The Many Faces of Socialist “Peace” Activists: The International Action Center


By John Perazzo
Discover The Networks
March 17, 2006

 
The socialist International Action Center (IAC) is one of the most significant and influential organizations on the American political landscape today. It is also among the most dangerous. Its leaders have spawned a considerable number of additional groups –ostensibly independent entities focusing on their own respective crusades. But in truth, they are not independent at all; each of these groups is the International Action Center – radical socialism dressed up in the variegated vestments of such noble sounding causes as “peace,” “social justice,” “civil liberties,” and “human rights.” The unifying theme underpinning IAC’s (and its cohorts’) activism is an unwavering contention that a racist, imperialist United States is the world’s chief violator of these high ideals; that America is the central wellspring of evil on earth – guilty of unspeakable atrocities, past and present, foreign and domestic. Based on this premise, IAC aggressively supports a host of organizations and individuals who detest America so passionately that they in fact seek its destruction – so that a new socialist paradise might one day be built atop its smoldering ruins.

This would be of little import if IAC were an impotent group of fringe lunatics without much social influence. But such is not the case. Rather, millions of unsuspecting Americans have been subtly, incrementally infected by IAC’s axiomatic belief that the United States is the focus of evil in the modern world. To understand how this has occurred, we must first understand exactly what IAC’s mission and worldview are.

IAC is, most notably, the driving force behind the antiwar group International ANSWER (henceforth, ANSWER), about which more will be said momentarily. IAC is a fiercely anti-American organization whose creed reads, “Information, Activism, and Resistance to U.S. Militarism, War, and Corporate Greed.” It is staffed by members of the Workers World Party (WWP), a Marxist-Leninist vanguard that idolizes the former Soviet dictator and mass murderer Joseph Stalin and regards Fidel Castro as a hero of the common man. Founded in 1959, WWP has been, since its inception, a fierce critic of the United States. Having supported the Soviet invasions of Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan, as well as the barbaric regimes of Slobodan Milocevic in the former Yugoslavia and Kim Jong Il in North Korea, WWP frankly defines itself as follows: “We’re independent Marxists who respect the struggles for self-determination and progress of oppressed nations. We try to understand their problems in a world dominated by Western imperialism. . . . Our goal is solidarity of all the workers and [all the] oppressed against this criminal imperialist system. . . . We fight hard for a better life right now, but we know that nothing is secure . . . as long as capitalism exists. So our goal is a society run by the workers, not just as pawns in a capitalist political game but as collective owners of the social wealth.” Such are the ideals of the organization behind one of the largest “peace” movements in world history.

IAC was founded by Ramsey Clark, the onetime U.S. Attorney General (under President Lyndon Johnson) who now works as a defense lawyer, generally representing clients he portrays as victims of American civil liberties and human rights violations. For decades, Clark has consistently condemned American foreign policy and its related military campaigns, from the Vietnam War, to the Iraq War, to the broader War on Terror. Conversely, he has backed myriad groups, governments, and individuals with rabidly anti-American, and even terrorist, agendas. Whatever the nature of any conflict, Clark invariably sides with America’s adversary:

• During the Vietnam War, Clark traveled to Hanoi to show solidarity with the North Vietnamese who were torturing and murdering American POWs; he exhorted the Vietcong to continue their brave fight, then returned to the U.S. and told Congress that American prisoners were being treated very well.
• Clark traveled to France to meet with Ayatollah Khomeini in January 1979. Soon thereafter, while the fanatical foot soldiers of Khomeini’s revolution held 52 Americans hostage in Iran from November 1979 through January 1981, Clark went to Tehran to publicly denounce the “Crimes of America” for all the world to hear.
• After the U.S. bombed terrorist training facilities in Libya in April 1986, Clark made his way to Tripoli to show support for Mohammar Qaddafi
• Clark defended PLO leaders when they were sued by the family of Leon Klinghoffer, the wheelchair-bound American Jew murdered by Palestinian terrorists aboard the cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1986.
• Clark went to Iraq to consult with Saddam Hussein in 1990, while the U.S. geared up for a military operation to drive the dictator’s invading forces out of Kuwait.
• In May 1991 Clark filed a complaint with the International War Crimes Tribunal, charging President George H.W. Bush and members of his Cabinet with “Crimes Against Peace, War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity, and Other Criminal Acts and High Crimes in Violation of the Charter of the United Nations, International Law, the Constitution of the United States and Laws made in Pursuance Thereof.”
• Clark visited Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to defend him against charges of genocide (of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo), and to condemn American imperialism.
• Clark defended the Islamist terrorists who carried out the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, characterizing their prosecution as the charade of a racist justice system. To this day, he continues to defend Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, leader of the Islamic Group, an Egypt-based terrorist organization with close links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. Rahman masterminded the 1993 bombing as well as a failed Islamic Group plan (known as “The Day of Terror”) to destroy other Manhattan landmarks including the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels, the United Nations building, and the George Washington Bridge. 
• Clark volunteered to defend Mohammad Daoud al-Owhali, a student of Osama bin Laden. Al-Owhali was instrumental in both of al Qaeda’s 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa, which killed more than 200 people. Al-Owhali volunteered for these missions knowing that an attack against any nation’s foreign embassy is universally considered an unambiguous act of war.
• In 2002 Clark filed a court petition on behalf of more than 100 terrorism suspects who, while being held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, were allegedly (and contrary to strong evidence suggesting otherwise) not provided with: “adequate clothing, underwear and footwear”; “fairly priced food, soap, tobacco and ordinary items”; and “complete latitude in the exercise of religion.”
• When the U.S. was on the brink of war with Iraq in 2003, Clark wrote a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, accusing America of having committed war crimes during the 1991 Gulf War. “Far from being a threat to the United States, or any other people,” he wrote, “Iraq has been a victim of U.S. aggression for 12 years.”
• Clark’s sympathy for America’s enemies has led him, most recently, to secure a spot on the legal defense team of Saddam Hussein.

