Rally for Responsibility

ON APRIL 25TH, approximately 200,000 people will rally in Washington, D.C. for justice and peace in Central America and Southern Africa. You should be one of them.

It's not just empathy with the people of South Africa that sends these thousands to Washington; it's not just anger at the South African backed UNITA rebels, who fight to topple the Angolan government; it's not just sympathy with the people of Nicaragua, who endure the contra war; it's not just solidarity with the people of El Salvador, whose "democratic" government pursues a reign of terror against them. It's not just empathy, anger, sympathy, and solidarity which brings people to Washington, but it's an even more striking moral issue--responsibility.

You cannot hide from the fact that our government subsidizes suffering and oppression in the Third World. 200,000 Americans are going to Washington with a sense of responsibility, to demand that same sense of responsibility from our government. No longer should we spend our tax dollars to bomb Salvadoran villages, to machine gun Nicaraguan peasants, or to split south African miners from their families.

THE APRIL 25TH rally is not merely a student rally. The mobilization was called by a group of labor and religious leaders. The people going to this rally are working people of all religions, from all over the country. Students will attend in force too. Over 16 busses are reserved from the schools in western Massachusetts alone.

But this is not like the Vietnam War protests. Now labor leaders, religious leaders, and student are all on the same side of the picket line--to stop the war before it begins.

Jesse Jackson will address the rally, as will Eleanor Smeal, the head of the National Organization of Women (NOW). Randi Forsberg, and prominent disarmament activist will speak, along with a member of the African National Congress (ANC). A woman from COMADRES, a group of relatives of victims of Salvadoran death-squads, will join them, and so will a student activist leader from Berkeley. Religious and labor leaders have prominent places in the program, and rumors abound that Jackson Browne and Bruce Springsteen may lend their support.

A show of force is necessary, as Reagan reels from the Iran-contra scam. Pressure now could tip the scales in Congress against contra aid for 1988 and forever. Increased sanctions against South Africa could also gain momentum. The April 25th rally promises more than a good time--it promises real change.

Washington may be far away, but major changes in U.S. foreign policy are not necessarily so distant. So rally on Saturday April 25th. If you can, stay for the Interfaith Worship Service and the National Student Meeting on Sunday. Participate in nonviolent civil disobedience at the CIA headquarters on Monday. Lobby your congressman. Your bus ticket can take the whole country a long way.