why can't someone other than ANSWER do a march

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

this was another same-old deal, with endless droning pitches for money accomanied by back-patting by ANSWER organizers, ethically-challenged speakers (galloway), and a lack of any good speeches (the best stuff was at the op ceasefire event, where hightower and the others stole the show for those who bothered to stick around)

ANSWER always ruins these events and pisses off the crowd. i still remember the march 2003 event where the crowd more or less walked out on them and started the march while AMSWER was still rambling from the stage

why doesn't air america or moveon organize a rally, book people with some credibility, and promote the hell out of it on liberal radio and websites? why are we relying on this shady outfit when we could book a real event with repected names and draw a bigger crowd and not sacrifece our credibilty in the process?

we have the organization. let's do it.

[BayCityProgressive]

1. why cant people who bitch about ANSWER

get out and make their own group? My God, as if the Left isn't already divided enough as it is. I am a communist and I believe that the US hegemony needs to end in all the world but I do sympathize with thoe here who think we should stay on message. as a communist I put myself into active peoples movements..I dont want to try to force things down peoples throats. that being said ANSWER has every right to be at a protest and make their view sknown..and since they bring many of the people to the protest I dont see why they cant speak just like Gold Star moms, United for Peace an Justice and others. if you didnt notice...90% of the tents set up at the rally were socialist oriented. We are a huge block and power in the anti-war and peoples movements. So deal with it..we deal with the capitalist side.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

4. no ne's saying they can't speak

i'm just saying their rallies are short on substance, contain forgettable speeches, and are slef-promting and money-grubbing

[WarNoMore]

5. I posted on this earlier.

I tuned into C-Span for the Inaugural protest in 2000. (I still haven't reround it). The group that organized this protest was ANSWER. It's nothing new; if we're not happy with them then we need to do our own thing. Have we? It's been 5 1/2 yrs. Let's go.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

6. maybe we should flood air america and others with suggestions

though the op ceasefire event was cool (and not affiliated with amswer) it's more of the way to go

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. I think ideas are going to be brainstormed

they are a problem and it will be taken care off, and I guarantee once the problem is taken care off, new problems will emerge... this happens every bloody time

But I am a pragmatist in this sense...and a realist

;-)

[symbolman]

21. Dear BayCity, So how can you be a communist and a democrat?

I seem to have missed something in PoliSci class..

And people have the right to bitch about anything, ANSWER, Communists, Socialists, Nazis (tho if you bring up Hitler you've already lost), etc.. it's in the first amendment..

Is that in your manifesto?

I hope you're not using democrats to further your own ends as a communist? Sometimes I think that's what ANSWER is doing with their "bait and switch" routine..

And this is not an attack, I'm just wondering how you can be a Democrat and a Communist at the same time.

[HamdenRice]

23. You are confusing communist and lenninist/stalinist

There is nothing within the doctrine of communism that requires a communist state to be non-democratic. Unfortunately, the first and most powerful communist state was the Soviet Union, and Lenin adopted the notion of "democratic centralism" which is to say that because the leadership was infallible, there need not be real democracy.

W.E.B. duBois, Julius Nyerere, Joe Slovo and the South African Communist Party, the Italian and Spanish communist parties and others have preserved the idea that economic policy of communism does not require a non-democratic state.

[qanda]

27. I'm beginning to sense an organized effort to downplay the march

These ANSWER threads are getting old and tired.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. It is going to happen, trust me on this, it is going to haoppen

forthe record locally ANSWER thanffully has nothing to do with the marches, the moment they do, I stay home

[BayCityProgressive]

3. and for the record

The communist party and most socialist parties dont even have anything to do and are even opposed to ANSWER. That however, doesnt change the fact that they do obviously appeal to many people.

[Mari333]

7. me too Ill march on a local level

I dont want ANSWER representing me at all.

[U4ikLefty]

8. Nah, some use ANSWER as an excuse not to march or to organize

one themselves. They'd rather whine...it's easier to do sitting on their ass while eating chips.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

9. i've been to dc 15 times in the last 4 years

and it's 7 hrs away

i'm not griping out of laziness-i'm sick of these things getting off message every time and a bunch of nutjob wannabe communists being used to smear the antiwar movement in general

[U4ikLefty]

15. I am all for someone else organizing a major march.

I'll be there when the do one in the LA area. Until then, I'll continue to go to small street-corner protest & the occasional "big" one...whether or not ANSWER is invovlved. I can always walk away & look for some pizza...marches get me hungry!!!

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Hmm so tell me have you organized a march?

I have... I know how hard it is... by the way

[U4ikLefty]

12. Did you go to a march or protest on the 24th???

I have & I can't even count how many I've been to over the last 25 years. I've been to 6 "big" marches in LA, DC & Hollywood since the buildup to Iraq. And at least 25 "corner protests" throughout the South East area of Los Angeles in that time as well.

In short, yes. But I really don't think you wanted to know what invovlment I have had in the movment...I think your just being defensive because you can't control "the message". I think the mass media ingored the marches yesterday & ANSWER was irrelevant, because there was only a short blurb on the 11-o'clock news saying "over 100,000 protesting the wa in Iraq in DC & other major cities throughout the US today." That's all the report & then back to sports.

