MLK Holiday Marked
By War Protests

By Raoul Dennis
Special to SeeingBlack.com

Talk about MLK Day, War Protests, and Black politics! Click here.

As part of this year's observation of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., hundreds of thousands of demonstrators—including a growing contingent of African Americans—rallied in Washington, D.C. to send an emphatic message against war with Iraq.

"What we are really struggling against is a war for oil," said Rev. Al Sharpton to an estimated 500,000 demonstrators gathered on the national mall on Jan. 18. "It's a war to advance American imperialism. When you stand up this day, you're standing up for those who have gone into military service in this country.

"People have gone into military service to get training because they don't get training anywhere else," Sharpton added. There is a poverty draft going on. They have gone in looking for hope and opportunity, and instead they will be used as cannon fodder in a ploy to get oil for all the gas guzzling SUVs that we find in this country."

Black Voices for Peace founder and chairman Damu Smith added, "We're reminding the nation of Dr. King's opposition to war, racism and militarism at a time when we are close to a full-scale attack on Iraq."

The weekend's activities began with the Jan. 18 rally on the mall. Led by A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), an international anti-war organization headquartered in New York, the rally included national speakers, including Sharpton, Smith, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, former Rep. Cynthia McKinney, Viola Plummer and scores of others. The rally ended with a march to the District's Navy Yard to call for the elimination of U.S. weapons of mass destruction.

In a statement, A.N.S.W.E.R. said that the link between the King holiday and the peace movement was a logical one. "Dr. King publicly condemned the U.S. war in Vietnam, providing a powerful connection between the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement," the statement said. "In his "Beyond Vietnam" speech at Riverside Church in 1967, he stated, "The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today [is] my own government. …[F]or the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.'

"Dr. King believed that it was impossible to successfully wage a war on poverty at home while waging a war of aggression in Vietnam," the statement continued. "The same can be said today about George W. Bush's global war drive. Social programs and services are being looted as Bush and Congress provide record-breaking sums for weapons of mass destruction and war."

Over 30 nations around the world were met with simultaneous demonstrations including Japan, Ireland, Egypt, Belgium, South Africa, Jordan, Britain and Syria, where activists urged respective governments against aggression in Iraq. The UN projects that war will kill and wound 500,000 Iraqis and create up to 9 million refugees.

On Jan. 19, demonstrators invoked civil disobedience in efforts to disrupt national Sunday morning talk shows, which included Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as they addressed national security matters. Many also went directly to the White House. Nearly 20 demonstrators were arrested for civil disobedience.

Additional challenges against the Bush administration's military build up against Iraq were issued on Jan. 20 during a national rally also in D.C. sponsored by Black Voices for Peace, at the Plymouth Congressional Church in the northwest section of the city. The event was attended by more than 2,000 participants and national leaders. Keynote speakers included Green Party leader Ralph Nader, McKinney and civil rights pioneer James Foreman. A special video presentation of a King speech was also aired as a part of the day's activities. The next national anti-war rally is scheduled for February 15 in New York City.

"The anti-war movement must maintain pressure on the administration and on the world," Smith said. "King raised the right questions at the right time. We are an imperial power making decisions to invade other countries unilaterally. He made the point that our recklessness and arrogance are what allowed us to have this attitude to Vietnam. That same message resonates today."

Related Web Sites:

• ANSWER
• Black Voices For Peace

-- February 4, 2003

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