D.C. PROTEST AGAINST U.$ WAR

by a comrade

Hundreds of protestors marched through Washington, D.C. 
streets on February 21, in opposition to a U.$. attack on 
Iraq. The protest was cosponsored by a number of groups from 
Workers World front groups to Mumia activists, Catholic 
Worker, and the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee. 
A large portion of the protestors was immigrants and 
sojourners from the Middle East. The Washington Post 
estimated about 2,000 marchers.

Most people chanted slogans such as "1-2-3-4, we don't want 
your racist war!" or "No war -- peace!" One contingent had 
big models of Clinton and a large dog, and they chanted 
things like "Monica says, 'make love, not war!'" In 
Lafayette Park, across from the White House, a speaker from 
the Workers World's International Action Center described 
conditions in Iraq under economic sanctions. A good 
proportion of participants was interested in MIM Notes, 
whether seeing it for the first time or just glad to get the 
February 15 issue.

As with the protests against the 1990-1991 war against Iraq, 
the message of the rally was confused by many people who 
supported Clinton and the U.$. but just didn't want a 
bombing campaign. So some signs had slogans like "Negotiate 
harder," or, "Kill the tyrants, not the children." Another 
set of signs declared that "sanctions are weapons of mass 
destruction." MIM argues that any U.$. intervention in the 
Middle East, whether in the form of war, sanctions, or even 
in the form of "normal" trade, is really a weapon of mass 
destruction against the oppressed and their land and 
resources. While MIM has nothing good to say against the 
Iraqi government, support for any U.$. intervention at all 
ends up as bottom-line support for imperialism.

In WTOP radio's news reporting after the event, one 
protestor condemned the un-Amerikan practices of other 
protestors, insisting that they were really all patriotic. 
This pro-Amerikan attitude is one of the things that 
weakened the anti-war movement in 1991, and it operates 
again today. MIM thinks it's good for anyone to oppose 
imperialist bombing for any reason, but a movement that does 
that while supporting imperialism in general will have much 
less lasting impact than one that uses anti-war sentiment to 
organize for genuine long-term anti-imperialist work.