March 19th Anarchist March Against War

WHAT
Demonstration on Global Day of Protest on the Two-Year Anniversary of the Iraq war.

WHEN
11 AM March 19th, 2005.

WHERE
Corner of 18th and Dolores St.
Mission Dolores Park
San Francisco

WHO
Anarchist Action
(We are a grouping of several Anarchist collectives, affinity groups and individuals through out the San Francisco bay area. We have come together to organize our own forms of resistance based around anarchist principles. We are a public formation open to other like-minded individuals and groups.)

FINAL ORGANIZING MEETING WILL BE ON SUNDAY MARCH 13TH AT 1PM AT NEW COLLEGE (777 VALENCIA) IN SAN FRANCISCO.



ANARCHIST ACTION AGAINST WAR & EMPIRE

On March 19th and 20th 2005, people across the world will march to commemorate the invasion of Iraq two years ago, and to oppose the ongoing occupations of Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and Haiti. As the United States government is preparing to even further escalate its empire building in Iran, Syria, and North Korea we must further organize our resistance and move beyond peace rallies and purely symbolic actions.

The war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, like all wars between nations, has proven to dispel the initial war propaganda about disarmament or human rights. It is about control over resources. It is about making profits for those who own and control society, expanding their business and military empires. It is also about distracting poor and working people in the U.S. away from discontent with our lives under twenty-first century American capitalism. It is about increasing blind patriotism and nationalism. It is an attempt to get us to identify with our rulers and exploiters, in the face of a foreign enemy. It is about further destroying our educational system and cutting funding for hospitals and the very few social services left for the poor, elderly, and young.

We will not be confused or distracted. We are clearly opposed to this war, and all wars between nations, whether sanctioned by the U.N or not. But our alternative is not pointless grumbling, an abstract plea for “peace” or an attempt to convince our rulers that war is not in their interest. War between nations is never in OUR interests. In a society largely stuck in a debate between capitalist war and capitalist peace, we hope to show that another kind of peace is possible, a peace without poverty, without exploitation, without governors, bosses and managers. But to achieve that kind of peace, another kind of war is necessary, a war that sees not only Bush, Blair, Bin Laden, or Saddam as our enemies; but all bosses, bureaucrats, politicians, police, landlords and capitalists. Continual and perpetual war is a feature and component of the capitalist system. No anti-war movement will succeed without a clear anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian agenda.

We see our mobilization on March 19th as part of the process of broadening and expanding not just an Anarchist movement, but also as an attempt at breaking the stagnation and retarding effect of pointless rallies and endless speeches of the mainstream anti-war movement. We are also trying to move beyond predictable, symbolic, and easily controllable breakaway marches, which have in of themselves become part of the spectacle of the anti-war movement in the U.S.

In Solidarity,
Anarchist Action

For more information/endorsements/questions:
anarchistaction [at] riseup.net