On A.N.S.W.E.R and an alternative

[nadinbrzezinski]

Ok, ok, my first march was back in November, them dark days... and it did not involve these boys. It was twenty people, at most, who got together to ask for clean elections. That was the focus of the rally.. nobody said a thing outside of we need clean elections and yes Kerry won. We had to work on some of the messaging... but hell we got our message out

Contrast this to yesterday's rally... here locally in San Diego... yes there were 2000 people but folks the message was not fully or truly on bring the troops home... thankfully ANSWER was not there, but we had way too many alternate causes on the platform. Yes we also have to take any opportunity to speak of the issues affecting us, no on 75,76 et al, and the DNC handled that well, have a booth on the side and I am a proud owner of a no on 75 sticker... and labor on the stage made the connection with the troops who need to come home... but otherwise there were another 20 causers diluting the message... oh and the music... we desperately need new music.

Now I have said it, and I will repeat it, the clowns from ANSWER show up, I will leave the place....

Oh and those who believe that the gov'ment would not do that, they are either naive, or have not been aroudn the block enough times

I will also point out that when the Free Palestine speakers took the stage... there was groaning from the crowd and PEOPLE LEFT... they did not come to hear free mumia, or free palestine or Cuba Libre speeches, they came to hear and support bring the troops home, bring them home now, respect the warrior not the war.

That is why all these other messages were wrong.

Yes there were some professional marchers here who have been involved in every action from the time they remember, but most of the folks had NEVER been to a march... they never been to a rally... and they never had been to any organized protest.

I fear that if we don't focus this like a laser on one thing, the energy and it is there... will dissipate.

Just my opinion and I will ask once again, who funds ANSWER founded on 9.14.01, and they had posters in HAWAII, on 9.20.01 if any of this does not seem strange... I don't know what will.

[jonnyblitz]

1. you people obsessed with ANSWER are getting pretty

fucking tedious. we KNOW they are evil commies already. tell us something we don't know. get a hobby. something. just saying...

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. then don't read the posts

[Inland]

11. Well, dude, she's saying how people left the rally

So maybe your wish is their command, huh? After all, I can think of quite a few things better to do than attend a rally including a bunch of things I don't believe in, people I don't respect, and causes that are distractions.

So maybe the problem isn't that YOU are bored and that THEY need a hobby.

Just saying.

[Supersedeas]

58. well said

[KittyWampus]

51. Recognizing & Trying To Address A Problem Is TEDIOUS? LOL!

BRAVO! Just ignore the problem and it will go away, right?

Oh, and noone yet has said anything about "evil commies" except ANSWER's apologists on DU.

The fact IS they are Stalinists who are using the Left the same way the Neo-Cons use the racists and homophobes on the Right.

ANSWER doesn't give a shit about any Issue other than gaining power. They're power hunger elitists who have no interest in a representative democracy.

And a LOT of DU'ers had a problem with Nader taking GOP money for the last election.

Why isn't ANSWER totally transparent about where their funding comes from?

[bonito]

3. More info here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSWER It looks to me we have to get out from under there umbrella.

[wtmusic]

4. The alternative is getting off our asses and starting our own

instead of waiting for "someone else" to do it.

In the meantime we're stuck going to the ANSWER rallies or staying at home (I'll still be at the rally).

[tocqueville]

7. AMEN

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. We have here in San Diego

this time I had nothing to do with it, but trust me next time, I'll be there, I don't want those clowns

The early demos had a focus that the one yesterday did not

[wtmusic]

10. It would help to keep things focused

if the org name was linked to THIS war. The usual motley crew will show up, just keep them off the stage.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. and that is the major complain

apart of their organizing tactics and other things, it is the lack of focus... have been thinking that teach ins are also needed... real teach ins

[John Q. Citizen]

14. I'm sorry your demonstration was a failure because the

message you wanted put out and focused on was not exclusively adhered to.

In a perfect world you could order everyone to stay on message.

That's what the fascist republicans do and I guess it sounds like the wave of the future from the way some people around here talk.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. I did not say it was a failure, it was not

we have gone from 20 hardy souls to 2000+, but the message needs a focus... this is not about free mumia but bringing the troops home, this is not about Cuba Libre (which will not play well outside of Little Miami), but about bringing the troops home. What the locals did is tht many of these side issues had tents where people interested could walk, browse, buy and talk... hell I even got a great T Shirt, but that is the way to handle your secondary issues... not with the main speakers

What part of focus are you missing?

