At the State Capitol
in California
The New Face of the
Peace Movement
by Dan Bacher
Dissident Voice
February 17, 2003
The
regional peace rally held at the State Capitol in Sacramento on February 15 didn’t
have “big name” celebrities like Joan Baez, Bonnie Raitt, Danny Glover, Martin
Sheen or Susan Sarandon appear on the stage. It didn’t have the 1,000,000
people that filled the streets of Rome, London and New York nor the 250,000
that nearly shut down San Francisco the next day.
But
this “regional peace convergence,” sponsored by Senator John Burton and a wide
ranging coalition of Central Valley and foothill peace organizations, featured
the best, most diverse line up of inspiring speakers I’ve ever heard at a
rally. And even more important, the crowd of 8,000 to 9,000 people were the
most diverse group of people that I’ve ever seen at an anti-war march. In the
crowd were young, middle aged and senior citizens. People of color, including
Palestinians, Chicanos, African Americans, Vietnamese and other Asian
Americans, made up a large proportion of the crowd. Hundreds of veterans from
World War II, Korean War, Vietnam and the Gulf War attended the event, some
behind a Veterans for Peace sign, and others sprinkled throughout the crowd.
Overall,
it was the greatest rally I’ve ever been to, including the huge anti-war march
and rally sponsored by International ANSWER in San Francisco in January.
I
don’t say this lightly, because I’ve been a peace, social justice and
environmental activist since I was a teenager.
Felix Alvarez, my friend and fellow cultural activist, joked at a rally
where we performed songs at in 1984 (I forget regarding what issue!) that we
were “black belt demonstrators” because we had organized or appeared at so many
demonstrations on a wide variety of issues. Among the issues we demonstrated
for included peace in Vietnam, farmworkers rights, undocumented workers rights,
democracy in Chile, an end to the Contra war, peace and justice in El Salvador,
the nuclear freeze, American Indian self determination and the educational
rights of undocumented children.
Since
then, either one or both of us have demonstrated against the Gulf War, for
women’s rights, for California fishery restoration, against the clear cutting
of California’s forests, against the occupation of Palestine, against the war
in Kosovo, for a living wage, against NAFTA, the WTO and corporate
globalization, for the impeachment of George W. Bush and now against the Bush
administration’s planned war on Iraq and attack on our civil rights and
liberties. So when I say this was the most inspiring rally I’ve ever been to,
I’m speaking with many years of experience behind me.
Sacramento-Yolo
Peace Action, the Chico Peace and Justice Center, Davis Peace Coalition, El
Dorado Peace and Justice Community, Modesto Peace and Life Center, Peace Center
of Nevada County and Placer County Peacemakers were the main groups organizing
the rally, the largest anti-war event ever held in Sacramento. The regional
groups, along with a student contingent organized by cultural activist Xochitl
Lopez, met at separate locations throughout the city and “converged” on the
west and south steps of the capitol.
I
attended the rally with my mom, Cassie, also a veteran of many protests since
the 1960’s. Jeanie Keltner and Husam Abu-Sneineh were the m.c’s of the rally
and did an outstanding job. Keltner set the personal, heartfelt tone for the
demonstration when she stated how our rally was a part of an unprecedented
global movement of millions of people throughout the word.
“Before
our speakers begin, I want you to turn to your neighbors in the crowd and greet
each other,” said Keltner, English professor emeritus at CSUS and editor of
Because People Matter newspaper. “Unions, poets, artists, veterans,
grandmothers and even former CIA agents and generals are now calling for peace.
I’ve been on the verge of tears for years over our country’s wars, but today my
grief, anger and frustration all disappeared with the big turnout of people
against war here and throughout the world.”
Richard
Becker, Western Regional Co Director of the International Action Center, was
the first speaker. “The only reason the attack on Iraq hasn’t happened yet is because of the intervention
of people throughout the US and the world,” he stated. “The reason for the war
is to take Iraq and its oil. The U.S. wants to crush all resistance in the
Middle East, including the Palestinian resistance against the occupation by the
Israeli armed forces.”
Becker
emphasized that the Palestinian resistance to the U.S.-funded Israeli
government is central to the movement against U.S. global dominance and plans
for war against Iraq. “To talk about Iraq without talking about the Palestinians
is to mutilate reality!” he exclaimed.
