[O29] Proposal for demonstration: Money for Relief, Not War

[drummer2320 at comcast.net]

Don't forget that there is also going to be a protest on Boston Common on September 24th... make sure to come to that if you aren't going down to DC.  Your idea could certainly be incorporated into that.  I am all for another demonstration, but I don't think it is a good idea strategically to try and mobilize people two weeks in a row while keeping Oct. 29th in mind (unless it was going to be weekly demonstrations, which I would also be in favor of).
solidarity,
Eric Ginsburg 
~ from the Anarchist Social Club @ the CSW and the Radical Youth Alliance

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> Hi everyone, 
> 
> The disaster of Hurricane Katrina has exposed how backward the priorities of 
> our government are - spending hundreds of billions to fight an unjust war in 
> Iraq while defunding levee systems and leaving tens of thousands of mainly 
> poor, African-American people to suffer and die in New Orleans. I think that 
> this is a turning point in American society - "the bursting point," as David 
> Brooks called it in the New York Times. Socialist Alternative would like to 
> propose that the October 29th coalition discuss and organize a demonstration 
> soon in solidarity with the victims of Hurricane Katrina to demand "Money for 
> Relief, Not for War." Since this coalition includes activists from many 
> different anti-war organizations, a demonstration organized by this coalition 
> would be capable of mobilizing the largest numbers of people, more than just 
> demonstrations called by any of our individual organizations (although I'm not 
> trying to discourage that). Such a demonstration should try to reach out to 
> African-American community organizations and clearly protest the racist (lack 
> of) response on the part of the government. It could also help to mobilize 
> people for September 24th. I think that it would be best if this demonstration 
> was organized soon - sometime next week - both to give us time to organize it 
> but also to respond rapidly to these events. A demonstration in front of the 
> Federal Building would probably be the most effective. I think that people are 
> looking for a way to vent their anger at the government on this issue, and that 
> it is our task to organize a political response. September 24th will be the 
> big one, but a united local action before then would also be good. 
> 
> Can this be placed on the agenda for tonight's meeting? 
> 
> In solidarity, 
> 
> Dan DiMaggio 
> Boston Socialist Alternative 
> Tufts Coalition Opposed to the War in Iraq 
> 
> "If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor 
> freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up 
> the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean 
> without the awful roar of its many waters.... Power concedes nothing without a 
> demand. It never did and it never will." 
> Frederick Douglass, 1857 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ______________________________________________________ 
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> 
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