Rally commemorating 40th Anniversary of 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington, DC August 23, 2003, Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC
Remarks by Leslie Cagan, National Coordinator of United for Peace and Justice

As a teenager 40 years ago I came to this place as part of that historic march for freedom, for justice, for equality. Today I stand before you honored and humbled as we recall our history of struggle and re-commit ourselves to the work ahead.

I stand here as a Jew, as part of a community of Jews who have never broken with the civil rights movement, and who today work against racial profiling and police brutality and discrimination in housing and education and on the job. We are proud to be part of a movement that includes not only Christians and Muslims and Jews, but also Hindus and Buddhists and Sikhs and people of all faiths, and non-believers and atheists. We are proud to be part of a movement of African Americans, Latinos and Latinas, Asian and Pacific Islanders, the Native people of this land and white people, and especially, at this moment of our history, a movement that includes and welcomes Arabs and Arab Americans.

But here today, as we celebrate our history and are joyful in our diversity, I stand here with a heavy heart. While progress has been made these 40 years, the inhumanity of racism and sexism and homophobia brings pain and suffering to millions of people every day. We all know the struggle for freedom and justice is far, very far, from over.

And my heart is heavy because as we stand here today U.S. troops are still occupying Iraq in the aftermath of an unjust, immoral and illegal military invasion. The war against Iraq should never have happened, and I say to George Bush and Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and Colin Powell and Paul Wolfowitz and the rest of the war-mongers…. YOU WERE WRONG AND WE WERE RIGHT, YOU ARE STILL WRONG AND WE ARE STILL RIGHT! This occupation must end. Our service people are dying everyday day. They must be brought home and the people of Iraq must be allowed to determine their own destiny.

Today, instead of our money going into our schools and health care and the other things our communities need, instead our money is used to help maintain the deadly Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. Our tax dollars go to maintain U.S. military bases in every corner of the world.

Earlier today I walked around the area here and it seemed at every turn I bumped into another monument to war. It is horrible to see the numbers of U.S. service people killed in Korea and Vietnam and in other U.S. military actions. But I must tell you, it is HORRIFYING to realize that there is not even a mention of the literally millions of civilians in those countries, millions of people of color who have died senseless, cruel deaths at the hands of the most powerful military force in human history.

Those men who send our young, who are disproportionately youth of color, those men who send them to war do not even acknowledge the massive deaths of people who are not white. These wars and the racism that feeds the machinery of war and empire-building must be stopped!

When we come together in the glory of our diversity, there is no power than can stop us!

When we bring together our struggles for housing and quality public schools and health care and jobs for all…when we bring that together with our struggle against war we are truly a force to contend with!

And when our work against the evils of racism and poverty and militarism is tied to our dream of a future where justice and peace and the norms…well then surely we will have the power to win!

And to do that, we must stand truly united for peace and justice!