NJ's People's Organization for Progress says "Afghan War Must End!"

UPDATED, Dec. 3—

Thanks to FotM reader, "Nat" who alerts us that POP's Plainfield Branch also held a demonstration against expanding the war in Afghanistan this past Saturday during their regular monthly picket of the so-called Army Career Center on Front Street. Tip o' the hat to Steve and the whole Plainfield Branch. Oh, and apologies for not including the Plainfield demonstration in this report (also included in this update is the link to December 3rd's Amsterdam News article about the POP demonstration…

Throughout its more than 25 years of defending our right to education, quality healthcare, peace in the streets and against police brutality, racism, sexual oppression and many other scourges on our community, the People's Organization for Progress has not been the kind of organization that waits to react to these attacks. When it became clear this past week that the federal government would use the goodwill of the Thanksgiving Holiday to launch the military's expanded attack on the Afghan people, it was imperative to call an emergency demonstration before these new deprecations become a fact.

"Money for Education, Not for War! Money for Healthcare, Not for War!" and "Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan… No More War!" POP members and supporters chanted as they picketed at the intersection of Broad and Market Streets in downtown Newark. "The US ambassador in Kabul reported that this war isn't winnable, that the government the Bush Administration put in place is corrupt. That Hamid Karzai's government is spending US tax dollars defending his brother's heroin business. We need that money in this country for schools and hospitals, for education and healthcare, not Ahmed Wali Karzai's poppy crop," Larry Hamm, chairman of the People's Organization for Progress told the crowd.

While the POP picket began with the usual 10-30 dedicated members who arrived earlier than the scheduled 12-noon starting time, the crowd quickly expanded as Broad Street shoppers picked up U.S. Out Of Afghanistan or Bring The Troops Home NOW! picket-cards and joined in, before going on with their Saturday activities.

Thanks to the creative influence of people who joined the picket, POP's signature rhythmic chants expanded to include references to Pakistan as well. In a brief address to those assembled, Larry Hamm had elucidated how a secret war was already sending robot drone-bombers across the border in Pakistan. To "older-heads" in the crowd this brought back memories of bombing raids on Cambodia and Laos, thirty years earlier. One Korean War veteran commented that "military plans don't get changed by the President's good intentions. The best guy may be in the White House, but the brass is supposed to take orders from their Commander-in-Chief, not the other way round…"

The New York Amsterdam News was unique among the print media in reporting on anti-war sentiment in the Black community. See Americans protest Afghanistan troop buildup for their report coverage, including POP's picketline this past Saturday.

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Wear A Damn Button, Would Ya? Every Day!

I'm halfway snarling at myself here, but if this stings a bit, you can own a piece of it, too.

There's a lot of interesting discussion about the conjuncture we find ourselves as the contradictions around the occupation of Iraq intensify within US society. I wrote about it a little here in the hours before leaving for the DC demo last Saurday. While some of the ideas in play are critical, like the need to understand where the demand for impeachment fits in the struggle today, the tone of the discussion sometimes strikes me as a little overblown--bold calls to return to the glory days of May 1970 and so on.

In response, I want to propose a mini-campaign that could hardly be more modest in scale, or more simple to take up: Every day, when you leave the house, put on a pin. Two, if you've got a coat on you're going to shed indoors later. Every day!

The button should address the growing crisis aroound the occupation of Iraq in simple terms. Bring Them Home Now! or Impeach! or Money For Schools, Not For War.

Sure, a political button is a small and commonplace thing, but consider the crucial juncture at which we find ourselves. Mass opinion counts for far more now than it does in ordinary times, because it so squarely rejects the status quo and because there is no leadership so far to co-opt it or subsume it into a half-stepping response.

The people of this country have been watching with dismay as a massive electoral repudiation of the war morphs into a deadly escalation and a threatened expansion into Iran. Instead of moving to stop this in its tracks, the Democratic leadership lined up behind the non-binding and occupation-endorsing Warner Resolution.

Everything we do to make the anti-war/anti-occupation movement more visible gives others a sense that there is hope, that there is something they might do as well, that things can be changed. And my doing it isn't going to do doodly squat. But if you, dear reader, take this up and spread the word in local groups and across teh Internets, that's kinda different.

Thousands more people wearing buttons at school, at work, in the neighborhood, will be a vivid local sign of the reinvigoration of the anti-war movement we experienced in DC last week.

Too many days, I've been neglecting to do this simple thing. No more. From here on out, I'll be wearing a button every day (two, actually, until the NYC weather takes a turn for the warmer). And I'll be sure to have a few extra in my pocket in case somebody on the subway wants one.

Next let's talk about occupying Congressional offices...

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Take Five--Let’s Leave (As In Iraq)

[Take Five. Every Friday, Fire on the Mountain picks a category and lists five cool things in it. It's up to you, dear reader, to add your own in the Comments section. Just click on the word "comments" at the bottom of the piece and you're off to the races.]

With the Bush administration escalating and the Congressional Democrats dithering, it’s once again time to amplify the drumbeat for immediate withdrawal of all US troops and bases from Iraq. Or, in the vernacular, Bring Them Home Now!

And because we have to belabor the point, it’s nice to have a number of ways to say, “Let’s go.” And there sure as hell are a lot of ways to say it. Here are five of my favorites—add your own.

TAKE FIVE


Let’s make like a shepherd and get the flock out of here—My personal fave in the “make like a” pantheon, because when you’re in elementary school it’s awfully funny. [before my time]

Let’s cop a mope—This is here because I like how it sounds. This was around in NYC in the ‘70s, and I have a hunch it may have come from police slang, though not because of the “cop” part (that’s related to “copping” drugs, a feel, and so on, and more specifically to “cop a squat” for sit down.) [1970s]

Let’s book—Beating out “Let’s went” by a hair because I like books even better than I like fucking with grammar. Why are there so many one word—one short word--slang variants for this concept—let’s jet, let’s jam, etc.? And has anyone ever done a study of when and where they have arisen and spread out from? And why “book”? [1960s]

Let’s get in the breeze—This is my favorite among ones that differentiate between indoors and outdoors. Kinda poetic in a haiku-y way. [?]

Let’s absquatulate—I love this one for its archaism, though I read someplace that Tom Pynchon uses it in his new book, which means it loses its coolness points for obscurity—still rolls nicely off the tongue though. [pre-Civil War]

Bonus—Color my ass gone! I include this as a bonus simply because it doesn’t lend itself to collectivity—I’ve never heard anyone say “Color our asses gone.” The first time this one ever stuck deeply in my mind was in the early ‘80s when I heard a band at the Rat in Boston do a punchy song with this title. Same bill with SS Decontrol, but I can’t remember who it was.

Okay, now it’s up to you. Kick in your favorites. History, ruminations, reminiscences, and so on are welcome, but not required. Just drop your favorite phrase.

And don’t stop working to end the occupation!

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