[John Q. Citizen]

46. The issues of peace and justice are bigger than Iraq alone.

For instance, we have troops dying in Columbia right now, yet because hardly anyone focuses on it doesn't mean they aren't dying and being injured. And it is an unjust war also. And they should be brought home too.

People come out to the demonstration because they feel Iraq is wrong and they want to stand up and say no more.

If twenty speakers in a row get up and say, Iraq is wrong, what have we accomplished in the realm of connecting how, say, the death penalty, and the Iraq war are both related to racism and classism?

Now I have to tell you, my issues are not Mumia (though I do oppose the death penalty)or the Israeli/Palestinian conflict (though I do believe both peoples have a right to live in peace and security. And to pretend the Iraq war and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict aren't related is to ignor the obvious.)

My major long term issues are universal health care, quality and affordable education, and legit elections. All these issues are directly related to the Iraq invasion.

Let's look at why the Iraq war is wrong. Is it wrong because it sucks up tax dollars that could go to health care and education? Yes

Is it wrong because US troops are dying because we have a corrupt unelected President? Yes.

Is it wrong because poor people are fighting it while rich folks are getting tax breaks? Yes.

There are connections to many other issues that the Iraq war is but a symptom of.

If organizers waste the opportunity to educate people how all these issues are interconnected, it's certainly not a crime, but it is a shame. And who wants to stand around hearing the Iraq war is wrong for 2 hours, without some analysis and connection to how we got there, why we got there and how we keep from going back there again?

If people don't begin to learn how all these issues are connected, we will end up in another Iraq at another time.

Now if the organizers get boring speakers who have a hard time making the connections that's a shame too. I don't advocate turning the microphone over to just anybody, but at the same time, to focus as if Iraq exists in a vacuum isn't very honest or interesting either.

[nadinbrzezinski]

52. Ok first off a demo is not a teachable moment

it truly is not, what you are saying is done at teach ins, not dmonstrations.

That said, the overall picture can be drawn, the broad strokes, (which the labor rep did well), as well as how our spenidng relates to FEMA and disastrous disaster response...

but Colomibia (for the record there is US Personnel fighting the war on drugs all over latin america, which is quite the hot war too... and people get killed every year), no does not belong here, and neither does Mumia or free palestine... sorry does not... adn it showed, when they went into the free palestine folks, people stood up and started walking away... that said, I also don't take well to broad strokes that in fact are borderline lines or lies for that matter

[John Q. Citizen]

57. We are using chemical weapons on the civilian

of Columbia. We are using troops to guard oil pipelines in Columbia, and we are supporting a government who works hand and glove with right wing death squads that routinely use terror on civilian populations in Columbia. The so called war on drugs is a smoke screen for US involvement in the Colombian civil war, with it's forced population resettlements, it's union busting, it's complete militarization of the entire country.

If you don't believe these are wrong policies, that fine. I do and I think they are totally related to our foreign policy in Iraq.

Your statement that a demo is not a teachable moment is silly. I was taught at demos about the interconnection of US policy and many issues. So I know that if I could learn something at a demo, others could be too.

What this is all about is the propensity for infighting on the left which always leaves us fragmented and weak. It's all about the circular firing squad, egos, and personalities bumping into each other.

My advice is to grow up and quit pushing for divisiveness. It's making you look much worse and much more petty than ANSWER is looking right now. You appear to be jealous that ANSWER and United for Peace and Justice, as well as many other groups and individuals pulled off a major demonstration with relatively few problems. I suggest you work to help the process instead of working to attack the process.

I understand you have issues. I suggest you work to resolve those issues instead of leading the charge to exclude and marginalize those you have issues with.

[tlsmith1963]

37. Sorry, Don't Agree

Most of the people were in DC to protest the Iraq War, not to free the Cuban 5, or Mumia, or whatever. My no.1 priority is getting Bush & the neocons out of office, & we need a lot of support if that is going to happen. We can't have support when ANSWER is turning people off. This country will collapse if we don't get rid of the neocons, but I guess ANSWER doesn't really care about that. They just want to keep having their paranoid "revolutionary" fantasies. Geez, they're as flipped out as the fundamentalist Christians! If *anyone* is fascist, it's ANSWER!

Tammy

[John Q. Citizen]

47. The only people that ANSWER turned off are the ones complaining

here at DU.

Sorry you thought the march in DC was turning people off.

