In an earlier post that attracted some attention, I quoted Christopher Hitchen's piece on the organizers of the anti-war rally in Washington. Hitchens points to David Corn's LA Weekly expose on International Answer, one of the two major sponsors of the event. That Hitchens was right, and I was right, about International Answer, I here include some notes from Corn's piece.
First, I wish to note a couple of things. I am not suggesting anything about the thousands who attended the rally. They were no doubt a very mixed bag. I am certainly not suggesting that anyone who opposes the war is in any way tainted by the decidedly nasty history of International Answer. As I have said repeatedly, there are many honest and intelligent people on both sides of the question.
Second, Corn is an impeccably left wing journalist. He writes for the Nation, and is very fond of scathing stories about the Bush Administration. I would be very disappointed if he is not vehemently anti-war. This is what Corn says about International Answer. Note that this is a 2002 article, and so is not discussing the recent rally.
[The] Workers World Party, a small political sect that years ago split from the Socialist Workers Party to support the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. The party advocates socialist revolution and abolishing private property. It is a fan of Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba, and it hails North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il for preserving his country’s “socialist system,” which, according to the party’s newspaper, has kept North Korea “from falling under the sway of the transnational banks and corporations that dictate to most of the world.” The WWP has campaigned against the war-crimes trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. A recent Workers World editorial declared, “Iraq has done absolutely nothing wrong.”
Officially, the organizer of the Washington demonstration was International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism). But ANSWER is run by WWP activists, to such an extent that it seems fair to dub it a WWP front. Several key ANSWER officials — including spokesperson Brian Becker — are WWP members. Many local offices for ANSWER’s protest were housed in WWP offices. Earlier this year, when ANSWER conducted a press briefing, at least five of the 13 speakers were WWP activists. They were each identified, though, in other ways, including as members of the International Action Center [my emphasis].
Now I humbly submit that an organization that supported the Soviet Invasion of Hungary, one of the most brutal episodes in the Cold War, cannot in any sense be described as an "anti-war" group. It is pro-war. It just wants the other side to win. And it is not in the least concerned with human rights. It admires people who ruthless crush them.
With a sponsor like this, its not surprising that George Galloway showed up as a key speaker. Galloway, a British MP, is also a professional apologist for Saddam Hussein. He is also decidedly on the side of the insurgents. In fact, he encouraged them in their campaign in the vilest terms on Syrian television. From the London Telegraph:
Mr Galloway appealed to the Arab world, drawing a parallel between Baghdad under coalition control and Jerusalem under Israeli control since the 1967 war.
"Two of your beautiful daughters are in the hands of foreigners: Jerusalem and Baghdad," he said. "The foreigners are doing to your daughters as they will. The daughters are crying for help and the Arab world is silent. Some of them are collaborating with the rape of these two beautiful Arab daughters. Why? Because they are too weak and too corrupt to do anything about it."
Now that guy is on the other side. Kill Americans and Brits, if you value your daughter's virginity. That is as vile as it gets. If he is invited to speak at the rally, there is something wrong with the rally. Can this really be good for the anti-war movement? Can it be good for anyone on the left of the American spectrum? I note that almost no serious member of Congress, certainly no Hillary Clinton, attended the rally. They knew better.
I humbly submit that my previous post was right on target.
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