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Add an EventNATIONAL EMERGENCY MARCH IN SAN FRANCISCO, AUGUST 12, 2006
Despite the vote at the UN Security Council calling for a “cessation of hostilities,” the U.S.-Israeli war is continuing. Friday, Israeli war planes bombed what was clearly a refugee convoy of hundreds of vehicles, killing at least 7 people and wounding 36 others. Other Israeli air strikes killed at least 22 civilians. More than 100,000 people in southern Lebanon are facing an extreme shortage of food, and relief convoys have been blocked. Israeli prime minister Olmert has announced that the Israeli offensive in Lebanon will continue.
The Security Council resolution allows Israel troops to remain inside Lebanon. It demands that the Lebanese resistance cease “all military operations,” but only calls on Israel to stop “offensive” operations. Israel construes all its military operations as “defensive.” There is no provision requiring Israel and the U.S. (which has provided much of the deadly weaponry used by Israel in the war as well as continual re-supply of bombs and jet fuel) to pay reparations for the massive death and destruction inflicted on Lebanon. There is no assurance whatsoever that the UN vote will lead to an end to the war.
The Israeli government has approved a massive ground invasion. Thousands more are likely to die as Bush and the Israeli government pursue the fantasy that they can conquer the Lebanese people and incorporate their country into their sphere of influence by brute force. At this moment, while the Israelis are poised to send tens of thousands of additional troops into Lebanon, the people of Lebanon are already without water, food, medicine, their homes demolished. 55% of the people in hospitals from the strikes so far are children. The courage and strength of the Lebanese people is inspiring people throughout the world.
"Red Alert" Trying to Change the Subject
What would you expect from Bush at the moment that the people of this country have turned so decisively against his policy of endless war in Iraq, and now in Lebanon? What else can the White House do when it knows that mass anti-war protests are going to fill up the streets around the White House this Saturday as the people of the United States show that they are joining the rest of the world in condemning the brutal and barbaric assault against Lebanon and Gaza?
We know the drill. Red Alerts, Orange Alerts, dramatic "we are at war" press conferences, the invoking (again) of September 11, as an act of cynical political manipulation. We are experiencing again the only tactic that the Bush White House and their buddies in the so-called free press believe might, might work at momentarily distracting or paralyzing the people from mass action against their criminal acts. Mr. Bush is trying to change the subject but it won't work!
On August 12, thousands of people defied the hype and took to the streets in San Francisco and cities around the U.S. to expose the terrorism Israel inflicts with U.S. bombs and weapons. Bush wants the media to focus on something other than the growing anti-war movement in the United States.
Every mass movement whose time has come, whose ideas are contagion encounters the lies and propaganda of the status quo and the powers that be. And every historically valid movement rises to the occasion, displays its determination and mobilizes the people to struggle for justice.
From Iraq to Lebanon to Palestine, Occupation is a Crime!
Stop U.S. Aid to Israel!
Support the Palestinian People's Right to Return!
Money for Jobs and Education, Not for War and Occupation!
All photos by Bernie Fox
If this many people had hounded Tony Blair out of town; they would have reined in Israel days ago. It is time for the movement to get relevant and use technology like text messaging etc.
Hatem Basian said the rally cost 22K to produce- it seems like a major waste. How much was that per person? How many people could we feed for that amount of money?
I was so glad that I could make it to this demonstration as it is one of the few things I can do, and that I could contribute. I am still recovering today from carrying the signs, for which I paid, although I did not have to. The signs are a means of outreach and I chanted "butter not guns for our tax dollars" type of slogans to our audience, the average American on the sidewalks who had stunned, confused looks on their faces, as they do not have a clue as to what is going on. I am proud of the fact that I can still walk the entire route to and from the Civic Center. When my doctor asks what I do for exercise, I will tell him I walk peace marches and I carry signs to exercise the arms as well!