And you know what? I know nothing about answer except what the complainers here at DU keep harping on.

I'm about ready to send them some money just because I'm tired of hearing the few whiner about them so much.

If you think your whining is turning people on, I got news for you.

In fact I went to their web sight today to see what the big deal is. They had a list of speakers at the rally and most didn't seem that objectionable. To balance it out, I went to the web sight of United for Peace and Justice and looked at their list of members and they looked about the same as the speakers list at ANSWER.

If you think your focus is on the Iraq war, and not on ANSWER, you are not reading what you are writing.

Thanks.

[Inland]

12. Used to be, that's what a political PARTY was for.

Where is it?

[wtmusic]

16. The Democratic Party is less focused than ANSWER

If they organized a march would there be even MORE special interests to contend with?

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Correct

and the Democarts did nto organize the oposition to Nam either, candidatse did, not the party

[Melinda]

32. Democratic Candidates did not organize war resistance in the 60's

Students did. Parents did. Vets did. Civil Rights leaders did. Candidates, like McGovern and McCarthy, followed us.

Students for a Democratic Society were the central impetus of the anti-war movement in the 1960's. And we too were marginalized and called commie-lovers.

SDS began with...

The Port Huron Statement (1962)

Introduction: Agenda for a Generation

We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit.

When we were kids the United States was the wealthiest and strongest country in the world; the only one with the atom bomb, the least scarred by modern war, an initiator of the United Nations that we thought would distribute Western influence throughout the world. Freedom and equality for each individual, government of, by, and for the people--these American values we found god, principles by which we could live as men. Many of us began maturing in complacency.

As we grew, however, our comfort was penetrated by events too troubling to dismiss. First, the permeating and victimizing fact of human degradation, symbolized by the Southern struggle against racial bigotry, compelled most of us from silence to activism. Second, the enclosing fact of the Cold War, symbolized by the presence of the Bomb, brought awareness that we ourselves, and our friends, and millions of abstract "others" we knew more directly because of our common peril, might die at any time. We might deliberately ignore, or avoid, or fail to feel all other human problems, but not these two, for these were too immediate and crushing in their impact, too challenging in the demand that we as individuals take the responsibility for encounter and resolution.

While these and other problems either directly oppressed us or rankled our consciences and became our own subjective concerns, we began to see complicated and disturbing paradoxes in our surrounding America. The declaration "all men are created equal..." rang hollow before the facts of Negro life in the South and the big cities of the North. The proclaimed peaceful intentions of the United States contradicted its economic and military investments in the Cold War status quo.

We witnessed, and continue to witness, other paradoxes. With nuclear energy whole cities can easily be powered, yet the dominant nation-states seem more likely to unleash destruction greater than that incurred in all wars of human history. Although our own technology is destroying old and creating new forms of social organization, men still tolerate meaningless work and idleness. While two-thirds of mankind suffers under nourishment, our own upper classes revel amidst superfluous abundance. Although world population is expected to double in forty years, the nations still tolerate anarchy as a major principle of international conduct and uncontrolled exploitation governs the sapping of the earth's physical resources. Although mankind desperately needs revolutionary leadership, America rests in national stalemate, its goals ambiguous and tradition-bound instead of informed and clear, its democratic system apathetic and manipulated rather than "of, by, and for the people."

More - Full Text

[nadinbrzezinski]

34. Bobby Kennedy

and he paid for it with his life

[Melinda]

39. Bobby did not organize the movement -- he joined it.

Big difference.

[nadinbrzezinski]

40. Mention one politician who has so far truly joined the

movement, point is the movement was also one that politicos joined, and at this point I don't want national politicos coming over

[bpilgrim]

43. Cynthia Mckinney

you might not WANT them but we NEED them.

peace

[nadinbrzezinski]

44. I did not say I don't want them

I want them I crave our leaders in with us, but the truth is... for the most part they will stay away, and I can't blame them affer watching C-SPAN

[bpilgrim]

45. "at this point I don't want national politicos coming over" n/t

peace

[John Q. Citizen]

48. During the Vietnam war, the organizers had to put up

with the same attempt at marginalization and cooption we are seeing here now. The only people who are ingaging in this are the ones who didn't attend the march but instead stayed home and watched it on C-span.

Thanks for hanging tough and setting the record straight, bpilgram.

PS I don't know shit about ANSWER or United for Peace and Justice, or about Cindy Sheehan for that matter, but they sure put on a great demonstration. I say thank you to them all, and all the other groups and individuals who made it happen.

