September 24

Saturday, September 10

Emergency Strategy Meeting
organized by the Troops Out Now Coalition

Lang Center at the New School University
55 W. 13th St. in Manhattan
(between 5th & 6th Ave.)
1:30 - 6:00 pm

Now, more than ever, it is clear that we need a massive people's movement to stop the Bush agenda of endless war and cuts in vital services. Join us on September 10, from 1:30 to 6:00 pm for a National Strategy Meeting to help build a movement to Bring the Troops Home Now and demand "Money for the Gulf States, not for War!"

Topics will include:
Hurricane Katrina : A campaign for emergency action
Mobilizing for the September 24 National March on Washington DC
Counter-Recruiting Campaign
The Millions More Movement
Dec. 1-3 National Boycott to Shut Down the War

Protest in Times Square, Friday, Sept. 2

Monday, September 12

National Emergency Day of Action for Hurricane Katrina Victims

A national day of solidarity with the hurricane victims has been called for Sept. 12.

Initiating endorsers include the Million Worker March Movement; Troops Out Now Coalition; Saladin Muhammed, Black Workers for Justice; Harlem Tenants Council; Chris Silvera, Chair of the Teamsters National Black Caucus; International Action Center; Cuba Solidarity New York; Rev. Lucius Walker, Pastors for Peace; Rev. Luis Barrios, Iglesia San Romero de Las Américas; Casa de las Americas; and local leaders and activists from around the country - click here for list.

Activities are already planned in New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, Carmel NY, Amherst, New Haven, Charlston SC, Jackson MS, Charlotte NC, Miami FL, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Boston, Turner Falls MA, Detroit, Grand Rapids MI, Jersey City, Los Angeles, Houston, Raleigh, Washington DC, San Francisco, Chicago, Cleveland, Baltimore, Philadelphia, San Diego, Seattle, St. Louis, Kansas City, Memphis, Milwaukee, Richmond VA, Hampton VA, Atlanta, and hundreds of other cities of all sizes in every region of the country.

Endorse / List your local activity

Download:NYC Flyer | National Flyer

Roseanne Adderley, a faculty member at Tulane U. in New Orleans, speaks at Times Square rally.

'Relief for hurricane victims, not war’ and 'Food and housing, NOT bullets, for New Orleans’ were some of the slogans raised at an emergency demonstration in New York City on Friday, September 2. It was called on one day's notice by the Troops Out Now Coalition in response to the catastrophic events in New Orleans and the delta region in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Read details here!

Photo: Dustin Langley - a member of the Troops Out Now Coalition, a Navy veteran and an organizer with the No Draft! No Way! counter-recruiting organization - embraces Cindy Sheehan.

The World Summit comes to New York City...Protest Injustice at the United Nations!

The World Summit is bringing hundreds of world rulers to the United Nations, lauding their performance, while people around the world suffer from their policies and practices, led by U.S. imperialism. Join the protests:

July 31: Housing Not War!
Citywide Rally

Sunday, July 31st
1:00 - 5:00 p.m.
The Marcus Garvey Park Band Shell in Harlem
124th St. & 5th Ave. (A short walk from all 125th St. subway stations)

Affordable Housing • Jobs • Healthcare • Schools • Not War!

• Get ready to march on Washington, D.C. September 24

• And with the Millions More Movement October14,15,16

Download flyers!

Bush says "Stay the course."
The People say "Troops Out Now!"

Now, more than ever, it is vital that the antiwar movement be in the streets. The Troops Out Now Coalition is joining with the September 24 National Coalition, which includes the National Council of Arab-Americans (NCA), the Muslim American Society (MAS) Freedom Foundation, the A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition, the Haiti Support Network, the Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines, and the National Lawyers Guild, in order to help build a unified demonstration against the war.

Read the full statement...
top

Troops Out Now Coalition On Palestine and the September 24 antiwar protest

As TONC works to revive, and re-energize the struggle to not only end, but defeat, the colonial occupation of Iraq, we will walk every extra mile, and spare no effort in our efforts along with others to forge greater unity in the antiwar movement. The central question is, how can this best be done?

