The year 2017 has been one of both extreme reaction and broad resistance. The ANSWER Coalition has been a key factor at the core of the resistance: mobilizing against white supremacy, standing up for women’s rights, solidarity with our immigrant sisters and brothers, opposing racist and anti-poor police brutality, building a movement against a new war on the Korean peninsula, and much more.
As we head into 2018, we must intensify this multi-front struggle to defeat the disastrous agenda of the ultra-rightist Trump administration and its criminal collaborators in Congress. We need your support to do what is needed for the future of humanity and the world we live in.
Since its formation almost 17 years ago, just three days after Sept. 11, 2001, ANSWER has provided consistent organization and leadership in the mass movements for peace, justice and self-determination. A look back at this history shows an unmatched consistency. Just imagine what the political environment would have been without an organization like ANSWER during the wars against Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and Libya. ANSWER has been able to do this work with support from you and other people of conscience.
Trump’s approval ratings are currently at historic lows. Remember that before 9/11, George W. Bush’s approval rating was just 32%. When he went to war, it shot up to over 90%. It is no coincidence that Trump’s war threats have become more extreme against North Korea and Iran. To treat all this as bluster would be a deadly error. An influential clique of Pentagon generals and other national security officials want a new war and Trump himself would do whatever he thinks is necessary to preserve his presidency and Republican rule in Congress before the midterm elections.
2018 has to be the year of a renewed antiwar movement. To oppose the murderous adventures of the U.S. Empire is a responsibility for all people living “in the belly of the beast.” The continuation of the U.S.-funded genocide in Yemen; a first- strike nuclear attack on North Korea and its 25 million people; heightened hostility toward Venezuela and Cuba; a new regional war in the Middle East involving Israel, Lebanon, Iran and Saudi Arabia; these are all actual developments or possibilities that must be answered with a renewed mass antiwar movement.
The decisive change was that the U.S. media and political environment changed overnight. Criticism of the president, and his foreign policy, became “treasonous.” Thousands of Muslims in America were rounded up by the state; an untold number were violently attacked by mobs. The Democratic Party “opposition” in Congress enthusiastically lined up behind the war, the Patriot Act and the “commander-in-chief.”
After 9/11, public critique and dissent was left to a very small minority. We in ANSWER know this history well because we were a leading part of that small minority — ANSWER was formed then by people who wanted to fight the new wave of militarism.
The result of the post-9/11 “unity” among the establishment media and politicians was clear: millions dead, endless wars, the consolidation of the surveillance state and the re-election of Bush who was freed up to pursue his aggressive domestic agenda. The Trump administration undoubtedly knows this history well and has learned from it. So have all of us.
Yours in the struggle for a better future,
Richard Becker
Western Regional Coordinator