Eric
Vega and Ahjani Uni from the Freedom Bound Center spoke about the need for
resistance to the Patriot Act, a tool of Bush’s war on immigrant and African
American communities.
“Many
of you have been called wimps and traitors,” said Vega, “but you are none of
those things, you are part of a worldwide movement for peace and justice. You
need to be very concerned about your Constitutional rights in this strange
inter-regnum between peace and war.”
Uni
added, “G.W. Bush is not the real problem, the real problem is that to our
government, profits are more important than people. As an African growing up in
the projects, I have lived with terrorism all my life. We in the African
community know why the Patriot Act is being imposed; we know that our
government is about profits by any means necessary.”
One
of the most moving speeches was given by a student activist at U.C. Davis, Lara
Kiswani from Students for Justice in Palestine and the Third World Forum.
“This
war against the people of the Middle East started not in 1948 with the
expulsion of Palestinians from their land, but with the Native American
genocide in the Americas,” she said. “The Bush move for war against Iraq is
part of an an ongoing war against people of color, an ongoing racial war. This
war includes U.S. wars against Vietnam, Colombia, Central America, Iraq,
Palestine and other countries throughout the world. We are fighting against one
system of oppression, one system of racism. If you want to see justice, you
must work for global justice. Brothers and sisters of all nationalities, all
backgrounds, all sexual orientations, we must continue the struggle!”
Her
speech was a hard one to follow, but Elias Rashmawi, longtime peace and
justice activist and the co-chair of
International ANSWER, did a fabulous job. One of the founders of the Free
Palestinian Alliance and a Palestinian Christian whose dad was a prominent
bishop, Elias is a fiery speaker who has regularly spoken at anti-war
demonstrations in Washington D.C., San Francisco and elsewhere.
“I
stretch my hand out to you on behalf of the Arab people to people of all
colors,” said Rashmawi. “You are not our enemy. We know that you will not take
arms against us. We stand shoulder to
shoulder across all ages, sexual orientations, and all divides to say no to war
from north to south, from east to west.”
Rashmawi
emphasized the ties between war and corporate globalization, stating that the
warmakers in Washington are “those who want to profit from our misery and
oppression.”
He
compared the detention and repression against Arabs and Muslims in the U.S. now
to the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II. “In the past, the US
government tried to tell the American people that Asians were their enemies,”
said Rashmawi. “There are those today who say that the Constitution should stop
at Muslims or Arabs, but nobody now can stop the march of people towards
justice.”
Tim
Malone, U.C. Davis Chaplain, said that in spite of so called right wing “Christians”
urging support for Bush’s war, “I’ve never read anything in the bible about
bombing, hurting or killing your enemies. Our government finds enough money to
build new prisons and bombs, but not enough for health care for the elderly. In
the end, love will win. Justice is love in action.”
David
Mandel, of Jewish Voice for Peace, said “together we can build a better world
of Arabs and Jews united for peace.” Mandel, a dual U.S./Israeli citizen, said
that Israelis and Palestinians have the most to fear from a war on Iraq. “The
anger roiling the Arab world is fueled by the fact that their country was built
at a big cost to the Arab world.”
“The
Israeli government and military does not speak for Israelis any more than Bush
and Rumsfeld speak for the people of the U.S. There are far too many people on
both sides that are innocent victims of violence,” said Mandel.
Mandel
noted that a demonstration in the streets of Tel Aviv against Bush’s war
featured 10,000 people, 50 percent Jews and 50 percent Palestinians. He
encouraged members of the U.S. and British armed forces to take a similar step
to refuse to serve in Iraq that many Israeli “refuseniks,” now languishing in
Israeli jails, have already done by courageously refusing to serve in the
occupation of the West Bank.
Barbara
Lubin, founder of the Middle East Children’s Alliance, said that many people
still don’t want to make the link between Iraq and Palestine. “However, to oppose
war in Iraq, you have to make the connection between Iraq and Palestine, you
have to speak out against the occupation,” she pleaded. “As a Jewish woman, I
have found it my duty to march with Martin Luther King, to work for people with
disabilities and to stand up to the policies of the Israeli government and say
yes to justice for all children.”
Eduardo
Cohen, a Vietnam veteran, anti-Zionist Jew and journalist, said the corporate
media has brainwashed the American public into believing “the Iraqis have bad
weapons and the U.S. has good weapons. But there are no good weapons.” He
pointed out the hypocrisy of the U.S. allowing the Israeli government to have
an arsenal of 400 Jericho II nuclear warheads that can reach 3,000 miles and
destroy every Arab city in the Middle East while it plans for war on Iraq
because it might create a nuclear bomb or “weapons of mass destruction.”
