by March Against War and Occupation on October 25 –
http://www.votenowar.org
As momentum grows for the giant October 25 mobilization, hundreds of thousands of people went into the streets in the last two days in demonstrations in more than 45 countries.
London, England 100,000 marched in London, where Tony Blair’s countrywide approval rating has dropped to a dismal 30 percent. Tens of thousands marched in Barcelona, Madrid, Istanbul, Athens and elsewhere.
The people’s anti-war movement that now demands “Bring the Troops Home Now” and “End the Occupation of Iraq” is asserting itself again as the single biggest obstacle to the Bush administration’s criminal foreign policy. Bush’s approval rating is now below the 50 percent level, according to a Wall Street Journal poll from Thursday, September 25.
People are not only angry with Bush, they are incensed that the Congress continues to function as a virtual rubber stamp for the administration’s policies that are reviled throughout society. Facing a growing $500 billion federal budget deficit, will Congress approve another $87 billion on top of the $80 billion already spent for the illegal war and occupation? In spite of some highly publicized speech making critical of the administration, leaders of both the Republican and Democrats indicate that they expect the bill to be passed. The people must make the politicians feel their anger. Negative poll numbers for the president are passive. We are mobilizing this anti-Bush sentiment into a massive outpouring of street protests that will be impossible to ignore.
The number of people in the United States living in poverty increased by 1.7 million last year and the median household income declined sharply. Nearly three million jobs have been lost since January 2001. According to the Census Bureau’s annual Current Population Survey, African American communities suffered the worst increases in poverty, after several years of economic advances in the 1990s. While Bush’s tax cuts for the rich shifted income dramatically to the already wealthy, the Census Bureau report shows a steep increase in poverty in the last year for the African American community – an increase that leaves nearly one out of every four people living below the official poverty line.
Los Angeles, CA
No government official should be allowed to appear anywhere without being challenged by people who insist that the troops be brought home and that the hundreds of billions being spent on the effort to economically recolonize Iraq – an adventure that is doomed to fail – be used instead to meet people’s needs.
On October 25, 2003, when hundreds of thousands of people go into the streets and surround the White House in a sea of protest, they will be sending a powerful message: Bush and his strategy of “endless war” will be stopped. Having defied the will of the people in his race towards war, the administration has unleashed an irresistible political opposition that will be the political undoing of the war makers.
We have less than four weeks to go before October 25 and we need everyone to do their part to help this movement grow. You can pass out leaflets to publicize the event in your community. You can help organize a bus or car caravan to Washington DC.
We urgently need funds to help subsidize transportation for people on fixed incomes and students. It has been the donations of dedicated and self-sacrificing people that have allowed us to pay for the hundreds of thousands of leaflets, stickers, posters, bus rentals and the large number of expenses on the day of the demonstration. To make an online contribution or write a check to help build this important national demonstration, please click here now.
Your help is needed, and we are looking forward to seeing all of you back in Washington on October 25.
