Pictures and article from last Sat's March of Troops Out NOW !

[annm4peace]

http://twincities.indymedia.org/2009/oct/protesters-march-against-escalation-war-afghanistan-ongoing-occupation-iraq#comment-8228

to see more pictures go to link above.

Although the group of #'s was small it was really a great march and rally.
There were really incredible speakers and I wish we had their speeches, and jamming music at the end.
I wish you all could have been with us.



On Saturday, October 17, nearly 400 people gathered in Minneapolis to protest the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The demonstration was part of a national day of action to oppose the U.S. occupation of both countries. Additional photos below.

Anti-war events were held in 50 cities across the U.S. in response to the recent escalation of the war in Afghanistan where troop levels have more than doubled since Obama took office. There are currently 67,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and 1,000 more are headed there by the end of December. General Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, warned that unless additional troops are deployed, “the conflict will likely result in failure.” Obama recently told Congress that he has ruled out a U.S. withdrawal and will not consider cutting back troop levels. Right now he's considering McChrystal’s request for up to 80,000 more U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

The proposal comes at a time when civilian and troop deaths in Afghanistan are at an all-time high. For U.S. troops, August 2009 was the deadliest month of the 8 year old war so far, with 51 soldiers killed. And according to the UN, August 2009 was the year’s deadliest month for Afghan civilians. Overall, more than 1,500 civilians have been killed so far this year, an increase of nearly 400 over the same period in 2008.








At a rally in front of the Uptown Library, Anti-War Committee member Jess Sundin, informed the crowd that 57% of people recently surveyed by CNN said they oppose the war in Afghanistan. “The majority of people in this country agree with us,” said Sundin. They know it’s an unjust war that doesn’t make us safer. And while it may be difficult to not have tens of thousands marching with us, we know that members of our communities are fighting life and death battles right here at home. They’re losing their jobs, their homes, and their health care.”




Sundin pointed out that while the U.S. is currently in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, over $900 billion has been spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Every dollar spent on war takes food, shelter, and other resources away from people in this country,” said Sundin.


Last week, U.S. military officials announced that they had met all of their annual recruiting goals for the first time in 35 years. A senior Pentagon official credited the economic crisis with boosting enlistments. “It’s up to us in the anti-war movement to provide people with information and another solution,” said Sundin. “Poverty should not force an economic draft. The U.S. government’s current priorities are warped and inhumane. There can be no justice with occupation. People at home and abroad have the right to self-determination.”


Niger Saravia Arevalo addressed the rally on behalf of the local FMLN committee. “We’re here to say that the Latino community is part of this effort. We stand against the atrocities being committed by the U.S. in the Middle East, in Central Asia, and in Latin America.” He called on Obama to withdraw support for the recent coup in Honduras and to remove U.S. military bases from Colombia. “We need to continue growing and expanding a people’s movement to stop policies of war and repression,” said Arevalo.










After being joined by a feeder march of anti-war youth, protesters marched down Hennepin Avenue to Loring Park where Sami Rasouli, the Iraqi-American founder of the Muslim Peacemaker Team (MPT) addressed the crowd.




He said that while U.S. troop levels in Iraq have slightly decreased, living conditions are still horrendous. In his hometown of Najaf, depleted uranium residue from U.S. weapons has led to an epidemic of breast cancer. Normal rates of breast cancer are 7 cases per 100,000 people. Doctors working with the MPT found that in 2007, the breast cancer rate in Najaf was 28 per 100,000. By 2009, that number jumped to 65. Sami also said that 170 babies born in Falluja in August 2009 showed signs of depleted uranium poisoning. 25% of them died within a week, and the rest had severe birth defects.



“There are still over 100,000 troops in Iraq,” said Sami, “And the war in Afghanistan is escalating. We must end these wars. This is not the change we wanted when Obama was elected.”

Kira Downey, an activist with Youth Against War and Racism called for “change from the bottom up. We can’t elect change,” she said. “We must create it by taking a stand in the streets and in our communities.”



Speakers from the Pakistan Trade Union Defense Campaign, Military Families Speak Out, the MN Coalition for a People’s Bailout, and the facetious “Billionaires for Wealth Care” also addressed the crowd. A performance from Junkyard Empire closed the rally.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. I admire your spirit, but 400 is a pathetic turnout: marches may be a tactic whose time has passed

I'm going to be harsh and frank here.

The model of marching and then listening to someone tell me stuff I already know is completely unappealing, and I'm not the only one who feels that way. I think people are marched out and rallied out. Especially rallied out. I've heard it ALL before.

I participated in a 30,000-person march in Portland when the U.S. invaded Iraq and in other five-digit marches in the months leading up to the vote. The Oregon Congressional Dems voted "no," but other Dems with just as large marches in their cities voted "yes."

Large marches are stirring and impressive. Small marches (and your choice of assembly point indicates that you EXPECTED a small turnout) look sad and lonely to anyone who isn't in them.

The purpose is to create solidarity and make anti-war people feel not alone, but perhaps what is needed is a more ongoing and conspicuous witness, like the red ribbon campaign which raised consciousness about AIDS.

Now if you could rouse up a 30,000 person march (and it would be possible through intensive networking), that would be impressive.

But more small marches? No thanks.

If doing the same thing over and over doesn't work, you probably need to try something else.

[Bjorn Against]

2. Not every march needs to have thousands of people

Of course it would be great if we could get 30,000 people to show up to these things, but we should not dismiss smaller demonstrations as ineffective. The fact is that the vast majority of demonstrations do not have thousands of people, and that is the way it has always been. You may only hear about the large marches on the news (unless you are with a teabagging group in which all you need is a dozen or so people to get coverage), but people still drive by and notice smaller groups. When you see 400 people marching down the street it looks like a large crowd to observers, and if more people would join it only adds to the impact.

The fact is that one march is not going to end the war though, if you want to end the war you need to have a sustained effort that makes the anti-war movement visible. We can not have a sustained effort if people give up on tactics that have been effective for generations, and protests certainly have been effective for generations. It is good to try new things as well, but the problem is when people say "try something else" but then don't give any suggestions as to what to try then they are essentially telling people to give up even if they don't intend it that way. The only way we are going to end the war is to get more people making public displays of their opposition. We don't have the money for large ad buys to compete with the billionaires who support the war, all we have is people and we need to make those people visible. Public protest gives us a lot more visibility than staying home and doing nothing, if people want to change things they need to get involved and not simply dismiss the people who are actually going into the streets and trying to make that change.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. If you want a larger turnout, I would suggest the following:

1. Network. Contact every organization anyone has the slightest connection with and get them to personally invite people to the demonstration. Everyone who agrees to come then has to recruit someone else and so on. Can you imagine how effective this could be if you used contacts at a college? At a Quaker meeting? Any organization that uses a phone tree? Most people ignore posted signs unless they're specifically looking for something.

2. Forget the rally at the end of the march. It's an excuse to drift away. It's a bunch of people yelling stuff all the marchers already know. Have each of the sponsoring organizations give a SHORT (30 second) pep talk at the BEGINNING of the march. At the end, have people DO something--fan out to the offices of Congress critters to either congratulate or protest them, do street theater downtown, sit-in in front of a military recruiter's office, freeway blog, pick up narrow black scarves to 1) wear around their necks or as armbands as an ongoing sign of mourning for all the people killed in the two wars, and 2) to give away to other people opposed to the wars. Whatever, something different.

You're not going to get mass media coverage without masses of people too large to be ignored. That's just a fact. You have to fill the streets like the immigrants did a couple of years ago.

In the meantime, you need guerrilla tactics to build up that critical mass.