Answer Coalition

Founded just three days after the September 11, 2001 attacks, ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) initiated the massive U.S. antiwar movement opposing the U.S.invasion of Iraq in the months prior to March 19, 2003. The ANSWER Coalition demonstration of 200,000 people on October 26, 2002, in Washington, D.C. ignited a nationwide and global antiwar movement that was nearly unprecedented in history. On January 18, 2003, 500,000 people packed the Mall in Washington, D.C. under the slogan “Stop the War Before It Starts.” The Washington Post described the January 18 demonstration as the largest antiwar protest since the end of the Vietnam War. On February 15, 2003, many millions of people, in nearly every country in the world, joined together in the largest coordinated antiwar actions in history. On April 12, 2003, just 3 days after the U.S. invasion force conquered Baghdad the ANSWER coalition organized a demonstration of 30,000 people in downtown Washington, D.C. under the slogan “Occupation is not Liberation.” This marked the beginning of a new stage of the U.S.antiwar movement which slowly regained its massive character as the resistance movement in Iraq made it clear that the occupation of Iraq would fail. A distinguishing feature of the organizing principles and work of the answer coalition, in contrast with the traditional U.S.peace movement was its uncompromising support in defense of the rights of the Palestinian people. In April 2002, the ANSWER Coalition organized the largest demonstrations in solidarity with the Palestinian people in U.S. history, of more than 100,000 people.