We don’t think that you can make the movement “broader” by narrowing its appeal and relevance. We believe that the idea that the movement should strive to look more white, colorless, and vapid, and that it should be fearful of looking too Arab, Black, Latin, and Asian, is a false notion. There is no power or future in a movement based on this notion. Either the composition, politics and outlook of the antiwar movement in this country is going to reflect the world, or it’s going to be little more than a irrelevant reflection of a distant past.

Clearly the focus of the movement is Iraq. But we must resist any effort to either exclude or minimize the occupation of Palestine as a focus of the movement. We must do this because the struggle for the Right to Return and against the occupation of Palestine is central to the struggle of Arab people and it is impossible to separate the Palestinian Question From Iraq. Trying to separate the occupation of Iraq from the occupation of Palestine is, to us, the same as trying to separate the struggle against the war from the struggle against racism at home.

Read the full statement...
top

CALL FOR UNITY TO THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT FROM THE TROOPS OUT NOW COALITION

The Troops Out Now Coalition (TONC) wholeheartedly and unreservedly joins the activists and groups who are calling for a united mobilization against the war in the fall. The absence of such unity amongst the anti-war coalitions only serves to demoralize rank and file anti-war activists and local forces across the country. The grassroots of the movement are looking to those of us who make decisions to put our differences aside in the interests of the struggle to get the U.S. the hell out of Iraq.
<<Read More>>

Endorse!    NEW! View Endorsers

top

May Day: Hundreds of thousands of workers take to the streets around the globe

Millions of workers, all around the globe from Mozambique to Manila marched on Sunday in May Day rallies and marches demanding a living wage, the right to organize, and immigrant rights and in opposition to U.S. aggression..

In Germany, more than half a million workers rallied against layoffs and demanding an increase in wages.

In Bangladesh, thousands of workers rallied in Dhaka to demand a living wage and better safety standards, just weeks after a garment factory collapsed, killing 73 workers.

In Nepal, thousands attended two peaceful marches in the capital city Kathmandu, calling for the U.S.-backed King Gyanendra to end to martial law.

In Japan, hundreds of thousands marched calling for a global ban on nuclear weapons, as the 60th anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki approaches this year.

In the Philippines, more than 10,000 marched through the streets of Manila against the puppet government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

In Cuba, more than a million rallied in Havana, where they celebrated the role of working people and condemned U.S. aggression.

In Russia, twenty thousand trade unionists marched down Tverskaya Street, one of Moscow's main boulevards, demanding a living wage.

In Turkey, workers organized three different rallies in Istanbul, despite a government ban on May Day events.

In Mozambique, at least 30,000 marched through the streets of Maputo, under the slogan, "Mozambican workers in the struggle against HIV/AIDS." Marchers also demanded an increase in the minimum wage and back wages for factory workers, some of whom haven't been paid for months.

May Day in NYC

In New York City, a unique and historic May Day march and rally was called by a coalition of labor, antiwar, community, and immigrant rights activists.

The Million Worker March Movement and the Troops Out Now Coalition, organizers of the event, were initially told by the NYPD that the city would not issue a permit for any May Day march, to any location, on any route. The two coalitions, determined to march, organized a campaign, involving thousands of phone calls, emails, faxes, and letters to the Mayor and the NYPD, as well as the threat of a law suit, that forced the city to back down.

More than a thousand turned out for the rally, with the march swelling to 1,500 as passers by stopped and joined in.

The lineup of speakers at the rally points to the political significance of this event, a first effort to revive May Day in the U.S., as progressive labor leaders joined with immigrant rights activists, antiwar activists, and international solidarity organizers to proclaim solidarity with the struggles of working and oppressed people across the globe.

