Who is ANSWER
By Erick Posted in Liberals — Comments (27) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
As Cindy Sheehan heads to Washington to march with ANSWER, we should consider who or what ANSWER is. It is one thing to call ANSWER a communist organization. It is another thing entirely to explain that.
To begin with, ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) was founded by the International Action Center, which itself was founded by former Lyndon Johnson Attorney General Ramsey Clark, himself a rabidly anti-American lover of all things that stand against us. As if that isn't enough, ANSWER takes on the rhetoric of Stalinists characterizing itself as being "anti-imperialist."As Citizen Smash points out
A.N.S.W.E.R. was an outgrowth of another organization headed by Clark, the International Action Center (IAC). Founded in 1990 during the run-up to the First Gulf War, IAC was the successor to the People's Anti-War Mobilization (PAM), and the Vietnam-era organization Youth Against War & Fascism (YAWF). All of these groups were sponsored by (and served as fronts for) the Worker's World Party (WWP).The neo-Stalinist WWP broke away from the Trotskyite Socialist Worker's Party (SWP) in 1959 over a "difference of opinion" concerning the Tibetan Uprising (the SWP sided with the Tibetan Buddhists, while the WWP supported the Chinese military action to crush the revolt). The WWP later distinguished themselves from other Marxist groups by opposing popular uprisings in Czechoslovakia (1968) and Poland (1981). They defended the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in China, and would side with the KGB in the failed coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991.
So, while ANSWER is in favor of dissent in America, its founders are decidedly in favor of China's crackdown of dissidents.
Read on . . .
LA Weekly has a good summation here.
It is not redbaiting to note the WWP’s not-too-hidden hand in the nascent anti-war movement. It explains the tone and message of Saturday’s rally. Take the question of inspections. According to Workers World, at a party conference in September, Sara Flounders, a WWP activist, reported war opponents were using the slogan “inspections, not war.” Flounders, the paper says, “pointed out that ‘inspections ARE war’ in another form,” and that she had “prepared party activists to struggle within the movement on this question.” Translation: The WWP would do whatever it could to smother the “inspections, not war” cry. Inspections-before-invasion is an effective argument against the dash to war. But it conflicts with WWP support for opponents of U.S. imperialism.
Lastly, as Ryan Anderson O'Donnell noted back in 2003,
ANSWER’s steering committee reads like a "Who’s Who" of radical political organizations. The most influential member of ANSWER’s steering committee, Ramsey Clark’s pet project known as the International Action Center (IAC), is considered by many observers to be little more than a communist front organization for an obscure Stalinist organization known as the World Workers Party (WWP). Yet, the IAC is not the only member of ANSWER’s steering committee committed to extremist causes. The Korean Truth Commission and Pastors for Peace are staunch allies of Kim Jong Il and Fidel Castro, respectively, and both groups continue to support these murderous regimes’ violation of International law. In addition to its role as a front for the support of totalitarian/communist governments in North Korea and Cuba, members of ANSWER’s steering committee such as the Muslim Student Association and the Free Palestine Alliance continue to provide ideological, logistical and financial support for organizations devoted to the destruction of the state of Israel, including the terrorist group, Hamas. A comprehensive investigation of the members of ANSWER’s steering committee make it clear that the organization is in actuality one of Peace’s greatest enemies.
When Cindy Sheehan goes off to march this weekend, remember -- she is not just marching with the "hate America first" crowd, she is marching with the enemies of peace.
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Over the years I have become less and less tolerant of these groups. They appear to favor our enemies--Sadaam Hussen's Iraq, Cuba, North Korea, and , I assume (although it is not mentioned) Iran. One of the reason those of us who have been advocating a Declaration of War against Radical Islam is that we can then more clearly identify and legally penalize enemy sympathizers.
It is clearly the fault of George Bush that these people have all participated in a mass-insanity exercise, right?
These far-left hate groups have always been there. The difference today is that they now have the MSM carrying water and running interference for them - all in the name of trying to stick-it to the President.
Frankly, that ANSWER is considered a serious (and even benign) organization by many non-political (or casual) voters is as much a testament to the bankruptcy of the MSM than it is to the intellectual laziness of the average voter.
