A.N.S.W.E.R.

Many of ANSWER's lead organizers at its founding were also members of the Workers World Party (WWP) and its affiliate, the International Action Center. After the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) split from the WWP in 2004, ANSWER remained tightly tied to PSL. ANSWER's National Coordinator is Brian Becker, a PSL co-founder who said "we do a great deal of work through" ANSWER. A writer for The New Republic described ANSWER as a PSL "front group," and the two share significant infrastructural overlap. == Major protest actions ==

2001–02 ANSWER's first major action was a September 29, 2001 "Anti-War, Anti-Racist" political rally and march in Washington, D.C., primarily in protest of the impending U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. An estimated 8,000 people participated. The group's next major demonstration took place on April 20, 2002, which according to ANSWER's website, drew 100,000 people to Washington in the largest pro-Palestinian demonstration in U.S. history. On October 26 of that year, the group held a demonstration against Congress' vote to authorize the use of force against Iraq, which according to its website drew 100,000 in San Francisco and 200,000 in Washington, D.C. 2003–04 ANSWER called antiwar demonstrations on January 18, 2003, in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, which were each attended by 200,000 people, according to the group's website. ANSWER was one of several groups organizing the U.S. component of the worldwide February 15, 2003 anti-war protest, which was, across the globe, the largest anti-war rally that has ever taken place. In late June 2006, ANSWER organized and participated in local rallies against the Israeli invasion of Gaza. Shortly after Israel invaded Lebanon two weeks later, ANSWER—along with the National Council of Arab Americans and the Muslim American Society—initiated a call for protests on August 12, 2006, against the "U.S.-Israeli War on the People of Lebanon and Palestine." Organizers estimated that the August 12 demonstrations drew 30,000 protesters in Washington, 10,000 in San Francisco, and 5,000 in Los Angeles. 2007–2010 in Washington, D.C. ANSWER called national antiwar demonstrations in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., for September 15, 2007. According to the group, the attendance was 100,000. ANSWER joined with other groups to organize the March 20, 2010 anti-war protest in Washington, D.C. 2010–2020 In response to the escalating tensions in Iraq between U.S. military and diplomats and Iraqi shia militias in correspondence with Iran, ANSWER called for a national demonstration against war in Iraq and aggression against Iran. The call for the demonstrations was made public via social media on January 1, 2020, but the importance of the proposed demonstrations on January 3, 2020, when the U.S. targeted and bombed a convoy of vehicles in the Baghdad International Airport, killing the Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and several key figures in the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, including the militia's Deputy Chairman Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. On January 4, 2020, over 70 demonstrations, led by ANSWER and other organizations in coordination with ANSWER, took place across the United States. Demonstrations ranged from smaller in size in small cities to large gatherings in cities like New York City and Chicago. The Washington, D.C., demonstration included actress Jane Fonda. Since 2021 ANSWER has increasingly turned its attention to the growing conflict between the U.S. and the People's Republic of China. Brian Becker, the National Director of the ANSWER Coalition, is an endorser of the organization "Pivot to Peace" mission statement, which is an organization of "concerned Americans from all walks of life who have come together in opposition to the dramatically increasing drive toward confrontation between the United States and China." They have also worked with "No Cold War" on events, including their webinar, "For a Peaceful Pacific," which featured ANSWER organizer Derek Ford. After several Asian women were killed in a hate crime in Atlanta on March 16, 2021, the ANSWER Coalition organized a nationwide day of action to protest the anti-Asian hate crime. ANSWER sees the hate crimes as "the result of the growing hostility towards China". In March 2023, the ANSWER Coalition organized demonstrations in Washington, D.C., and other American cities against the "U.S. empire" in commemoration of "the 20th anniversary [...] of the criminal U.S.-invasion of Iraq." The demonstrations' major theme was protesting American involvement in the Russo-Ukrainian War after Russia's full-scale invasion a year earlier. The organization stated that "The Biden administration is determined to escalate the Ukraine war. The real goal of the massive arming and training of Ukrainian forces has nothing to do with the interests of Ukrainian, Russian or American people. The aim instead is to “weaken Russia” as stated by the U.S. Secretary of Defense himself, even at the risk of a catastrophic nuclear war that could end life on Earth." In October and November 2023, the ANSWER Coalition joined with other groups such as the Palestinian Youth Movement to organize a series of protests across the USA. Prominent events included protests in New York City and Washington DC. Attendance figures ANSWER figures for the size of its March 2007, protest were higher than corresponding San Francisco Chronicle figures. ANSWER engaged in a public dispute with the San Francisco Chronicle about the size of that demonstration. ANSWER Western Regional Coordinator Richard Becker wrote in an op-ed: While tens of thousands of spirited anti-war marchers were still entering the San Francisco Civic Center on Sunday, March 18... organizers got word that a Chronicle reporter covering the event had already determined that only 3,000 people were present... Mainstream media undercounting of progressive demonstrations is nothing new, but this one had a magician's touch. Analyzing the width and pace of the march together with the time required for the march to pass a certain point, Becker argues that the Chronicles estimate is "impossible". Some on the left have also accused ANSWER of exaggerating protest attendance. An October 2007 Socialist Worker editorial penned by Todd Chretien and republished on CounterPunch asserted: "Ask anyone who has worked with ANSWER, and they will tell you that its organizers always double the number of people at their marches. More recently, the multiplication factor has increased." Chretien describes this as "disorienting for the movement". {{cite news ==Controversies==

