from communism. Today Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld have announced they are burning
Baghdad to save it from the Iraqi Government.
How is the development of a
movement in the United States against the war on Iraq different from the
movement at the time of the Vietnam War? How is the social situation in the U.S.
different now?
The first obvious difference is the rapid rise of this
peoples' movement. It has involved hundreds of thousands of people in street
protests even before the main assault against Iraq began.
At the first
antiwar demonstration in September, there was already a consciousness,
especially in New York City, that the painful World Trade Center event would be
used to promote war and a racist assault against Muslims and Arabs. The several
organizations that came together as A.N.S.W.E.R kept building the movement. It
called national antiwar demonstrations on April 20, Oct. 26, and then January
18.
Each time the numbers doubled from the previous protests, so that by
this January half a million people demonstrated in Washington, D.C. and a
quarter of a million on the West Coast. Fourteen million people around the
world.
Other coalitions also began forming as the war came nearer. This
Feb. 15, in coordination with a worldwide call issued from European antiwar
groups, all the coalitions opposing the war organized a massive protest in New
York City of half a million.
Since the horrendous bombing of Baghdad and
other cities started, there have been protests large and small all over the
United States, with the largest taking place on March 22 in New York and San
Francisco again.
There has been more participation from the Workers'
movement than during the Vietnam War. A growing number of labor unions are
passing resolutions against the war. Students have been walking out of high
schools and colleges. Dozens of unions have gone on record against the war.
Antiwar resolutions have passed in over 100 city councils.
During the
Vietnam era, it took more than five years of war and many, many casualties of
both Vietnamese and U.S. forces for the movement to reach this level of
intensity.
Why is there such widespread antiwar sentiment in the United
States today?
Part of it has to do, with the widespread perception that
the presidency of George W. Bush is illegitimate. That he did not win the
popular vote in 2000 and used electoral fraud and intimidation to steal the
election, especially in the state of Florida where his brother, Jeb Bush, is
governor.
Black voters in particular had been disenfranchised, and the
right-wing Cuban-Americans had been used to intimidate election boards. When the
U.S. Supreme Court refused to order a recount of the votes, however, the
Democratic candidate, Al Gore, conceded the election.
If Bush had stayed
within the channels of previous presidents on foreign policy, this might have
been forgotten. But instead he took advantage of the September 11 attacks and
immediately began an aggressive, expansionist foreign policy.
The war on
Afghanistan, supposedly to destroy Al-Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, was
really waged to expand U.S. military control in Central Asia. And it was only
the opening in a much larger quest for world domination. The war on Iraq is
phase 2 of this plan.
Is the U.S. public aware of all this? Not the
majority. But the antiwar movement is, and they also know of the intimate
connection between members of the Bush administration and powerful U.S.
corporations.
This includes Bush himself, vice president, Dick Cheney,
and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. They and their corporations will
gain huge profits from control over Iraqi oil and from the contracts being
handed out by the Pentagon right now for reconstruction of Iraq under U.S.
domination.
A second difference between now and the Vietnam era is that
in 1968 the ruling class here was split on the war. This allowed a large part of
the antiwar movement to follow behind a bourgeois politician or political party
that was tactically against the war but not against imperialism.
Today,
the ruling class and all the politicians and media all support Bush. The
movement has grown up in opposition to the ruling class public opinion. This has
made it easier for a clearly anti-imperialist coalition to play a big role in
organizing the demonstrations.
A third difference between now and 1968 is
the economic situation of people in the United States. There is a deeper
understanding that this war is not about freedom and democracy but about huge
profits for the U.S. capitalist class and its political agents. This awareness
is growing at a time of spreading economic suffering.
Official
unemployment is at 6 percent and mass layoffs are taking place every week.
Almost 45 million people are without health coverage of any kind. The diversion
of hundreds of billions of dollars every year to the military budget is
responsible for a critical budget deficit, especially of state and local
governments.
Tens of thousands of government workers are losing their
jobs as essential social programs are cut. Social Security, which includes
government pensions and assistance to the disabled, is facing a crisis
manufactured by this administration. So is Medicare, which provides health
insurance to the elderly.
Add this to the hundreds of billions of
dollars lost from worker's company and private pension plans because of the
falling stock market and corporate bankruptcies and it is clear that seniors now
face real disaster.
