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SAY NO TO BUSH'S WAR
Wherever Bush's gang of warmongers goes...
We'll be there!

By T.J. Grace and Doug Spielman | September 27, 2002 | Page 2

OPPONENTS OF a U.S. war on Iraq are dogging Washington's warmongers--and their media mouthpieces--wherever they raise their ugly heads.

On September 19, George W. Bush's right-hand man Dick Cheney thought he could slip unnoticed into Burlington, Vt., for a fundraising stop. But antiwar activists showed him otherwise. Some 300 people lined the street leading to the airport to roll out the unwelcome mat for Cheney as he arrived for a $5,000-a-plate fundraiser for Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Douglas.

A wide range of people showed up for the four-hour protest--from high school students to priests, new activists and veterans of struggles against the Vietnam War. The crowd didn't let the lunch pass quietly--their chants received many honks from supporters driving by. "This isn't a war about terrorism," one protester said. "It's about oil and imperialism. This is wrong. Simply put, we've got to stop this--change the system responsible for the wars."

A week earlier, antiwar forces prepared similar treatment for Fox News defense "expert" Kenneth Adelman, who came to Burlington to give a speech titled "Bomb Iraq Now!" Adelman, a veteran of the Nixon and Reagan administrations and an old buddy of Donald Rumsfeld, now travels the country spouting pro-war rhetoric--at the cost of $10,000 a speech.

Hours before Adelman was due to speak, activists began to gather outside of the event. Several student antiwar groups from the University of Vermont, as well as the Burlington Antiwar Coalition, took part.

Once the speech got underway, many listened in disgust as Adelman went on about the need for a military strike to "liberate the people." "Iraqi people will be dancing on their rooftops and in the streets when the military campaign begins," he claimed. The reaction to Adelman showed the possibility for organizing a strong and vocal opposition to the war.

Antiwar activists are beginning to organize on other campuses as well. At the University of California-Berkeley, the Stop the War coalition met for the first time to make plans for launching the group.

About 40 people attended the Columbia University Antiwar Coalition's showing of the documentary Hidden Wars of Desert Storm. Afterwards, students talked about future educational topics, planning a meeting on the role of the United Nations and a teach-in on Iraq.

Send us your reports about antiwar organizing and events--so that activists around the country can learn from each other about how best to build our fight. E-mail us at [email protected].

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