[2217] in peace2
Yet Another Feeder March (NYC 2/15)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Tree Monkey)
Mon Feb 10 14:59:42 2003
Message-ID: <20030210195251.13175.qmail@web11205.mail.yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2003 11:52:51 -0800 (PST)
From: Tree Monkey <bangarangatan@yahoo.com>
To: baam-boston@yahoogroups.com
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Call to Join an Anti-Capitalist Bloc Feeder March to
the Anti-War Rally in NYC on February 15
"In all wars the object is to protect or to seize
money and property and power; and there will always be
wars so long as Capital rules and oppresses the
people."
-- Ernst Friedrich, Germany anarchist,
in War against War (1924)
On February 15, a wave of mobilizations will encircle
the world as millions express their outrage at the
horrors of war and the hubris of today's tyrants. This
day promises to mark the greatest show of global
solidarity among peoples and across cultures that
humanity has ever witnessed. Such a display is
compelling testimony to the capacity of human beings
to craft a world of their own in concert with
numerous, distant, and diverse others. This is a hint
of what freedom looks like.
In stark contrast, we know that the rush to make war
on Iraq is the real imminent danger and that it must
be resisted with all our strength. Bush, Blair, bin
Laden, Blix, Hussein, and others representing
institutions of social domination (along with those
powerbrokers proclaiming "peace") are all to varying
degrees aiding the coming military adventurism. But
war or no war, we also know that there is no peace
under capitalism, that there is no peace under regimes
of all kinds. Militarism and terrorism, religious
fundamentalism and statecraft, free trade agreements
and structural adjustments, systemic oppression and
grinding exploitation—all these and more cut off the
possibility of meaningful peace.
>From an ethical perspective, it is indeed necessary
to
say "No to War on Iraq.” Yet it is far from sufficient
if we hope to achieve anything remotely resembling a
world free from violence, much less a free society.
Anti-war activism alone isn't enough. It must expose
and be linked to those social structures and relations
that make war possible in the first place. This is
exactly what we've been trying to do in the
anti-capitalist struggles that have come to the fore
in the global justice movement. And we've been
attempting to do that in ways that prefigure the
directly democratic, mutualistic, and joyful societies
we and others envision. Making such connections and
encouraging such practices within an even larger,
increasingly top-down anti-war movement is equally
imperative, though. Perhaps even more so, given the
potential devastation that could be unleashed globally
by the new doctrine of preemptive aggression.
Thus, this call for an unabashedly anti-capitalist
bloc in the anti-war march on February 15 in New York
City. March unmasked, dressed in all the colors of
anti-capitalist resistance, to openly and loudly
proclaim our commitment to nonhierarchical conceptions
of social transformation. Blanket the march route with
literature, literature, and more
literature--critiquing the present, offering up a
humane future, and to paraphrase Italian anarchist
Errico Malatesta, educating ourselves and others for
freedom.
The basis of unity for this bloc are:
-- An opposition to capitalism, statecraft,
militarism, and racism;
-- An opposition to all forms of exploitation,
oppression, and social domination;
-- A respect for a "diversity of takes" on that
opposition so as to encourage the participation of a
variety of libertarian political perspectives on
"anti-capitalism";
-- A commitment to decentralization,
self-determination, direct democracy, and
confederation;
-- A commitment to mutualism, cooperation, and
solidarity; and
-- A belief in a revolutionary politics that
transparently carves out the new world in the shell of
the old, while rejecting reformist alternatives aimed
at merely tinkering with the status quo.
WHAT:
An anti-capitalist bloc feeder march to the anti-war
rally in New York City
WHEN:
Gather at 11:30 a.m., Saturday, February 15
WHERE:
Meet on the steps of the New York Public Library near
the lions, 5th Avenue at 42nd Street. Mobilize New
York and Reclaim the Streets are also meeting there to
form a Carnival Bloc feeder march, and the Youth Bloc
(starting at 10:30 a.m.) may join in as well. We'll
then march to the United for Peace and Justice rally.
WHAT TO BRING:
-- Revolutionary banners and signs
-- Noisemakers and percussion instruments
-- Radical literature, literature, literature
-- Yourself and your collective, affinity group,
federation, and/or friends, in dramatic and
colorful attire
SPREAD THE WORD!
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