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Draft message of support for ANSWER

ONE YEAR AGO, ON October 26, 2002, anti-war demonstrations were held in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. Mass actions at the local and national level grew in the months that followed. These were global days of action with coordinated activities around the world. On Saturday October 25, 2003, US Labor Against the War will stand in solidarity with the A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition and its supporters. Although we cannot be there to march, to "End the occupation of Iraq", and to "Bring the Troops Home Now!" because we are holding our own National Labor Assembly for Peace in Chicago, we encourage all antiwar forces within the labor movement who are not delegates to the Assembly to attend the demonstration in Washington or San Francisco.

We support the March on Washington for the following reasons:

to show that anti-war sentiment in this country is growing with each passing day, as support for the Bush Administration's policies plummets;

to show our support for the U.S. soldiers who want to come home, and for their families who need them here;

to show our objection to paying for the occupation of Iraq by cutting budgets in Education, Health Care, Housing, Veterans Benefits, and other Programs for working and poor people;

and to show our support for the Iraqi peoples' desire for sovereignty and self-governance, for the U.S. troops to leave, because we believe that the occupation by the U.S. Government, which pursues the interests of the U.S.-based corporations, is a violation of the Iraqi people's fundamental right to self-determination, and of international law.