Personal debt is at an all-time high in the United
States. The average household owes $8,500 in credit card debt alone not counting
home mortgages, automobiles bought on credit, and so on.
Many, workers depend
on working overtime or two jobs to make ends meet. The average married woman
with children at home works 46 hours a week at a paying job in addition to her
tasks at home.
Millions of workers are unemployed and the number is
growing. Homelessness is on the rise again. Many of those sleeping on park
benches, in autos and under bridges are veterans. Some are veterans of the first
Gulf War.
During the Vietnam War many high school friends were drafted.
At this time, there is no military draft in the United States. But poverty has
driven many young men and women to enlist.
They are promised an education
and skills to improve their lives once they complete their tour of duty. But
instead they are being given guns and told to invade someone else's country. All
these conditions are combining to bring people of all ages and ethnic
backgrounds together into the antiwar movement.
For years, the Vietnam
movement was characterized by a generation gap. Young people, especially
draft-age men, were militantly opposed to the war while their parents supported
it or were quiet. That is no longer the case.
Today, along with thousands
of youth, demonstrations are filled with old lefties that protested Vietnam 35
years ago. We are marching along side our children. The movement is
multigenerational and our chants are: No war in our name, Money for jobs,
housing, and health care, Social Security and Medicare, not for war.
One
last difference that must be mentioned is that organizing has been
revolutionized in the new millennium through the use of the Internet. Using the
worldwide web has had a profound effect on the speed at which demonstrations are
organized. Leaflets are quickly downloaded, reproduced and distributed
simultaneously in many locations.
Demonstrations can be organized almost
spontaneously. What an irony because the Internet was first developed by the
Pentagon to meet its own needs for high-speed communication for military
research and development.
People don't trust the media anymore. Many get
their news on-line. People can see pictures of what's actually happening all
around the world. The U.S. media can no longer hide the truth. Answer puts out
news updates with our take on the demonstrations and our political analysis--a
real alternative to the New York Times and CNN.
I want to report on the
most recent events taking place in the U.S. since the war began.
On the
day first day of the war, 5,000 to 10, 000 people packed into Times Square in
New York City in the pouring rain chanting:
The biggest terrorists in the USA
are the FBI and the CIA and What we need in the world today is regime change in
the USA.
On March 22, coordinated demonstrations took place across the
U.S. Hundreds of thousands protested against the invasion of Iraq. In New York
City more than 250,000 people took over the streets in a march that spanned more
than 40 blocks. In San Francisco, 75,000 people demonstrated and there were
thousands in Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle and other major cities.
Since
March 20, there has been a tremendous outpouring of people marching in local
demonstrations and performing civil disobedience actions all over the U.S.
Almost daily, hundreds of thousands demonstrate in the streets.
Since
March 20, no part of the planet is free from mass protests. A wave of antiwar
protests has been circling the globe since Washington launched its missiles at
Baghdad. The movement that showed its strength Feb. 15 has grown broader and
deeper. Never before have people in the U.S. and worldwide expressed their
opposition to a war with such fervor and in such overwhelming
numbers.
All around the world U.S. flags are burning. U.S. embassies in
major capital cities have been blown up or set on fire.
In the 19th
century British imperialism boasted that the sun never set on its empire. Since
March 20 the sun hasn't set on antiwar protests against U.S.
imperialism.
ANSWER's plans for the future depend on many
things.
First there is the question of whether the Iraqi people can
resist the U.S. military machine. This depends on how the movement develops in
the rest of the world. In countries like Greece, Italy, Spain, even Germany or
Britain, they might be able to hold a general strike. This would help our
movement at home.
The longer the Iraqis are able to resist the more the
worldwide antiwar movement will grow and the more militant and anti-imperialist
it will become.
The struggle against imperialism is complex on the one
hand but on the other hand it is simple. It's like going to the kitchen to boil
water for a cup of tea. You turn on the stove. You put water in the pan and
wait.
You wait and wait for the water to boil. Nothing seems to happen
for a long time. Then all of a sudden it's boiling. Human society is the same
way. There are long periods where you are working for change and working for
change but things but nothing seems to happen.
