Jan. 27: Massive Anti-War Protest in DC
On Saturday, January 27, people from up and down the East Coast, the Midwest, and elsewhere converged on Washington, DC to demand an immediate end to the Iraq war. Many also demanded the impeachment of Bush. Crowd estimates ranged from tens of thousands (in the mainstream media) to hundreds of thousands. Thousands also protested in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and there were rallies in cities and towns across the country. These protests took place at a critical time—just weeks after Bush announced an escalation of the war, and while Congress (now led by the Democrats) debates nonbinding resolutions criticizing Bush’s troop increase, yet refuses to cut war funds, discuss impeachment, or stop an attack on Iran. This chasm between the rulers’ actions and the people's interests shows, again, why nothing good will come from relying on the Democrats – a ruling class party representing the imperialist system’s interests. As the World Can't Wait (worldcantwait.org) says in their report on the Jan. 27 protest: “The question now is where will Saturday’s outpouring go? Will the hundreds of thousands who came out be organized to go out and challenge the rest of society and build the kind of resistance needed to end this war and drive out this criminal regime? Or will they be corralled back into asking Congress to make gradual changes towards some kind of phased withdrawal? As the carnage in Iraq heightens, and the threat of a war on Iran looms dangerously on the horizon, it is incumbent on all of us to move heaven and earth to stop this disastrous direction. Anything else at this crucial moment would be unconscionable.”