“The
U.S. says Israel can have an arsenal of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass
destruction while the Arab countries cannot,” said Cohen. “This is nuclear
racism imposed upon the world by the U.S. The Arab people, too, need the right
to live free from weapons of mass destruction.”
He
also emphasized that the U.S. has conducted a campaign of biological warfare
against the Iraqi people by destroying their infrastructure, such as drinking
water and sewage treatment facilities, and implementing economic sanctions that
have resulted in the deaths of over 1,000,000 innocent civilians, including
many children, through epidemics of dysentery, cholera and malnutrition.
He urged activists to work for an end to all
military and economic aid to Israel until “it respects U.N. resolutions like
Iraq is being forced to do.”
Other
speakers at the rally included Sister Simone Campbell, Deborah Cohen, Gregory
King, Peter Lumsdane, International ANSWER Coalition Youth and local
representatives of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and SEIU.
Performing at the event were Sherri Quammen, the Poetry Machine, Red and Black
(an anarchist punk band), the World Peace Clowns, Staajaubu (African American
mother and daughter poets) and the Sacramento Women’s Chorus.
A
small counter-demonstration across the street was held by people incited by
rabid right wing talk show host Mark Williams to protest what he called the
“pro Saddam Hussein, anti-American demonstration” in Sacramento. In spite of a
week of vitriolic, racist rants against the planned demonstration over KFBK
radio, only a couple of dozen poorly-informed Bush supporters showed up.
I
talked to one of them, army reservist Joe Lopez, to get their point of view.
Unfortunately, all that he and others in the pro-war contingent could say was
regurgitated Pentagon disinformation and “patriotic” platitudes.
“I’m
here because I support love of country and the president. I’m not here as a warmonger.
I represent a minority here today, but I defend the right of people to do what
you’re doing. I’m defending your freedom. I stand for peace, justice and
liberty for all,” said Lopez.
On
the other side of the street was a large contingent of Veterans for Peace,
whose members served in World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War, behind a
banner stating, “Peace is Patriotic.” I said to Pat Driscoll, the local
chapter’s organizer and Vietnam veteran, and others in the veterans contingent,
“The forces of evil are here today,” as I looked across the street at the
pro-war group.
However,
Denise Christine, recently retired California National Guard tech sergeant,
admonished me, “no, Dan, those are not the forces of evil, they’re forces of
ignorance. The forces of evil are in the White House!”
“You’re
right, absolutely right,” I responded.
The
event ended with a “peace circle,” something I had been dreading all day. I was
planning to leave before it started, but I couldn’t find my mom in the crowd. I
find new age-style things like peace circles to be somewhat silly, hippy-dippy,
touchy-feely and warm and fuzzy events, so I generally avoid them. I finally
found my mom as the peace circle had begun forming. But as I looked at the
faces of the circle of thousands of people completely encircling the capitol,
women and men, young and old, veteran and non-veteran, black and white, Chinese
and Japanese, Chicano and Anglo, Arab and Jew, businessman and blue collar
worker, my mom and I were also moved to join the circle also.
This
circle - and the rally that preceded it - definitely represented the new face
of the peace movement, part of an unprecedented worldwide movement against war and
corporate globalization. The people throughout the world have spoken, loud and
clear, against war. The big question is:
will their “leaders” follow?
Daniel Bacher is an outdoor
writer/alternative journalist/satirical songwriter from Sacramento California.
He is also a long-time peace, social justice and environmental activist. Email:
danielbacher@hotmail.com
For more information about upcoming peace
events, contact:
The Chico Peace & Justice Center: www.chico-peace.org; (530) 893 9078
Davis Peace Coalition: www.davispeace.org; (530) 792-1040
El Dorado Peace & Justice Community: www.edpjc.org; (530) 642-1120
Modesto Peace & Life Center: mnappster@earthlink.com; (209) 529-5750
Peace Center of Nevada County: www.ncpeace.org; (530) 470-9797
Placer County Peacemakers:
scottandellen@onemain.com; (530) 878-1566
Sacramento-Yolo Peace Action, www.sacpeace.org; (916) 448-7157