The program began with a recorded message from political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Speakers included:

• Clarence Thomas, ILWU, Million Worker March co-convener
• Brenda Stokely, President of DC 1707 AFSCME, Million Worker March co-convener
• Gerardo Cajamarca, SINALTRAINAL – exiled Colombian unionist
• Samia Halaby, Defend Palestine
• Chris Silvera, Chair of the Teamsters National Black Caucus
• Charles Barron and Margarita Lopez, members of the New York City Council
• Narciso Castillo, Accion 21 Immigrant Rights NJ
• Teresa Gutierrez, NY Committee to Free the Cuban Five
• Larry Holmes, Troops Out Now Coalition
• Carl Webb, member of the National Guard who refused to deploy to Iraq
• Nana Soul, Blackwaxx Recordings, Artists & Activists United for Peace
• Bernier Achilles, Haiti Support Network
• Jesse Heiwa, Queers for Peace and Justice
• LeiLani Dowell, FIST (Fight Imperialism- Stand Together)
• Sara Flounders, International Action Center
• Dustin Langley, No Draft, No Way
• Usavior, Blackwaxx Recordings
• Erik Anders-Nilsson, Jersey City Peace Movement
• representatives from Casa Freehold, an immigrants rights organization in Freehold, NJ
• representatives of Damayan Migrant Workers Association, a Filipino workers' association and other labor and community organizers
• Cultural performances by Spiritchild, Foundation, Catherine Moon, & Billionaires for Bush

The highlight of the day was a spirited march down busy 14th St., which stopped at several non-union retail outlets, including Dwayne Reade and Whole Foods. The march also stopped in front of Beth Israel, a major medical complex that is facing budget cuts, layoffs, and potential closing. Marchers chanted ,"Healthcare, Not Warfare!"

The march ended with a short closing rally in Union Square.

Police demonstrated their frustration at being forced to grant a permit by storming the stage at the very minute the sound permit expired at 5:00 pm.

The Revive May Day March was called for last October at the Million Worker March in Washington DC more than 6 months ago. When organizers of Troops Out Now Coalition and United For Peace and Justice met just prior to May Day, the Troops Out Now Coalition proposed that messages of unity in opposition to U.S. war be exchanged. Leslie Cagan, on behalf of UFPJ, sent a message defending the right to march to the Bloomberg Administration, when NYC Police Department originally denied Troops Out Now and Million Worker March the right to hold a march on May Day.

The Troops Out Now Coalition offered a unity statement in support of the thousands who marched from the UN to Central Park that read, in part, "Even though our movement will be gathering in different parts of NYC, let no one be mistaken, our messages overlap, and our arms are locked in solidarity with each other."

May 1: May Day Rally for Jobs, Not War - Bring the Troops Home Now!

On May 1 the Troops Out Now Coalition and the NYC Million Worker March are calling for a JOBS NOT WAR - Bring the Troops Home Now rally in Union Square, NYC.

MAY DAY -- International Workers Day -- grew out of the struggle of working people in this country more than 100 years ago for an 8 work day with a full day's pay. All over the world, working and poor people march on May Day to send the message that workers are united and have the right to a job, a living wage, health care, housing and education. Workers have a right to pensions and social security. Immigrant workers and the unemployed should have the same rights. On May Day 2005, let's bring back that fighting spirit.

New! Read the Full Text of Call

Download the May 1 Flyer

Endorse May Day Rally!

Become a May 1 Organizing Center

top

Media Coverage from March 19

• Report from NY1 News
• Report from Village Voice

More Photos

Click here

Report from March 19 NYC Troops Out Now Demonstration

March 19, 2005 - Today, tens of thousands of people converged on New York City to oppose an illegal war of aggression against the people of Iraq.  People drove from as far away as Florida and Minnesota to demand an immediate end to the occupation.

The day began with a rally in Marcus Garvey Park. After the opening rally, more than 15,000 marched to join thousands already gathered in Central Park. As they marched through Harlem, they were greeted by cheers and applause from the community. People came out of stores and apartments to join the march. Others hung out of their windows and flashed the peace sign or raised their fist.

Click here to read the rest of the report...

March 19 Archive

• March 19 Photos
  
  
• March 19 Speakers
  
  
• March 19 Endorsers
  
  
• March 19 Flyers
  
  
• March 19 Logistics
  
  
• March 19 Organizing Centers
  
  
• March 19 Peace Trains
  
  
• March 19 Buses
  
  
• March 19 Contingents