HAW members at the march on Wall Street

HAW members at the march on Wall Street

HAW members joined the March on Wall Street on Saturday, April 4, 2009; we were, however, unable to mount a formal contingent. The march, according to the sponsoring coalition, United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), attracted some 10,000 participants. (See the UFPJ report on the march at http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=4048) HAW is a UFPJ member organization.

The official call for the march opposed Obama’s deepening war in Afghanistan and the continuation of US forces in Iraq, and it the linked US wars abroad, the defense budget, and the economic crisis at home. While relatively modest in size, the march was spirited, and included a wide array of organizations, and a diverse group of marchers of terms of age, gender, racial-ethnicity, class, and political orientation.

Although the march did not render anything like a powerful blow against war depression, it still represented a positive step. The Obama administration remains on honeymoon, and many progressive people who are becoming increasingly uncomfortable about Obama’s war policies, and his economic and foreign policy advisors and efforts, are not yet ready to take action in opposition to these. This march gave progressives who were ready to act an opportunity to voice their opposition collectively, and it alerted others to the reality that such opposition is growing. In short, the march is something to build on, and we in HAW have to start building.

Andor Skotnes
Professor of History of the Americas
Department of History Law and Government
The Sage Colleges
Troy, New York 12180
518-244-2021