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- MASS OCTOBER 26TH DEMONSTRATIONS INAUGURATE
GRASSROOTS
PEOPLE'S ANTI-WAR REFERENDUM AS PEOPLE VOTE NO TO WAR!
http://www.VoteNoWar.org
In the biggest anti-war demonstrations since
the Vietnam War, hundreds of thousands of people on October
26th took
to the streets across the country announcing with a massive
visible and vocal presence the creation of a new anti-war
movement to stop George W. Bush's plans to wage war against
Iraq. The demonstrators included a vast number of people
compelled to action because they were frustrated and angered
when the Congress failed to listen to the people's opposition
to a war on Iraq.
More than 200,000 people marched in the
streets of Washington, D.C. and over 100,000 in San Francisco
in addition to tens of thousands in other cities around
the country. In Washington, D.C., the march was so vast
that as the front of the march completed encircling the
White House it met the last quarter of the march that had
not even begun moving up towards the White House, and was
forced to stop for a half an hour to allow the last portion
of the march to proceed before the front could continue
along the route back towards the rally site. People filled
Washington's wide boulevards and sidewalks shoulder to shoulder
for 25 city blocks, over two miles.
The October 26 demonstrations launched another
major step
in mass action against the war -- the grassroots People's
Anti-War Referendum and a mass national 2-day mobilization
on the weekend of January 18-19 in Washington, DC, timed
to coincide with the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. and the 12th anniversary of the start of the 1991 Gulf
War.
To VOTE NO TO WAR, go to:
http://www.votenowar.org/referendum.html
For an easy-to-download PDF version of the
two-sided FLYER
ANNOUNCING THE PEOPLE'S ANTI-WAR REFERENDUM AND THE
JANUARY 18-19 WASHINGTON DC MOBILIZATION, go to:
http://www.votenowar.org/flyer.pdf
To GATHER VOTES AGAINST THE WAR, download
the flyer at
http://www.votenowar.org/referendum.pdf, make copies, and
mail the votes in to the address listed on the bottom of
the flyer.
At the demonstration in Washington, people
were chanting "Congress Votes for War -- We Vote No
War!" as thousands began signing the People's Anti-War
Referendum. People could be seen filling out referendums
at the tables and on each other's backs, and taking stacks
of referendums with them back to their communities. Thousands
more visited the electronic voting booth and voted against
war at http://www.VoteNoWar.org while they watched the rally
on
television at home.
The VoteNoWar People's Anti-War Referendum
is a unique
effort to expose the lie that the people of the United States
support George W. Bush's planned war in Iraq and reveals
the mass anti-war opinion that exists as a majority sentiment.
Bush has carried out a sustained campaign to build the myth
of consensus around the so-called war on terrorism. This
has been successful in cowing Congress to rubber-stamp Bush's
demand to be able to declare war at his discretion against
Iraq. The myth of consensus has also saturated the mass
media. The enormous outpouring of opposition sentiment this
weekend is puncturing this myth.
By organizing public opinion we can build
a potent political mass movement that can be decisive in
the next few months. Congress did not end the war in Vietnam
but the people's movement did and once again it is up to
the people to stop this war.
The signatures pouring in on this anti-war
referendum are a tangible manifestation of the breath of
the opposition to the war against Iraq.
The VoteNoWar.org Anti-War Referendum is
an extremely
effective organizing tool so that we can bring the message
of the anti-war movement into our workplace, schools, communities
or places of worship. Millions and millions of people who
have never been to a demonstration oppose this war and we
need to reach them so that their opinions can be registered
and reflected in the political process and so that more
and more people become engaged in real
grassroots democracy.
Congratulations go to the thousands of A.N.S.W.E.R.
volunteers and those from other organizations who committed
their time, their energy and their resources to make the
October 26 demonstrations a huge success. So many people
helped out passing out leaflets, putting up
posters, acting as bus captains and bus greeters, staffing
phones, making thousands of phone calls, organizing their
communities, campuses, high schools, and workplaces, and
volunteering with all the other tasks involved in bringing
people to the demonstration and making sure that it was
well organized. The demonstration could not have been so
large without the work of the leadership provided by
hundreds of grassroots organizers in cities and towns around
the country who brought busses, vans, and car caravans to
Washington DC and San Francisco. A special debt of gratitude
goes to those who participated in set-up and take-down of
stage and sound equipment and who remained to secure the
area overnight in a pouring rain the night before the demonstration.
Make a donation to support the anti-war
movement at
http://www.internationalanswer.org/donate.html
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
http://www.VoteNoWar.org
http://www.InternationalANSWER.org
dc@internationalanswer.org
New York 212-633-6646
Washington 202-332-5757
Chicago 773-878-0166
Los Angeles 213-487-2368
San Francisco 415-821-6545
Sign up to receive updates (low volume):
http://www.internationalanswer.org/subscribelist.html
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