As to Tony Blair's whistlestop in SF, with a dinner at a private home high atop exclusive Russian Hill, and his even shorter stop at the charity racket, Delancy Street (restaurant, I presume), any demonstration on Russian Hill would have been a police trap for demonstrators and there certainly could not have been and would not have been 10,000 people at such a demonstration, and the Delancy Street stop, if the time was known, would have been very short. IT CERTAINLY WOULD NOT HAVE STOPPED ISRAEL'S LATEST (NOT THE FIRST) INVASION OF LEBANON. Israel is doing exactly what its paymaster, the United States, tells it to do, and has done so for 58 years as Israel is nothing more than a US military base that exists to protect US oil profits in the Middle East. Tony Blair is just another puppet of the US.
As to the latest phony UN ceasefire, Friday night, when this news was announced, the news was also announced the Israel, as usual, was ignorning the ceasefire and continuing with its terrorism. Anyone who has any interest in this issue certainly heard this, and was not surprised. Meanwhile, the UN resolution does not provide for freeing the 10,000 prisoners, building housing for the 1 million displaced Lebanese and so forth. The list of UN resolutions Israel has violated would fill a few pages.
Aside from these large demonstrations, which is one of the few things most of us can do, the other thing most of us can do is vote, in particular vote Peace & Freedom or Green Party, the only two parties which oppose US/Israeli terrorism and support the Palestinians and Lebanese. FOR 58 YEARS, ISRAEL HAS BEEN SUPPORTED BY THE ENTIRE DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLICAN PARTIES. Once again, during this latest genocidal action by Israel, along with its continued false imprisonment and torture of 10,000 people, mostly Palestinians and some Lebanese, 100% of the US Senate and 98.2% of the House voted to support Israel. Thus, whenever you vote for any Democrat or Republican at any level of office, you vote for US/Israeli terrorism, to the tune of $6 billion a year. That would certainly feed lots of hungry people. BEFORE YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT OUR PEACE MOVEMENT SPENDING MONEY ON URGENTLY NEEDED DEMONSTRATIONS to tell the world that NOT ALL AMERICANS SUPPORT US/ISRAELI TERRORISM, why don't you call all your favorite Democrats and ask them to stop spending money on Israel and the other 700 plus US military bases around the world and instead spend it on feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, establishing a free national healthcare system, establishing a few, comprehensive national transportation system, and all the other things we need.
Thank you to ANSWER for all your hard work. Here in San Francisco, we are so lucky to have any organization at all, much less one that can provide a milestone peace march, the first time EVER that the peace movement finally marched against Israel, and we were, by the accounts I have seen, the second largest in the country with 10,000, with the largest, as it should be, being in Washington, D.C., with 30,000.
Now, LET'S CAMPAIGN FOR PEACE CANDIDATES OF THE TWO PEACE PARTIES, PEACE & FREEDOM PARTY AND THE GREEN PARTY. Walk the precincts, for that is how we build a grassroots voting opposition to the war parties and inform Americans as to what is going on and how their tax dollars are being spent. Those of you who think these large demonstrations (not large enough as we have 7 million people in the Bay Area) are a waste, why don't you walk precincts and build a grassroots base for peace candidates to win so we do not have to have these demonstrations. Can you imagine a majority P&F-Green Party representatives voting against war and transferring the war budget to a peace budget? The sooner, the better, but it will only happen if you WALK THOSE PRECINCTS FOR PEACE CANDIDATES. For Peace and Freedom party candidates, see http://www.peaceandfreedom2006.org
it would be so much more progressive if they just played regional music on moderate volume and urged people to sit in circles and discuss these complex issues amongst themselves.
but then a.n.s.w.e.r. would not control the ideological content...
i don't go to these marches anymore because i don't want to sit back as an automaton listening to rants at volumes that drown out any sort of community building.
that, and the circular nature of the march was too reminscent of the left leading us in circles for the past century or so. ideologically pure circles, mind you, but circles nonetheless.
Keep your eyes on the prize. They'd rather you not look at:
1. Israeli terror.
2. US welfare/"aid" to Israel to the tune of billions per year in cash/military assistance.
3. The racist right wing elements that permeate their "counter-protest" crowd.
We've started a grassroots discussion group on the issues of the Middle east- the first event, over pizza and brews had 17 folk from all over the east bay a all over the political spectrum attending. If you are interested in attending, I can provide you with contact info- we'll be doing another in September
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