NION Announces Plans to Battle for Permit for Central Park Rally

From Not In Our Name

ANNOUNCEMENT OF PLANS TO RE-OPEN THE BATTLE FOR A PERMIT TO STAGE A HISTORY-SHAPING,
MASSIVE OUTPOURING OF PROTEST AND RESISTANCE TO BUSH AND ALL HE STANDS FOR
IN CENTRAL PARK ON AUGUST 29TH

The city of New York’s denial of a permit for a rally at Central Park is an
absolute outrage and is nothing but a naked attempt to marginalize the anti-war
movement and dissent generally. This is a part of an overall clamping down on
protest and civil liberties that has swept the country since 9/11 which cannot be
allowed to continue. The objective effect of conceding the right to protest in a
central public space sets a dangerous precedent which we feel must be challenged.
What follows is our understanding of the stakes of this issue, a plan to re-open a
petition for the permit and an invitation to all other groups to join us in doing
so.

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Over 9 million people watched Michael Moore’s new film and saw the live footage of
U.S. troops kicking down doors in Iraq and dragging men out of their homes as their
families watched horrified. We saw images of U.S. military culture compelling our
youth to kill for sport and brag about the music that gets them most pumped to kill
more.

We know that this war was based on lies, lies, and more lies. First, the links to
September 11th which never materialized…then the claims of WMD’s for which there
was never any evidence…finally the flimsy claim of delivering "liberation" to the
Iraqi people.

None of this is true; in fact, as the current administration have themselves made
clear repeatedly, they have wild ambitions of entirely reordering global power and
economic relations so that the U.S. is permanently on top and permanently
unchallenged in this position. These plans have nothing to do with September 11th
and protecting the American people – and they never have! As Rumsfeld himself
said, hours after September 11th, "Go massive. Sweep it all up. Things related and
not."

And, it is simply a fact that there is no presidential candidate who is even talking
about pulling out of the brutal occupation of Iraq or stopping the chilling
repressive moves domestically – even though millions in this country have
repeatedly have expressed their fierce opposition in countless ways.

It is in this context that there is the need for the most massive outpouring of
opposition to the whole direction Bush and his team are taking the country, a
massive NO! We must do this not because we expect them to listen to reason or to the
truth and NOT to just "register our dissent," but because there must be a visible
and powerful resistance so that as the empire goes forward with their horrors
against our country and the world all those who are outraged and have a conscience
will know there is A RESISTANCE to support and join - one that brings people
together across borders to act in bringing forth a future that is livable for all
the people on the planet.

This is what “more than a million taking to the streets on August 29th” means.
And this is what the powers that be desperately want to prevent, intimidate, and
render irrelevant. This is not, and has never been, about the grass in Central Park!
Everyone knows this, and it is a subject of open ridicule in the newspapers every
day. [See attached article where Jimmy Breslin of Newsday calls the city’s
decision "the work of dictatorship" and urges people to "rail and refuse to follow
the parade route" and to march to Central Park with or without a permit. As well,
read in the New York Times article attached how the horticulture expert who designed
the Great Lawn confirms that the grass can withstand this large crowd and shows how
this has nothing to do with the city’s decision.]

This is also not about our safety—nor has it ever been. Just as the Bush regime
has cynically used September 11th to carry out wars they were previously planning,
so are they now attempting to use the pain and loss of New York City as a way to
whip up fear and intimidate people into staying home, quaking and trembling, rather
than pouring into the streets to express our outrage and indignation.

First, in this proposition from Bush and company there is a profound immorality to
acquiescing as our government terrorizes and destroys whole peoples and countries
around the world for some narrow conception of a U.S. "gated community" of razor
wire and wiretaps, police spies and roundups, for our "safety."

Secondarily, it is the crimes, murder, and torture our government is committing
against people all over the world that makes the people in the U.S. "targets." We
must let the people of the world know that we are doing everything we can to stop
them! And, we are extending a hand of unity to the people of the planet - trying to
set terms where everyone can see more clearly the common interests of people all
over the world and act together to bring into being a better world.

