WASHINGTON, Sept 21 (Reuters) - A Washington protest group
said on Friday it expects more than 10,000 people to join an
anti-war march next weekend from the White House to the Capitol as
the U.S. military prepares to launch retaliatory strikes for
devastating attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.
The group, which had been organizing protests against the
IMF-World Bank meeting in Washington before it was canceled in the
wake of last week's attacks, said it has obtained permits for what
it billed as the first anti-war march.
"The issues of war and racism were issues we were paying a
great deal of attention to already," said Richard Becker, a
spokesman for International Action Center, which has formed
International ANSWER, which stands for Act Now to Stop War and
End Racism.
Dozens of activist groups have signed on for the Sept. 29
march, which will begin with a rally at Lafayette Park across
from the White House and continue up Pennsylvania Avenue to
Capitol Hill, he said.
The International Action Center had expected tens of
thousands of protesters to descend on Washington next weekend
to rally against the International Monetary Fund and World
Bank, prompting police plans to ring the heart of the nation's
capital with chain-link fence to keep demonstrators at bay.
Along with its stand against the war, the group will
protest legislation championed by U.S. Attorney General John
Ashcroft that would expand powers of federal agents to wiretap
telephones, conduct searches and seize assets of people it
deems suspected "terrorists."
"We are also protesting the Ashcroft proposals, which we
regard as being a very severe attack on civil liberties,"
Becker said. The protest plans come amid escalating reports of
violence against Arab-Americans, Muslims and other "communities
of color," he said.
The IMF-World Bank meeting in Washington was canceled two
days after hijackers crashed commercial airliners into the
Pentagon and twin towers of the World Trade Center. A fourth
hijacked airliner crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. The attacks
left more than 6,500 people dead or missing.
Peace rallies were held on Thursday in Boston, Michigan,
Wisconsin and the University of California-Berkeley amid what
peace activists said there was a growing anti-war sentiment.
((-- James Pierpoint, Washington bureau, 202 898-8300, or
[email protected]))
Fri Sep 21 18:58:53 2001 -GMT- pnac (nN21228355) = 1 18:58