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Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER), also known asInternational A.N.S.W.E.R. and theANSWER Coalition, is a United States–basedprotest umbrella group consisting of many antiwar and civil rights organizations. Formed in the wake of theSeptember 11th attacks, ANSWER has since helped to organize many of the largestanti-war demonstrations in the United States, including demonstrations of hundreds of thousands against theIraq War.[1][2] The group has also organized activities around a variety of other issues, ranging from theIsraeli–Palestinian conflict toimmigrant rights toSocial Security to the extradition ofLuis Posada Carriles.[citation needed]
ANSWER is closely associated with theParty for Socialism and Liberation and characterizes itself asanti-imperialist, and itssteering committee consists ofsocialists,communists,civil rights advocates, andleft-wing orprogressive organizations from theMuslim,Arab,Palestinian,Filipino,Haitian, andLatin American communities.[citation needed]
ANSWER has facedcriticism from other anti-war groups for its affiliations, tactics at demonstrations, and allegedly sectarian approach to joint anti-war work. It also facedcriticism from various sources for itsanti-Zionist politics.
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Many of ANSWER's lead organizers at its founding were also members of theWorkers World Party (WWP) and its affiliate, theInternational Action Center.[3][4]
After theParty for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) split from the WWP in 2004, ANSWER remained tightly tied to PSL. ANSWER's National Coordinator is Brian Becker,[5] a PSL co-founder who said "we do a great deal of work through" ANSWER.[6] A writer forThe New Republic described ANSWER as a PSL "front group,"[7] and the two have significant financial overlap.[8]
ANSWER's first major action was a September 29, 2001 "Anti-War, Anti-Racist"political rally and march inWashington, D.C., primarily in protest of the impendingU.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 inU.S. history. On October 26 of that year, the group held a demonstration against Congress' vote to authorize the use of force againstIraq, which according to its website drew 100,000 in San Francisco and 200,000 in Washington, D.C.[9]
ANSWER called antiwar demonstrations on January 18, 2003, in Washington, D.C., andSan 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 worldwideFebruary 15, 2003 anti-war protest, which was, across the globe, the largest anti-war rally that has ever taken place.[1] ANSWER sponsored emergency demonstrations just before the launch of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, on March 15, 2003, which according to its website drew 100,000 people each in San Francisco and Washington. WithUnited for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), it cosponsored an anti-occupation protest in Washington on October 25 of that year which, again according to the group's website, brought out 100,000 people in Washington.[9]
ANSWER called for nationalanti-war, pro-Palestinian, and anti-Haitian coup demonstrations on March 20, 2004, (the first anniversary of the invasion of Iraq). The protest in New York, cosponsored by UFPJ, was attended by 100,000 according to the ANSWER website. ANSWER participated in theMarch for Women's Lives on April 25, and the protests of the2004 Republican National Convention from August 30 to September 2.[9]
ANSWER and UFPJ jointly sponsored arally in Washington, D.C., on September 24, 2005, with attendance estimated by police at 150,000 and by organizers at 300,000 people.[2]
ANSWER was involved withdemonstrations onMay Day, 2006, in support of rights for undocumented immigrants, which brought out several million people across the U.S. These protests were organized by a number of groups unrelated to ANSWER as well.[10]
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 theMuslim 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.[11]
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.[12]
ANSWER joined with other groups to organize theMarch 20, 2010 anti-war protest in Washington, D.C.
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,[13] but the importance of the proposed demonstrations on January 3, 2020, when theU.S. targeted and bombed a convoy of vehicles in the Baghdad International Airport, killing the Iranian generalQasem Soleimani and several key figures in the IraqiPopular Mobilization Forces, including the militia's Deputy ChairmanAbu 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 actressJane Fonda.[14]
ANSWER has increasingly turned its attention to the growing conflict between the U.S. and thePeople'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."[15] They have also worked with "No Cold War" on events, including their webinar, "For a Peaceful Pacific," which featured ANSWER organizer Derek Ford.[16]
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".[17]
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 criminalU.S.-invasion of Iraq." The demonstrations' major theme was protesting American involvement in theRusso-Ukrainian War afterRussia'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 catastrophicnuclear war that could end life on Earth."[18][19]
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.[20] Prominent events included protests in New York City and Washington DC.[21][22]
ANSWER figures for the size of its March 2007, protest were higher than correspondingSan Francisco Chronicle figures. ANSWER engaged in a public dispute with theSan 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 aChronicle 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 theChronicle's estimate is "impossible".[23]
Some on the left have also accused ANSWER of exaggerating protest attendance. An October 2007Socialist Worker editorial penned byTodd Chretien and republished onCounterPunch 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".[24]
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.[25]
During theprotests against the U.S.-led invasions of Iraq andAfghanistan, there was much discussion among U.S.leftist opponents of those invasions, as to the degree to which they are or are not willing to work with ANSWER because of its affiliations.[3][25]
Michael Albert andStephen R. Shalom writing inZ 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."[3]
Although ANSWER worked withUnited for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) to build the September 24, 2005, Washington, D.C. rally, a December 2005 statement by the UFPJ Steering Committee says that UFPJ "has decided not to coordinate work with ANSWER again on a national level. The document cites three reasons for the decision:
The document says that the UFPJ Steering Committee "did not have consensus" about the decision not to work with ANSWER, but had "a more than two thirds supermajority ... We make no recommendations or mandates on this issue to UFPJ member groups in local or constituency-based area..."[26]
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 asJohn 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?"[27]
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?"[27]
Regarding the prospects of working again with UFPJ, ANSWER wrote, "[we regard] the united front that was formed at [our] initiative to have been remarkably successful," and later, "Different groups may have different slogans on their banners, but they should try to overcome the forces of division so as to march shoulder to shoulder against the real enemy."[27]
Although the language of the UFPJ Steering Committee statement makes the break appear definitive, they have published similar statements (rejecting future work with ANSWER) in the past, only to later agree to united demonstrations. A May 2005 decision to the same effect—announcing a September 24 demonstration separate from the one initiated by ANSWER[28]—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.
