demo in dc

[Mike Friedman <mikedf@xxxxxxxx>]

I just got back from the answer demo in washington. our bus arrived in dc
late, as did others as the result of an accident on the chesapeake bay
bridge. It was a beautiful day, but this demo was considerably smaller than
previous marches. At about 2 PM march organizers were estimating that there
were some 20,000 in attendance. I am willing to bet that, at that moment,
there were no more than 10,000 and probably far fewer. As I was only able
to stay from 12:30 to 3:00, perhaps more arrived later.

At the demo, Answer issued a call for a conference on May 3 and 4th titled
"Against war, colonial occupation and imperialism." IMO, this call will not
attract the broad anti-war movement, assuming that is the goal. By and
large, the movement -- base, not leaders -- does not consider itself
anti-imperialist, although the majority may consider themselves anti-war.
If I might suggest, a better title would be something like, "say no to
washington's wars abroad and at home. The calls title simply plays into the
redbaiting that sectors of the movement's leadership have engaged in, does
nothing to engage the majority in the movement or potential recruits to the
movement, and thus remains an abstraction for most people, here and now. I
wish this were not the case, but it is. Moreover, it seems to me that
ANSWER is allowing itself to be pushed to the margins by some of the
"mainstream" forces in UfPJ, etc. ANSWER seems to be marking out "turf" to
the left of UfPJ, as opposed to working assiduously to reach the majority
of the anti-war movement, who may be around groups like UfPJ.

Mike