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Watch C-SPAN's schedule for broadcast of this event on Friday (7/29) or this weekend.
L.A.'s "Out of Iraq" rally and teach-in on Saturday drew an overflow crowd of about 1000, with many lining the walls at the Covenant Worship Center auditorium in Inglewood. Outside, church leaders had to turn people away at the door due to fire safety regulations, while inside an enthusiastic, multiethnic, all-ages crowd gave several standing ovations to lead speaker and organizer Congresswoman Maxine Waters and chanted agreement to the call to "Impeach Bush."
The latter issue came into focus as the meaning of the Downing Street memo by British intelligence, with its assertions that "facts and intelligence were being fixed" by the Bush crew, was explored by speaker Steve Rohde, former head of the Southern California ACLU. Lying to Congress and the American people to start a war on false pretenses is evidence of "high crimes and misdemeanors," the Constitution's grounds for impeachment, Rohde pointed out to rousing cheers.
Waters, co-chair and co-founder of the "Out of Iraq" Congressional Caucus, said that despite dead American soldiers, despite billions spent and the wave of suicide bombings, Bush was still spinning the big lie that the Iraqis would take over soon, concealing the reality that more of our family members will die over there. Though the Caucus has grown and "we're going to create debate and discussion," Waters said, Congress as a whole - even the Democratic leadership - isn't listening to the views of the American people. "We want our soldiers home," she said and "we're going to have to build some street heat" to get Congress' attention.
Rev. Jim Lawson of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, longtime apostle of nonviolent activism and onetime confidant of Martin Luther King, recalled King's warning in the Viet Nam war era that unless we had "a revolution in priorities" we would face an unending series of wars in Central America, Southern Africa, etc., etc. History has proved King right, said Lawson, and now we need to begin that revolution. If we are going to slay the monster dragging us into these disasters, we could well begin with the media that mislead us, he said, suggesting that some of the worst-offending media channels were vulnerable to advertising boycotts and/or subscription cancellations.
Another approach to media distortions was brought up for instant action when PDLA member Michael Jay passed out sheets of contact numbers for TV news directors and newspaper editors so the audience could call and press them for better coverage of the Downing St. memo and the Bush administration's lies. On the plus side, C-SPAN shot the whole event (we'll see about broadcasts); Pacifica's KPFK webcast the event; and there were reporters there from Associated Press and L.A. Weekly.
Opposition to the war is spreading in the halls of Congress. The Get Out of Iraq Caucus, which had 41 members in mid-June, had grown to 64 as of July 20, a 50% rise in five weeks. But in Southern California there's a lot of work still to do - the minority members are mostly on board (Waters and Diane Watson, Hilda Solis, Grace Napolitano, Xavier Becerra, Linda Sanchez, and Lucille Roybal-Allard) but outside the black and brown communities, no one between San Diego and Salinas has stepped forward. Where are Congressmen Adam Schiff of Pasadena-Glendale and the Valley's Brad Sherman who both serve on the foreign affairs committee? Why isn't Venice-West LA-Beach Cities Congresswoman Jane Harman speaking up for her anti-war constituency? Where's the leadership from veteran Congressman Henry Waxman of the West Side? Why not call them and ask?
While many members of Congress keep their heads in the sand, the California state legislature may step up to the plate - at least the issue will be on their plates soon - because state senator Jerome Horton of Inglewood is about to introduce a resolution in Sacramento calling on the President to bring the troops home. Let your state legislators know you back this resolution and see the connection between the budget-busting war and our state's financial crisis.
The event was put together over a short time-span by a broad coalition of groups, including Progressive Democrats of LA and several Democratic clubs as well as Code Pink and other peace groups, SCLC, some NAACP locals and other civil rights organizations, plus antiwar veterans and military family groups. Among the speakers whose words moved the crowd were Fernando Suarez de Solar, whose son Jesus was killed in the war's first weeks; co-founder of Iraq Veterans Against the War Tim Goodrich; and Jane Bright of Military Families Speak Out. Arlene Inouye of the Coalition Against Militarism in Our Schools outlined the growing resistance to campus recruiters. Pratap Chatterjee of CorpWatch, author of Iraq, Inc., recounted Halliburton's corruption and abuses, from the missing $1.5 billion questioned in Congressman Waxman's report to the fact that the Cheney-connected company's drivers, who get about $15 per hour while risking life and limb, are denied unemployment benefits when they return home because their employment was outside the U.S.
Two rappers, including local Will B., rounded out the program. "The truth is coming by, With a gift for you and I, Yes, your president's a liar, my, my, my!" Now that Will's insight is shared by a growing part of the public, it is up to us to get Congress and the media to get out of denial mode and prepare for ending the Iraq disaster.