Finally, there is a basic principle that everyone in the movement must understand
and base ourselves on. We are taking on the most vicious, powerful, ruthless rival
our planet has ever seen! They are using force all over the world to push ahead
their global agenda. They are not going to be easily derailed. And if we are serious
about stopping them, and we must be this, there can be no compromise! We are not
going to get them to back off the world by "appearing reasonable," cooperating with
their restrictions, or "behaving well." We are not going to get further in our
appeals if we accept their terms of how we resist. The ONLY way to stop them is to
increasingly step into the ring with them, expose every new outrage, how this is
part of their whole global domination scheme, and call forward many, many more in
their outrage and resistance. Each new act from the Bush team and their flunkies
should be seen as a new way to expose them and to bring forward more powerful
resistance. This includes right now very urgently taking on and fighting against the
city’s denial of a permit to protest in Central Park on August 29th.

In doing this, we want to accomplish 4 things:

1. Call forward the many, many millions who deeply hate the Bush Agenda to be part
of a protest that is RELEVANT and VISIBLE and a MASSIVE REPUDIATION to everything
Bush concentrates and is doing to our country and our planet. This must be so
massive and with such a strong message that it cannot be misinterpreted or covered
up. Everyone everywhere, in this country and around the world, must see that no
matter who becomes president that the people issued a huge "NO!" to the whole sweep
of the Bush Agenda. And everyone everywhere will know there is a movement of
opposition that they need to support and strengthen to ultimately stop this whole
course as it goes forward.

2. In doing we will make clear that this is not a "token protest" but a mounting of
opposition! Otherwise people will not be won to come out in the face of high levels
of police intimidation, media persuasion, and rumors of terrorist threats. If we
stop compromising and start putting out powerfully and clearly our intention to STOP
the whole Bush Agenda, and how this protest is part of that, we can call forward and
give expression to the seething anger many are feeling. So, fighting for the Park
and the message about why this matters and the stance of not allowing ourselves to
become marginalized, is critical to even calling forward the more than a million who
can be won to protest.

3. Recast the political terms around the whole question of "fear" and "safety." As
long as people are gripped with this fear the supposed need to rely on the current
powers to protect us, people, in the millions, will not themselves find the courage
or the reason to step out to oppose and stop the detentions, the round-ups, the
clamp down on free speech and all the wire-taps and invasions of privacy, no-fly
lists, Patriot Acts I and II, etc. WE - the anti-war movement - MUST start exposing
that none of this has anything to do with our safety, but everything to do with
carrying out their global-dominance strategy they had already planned and
suppressing and crushing any group or movement that would effectively challenge
them. We must shift the terms back - where people are no longer afraid of the people
of the planet and standing with (or at least relying on) our government, but instead
are afraid of the future as it will shape up if our government goes unchallenged and
are fighting and standing with the people of the world to call forward powerful
enough resistance to stop them.

4. We must not concede this permit battle and allow a precedent to be set that even
when there are millions and millions who deeply feel something is outrageous and
wrong, that at a moment when there are more people who are outraged by what their
government is doing than in at least a generation but probably more, that the
government ignores the will of the people, goes to war in the face of it, and then
effectively tells people to "SHUT UP." If they do so without at least a fierce fight
that takes a big political toll on their program, we will be a BIG step closer to a
police state and it will be MUCH harder to build opposition in the future as the
situation gets worse.

There are many who will be thrilled by this challenge to the city and we invite all
groups and organizations to join in this fight. We appreciate the efforts of UFPJ
over the recent months in struggling to secure Central Park for a permitted rally.
Now we feel it is on all of us to take this further. We will do this because we
understand that history demands it. We respect other organizations and embrace the
whole spectrum of antiwar outpourings and resistance that has been planned, but we
feel obligated -- to the people of the world and to the future of dissent in this
country -- to continue this permit battle in the midst of this.

We feel it is tremendously important to continue to dialogue with all the groups in
the anti-war movement to coordinate logistics and how to conduct media in a way that
does not create divisiveness or undercut each other’s efforts, but which also
doesn’t demand that any group "trim its sails" in the name of unity. There is too
much at stake for our country and our planet, and it is the future generations here
and around the world we must ultimately answer to.

Not in Our Name - National