Boston rallies against war

BOSTON, March 20--Several thousand people demonstrated against the war today in the afternoon and early evening. A group of student-aged people started events with a rally and march at 3:00. Then by 5 and 6pm, thousands packed the Government Center plaza where TV cameras had awaited their presence the whole afternoon.

Signs reading "Bush is the terrorist" and "Bush: War Criminal" also appeared at the rally. A speaker at the rally who admitted to preparing his speech days ago said, "You cannot stop war crimes by committing them."

Many people carried signs pointing out that the bombing of Iraq would produce terrorism, just as the first Gulf War produced an anti-Amerikkkan Osama Bin Laden.

The U.S. President George W. Bush continued to face difficulties for being a minority-elected president that much of the public doubts both in temper and intelligence. "Stop Mad Cowboy Disease" is a sign making its way around Massachusetts rallies. Other signs said: "US: Hijacked by a Moron" and "W is for War."

One man carried a sign saying, "Impeach Bush: Which is worse, this or oral sex?" The sign referred to the fact that the House of Representatives impeached Bill Clinton over oral sex with Monica Lewinsky. At the same time, the Bush administration fabricated evidence about nuclear weapons in Iraq only to be exposed by UN weapons inspectors.(1) The government is not supposed to be using taxpayers' money to lobby the public with fake information stirring up public opinion. It's supposed to be the other way around, the public lobbying the government, so that is another reason Bush should indeed be impeached. As MIM pointed out in its review of a book co-authored by a UN weapons inspector, Bush also played loose with the facts about weapons inspections up through the 1990s in his "State of the Union" address.(2)

Many in the world have concluded as one sign-carrier in Boston did: "The greatest threat to America is Bush." Another sign in the Boston rally read: "I want dumb bombs and smart presidents."

Despite all that, and despite the fact that it is obviously true that Bush administration diplomacy failed to bring even traditional allies and right-wingers such as Chirac fully on-board, the anti-Bush sentiment does not really float MIM's boat. Above all, we do not care for the anti-Bush sentiment, because the Democrats voted to support the war and passed the resolution authorizing the funding for it. As one by-stander noted about the sign mentioning oral sex, Clinton also attacked Iraq.

True, activists for anti-war Democrat Howard Dean distributed fliers at the rally. They seek to gather enough activists to gain him the Democratic nomination for president in 2004. Like many other bourgeois, Dean wants a multilateral bourgeois approach to Iraq and problems of international law in general. He said, "this is a job for the United Nations and not for the United States of America."(3)

Fortunately, others at the rally pointed out that Vermont governor since 1991 Howard Dean did nothing about the police murder of Robert 'Woody' Woodward in Brattleboro Vermont on December 2, 2001 in front of several witnesses in a church. The attorney general did not prosecute the cops who shot him.(4)

It could be that with Bush in power, the Amerikkkan people may learn a lesson faster than ever before. The yahoos who voted for him will only make political progress if they see Bush carry out a true disaster. MIM is not saying it will happen soon, but the possibility is there.

The reason that both Democrats and Republicans line up for predatory wars is the economic system. Big money goes to candidates to support war for profit. Those candidates then have better campaigns with which to reach the public, which mostly shares in the plunder of the Third World like Iraq.

Of course there was a sign against "Blood for Oil," but in general we did not see catchy signs attacking the economic system. Instead, speakers from a sound truck brought out that theme, with one saying that the speed with which the anti-war movement developed "took the corporate criminals completely by surprise."

MIT students showed up 600 strong.(5) They carried a sign saying: "MIT is for peace."

There was also a sign that said, "Harvard students want peace." Students walked out of classes, but we saw little evidence that any city-wide strike by workers had occurred as asked by anti-war organizers.

MIM handed out 1250 copies of MIM Notes before running out. If you think you could send MIM money for papers, take them to rallies in your area, hand them out, take notes and write a story for MIM Notes about the rally like this story, please do it. See our web page at: http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/pirao/mndistrocampaign.html for information on the approximate costs. Just doing this would be a great support to the party and the movement.

Notes:
1.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/03/12/cf.opinion.un.relevance/index.html ; http://www.austin360.com/aas/news/ap/ap_story.html/Washington/AP.V6606.AP-US-Iraq-Forgery.html 2. http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/bookstore/books/violence/ritter.html 3. From the flier mentioning http://www.DeanForAmerica.com
4. www.justiceforwoody.org
5. http://www.globe.com/news/daily/20/mass_protests.htm