Call to Join an Anti-Capitalist Bloc Feeder March to the Anti-War Rally in NYC on February 15

"In all wars the object is to protect or to seize money and property and power; and there will always be wars so long as Capital rules and oppresses the people."
-- Ernst Friedrich, German anarchist, in War against War (1924)

On February 15, a wave of mobilizations will encircle the world as millions express their outrage at the horrors of war and the hubris of today's tyrants. This day promises to mark the greatest show of global solidarity among peoples and across cultures that humanity has ever witnessed. Such a display is compelling testimony to the capacity of human beings to craft a world of their own in concert with numerous, distant, and diverse others. This is a hint of what freedom looks like.

In stark contrast, we know that the rush to make war on Iraq is the real imminent danger and that it must be resisted with all our strength. Bush, Blair, bin Laden, Blix, Hussein, and others representing institutions of social domination (along with those powerbrokers proclaiming "peace") are all to varying degrees aiding the coming military adventurism. But war or no war, we also know that there is no peace under capitalism, that there is no peace under regimes of all kinds. Militarism and terrorism, religious fundamentalism and statecraft, free trade agreements and structural adjustments, systemic oppression and grinding exploitation—all these and more cut off the possibility of meaningful peace.

From an ethical perspective, it is indeed necessary to say "No to War on Iraq.” Yet it is far from sufficient if we hope to achieve anything remotely resembling a world free from violence, much less a free society. Anti-war activism alone isn't enough. It must expose and be linked to those social structures and relations that make war possible in the first place. This is exactly what we've been trying to do in the anti-capitalist struggles that have come to the fore in the global justice movement. And we've been attempting to do that in ways that prefigure the directly democratic, mutualistic, and joyful societies we and others envision. Making such connections and encouraging such practices within an even larger, increasingly top-down anti-war movement is equally imperative, though. Perhaps even more so, given the potential devastation that could be unleashed globally by the new doctrine of preemptive aggression.

Thus, this call for an unabashedly anti-capitalist bloc in the anti-war march on February 15 in New York City. March unmasked, dressed in all the colors of anti-capitalist resistance, to openly and loudly proclaim our commitment to nonhierarchical conceptions of social transformation. Blanket the march route with literature, literature, and more literature--critiquing the present, offering up a humane future, and to paraphrase Italian anarchist Errico Malatesta, educating ourselves and others for freedom.

The basis of unity for this bloc is:
-- An opposition to capitalism, statecraft, militarism, and racism;
-- An opposition to all forms of exploitation, oppression, and social domination;
-- A respect for a "diversity of takes" on that opposition so as to encourage the participation of a variety of libertarian political perspectives on "anti-capitalism";
-- A commitment to decentralization, self-determination, direct democracy, and confederation;
-- A commitment to mutualism, cooperation, and solidarity; and
-- A belief in a revolutionary politics that transparently carves out the new world in the shell of the old, while rejecting reformist alternatives aimed at merely tinkering with the status quo.

WHAT:
An anti-capitalist bloc feeder march to the anti-war rally in New York City

WHEN:
Gather at 11:30 a.m., Saturday, February 15

WHERE:
Meet on the steps of the New York Public Library near the lions, 5th Avenue at 42nd Street. Mobilize New York and Reclaim the Streets are also meeting there to form a Carnival Bloc feeder march, and the Youth Bloc (starting at 10:30 a.m.) may join in as well. We'll then march to the United for Peace and Justice rally.

WHAT TO BRING:
-- Revolutionary banners and signs
-- Noisemakers and percussion instruments
-- Radical literature, literature, literature
-- Yourself and your collective, affinity group, federation, and/or friends, in dramatic and colorful attire

SPREAD THE WORD!

Also, as a note, there will be a pseduo-spokescouncil and informal planning meeting Friday February 14th at the Brecht Forum (122 West 27th
Street 10th Floor) occuring during the Implicating Empire" release party starting at 7 PM (new book edited by Stanley Aronowitz and Heather Gautney -www.brechtforum.org/ for more info). In addition to providing a space for people coming in from out out town to get an idea of what's going on, there also will be discussion and informal planning about comms for trying to coordinate between the various feeder marches on Saturday. If lost or cannot find the Brecht Forumm, call (212) 242-4201.