Fight Back! News

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Sep 24: Bolivarian Contingent Marches in Washington

By Bolivarian Circle Cincinnati

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following account from the Bolivarian Contingent that participated in the Sept. 24 march against the war on Iraq.

On Sept. 24, different social organizations were marching in Washington D.C. to demand the respect of the sovereignty for Venezuela and Colombia and to bring the imperialist troops home from Iraq. The contingent was organized by the U.S. Bolivarian Circles and the Colombia Action Network. Bolivarian Circles mobilized from Chicago, Cincinnati, Boston, Miami, Philadelphia and Utah, including Bolivarian Youth. Also participating in the contingent were Mexico Solidarity Network of Chicago, Anti-War Committees of Minneapolis-St. Paul and Cincinnati, Fight Back! newspaper, Cuba Solidarity of New York, Global Women’s Strike and Palestine solidarity groups from New York, New Jersey, Chicago, and the Twin-cities. We all marched under the flags of Venezuela and Colombia. Amongst the slogans chanted were, “Watch for the sword of Bolivar, alive through South America!” and “The people united, will never be defeated!” – in Spanish and English – as well as, “ U.S. out of Iraq, now!”, “The people of Venezuela are under attack. What do we do? Act up fight back!” and, “Free, free, Palestine!”

We went to the see the people of the Venezuelan Information Office who were passing out information about the World Social Forum to be celebrated in Venezuela this coming January, 2006. We also saw the TV cameras of Venezuelan Television, many local community media, as well as corporate mass media. Amongst the alternative media that stood out were Air America Radio and Democracy Now.

Unfortunately, the estimations of the number of people at the march were too low. In our estimation there were more than half a million people present, for hour after hour there were hundreds of thousands of peaceful protesters that covered Constitution Avenue, 15th Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House.

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