NYC meeting builds solidarity with Muslims

More than 100 activists came together at the Solidarity Center in New York to mobilize for a march and protest on Sept. 11 “in solidarity with our Muslim sisters and brothers,” as many who took the floor said. They were reacting to the challenge of the Tea Party and other racist forces who will gather at the World Trade Center site to protest plans to build a Muslim community center two blocks away.

Participants included community and political organizations, trade unionists, a neighborhood housing co-operative organization, student and youth organizations, immigrant rights groups, including those from majority-Muslim countries, and many individuals outraged by vicious political and media attacks on Muslims by rightists. Answering an urgent call from the International Action Center, they came from all over the metropolitan area — including New Jersey, Westchester and Long Island — to work together to counter this threat.

Some were motivated mainly by simple decency toward the Muslim people who are part of the New York community. Others saw a need to counter an incipient fascist threat based on the Tea Party’s scapegoating of Muslims in an attempt to divide the working class during the ongoing economic crisis. Many recalled how the George W. Bush administration sowed panic after 9/11 and used anti-Muslim sentiment to build for its illegal wars against Afghanistan and Iraq, and how this was an important part of U.S. war propaganda.

Some wanted to find a way to counter the Tea Party and rightist Republicans’ exploitation of the 9/11 “victims and families” to build anti-Muslim sentiment and reinforce the war drive. Others pointed to the refusal of Republicans in Congress to fund payments to the “first responders” — firefighters, medical people, cleanup workers — whose health was damaged in the toxic environment caused by the collapse of the twin towers and the subsequent cleanup.

All were united in the need to express solidarity with Muslim people. Most saw the need to build on that solidarity to unite the working class for the essential struggles for jobs, health care, education and other social benefits. Indeed, many were impatient to get back to organizing but said they realized that the racist challenge from the Tea Party, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and their ilk had to be countered.

After a general discussion, subgroups met to plan visibility and outreach to labor unions, communities and students.

A few of the organizations taking part were the Peoples Organization for Progress of New Jersey, the December 12 Coalition, the Bail Out the People Movement, Al-Awda, the Pakistani United Freedom Forum, the May 1 Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights, and Workers World Party.

The marchers will gather east of New York's City Hall at 1 p.m. on Sept. 11. For more information, see iacenter.org.