Public opinion is against the war at this point & it has nothing to do with ANSWER.

[Mari333]

14. C Span only covered ANSWERS rally. Not the march

and thats what people are complaining about..the ANSWER rally..it was the only thing broadcast on TV. and it was bad PR.

[U4ikLefty]

16. Yeah, CSPAN sucks like that & for the record, I'm not too happy w/ANSWER

either. But you gotta put that on CSPAN...it was ther coverage. Someone else has got to get a stage & compete with better speakers.

[wmills551]

22. When you start to blame CSPAN for not getting out the right message

you have hit the bottom of the excuse barrel.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. Yes locally

and even here the mesage was diluted and people walked away as soon as that happened

I am not defensive, just pointing out a problem... you are the one who is very defensive...

[Mari333]

13. I marched against Vietnam and I marched 3 times against this war

ANSWER is bad PR.. period. and from now on Im marching locally. ANSWER turns the US public away from the left, and will continue to do so if it keeps getting all the press coverage.

[SoCalDem]

17. Network (and c-span) loves to "play to the stereotype.

Lefties= scary,hippie-types
Righties= Brooks Brothers/Ship 'n Shore downhome, god-loving,soldier-loving..

Not much has changed since the 60's..

The movements back then were shocking to the buttoned-down midwesterners (even though lots of the protestors were THEIR OWN KIDS)..

republicans never got over the fact that the protests in the streets were effective, and they have spent decades marginalizing and stereotyping ALL protestors as bad..

Watch what is shown on the news.. not the grandmas with grandkids, or the 50-ish guys with beards & beer bellies.. We are always shown the "anarchists", and the tattooed ones, and the "obviously gay" ones.. It's just one more way that the message gets put out there.. The republican message? "lefties are weirdos, and are NOT like "you".."

[Mari333]

18. and I remember that happening in the 60s and 70s

the media glommed on the stereotypes. Thats why IMO its important we show the real faces of the anti war movement..the regular everyday people of the US..that will sell.

[neweurope]

20. I understand both sides.

1.) If ANSWER puts together those protests they have a right to get their point across. It's probably not often they get to say "smash Capitalism" on TV. Must be hard to pass this chance ;)

2.) An undecided citizen who is getting the feeling that the war should be ended - and maybe even that Bush should be impeached - who switches on his TV and hears "comrades, let's smash Capitalism" will get scared and switch it off at once. And he certainly won't go to the next demonstration.

3.) Evidently ANSWER has been needed to put together those demonstrations. So either others build up an organization really quick which will be able to take over this function (which also means having lawyers etc). Which seems hard.
Or

4.) the next time everybody remembers that while ANSWER is needed ANSWER alone can't do a thing and needs all other protesters, also. So maybe every group that participates the next time should say: We'll be coming - but only IF all messages stick to "impeach Bush" (or whatever). Every group should appear on stage - but all messages not having anything to do with the topic of the day should be forbidden.

5.) An open discussion WITH ANSWER should be started now. If things don't change the Left will only be divided further. Learn from the Right: Concentrate on the common enemy. THEN after victory you can divide and argue.

What is needed now is NUMBERS - people from all over society saying: End the war, end Republican rule. You can't afford - and ANSWER can't afford and matter of fact the whole world cannot afford - to frighten off possible allies because somebody wants to "smash Capitalism" (and, yes, I think Capitalism should be smashed - but that's not the fight of the day). We can't afford to make Jews angry because some use the opportunity to talk about Palestine. We can not afford to alienate anybody who might be on our side - if only for part of the way. Our paths might divide again at some time because of these matters. Right now we have to march together. All of us.

--------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[LynneSin]

24. Here's my two cents about International Answer

When I first started to organize for a DU gathering this past weekend, I worked through the dates and information I received from United for Peace and Justice, a group that broke away from IA a few years ago. However, it seemed not only did IA pretty much shove UPJ out of the picture for this protest, but they misrepresented the way the protest was being organized (IE: Speakers at 11:30, March starts at 12:30, but we never started marching until almost 2pm).

THis is the problem with International Answer and it has nothing to do with what political ideologies of anyone who attends. IA has a 'coalition' of organizations out there that sponser IA. In return IA gives these groups the opportunity to have one of their speakers to speak for 10-15 minutes at the anti-war rally. Now outside of all of us being anti-Bush, many of these speakers come in with agendas NOT related to the war. They let these people speak about their pet projects and it holds up the progress of the war. Plus some of these speakers are pretty radical. I appreciate that many of us here at DU are not democrats but other left leaning political groups. But it would be best to leave the politics out of it and stick with those people who wish to address the main issue: THe war and getting out of office those who support it. Under these circumstances, the problems with Katrina would have been also pertinent.

Despite my complaining I will still be a future DC protests, but I think this is the last time I organize one for DU at least with International Answer. I'm hoping that next year Planned Parenthood will do another "March for Choice" and talk about a well organized group. They limited their speakers to just those who wanted to discuss the issue at hand and the parade started on time.

[DeepModem Mom]

25. kick

[leesa]

26. Because they do a great job of getting it organized.