Thanks for the research (translation: being able to read-through ANSWER's bile) - great post.
Cheers.
If the Soviet hammer and sickle is the symbol of the "Peace" movement, 1) what's the alternative of wanting peace and who will own up to being part of that movement? and 2) if there is a "War" movement, what's its symbol?
I don't know about the rest of you but we have got to stop the military occupation of New Orleans immediately if not sooner. Cindy Sheehan's latest bon mot will galvinize millions of Americans to this Waco like Bush invasion. She can only get better after she has the scheduled brain transplant.
Docj raise a good point about the MSM which I would like to add to. Their typical support, sometimes tacit & sometimes open, for the wilder elements of the left serves as a marker for who and what the MSM is. I can still remember the regular references to Ho Chi Minh as the George Washington of his country,which may say a lot for Ho or very little about Washington,but certainly much about the people who wrote such tripe. They are frustrated socialist revolutionaries who took the slogan"the pen is mightier than the sword"a little too seriously. Nobody told them that intelligence, learning,and a little perspective and tolerance don't hurt either. There is no corruption they won't sink to,no depravity they won't defend,and no leftist or nihilist violence they won't excuse. Sorry for going off thread.
...to call Cindy Sheehan a media whore. Fortunately, she's also a nutcase, which will hurt her credibility. Let her continue to marginalize herself until no one remembers who she is.
description, Erick never should have taken it back.
Howling, frothing at the mouth moonbat also seems to be applicable here.
...Sheehan is one crazy lady.
I pity her and hope she gets the help she needs instead of pursuing therapy through celebrity.
that this is indeed a communist orginization. On this page they demand a former CIA agent who was involved in anti-Cuba activity to be "extradited" to Venezuela at the request of Venezuela and Cuba. On the same page, they demand this:
Free the Cuban Five
Instead of arresting the terrorists, the FBI prosecuted the anti-terrorists: five Cuban men who were sent by Cuba into Miami to monitor the actions of the paramilitary groups, to protect Cuba from terror attacks. Known as the "Cuban Five," they were unjustly tried and convicted in Miami in 2001 and are serving lengthy sentences in U.S. prison. They are Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González.
For more background information on the Miami terrorists and the freedom campaign for the Cuban Five anti-terrorist activists, visit:
If these views aren't communist, I don't know what is.
Mother Sheehan certainly is not a media "whore". In the first place, whores work very hard for their money. They exist based on the quality of their own work.
Mother Sheehan's existence is the creation of the media and it is based on the exploitation of the quality of her son's character. None of this has anything to do with this woman. She is not a "whore". Rather, I would say she is a harlequin. Defined as "a conventional buffoon of the commedia dell'arte, traditionally presented in a mask and parti-colored tights."
This is a serious question for the Left. I mean, this is just heaving crates of ammo over onto our side of the Big Ditch: letting people who really are anti-American as well as anti-war run the peace movement. Was there really no one out there to say "Look, I believe in non-violence, concessions for the Palestinians, etc., etc., but we shouldn't be letting people who support tyrannical dictatorships lead us?" It boggles my mind that people would put up with this.
"Money doesn't talk, it swears" — R. Zimmerman
ANSWER is quite simply a communist organization dedicated to the destruction of civilization. Thus, any member is clearly insane, and the group itself is more of a cult than a political organization.
It's an outrage that no national, mainstream media organ has done a complete expose on ANSWER and it's partner in crime, United for Peace and Justice. I'm here in the Bay Area, and ANSWER is all over the map. Protests going on all the time, flyers, leaflets, meetings. Sure, they are a small group, but they are getting their message out there to young people, immigrants, and the hipster crowd here who thinks there really is an oppressed "working class". These radicals know exactly what they are doing. Groups like them did the same think in the 1960s, thus giving the country decades of airheaded opinions from slogan-spouting college students and middle-aged liberals. I hope we are not going to have to listen to this faux-radical crap for another thirty years. ANSWER is dangerous, and it needs to be confronted and exposed.
