Published in Revolution newspaper #87, May 6, 2007
On Saturday, April 21, 500 people attended a World Can’t Wait rally
in Greensboro, North Carolina to demand: Stop the Wars! – No Attack
on Iran! Impeach Bush and Cheney for War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity!
Support Military Resisters!
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Cindy Sheehan, Carl Dix (a representative of the Revolutionary Communist
Party, USA) and Terri Johnson, a local young Black woman who refused to
finish basic training in the U.S. Army because of her opposition to the
war, were some of the main speakers. The event drew a diverse array of
participants. Groups speaking and represented at tables included Islamic
Center of Triad Youth Group, Green Party, SDS – UNC Chapel Hill, Hip Hop
Against the War, Revolution Books, Code Pink, Sammy Rasouli/Muslim Peacemaker
Teams, Greensboro Minimum Wage Campaign, Smithfield Workers, Nation of
Islam, Campus Anti-War Coalition and WCW from UNCG, Charlotte Action Center
for Justice, ISO, NC Labor Against War, Military Counter Recruitment,
Grass Roots Impeachment Movement, Food Not Bombs and Cakalak Thunder.
Rally goers were continually encouraged to go to meet activists, get literature,
sign up for events and get involved. “Nobody leaves here without
becoming an activist and organizer yourself!” was a constant refrain
from the stage.
Two marches from local colleges North Carolina A&T State University and
University of North Carolina-Greensboro converged on downtown Greensboro.
The area resembled a military zone with large numbers of police, barricades
and a counter demonstration of 150, called by the reactionary group “Gathering
of Eagles (GOE).” This group supports the war in Iraq and George
Bush and has, in particular, attacked Cindy Sheehan, calling her today’s
Jane Fonda because of her opposition to the war.
On Friday, the local newspaper’s banner headline read “Anti-War
Protesters Will Face Opposition.” The TV news also played the angle
of Saturday’s demonstration as a potential clash between the anti
war demonstration and GOE’s “military veterans.” In
this city where in 1979, members of the Ku Klux Klan and Nazis massacred
anti racist marchers, this had a sub text of potential violence. In this
climate the WCW event was even more significant.
At the rally, Cindy Sheehan called for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney,
saying: “George Bush with his War on Terror on the world is the
biggest terrorist in the world!” She called on people to join Gold
Star Families and thousands of others on May 14 in Washington, D.C. for
a “Mother’s March.” Sheehan vowed to refuse to leave
D.C. on that day and fill the jails with mothers if the war in and occupation
of Iraq isn’t ended. A youth group from a local mosque presented
Sheehan with an award for her opposition to the war and also celebrated
her presence with poetry and Palestinian dancing.
World Can’t Wait presented Terri Johnson with a “People’s
Commendation Award.” It read, in part, “For courageous resistance”for
commitment to world peace while enlisted in the Army against a hostile
agenda of the United States of America.” Inscribed on the award
was an anti-war poem by Suheir Hammad.
In her acceptance speech, Terri Johnson talked about how there are many
people in the military who don’t support the war and want to get
out. She said, “People in basic training had believed the recruiters
about college. They were told they wouldn’t have to go to Iraq.
That turned out to be a lie.” She challenged the crowd: “I
think the next protest we have we should be at the recruiting station
where they are lying to kids.”
When Carl Dix spoke, he said: “I’m also here to support Terri Johnson
who said NO! to the Army like I did during the Vietnam War. The The Carolina
Peacemaker, Greensboro’s Black weekly newspaper, in its coverage
of the rally wrote: “The Baltimore native [Dix] was drafted into
the U.S. Army in April 1968. But when he was told that he would go to
Vietnam, he refused, resulting in a two-year stint at Fort Leavenworth
Military Prison, located in Kansas. Dix said, ‘I told the sergeants, I
told the captains, I told the whole military hierarchy, ‘Hell no, I ain’t
going.’ He told listeners that the Vietnam War and the War on Terror are
conflicts that are based on imperialism. ‘The U.S. is waging a war in
Iraq based on lies,’ Dix said.”
During the weekend, WCW held other events, including a fundraising reception
for Cindy Sheehan held at a prominent businessman’s house. This
was attended by 150 people, including academics, clergy, professionals
and a few local politicians and community leaders.