The Corner Report

By Gale Courey Toensing
NEW HAVEN, Conn. _ Under a brilliant clear blue sky Saturday, an ebullient crowd of pro-peace activists gathered in Fair Haven for a one-mile march down Grand and Elm streets to the historic New Haven Green where they participated in an anti war rally that lasted almost all afternoon.

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Colleen Keys spoke against racial and religious targeting of Arabs and Muslims on behalf of the Muslim Coaltion of Connecticut.

Along the path of the march, drivers of dozens of cars snagged in a traffic jam caused by the long stream of marchers honked their horns, smiled and waved peace signs out of their windows in solidarity.

More than 1,000 people gathered on the green demanding that the U.S. government end the war in Iraq and bring the troops home now. Speakers at the rally comprised a diverse population of progressive groups representing labor, immigrants’ rights, Palestinians’ rights, women, Latinos, progressive students, Katrina fund relief supporters, and Sikorsky strikers – all sharing the common goal of ending what they called an illegal, immoral, and unjust war against Iraq, and bringing the more than 130,000 U.S. troops home immediately.

State Rep. William Dyson (D-New Haven), left, and The Rev. Alvin Johnson urged anti-war protesters to continue to organize to resist the war.

“We’ve been here before,” The Rev. Alvin Johnson of the Bethel AME Church said in a impassioned speech condemning the war and supporting a recall and impeachment of Bush.

The Bush administration “has millions of dollars for killing Iraqi children, but not to take care of Katrina children,” Johnson said.

Connecticut officials also did not escape Johnson's attention. Johnson reminded the protesters that the overwhelming majority of Connecticut residents did not vote for Bush and do not support the war or other Bush administration policies. Naming Sen. Joseph Lieberman in particular, Johnson said that members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation violate their duty to represent the views of their constituents by not opposing the war.

"Is it possible that America and the West can continue to ignore the cruel reality and absurdity of the situation in the Middle East?" asked Prof. Dimitri Gutas of the Yale University Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies.

First and foremost, Gutas said, is the fact that Palestinians continue to be the victims of Israel's ongoing 38-year illegal occupation, its construction of the Separation Wall, and expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank.

Further, Gutas said, the US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq violated international laws and agreements to which it is signatory, and it has commited war crimes and human rights violations by destroyig the city of Falluja and torturing prisoners in Abu Ghraid, Guantanamo and elsewhere in secret prisons.

The increasing success of Islamist groups is "an expresison of nationalist and popular liberation demands that cannot find vent in other political channels," Gutas said.

"As the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish put it in a recent interview, `If there were free elections throughout the Arab-Muslim world, the Islamists would win everywhere. It's as simple as that. The Arab-Muslim world lives with a deep feeling of injustice for which it holds the West responsible. And the West repsonds with a form of imperial fundamentalism that only strengthens that feeling,'" Gutas said.

"We have to stop this imperial fundamentalism of America and the West," Gutas said. "Europe is quite blind to the situation, as the recent fiasco with the cartoons indicates. It remains up to us, the citizens of the US, to live up to our traditions of democracy and social justice and bring an end to this absurd and dangerous situation. Organize, demonstrate, write to your representatives, participate: stop the war, and help bring justice to the Palestinians," Gutas said.

Jeremy Brecher edited the recently published book, "In the Name of Democracy."

Using a variation of the question, “Where were the good Germans?” that was asked about the lack of protest about the atrocities during the Nazi era. author and historian Jeremy Brecher asked “Where are the good Americans?” who will protest the war crimes being committed in Iraq, Abu Ghraib and Guantanomo. He encouraged the “good Americans” at the rally to continue to be actively opposed to the war crimes and other violations of international law being committed by the administration.

Echoing Gutas's plea, State Rep. Bill Dyson (D-New Haven) ended his speech urging activsts to “Resist! Organize! Do something! Do something! Do something!”

Connecticut United for Peace, the coalition of groups that organized Saturday’s rally, plans to follow Dyson's advice. The group promised to begin organizing immediately for a big national march against the war scheduled to take place in New York City on April 29.