Westwood Federal Building, Los Angeles, 6 October 2002--Over a thousand people gathered here and marched to the nearby ROTC recruiting center to say "NO!" to the pending Amerikan war on Iraq. The atmosphere was boisterous, despite the scores of riot police who restricted protestors to a small piece of lawn. The rally was organized by a mass organization called "Not In Our Name," which sponsored rallies in dozens of other cities across the United $tates. Organizers said 20,000 people attended the rally in new York City.
Protestors denounced President Bush's reasons for war on Iraq as "fabricated," even as Bush prepared to give a speech declaring war "inevitable." Already the demands Bush made of Iraq in his speech before the United Nations in September were so unrealistic and vague--not to mention hypocritical--that Iraq was bound to fail to meet them.(1)
MIM and RAIL set up a table at the Los Angeles rally with posters, anti-militarist flyers, newspapers and books for sale. Many people stopped by. Some simply signed the petition demanding the University of California divest from Israel (we collected another 150 signatures).(2) Some asked for the latest MIM Notes (with a cover story debunking Bush's sorry-ass arguments for war) or bought books. Others asked us honest questions about Maoism. We answered these questions as best we could in the short time available, then directed them to MIM's website. They all agreed to check it out; several mentioned they were glad such a resource exists.
The only bad incident on the day that MIM and RAIL saw involved the Sparticist League. A Spart butted in to a conversation a RAIL comrade (RC) was having about the UC Divest petition and attacked the RC on MIM's white working class line. Neither the RC or the persyn s/he was talking to paid the Spart any mind, but this is indicative of the Spart's split-and-wreck tactics.
When we do agitation work we at MIM are clear that we are building partial unity around a pressing proletarian demand. Certainly many of the signatories on the UC Divest petition do not agree with MIM that the Amerikan "working-class" is a bought off labor aristocracy. But they agree with the basic anti-militarist and anti-imperialist position that the U.$.-supported Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza strip should end.
By making such an issue out of the white working class line, the Spart was trying to scare away potential signatories. MIM's published criticisms of the Sparticist League's line over a decade ago; the Sparts have yet to reply to these criticisms in print. Instead they butt in on RAIL comrade's conversations on the street, where they cannot be held accountable for what they say.
Notes:
1. MIM Notes 267, 1 Oct 2002.
2. http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/cal/DivestIsrael.htm
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