[John Q. Citizen]

49. Melinda, thanks for setting the record straight!

Great peace march, wasn't it? Let's all do it again.

[Walt Starr]

5. A.N.S.W.E.R. was not founded on 11-14-01

It was founded on 9-14-01.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. you are right Walt, my bad, wrote the date in Spanish

[tocqueville]

6. I agree about ANSWER and the IAC isn't much better :

STOP WAR CRIMINAL WESLEY CLARK FROM TESTIFYING IN SECRET

Statement of the International Action Center 12/15/03

The International Action Center (IAC) protests the appearance before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) of U.S. General Wesley Clark, former NATO commander and current presidential candidate.

The IAC especially protests the acquiescence of the ICTY to Washington’s demands that General Clark’s testimony be given in secret. We would ask, “What are they hiding?” but we already know the answer. General Clark is a war criminal and both he and the U.S. government fear being exposed as such.

General Clark commanded the 78-day NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999. During that campaign, which was directed mainly against civilian targets in Serbia, killed several thousand Serbian civilians, destroyed or damaged schools and hospitals as well as much of the industrial infrastructure of the country, General Clark was responsible for ordering war crimes.

http://www.iacenter.org/archive2004/clark_1203-1.htm


or this :

SLOBO'S SPIRIT IS UNBROKEN!
says RAMSEY CLARK

by CHRISTOPHER JAMES (CDSM UK), reporting from The Hague
(posted: March 1, 2005)

from: http://www.free-slobo-uk.org/documents_clark

SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC remains “absolutely undaunted," and his "fighting spirit is higher than ever,” despite years of illegal imprisonment and separation from friends and family, former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark declared at the weekend.

Mr Clark, who led a delegation to meet President Milosevic at his Hague prison on Friday (February 25, 2005), reported that "his fighting spirit is higher than ever," despite poor health and the fact that Milosevic has been denied visits from his wife and children for more than a year.

[leftchick]

17. OT but......

just a little. I met four wonderful women from San Diego at our hotel in DC Sat. night who had marched. They were very cool and we talked and laughed and cried about everything. My little boy got a big kick out of our shared beliefs. I also believe I have some new DUers coming our way very soon!

:hi:

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. Cool some people from here went to DC

some of us staid to hold the forst, mostly I cuold not afford to go (and woudl not go with answer's involvement, goes to the early days.. when their big tent did not allow Lerner a place on the stage because he is a Jew, I take exception to that)

[leftchick]

21. ANSWER sucks no doubt about it

luckily a lot of folks got bored and or pissed off at their diatribes and started the march before they finished.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. Now we need to find an alternative to them, PERIOD

[Webster Green]

20. What's with all the trashing of ANSWER?

I think they are doing a great job. They support human rights, and mount huge rallies against war and fascism. So what if there are a lot of different agendas represented? Aren't we capable of multi-tasking? It seems like there is a fear that we might upset the freepers with our "extremism". Personally, I don't give a shit what the brainwashed phony Christian asswipes think.

It seems like a lot of libs are still afraid of the "socialism" boogie-man.

Why the big fear of socialism? What the fuck is so great about capitalism anyway? I think it sucks. Too much hoarding, and selling of the resources which should be owned by everyone.

Free Mumia!

Nuke Bush!

Off the Pig!

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. Look my issue with them is not Socialism

though I do take issue with their neo trostkyte and Stalinist tactics.. given that many of our Neo Cons are former Trotskytes, they are at the fringe where they loop back onto themselves and meet the John Birchers...

My issue with them is their anti semitism... when they keep a progressive off a stage because he is a Jew... ever since they did that, I said, ok, that's nice I won't work with these clowns.

And yes they are clowns.

I also asked somewhere else if they could be, perchance, the modern version of CONTRIELPRO and why they garner all the camera time from C-SPAN, which some find uncomfortable, but their posters were in place on the 20 of September of 2001 in Hawaii and they were not produced in the state, they were shipped... given the problems with the postal service and UPS, I find that curious

And if you think your gov'ment is incapable of doing that, read about the Black Panthers and the FBI...

[Webster Green]

31. Hell, I don't need to read about that stuff...I lived through it...

I was arrested on the steps of the Pentagon in October, 1967, and had the FBI on my butt for awhile (probably still do...whatever!).

