July 1, 2005
Now, more than ever, it is vital that the antiwar movement be in the streets. The Troops Out Now Coalition is joining with the September 24 National Coalition, which includes the National Council of Arab-Americans (NCA), the Muslim American Society (MAS) Freedom Foundation, the A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition, the Haiti Support Network, the Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines, and the National Lawyers Guild, in order to help build a unified demonstration against the war.
In his June 28th, 2005 speech, President Bush made it clear once again that he intends to continue the criminal war and occupation of Iraq, in defiance of international law and the will of the people.
It should be clear to everyone by now that corporate-owned politicians will not and cannot stop the war. Only a massive peoples' resistance
can stop the war.
Bush's speech was a rerun of Nixon's Novemeber 1969 "Vietnamization" speech. Delivered at a time when antiwar sentiment was sweeping the nation, Nixon's speech desplayed asolute contempt for the will of the people, for international law, and for the facts on the ground. He claimed that the U.S. was making great progress in training South Vietnam's security forces, and that attacks by the resistance were decreasing.
None of this was true then, and it isn't true now in Iraq.
Bush's speech could have been written by the same speechwriter. It made the same misrepresentations and laid out the same course -- a course of continued violence, torture, and repression.
We must do everything within our power to build a united front to bring the troops home now. On September 24, tens of thousands of activists will take to the streets of Washington DC to demand "Troops Out Now!"
The Troops Out Now Coalition is working with local and national organiztions, as part of The September 24 National Coalition for the March on Washington, to build a massive united presence on September 24.
We will be organizing buses, vans, car caravans, and peace trains from all over the country to flood the streets of Washington.
Now is a critical time--military recruiting is down, Bush's approval ratings are plummeting, and opposition to the war is growing. It is up to us to make that opposition a potent force on the streets. What we do now can make a difference, and we have a responsibility to turn up the heat.
The Troops Out Now Coalition Statement on September 24 raises the following critical points:
- The vital importance of building a united front against the war. Our emphasis needs to be on building a large, militant antiwar movement that is capable of stopping the war. TONC renews its appeal to the small but influential forces in the antiwar movement who refused to work together for the fall and beyond to reverse their positions and help unleash the full mass potential of the struggle to shut the war down.
- That building a united movement means including, not excluding the struggles of oppressed people. Support
for the Right of all Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to their original homes and property in all of historic Palestine is not negotiable.
- That unity means much more than organizational unity. It means, more importantly, that the antiwar movement reaches out to and embraces the struggles of oppressed people here and internationally. It means solidarity with the struggle of communities of color, with LGBT communities, with immigrants, and with struggles against racism, sexism, and all forms of oppression. It means solidarity with the people of Iraq, Palestine, Haiti, the Philippines, and everywhere that people are struggling against U.S. colonial occupation.
- That the antiwar movement needs to look to new and more effective tactics to stop the war. Activists have raised the slogan "Troops Home Now, or We'll Shut It Down!" and discussed the idea of declaring a moratorium against the war, including walkouts, civil disobedience, and other direct actions to bring the cities to a stop until the war is ended.
- That the struggle to end the war will be won by mobilizing a massive movement in the streets. Counting on elections and pro-war politicians to end the war is, at best, a misdirection of time, energy, and resources. Only the people will stop the war. To that end, it is important to immediately begin planning and mobilizing now for the September 24 March in Washington DC, the Millions More Movement events on the weekend of October 14-16, and the Moratorium Against the War.
We need your help to build a massive, united demonstration:
Organize transportation from your area. http://www.troopsoutnow.org/orgcentersignup.html
Donate to help bring thousands of activists to Washington DC on
September 24. http://www.troopsoutnow.org/donate.html
Troops Out Now Coalition On Palestine and the September 24 antiwar protest
As TONC works to revive, and re-energize the struggle to not only end, but defeat, the colonial occupation of Iraq, we will walk every extra mile, and spare no effort in our efforts along with others to forge greater unity in the antiwar movement. The central question is, how can this best be done?
We don’t think that you can make the movement “broader” by narrowing its appeal and relevance. We believe that the idea that the movement should strive to look more white, colorless, and vapid, and that it should be fearful of looking too Arab, Black, Latin, and Asian, is a false notion. There is no power or future in a movement based on this notion. Either the composition, politics and outlook of the antiwar movement in this country is going to reflect the world, or it’s going to be little more than a irrelevant reflection of a distant past.
Clearly the focus of the movement is Iraq. But we must resist any effort to either exclude or minimize the occupation of Palestine as a focus of the movement. We must do this because the struggle for the Right to Return and against the occupation of Palestine is central to the struggle of Arab people and it is impossible to separate the Palestinian Question From Iraq. Trying to separate the occupation of Iraq from the occupation of Palestine is, to us, the same as trying to separate the struggle against the war from the struggle against racism at home.
Moreover, instead of abetting anti-Arab and Muslim racism and repression, the movement must spare no effort in facilitating the
widest participation of the Arab and Muslim community in the Sept. 24 antiwar protest in Washington, and in all of our activities. The
movement reached such a high water mark at the antiwar march on Washington in April 2002, when after years of struggle within the movement, the antiwar movement embraced the struggle of Palestine, and for the first time in history, the streets of the capital were filled with tens of thousands of Arabs and Muslims marching arm and arm with antiwar protesters.
The movement has moved forwards on Palestine and the Troops Out Now Coalition is determined to fight any backsliding. Our friends in the National Council of Arab Americans, as well as others in the Arab and Muslim community have engaged TONC on this important issue. We have told our friends and we want to make it clear to all that the Troops Out Now Coalition supports the call for unity in the anti-war movement for the September 24, 2005 mobilization on the basis of the political program achieved on March 20, 2004, the first anniversary of the war on Iraq. We support, as a basis of the September 24 mobilization, the Arab American and Muslim community in the political slogan: End Colonial Occupation from Iraq to Palestine to Haiti, Support the Palestinian People's Right to Return. Meaningful solidarity with the Arab and Muslim community will truly make September 24 broader and stronger. TONC believes that this is what the world wants to see, and what the Imperialists don’t want.
TONC hopes to build unity on this basis for September 24 and beyond to unleash the full mass potential of the struggle to shut the war down.
