10/26: Official Report 200,000 DC; 100,000 SF

- please circulate widely -

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 [at] 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

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