The censoring of Jewish speakers, if true, is new to me. I would be interested to find out more about that sort of thing. That would be wrong, although I do think Israel is pretty fucked in their occupation of Palestine.

[nadinbrzezinski]

33. Pre War march san Fran, they kept Rabbi Lerner off the

stage because he is Jewish, never mind he is a progressive who has done far more to reproach both peoples and try to get something working than most of ANSWER ever has, the reason he is Jewish...

Bernie Ward mentioned it, he was POed about it... and Rabbi Lerner refused to go on the air, not to muddle the waters... but this is what has kept and will keep way too many people OFF these marches.

And yes I do suspect for many reasons, these boys, at least some of those boys, might very well be funded by the FEDS.. so you know about it, why not now? After all Total Information Awareness was about this precise issue, and we both know that they are working on this... even if officially they are not in business.

Wink, wing, nod, nod.

[UncleSepp]

59. More info on ANSWER anti-semitism, please

Please give some details on this. I am limited in the amount of digging I can do right now (limited Net access) but I am keenly interested. I have respect for ANSWER's organizing abilities, but had sensed that anti-Jewish sentiments were an acceptable exception to the "end Racism" part of the ANSWER platform. (Specifically, people with rusty old anti-Jewish slogans and signs were tolerated at some ANSWER-sponsored events I have attended, and I did not have the sense that anti-Muslim, anti-Black, anti-gay, etc. slogans would have been let to stand without a fight.) These were just my impressions, and I had nothing other than my feelings to go on. If you have some good quotes from their material, some verifiable instances, or other information to support the charge of official antisemitism in ANSWER, I'd be very interested in seeing it.

[tocqueville]

30. ANSWER ARE NOT SOCIALISTS

their standpoints are extreme-left, left of European communists. Some of their European counterparts are kicked out SOCIALIST rallies in Europe, specially when they show up with portraits of Saddam, Milosevic and Israeli flags covered by swastikas...

[symbolman]

23. This whole thing has inpiredme to move in a different direction

I'd like to get together with other groups and offer alternatives on a larger scale - TAKEBACKTHEMEDIA.COM is willing to call all of our folks we have on our rollodex and invite those that CAN stay on message to join us, CODE PINK, VETS FOR PEACE, all those that want the same things that ANSWER wants basically, but are more focused and for want of a better word, more HEP..

We need to use Perception Management techniques on the american public like the Bush folks do, and the media, but for better purposes, the saving of the nation and the ousting of Bush..

Who wants to bake the bread? WE DO, Takebackthemedia.com is at your service, and if we form a coalition we must do so under the auspices and understanding that we will not BORE people, we will stay focused and unfortuatly everyone is not going to get to speak..

We need interesting and informative speakers that SLAM IT HOME, get people PUMPED and THEN march them off..

I think our site would fit perfectly with other progressive sites that DON'T include ANSWER.

How about DU, BUZZFLASH, BARTCOP, KOS, ATRIOS, all of them 13 original cyber colonies working together to kick some ass before and after marches?

THis would not preclude ANSWER from their little group of "everyone must speak or write a poem" while we get GREEN DAY to play AMERICAN IDIOT in front of the White House..

Let's pump up the volume and get funky - besides, if the leaders in the Democratic party see that WE are fighting the fight and not assocaited with "commies" then maybe THEY will show up and SPEAK..

But Conyers definately needs to be up front and center, HE is the man, HE makes more sense than anyone else in Washington, and I'd like to get his opinion on what he thinks would make for a funkadelic political gobsmackin march :)

I can make choices as to who is boring or not, my pleasure to be a reviled prick so we stay on message, but I'll need some cover, like smart women that keep my in line :)

Let's TAKE BACK the Marches.

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. I don't have a rolodex

but Symbolman I am the wife of a Navy Vet, and I can offer you some of the focus, hell some of the writing.. we need to do this.

[symbolman]

27. Thanks and thank your husband for his service

I served as well, USAF 1971-74, and so I know what it's like for troops NOW, to come home and have people mad at them for what Bush has made them do.. we got spit on when we came back from Nam in uniform, and all I wanted to do was grow my hair and hang out with the crowd.. wierd time..

I have to get a couple of things finished, projects and then let's brainstorm, get some sites together and see what happens.. herding cats, maybe it will work, maybe not, but I think it needs to be done and is worth a try, eh?

Thanks for all you do,

sym

[nadinbrzezinski]

28. Thanks to you to

one thing I make sure I do is to tell people HATE the WAR, but don't hate the warrior...