TheAnti-Defamation League has criticized ANSWER for its support ofHezbollah andHamas 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.[29] TheStephen Roth Institute has said "Anti-Israel and antisemitic content has marked some ANSWER events."[30]
The May–June 2003 issue ofTikkun, a progressive magazine of Jewish interests, contained a special section entitledAuthoritarianism and Anti-Semitism in the Anti-War Movement? According toTikkun, "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."[31]
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."[32]
ANSWER works withJewish Voice for Peace and other Jewish groups opposed to Israel.[20]
In addition to anti-war activism, ANSWER is involved in advocacy for rights forundocumented immigrants, believing that all immigration should be legal. ANSWER became involved in immigrant rights activism through protests againstSave Our State, aCalifornia-based anti-undocumented immigration protest group, and theMinutemen Project, a group which patrols the U.S.-Mexico border to prevent illegal border crossings, and which ANSWER views as practicing racistvigilantism. These protests began soon after the founding of the Minutemen group in April 2005. ANSWER has not usually been the primary organizer of these protests but has actively supported them. For example, ANSWER helped organize counter-protests of rallies held by right-wing groups inAlhambra, California, on June 21, 2005;[33] inSacramento, California, on August 29, 2005;[34] inLos Angeles on January 7, 2006;[35] and inBurbank, California, on January 21, 2006.[36]
ANSWER has also been involved in the much largerdemonstrations in opposition to theSensenbrenner Bill and support of legalization for undocumented immigrants that have occurred across the United States since March 2006. ANSWER was not the primary organizer of the initial large protests inChicago,Los Angeles, andDallas in late March and early April, but endorsed them. ANSWER was more prominent in the promotion of aMay Day "Day Without An Immigrant" strike and boycott, because this call was controversial within the immigrant rights movement, contributing to a growing division between its left-wing advocates and moderates who believed a strike and boycott would be counterproductive.[37]
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 localService Employees International Union in Washington, D.C., toldThe 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."[38]
In August 2007, theD.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 weredefacement 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.[39] 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.[citation needed]
One extremely energetic antiwar group is the International Action Center (IAC). It is the leading force in the coalition ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) which is calling the October 26 demonstrations in Washington, DC and elsewhere. (IAC and ANSWER share a New York City phone number and the latter's website features many materials from IAC.) IAC is officially led by Ramsey Clark and is largely the creation of the Workers World Party; many key IAC figures are prominent writers for WWP.
Many of ANSWER's lead organizers have close ties to the International Action Center, formed by former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark, and to the Workers World Party, a socialist sect whose politics often are criticized as too left, too doctrinaire, even for Bay Area liberals. Some of the WWP's more controversial positions are its support for the governments of Iraq and North Korea; its backing of former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic; its claims that reports of Serb atrocities against Muslims and Croats were overblown; its defense as recently as 2000 of the Chinese government's deadly crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Brian Becker is the National Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition. He is a founder of and a central organizer for the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
We are a communist party. We have existed for 14 years with the idea of building a communist party in the United States once again. This is a complicated and long-term project. It is perhaps the most of the difficult of all projects. But it's the imperative need because you cannot have revolutionary change without a revolutionary communist party leading that change. Absent a communist party, victory is impossible.
Through its front group, Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, or ANSWER, the PSL has been deeply involved in the organizing of pro-Palestinian demonstrations around the United States. It was PSL member Eugene Puryear who, speaking at an October 8 Times Square demonstration, gleefully announced before the hundreds of dead from the Re'im music festival massacre had even been buried that "there was some sort of rave or desert party where they were having a great time, until the resistance came in electrified hang gliders and took out at least several dozen hipsters."
In contrast to the People's Forum, the ANSWER Coalition operates under the fiscal sponsorship of the Progress Unity Fund (PUF) rather than being an IRS-registered entity itself. 31 As recently as 2019, ANSWER Coalition and PUF shared an address in San Francisco, which also served as a frequent venue for Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) activities, indicating a significant overlap between the three.32