Relationships within the anti-war movement For much of its history, few other prominent antiwar groups in the U.S. or elsewhere have had formal relationships with ANSWER, although many have participated in major ANSWER-sponsored protests. Michael Albert and Stephen R. Shalom writing in Z magazine argue that regardless of the political views of some speakers at a major antiwar demonstration, "as long as other speakers can and do express positions with a different point of view, the overall impact of the event will still be positive, particularly in the absence of other options. Most of the people at the demonstration will in fact be unaware of exactly who said what and whether any particular speaker omitted this or that point. What they will experience will be a powerful antiwar protest. And most of the public will see it that way too." ANSWER responded by saying that "UFPJ has publicly proclaimed its intention to split the movement," and accused UFPJ of "a false and ugly attack on the ANSWER Coalition," and of doing so for "embarrassingly petty and astonishingly trivial" reasons. Besides giving their own version of the events surrounding September 24, ANSWER's statement indicates some less trivial differences between the groups: they criticize UFPJ for its willingness to support the ideas of mainstream politicians, such as John Murtha, who are disaffected with the war, while ANSWER "considers it harmful to try to tailor the message of the progressive movement to please the long-awaited but fictional support from the politicians". ANSWER asks, "Why is it that UFPJ's leadership can build a gushing "united front" with imperialist politicians but not the ANSWER Coalition, which has organized hundreds of thousands of people to promote genuine peace and self-determination?" At considerable length, ANSWER argued that the current split has historical roots, dating back to "the first Iraq war of 1990–1991, [when] some of the same leadership forces now in UFPJ chose to create a second antiwar coalition and insisted on marching under the banner 'Economic Sanctions Not War' while some of those who are today in the leadership of ANSWER argued that economic sanctions were war—and a weapon of mass destruction at that. We contended that economic sanctions against Iraq would result in a form of genocide against the Iraqi people and that the only correct position for the U.S. antiwar movement was to demand, 'No war against Iraq.'... The economic sanctions ultimately took the lives of more than one million Iraqis, most of them children under the age of five, according to the UN's own statistics... The question for the antiwar movement is this: are we building a movement that comprehensively challenges imperialism or are we opposed only to certain tactics employed by imperialism such as overt, unilateral military invasion?"—was reversed when UFPJ agreed to a united antiwar demonstration. Previous united demonstrations between the two groups took place on October 25, 2003, and March 20, 2004. Anti-Zionism and allegations of antisemitism The Anti-Defamation League has criticized ANSWER for its support of Hezbollah and Hamas and of attacks on Israelis by those and other groups, as well as its anti-Zionist stance. It also characterized ANSWER as fostering an anti-Semitic environment at some of its rallies, citing examples of signs held by attendees promoting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and demonizing Israel. The Stephen Roth Institute has said "Anti-Israel and antisemitic content has marked some ANSWER events." The May–June 2003 issue of Tikkun, a progressive magazine of Jewish interests, contained a special section entitled Authoritarianism and Anti-Semitism in the Anti-War Movement? According to Tikkun, "many Jews report that they were encountering what they perceived to be anti-Semitism at anti-war demonstrations organized by International A.N.S.W.E.R." Tikkun described the perceptions of anti-Semitism as based on Israel being singled out for criticism and A.N.S.W.E.R.'s refusal to "acknowledge or support the right of the Jewish people to national self-determination." According to A.N.S.W.E.R.: "There are those within the Jewish political establishment who charge anti-Semitism against any who dare condemn these terrible acts, or who condemn Israel fundamentally. But being opposed to Zionism is not the same as being anti-Semitic." ANSWER works with Jewish Voice for Peace and other Jewish groups opposed to Israel. in Los Angeles on January 7, 2006; ANSWER's position on the left side of this issue led to criticism; Jaime Contreras, president of the National Capital Immigrant Coalition and chairman of the local Service Employees International Union in Washington, D.C., told The Washington Post regarding ANSWER: "Groups... that have done nothing on immigration have no reason to stick their nose where it doesn't belong... They have no business saying, 'Let's do a strike' when it will create a humongous burden on immigrant groups. They need to stay in their box." Brian Becker, ANSWER's national coordinator, responded that ANSWER has in fact been involved in immigration in the long term, and that "We are just part of the coalition; we are not spearheading it at all... Whatever the immigrant rights community calls for is what we support." Conflict with D.C. city government over posters In August 2007, the D.C. Department of Public Works claimed that ANSWER broke city ordinances by putting signs, advertising a September 15 antiwar march, on utility boxes and using an adhesive that is difficult to remove. Additionally, the National Park Service, which administers many of the parks in the District of Columbia, claimed that the signs were defacement of federal property and ordered the group to remove the signs or pay for their removal. ANSWER refused to remove the signs, stating that the adhesive used was legal, water-soluble paste and the city's actions were "politically motivated". The group said any fines would be without legal basis, and they would appeal if fines were imposed. ANSWER sued the city in federal court to stop the city from enforcing its laws until it creates a "constitutionally allowable and non-discriminating system" for determining the rules on sign posting. An ANSWER spokeswoman stated that they gained support from the publicity and intended to continue to post more posters, stickers, and banners despite the efforts of the city. ==See also==