[Old and In the Way]

38. Now you're talking!

I'd think Progressive Democrats of America would be a great national organization to work with. Seems you'd need some clout with the permits...maybe Conyers could help there. Interesting how little exposure KOS, Atrios, C&L, among others have given to the march....I wonder if they want to keep distance from ANSWER?

There certainly seems to be enough grassroots activism on the 'net without resorting to these professional activists, I think. Maybe a few smaller, regional, theme based marches (Iraq, Republican corruption, a new Democratic Agenda) to cut your teeth with a biggie scheduled in a year or so.....just before the 06 midterms.

I'd kick for that...

[nadinbrzezinski]

41. I think this is what many of us are concluding

we need to focus this and to do it locally, and regionally

And we also have a leader, Cindy... and the United for Peace adn Justice is far more disciplined as well

[Ladyhawk]

53. Sounds great...especially the Green Day part.

You're well-connected in the blogosphere. With help, do you really think you could make it happen?

[SlowDownFast]

54. Now your're talking!

[UncleSepp]

60. Volunteer to speak here *waves*

I have no fear of speaking in front of large groups. Whether I'm any good at it remains to be seen :-) but I'm willing to do that. I'll confess up front that I'm more of a Socialist than a Democrat at this point, but at an antiwar rally that's supposed to just be antiwar, I'm willing to save the politics for another time. Peace is bigger than politics.

[izzybeans]

26. Not one reason given...what's the point of this?

[symbolman]

29. I don't understand

what are you saying? In reference to what, my post, others? I've seen a lot of reasons given in this thread.

thanks for any clarification.

[izzybeans]

36. The reasons are very vague and unclear. Is it because Ramsey Clark founded

it or because a good portion of its membership happens to be communist. Or their opposition to imperialism? None of these are reasons to discount them. Having an opposition to imperialism as a general goal is the message for these folks, the Iraq war, just one part. These aren't reasons to question their presence for me, they are reasons to support them (i.e. a free an autonomous Palestine that recognizes Israel is not going anywhere). On being socialist...since this isn't the 1950's its unclear to me the exact menace; the ignorance of rightwingers for me is not a valid reason to erase their voice from the arena of civil discourse.

My only beef with them is the unprofessional girl they have MCing the speeches; slightly less problematic is the same problem that UFPJ has with its members; the unpredictableness of their membership. The majority are just people with similar goals as you; you'll get some mumia people and some naive anarchists they will be there.

I guess since I'm no member so I can't speak to anything specific I'm just baffled by the widespread opposition of a group that is clearly on the same side.

[nadinbrzezinski]

42. Watch the C-SPAN coverage

and tell me what was that rally about? Free Mumia, or maybe Cuba Libre, per chance Free Palestine? I mean after cindy spoke it LOST its focus and that is ANSWER

[SlowDownFast]

56. Then you clearly know nothing about ANSWER

or it's tactics and history (anti-semite) and hijacking the anti-war movement since 9-11.

There are at least 5 different threads circulating DU right now with plenty of info and links.

Educate yourself and you'll realize that ANSWER is the PROBLEM-

And that goes for all the rest of you ANSWER apologists:

if you can't see they're the PROBLEM, then you're PART of it.

It's so fucking simple, it makes me want to pull my hair out when see this ANSWER bullshit and their apologists...

STAY ON MESSAGE!

...otherwise there is NO hope for any of us.

[Bluzmann57]

35. Cannot speak for the person who posted this

But I can speak for myself about ANSWER. Quite frankly, we do not need self professed communists and free Palestine people in the anti Iraq war movement. I happen to believe in Capitalism and want to make lots of money. ANSWER seems to be a communist organization and, like PETA, will bring down the important anti war issue. The media will attack commies and Peta mercilessly and therefore, bring down the entire anti Iraq invasion movement, therefore, we do not need ANSWER.
ANSWER has some good causes, except for Socialism and professed Communism, but the speakers seemed to BE YELLING AT ALL TIMES! This is another thing that will turn people off. They had microphones, which are designed to amplify sounds, by capitalists, incidentally. So this progressive thinks that we don't really need ANSWER, and all their different agendas, at an anti war rally. Just my opinion.

[Isere]

50. Exactly! And thanks for saying so!

I would never attend any demonstration sponsored by ANSWER.

[Mari333]

55. nor will I. I will protest locally from now on.