Then. All of a sudden the
water starts boiling and lots of things start to happen. Like in these hard but
important times right now. People are losing sleep, working day and night to
quickly organize the mass demonstrations erupting in the streets, to write and
distribute literature, negotiate and battle with the cops, talking with other
organizations and making new contacts.
But we have to remember that 10
years ago was the real hard time. With the fall of the Soviet Union the U.S.
increased its militarization and worldwide aggression. We had to fight the
demoralization of a whole movement and wait. But we knew the pot would boil. We
knew the flame was under the pot.
Now our movement is beginning to boil.
In the days ahead our job in New York is to bring the war home. Into the
streets. Make it political.
The next step for the A.N.S.W.E.R. is a call
for massive and coordinated demonstrations to take place around the world on
April 12. Protests are already scheduled for Brazil, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto
Rico, South Korea, the Philippines, Italy, Sweden, England, Germany and the U.S.
Other protests are currently in the planning stages and will be announced
soon.
In England the group organizing for April 12 is the Stop the War
Coalition UK. They are the ones that organized over 1.5 million people to
demonstrate in London on February 15.
In the U.S. we are calling on
people and organizations to surround the White House on April 12 and hold local
demonstrations in cities across the country.
Our plan is to keep up the
pressure. Turn up the heat. Urge everyone to stay in the streets. We will to
continue to organize against Bush whose economic policy is now clear: Steal from
the poor and give to the rich.
Now is the time to organize, organize, and
organize. The flag waving-support of the troops is shallow and many more workers
are about to enter the antiwar fervor. We want to be there to greet
them.
I am very moved by the strong will and stamina of the
Sanrizuka-Shibayama farmers League Alliance and your tenacious fight against the
expansion of the Narita Airport.
Before coming to Japan I discovered that
there are 3,000 airports undergoing expansion in the U.S. 400 of these are in
major cities. I made contact with a few of the hundreds of groups, which have
formed to fight airport expansions.
One of these struggles took place in
1966 just 20 miles from where I live. There was an attempt to turn a large
wetland into a major international airport called The Great Swamp airport.
However, it was defeated after 5 years. The group that grew out of this struggle
became the New Jersey Conservation League now buys land to keep it from being
developed. They have prevented 4 other airports from being
constructed.
Just outside New York City they are trying to expand a
smaller airport. This would pollute the Kensico Reservoir, which supplies 9
million New Yorkers with 90% of our drinking water. Besides using up land around
the reservoir, expansion of this airport would pollute the actual water
supply.
If this happens, New York City will have to build a $BILLION
water--treatment facility! A group of activists is opposing ANY effort to expand
the airport. They have prevented the building of a hangar and a "deicing
facility." One leader in this movement, was familiar with the
Sanrizuka-Shibayama farmers League Alliance and your struggle here at Narita
airport.
I brought a message of solidarity from a group at O'Hare airport
in Chicago called AReCO (Alliance of Residents Concerning O'Hare). Their website
has information about struggles across the United States, and many health
problems caused by airports such as noise pollution and increased rates of
cancer among residents living around airports.
According to O'Hare's own
data, the airport produces more than 18% of the known carcinogens in their
county of 5.4 million people. The county suffers some of the highest cancer and
respiratory-problem rates in the whole country! AReCO found that the highest
cancer rates were concentrated in the areas around the airport.
I would
like to read a letter of solidarity Jack Saporito wrote.
It begins: To the
courageous members of the Sanrizuka-Shibayama Anti-Airport League . .
.
I have learned much reading the history of your struggle against
the Narita airport. You have given me strength.
What inspires me most is
that you are a collective and have been organizing collectively.
Second,
your group is extremely dedicated and committed. You have kept going through
many ups and downs and it's made a difference.
Third, you are working on
many fronts and using a variety of tactics.
Fourth, that you are building
alliances with others. You link your fight with the other struggles of the
people who are also fighting for a decent life.
And fifth, you have so
clearly linked your fight to save the microorganisms in your soil with the
bigger issues of exploitation, globalization and imperialistic war!
We in
A.N.S.W.E.R are grateful for this chance to build solidarity with the hard
working, steadfast workers and farmers of Japan.
Long live the struggle
of Sanrizuka-Shibayama farmers League against the expansion of the Narita
International Airport!
Long live solidarity between workers and farmers of
Japan the United States!
Long live the solidarity of all the peoples of the
world!
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