APRIL 20 UNITY STATEMENT FROM A.N.S.W.E.R. COALITION

APRIL MARCH ON WASHINGTON UNITY STATEMENT FROM THE A.N.S.W.E.R. COALITION

- Issued February 27, 2002 -

In response to calls for unity in the anti-war movement, the International ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) is announcing that it is moving its National March on Washington Against War and Racism from April 27 to April 20, 2002.

Clearly everyone understands the need for many activists from many movements to be in Washington, D.C., to protest the dangerous, racist war drive that threatens the people of the planet and to fight Bush and Ashcroft's attempts to dismantle the Bill of Rights, criminalize dissent, and investigate and imprison people based on racial and religious profiling.

ANSWER calls on people to rally at the White House at 11 a.m. on April 20, 2002, before marching to the Justice Department and on to a unified rally with the other coalition. This march will be the first that breaks the ban on demonstrations in front of the White House that was unconstitutionally imposed prior to anti-war demonstrations in September during the headlong rush to war.

ANSWER has been organizing for an anti-war March on Washington since November 2001 and widely disseminated a call for April 27 in December. The Coalition settled on the April 27 date out of deference to the National Colombia Mobilization taking place April 19-22. In recent weeks other groups and individuals have come together to call an anti-war march on April 20. It became evident that having two anti-war demonstrations on succeeding weekends on seemingly similar themes, without very compelling reasons, would be a disservice to the movement. Upon learning about the April 20 mobilization, ANSWER took the initiative to try to open lines of communication in an effort to rectify this unfortunate situation.

People around the country are saying that what the movement needs on April 20 is a united front. This means those with political differences marching with independence while showing that we can come together to fight the war makers. All movements have different currents. The only way we are going to stop George Bush's declared "endless war" is to have a movement that comes together against this common foe.

ANSWER believes that the anti-war movement must be broad, that it must embrace the workers' movement, unions, communities of faith, immigrants, students and youth, and particularly communities of color. We also believe that the movement must strongly express its solidarity with the struggling people of the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, who are fighting to determine their own destinies free from U.S. imperialist and colonial domination and that of the transnational corporations.

Our experience since forming the ANSWER Coalition on Sept. 14 has proven that you do not have to choose between being broad and embracing the oppressed peoples of the world and making the connections between their fight and the fight of the people in the U.S. The ANSWER coalition includes more than 500 organizations and prominent individuals who have campaigned against U.S. intervention in Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Asia, and organizations that have campaigned for social and economic justice for poor people and civil rights inside the United States. The steering committee includes:

• Nicaragua Network
• Mexico Solidarity Network
• IFCO/Pastors for Peace
• International Action Center
• Partnership for Civil Justice - Legal Defense & Education Fund
• Kensington Welfare Rights Union
• Middle East Children's Alliance
• Committee for Justice to Defend Palestinian Rights
• Bayan - USA (Filipino community) 
• Korea Truth Commission

The ANSWER coalition rejects the opportunistic use by the Bush administration of the tragedy of Sept. 11, to pursue, through military means, pre-existing imperialist objectives while simultaneously ramming through domestic policies that strengthen corporate rule, attack civil rights and attempt to crush dissent, all at the expense of working people. As the war and occupation in Afghanistan is continuing, the Bush administration has sent almost 700 troops to the Philippines, has increased their support for the Colombian government's intensified war against the Colombian people and the Israeli repression of the Palestinian people.

ANSWER will take a stand against any new war carried out by the Bush administration, whether it's in Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Iran, North Korea, Yemen, Indonesia or elsewhere. We must not only oppose war and racism at home. We must stand firmly with the people's struggles of the world.

ANSWER demands that the Bush administration's war budget of more than a billion dollars a day be converted into funds for human needs, jobs, education, health care, and assistance for the poor.

We call on all those who believe the people of the world are not our enemies and are our sisters and brothers to join together in the National March on Washington, D.C. If you support self-determination, not U.S. military and corporate domination, meet at the White House at 11 a.m. on April 20.

ANSWER calls on activists and organizations everywhere to work doubly hard to fill the streets of Washington with protestors April 19-22. We encourage people to support the National Colombia Mobilization and the protests against the IMF and World Bank.

We have also learned that Ariel Sharon will be the featured speaker along with President Bush at a right-wing, pro-war conference organized by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) over the same weekend as these protests. Sharon and Bush are scheduled to speak at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, April 22nd. ANSWER and other organizations are calling a demonstration at that time and appeal to those who are coming to Washington for the weekend to stay over if at all possible to participate in that very important demonstration.

As we build our grassroots movement against the war towards our spring National March on Washington, we encourage activists to focus on important upcoming dates such as April 4, the anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination and his Beyond Vietnam speech, as well as tax day, April 15, to organize local events.

STOP THE RACIST WAR MACHINE--ALL OUT FOR APRIL 20!

FOR MORE INFORMATION see:
http://www.internationalanswer.org , or email ANSWER@afgj.org, or call New York 212-633-6646, Washington 202-543-2777, Chicago 773-583-7728, San Francisco 415-821-6545

TO ENDORSE, GO TO 
http://www.internationalanswer.org/campaigns/april/a20-endorse.html 

FOR MORE INFORMATION see
http://www.internationalanswer.org 
or email ANSWER@afgj.org, or call New York 212-633-6646, Washington 202-543-2777, Chicago 773-583-7728, San Francisco 415-821-6545.