Sad that WWP/ANSWER obviously can't tell the difference between Marxism/Leninism and tyranny-of-the-majority dictatorships.
Socialist Worker's Party --- they doing anything nowadays? ;)
Sure, they are a small group, but they are getting their message out there to young people, immigrants, and the hipster crowd here who thinks there really is an oppressed "working class".
Well, you can get 27db earplugs at Walmart and distribute them to the nation if you don't like people hearing things. Your entire post seems to indicate that you don't trust the unwashed masses to be able to make up their own minds. That's a pretty condescending point of view, and it indicates that your own arguments are exceedingly feeble, if you don't think they can stand a fair debate. So expose away!
Oh, and that oppressed working class does know who they are, even if you don't.
Actually, that oppressed working class is always just about to realize that they're oppressed, and rise up.
Yup.
Any day now.
Doo dee doo...
Hey, don't feel too bad. There's one ideological movement (filled, so it's alleged, with bright people) who've been sure of this, without fail, for over 150 years. The simple fact that it hasn't happened yet manifestly hasn't changed their view of the world.
Gee, and they might even be related to this story...
F-something Agitators Supporting Communists, Islamakazes Something and Terrorists.
Best I could do without a dictionary at hand.
Of course people can make up their own minds. What I am saying is that these ANSWER folks are all over, speaking and protesting, and NO ONE is out there exposing who they really are and what they stand for. I can wander all over the UC Berkeley campus and see ANSWER posters plastered to everything. Students on campus see these clowns and no one calls them on their real agenda. I have no problem with ANSWER blathering at all. They have every right to do so. My point is that there is no one in the mainstream media who is taking ANSWER on and telling their story. They are reaching large numbers of people who don't know who they really are and what they're up to, and it would make a great story.
that someone comes to this thread for informational (as opposed to point-scoring) reasons, here is why ANSWER despite its insane politics keeps showing up. Essentially, ANSWER (along with other fringe types like the US Communist Party) have a long experience in navigating the byzantine systems of getting parade and demonstration permits.
More reasonable or moderate groups who aren't used to doing public protests either don't care or find out too late that the people who said they'd "take care of the permits" are actually pretty darn wacko. But since the group got the permit, that's the name that shows up on all the posters and all the press releases.
I had to go and figure this out a few years ago during protests against the war, when I first came across the name and was like "who?" Googling them was a depressing experience, and while I was against the war, I did my best to cause trouble and try to get groups to pull away from ANSWER. Lots of them, to their credit, did later figure it out and pull out of ANSWER-infected coalitions. Liberals, like conservatives, have mixed track records in pruning the wack jobs.
ANSWER was a sponsor of the big NYC demonstrations in the run up to the war. But hey, good thing that failed -- thank God we're at war in Iraq!
Watch for the people from ANSWER to be called in as experts from everything from Gun Control to Earthquakes in the mainstream news outlets over the next few days. Cause as we all know the most "unbiased" source you can find is one that openly hates the United States and all it stands for.
...though that assumes if there were a defense I'd respect their defenders enough to listen to them. Which I wouldn't. So. Moot point.
Both right and left (and here left means "anarchist") groups agree: ANSWER is vile and a puppet of amoral (though usually immoral), reflexively anti-American thugs at home and abroad. Personally I know ANSWER to be completely dedicated to most all violence not carried out by Americans, and I know members of ANSWER to be juvenile, uniformly propagandized, wannabe members of any faux-revolutionary faux-army that will take them.
There needs to be more infiltration -- like the "right" link I provided -- of their group so that the backroom insanity can get exposed to a larger audience.
what I was looking for, yes. And your efforts to disengage from them speak well of you.
Pre-war, large demonstrations have not been unheard of: the Million-Man March and its subsequent imitators. Who organized those? (Not trying to be snarky here — I'm genuinely curious, in light of your comments.) It's just that protests are the most mediagenic form of political action available to the Left, and to see them in the hands of, literally, Communist stooges is unsettling — not because I believe the Left in general is like that, but because I don't.
ANSWER is not a benign organization, it comes with a past and it comes with an agenda.