This is but a cursory overview of Clark’s record. His organization, IAC, is the vehicle through which he disseminates his anti-American proclamations. IAC professes to support “information, activism, and resistance to U.S. militarism, war, . . . corporate greed, [and] struggles against racism and oppression within the United States.”

Now, consider how IAC’s message might influence the thinking of an average American of good will who opposes U.S. involvement in the Iraq War; an individual who loves his country deeply but believes that there were better alternatives, other than military intervention, for dealing with Saddam Hussein and safeguarding Americans from nuclear terror. Suppose that one day, in an effort to register his opposition to the war by adding his voice to a chorus of likeminded people, this average American decides to participate in an anti-war rally – perhaps one of the massive demonstrations (with tens and hundreds of thousands of attendees) that have been held in many cities nationwide and around the world. Let us assume that he attends a rally organized by ANSWER, which is a creation of IAC.

At any ANSWER event, he would hear, from the featured speakers at the podium, not a single word suggesting that while America’s conflict in Iraq might be misguided, the U.S. is nonetheless a nation worthy of admiration and respect. Instead he would hear the relentless, thundered rhetoric of far leftists and communists who loathe America and believe that the world would be a better, safer place if the United States were eviscerated – by any means necessary. He would hear nothing of Saddam’s atrocities or his repeated failure to abide by UN Resolutions (to say nothing of Saddam’s own post-1991 Gulf War pledges), but rather of an American campaign allegedly designed to brutalize and kill millions of Iraqis, first via sanctions and then by war. He would see hundreds of placards caricaturing President Bush as Adolf Hitler or a blood-guzzling vampire. He would be inundated with literature calling for socialist revolution and a complete overhaul of American capitalism.

And he would hear a long succession of speeches charging that America seeks empire and oil rather than peace and security; that “regime change” is needed not in Iraq, but in the United States; that the U.S. has cultivated a long tradition of international brutality and is once again, true to form, pouring rivers of money into an immoral war while neglecting the vital needs of its own domestic poor; that American aggression and militarism, and not the nuclear aspirations of rogue states, are the world’s most destabilizing forces; that U.S. military action in Afghanistan and Iraq serves only to fuel further anti-American hatred throughout a Muslim world that would presumably be content to coexist harmoniously with the U.S. if only the latter would stop provoking it; that America is a racist nation quite willing to sacrifice the lives of young minority soldiers for a cause that will ultimately benefit only wealthy white politicians and oil moguls; and that the Bush administration is exploiting, indeed creating, public fear of terrorism so as to be able to justify discrimination against Muslims and the shredding of Americans’ civil liberties.

Our hypothetical attendee could scarcely avoid being influenced by these messages, and by the thunderous applause they evoke from the throngs of seemingly self-assured, committed, likeminded activists all around him. Most likely unaware of ANSWER’s deep communist roots and its founders’ passionate hatred of America, he gradually comes to conclude that being on the side of “peace” requires him also to embrace the entire constellation of ANSWER’s assertions about the United States. In this way, a well-intentioned, non-partisan, aspiring peace activist is transformed into an America-hater who considers the U.S. to be on the wrong side of every international conflict in which it becomes engaged.

By accepting ANSWER’s views about the United States, one is actually accepting the positions (outlined above) of the International Action Center and Ramsey Clark. IAC and ANSWER are separate entities in name only. In practice, they are one in the same. IAC is located in New York City, at 39 West 14th Street, #206. Its phone number is 212-633-6646. (Upon stepping into IAC’s Spartan office facility, one’s gaze is quickly drawn to a large poster of the convicted cop-killer and leftist icon Mumia Abu Jamal displayed on a wall.) This is precisely the same contact information as ANSWER’s – same city, same street, same room, same phone number. In other words, ANSWER, the self-identified voice of peace, is in fact the voice of Ramsey Clark, his International Action Center, and the Workers World Party. It is revolutionary communism dressed up in the garb of “nonviolence” so as to conceal its more radical agendas and thereby make it more palatable to an unsuspecting public. IAC is listed as one of several member organizations of ANSWER’s “steering committee,” but in fact it is the very heart and soul of ANSWER.

(ANSWER, it should be noted here, recently underwent an organizational split of sorts. A San Francisco faction calling itself the “Party for Socialism and Liberation” took many of the organization’s activists with it, while the New York contingent remained loyal to Ramsey Clark and IAC.)

ANSWER and WWP are by no means the only far-left groups intimately tied to the International Action Center. An organization called People Judge Bush (PJB), for instance, proudly claims ideological kinship to IAC, as reflected in the familiar theme of the former’s self-identified mission: “to address the growing evidence of crimes against peace, war crimes, and other human rights violations committed by the U.S. leadership in Iraq and elsewhere.” PJB presents itself as an independent, self-governing organization that just happens to share IAC’s views about American foreign policy. But in truth, People Judge Bush is the International Action Center – under an alternate name intended to augment public perceptions of an alliance broader than the agendas of Ramsey Clark and the Workers World Party. How do we know that PJB and IAC are a single entity? PJB’s address is the familiar 39 West 14th Street, #206, in New York City. Its phone number is 212-633-6646. On August 26, 2004, PJB held a “War Crimes Tribunal” in New York City where none other than Ramsey Clark gave a nineteen-point indictment of George W. Bush and his administration, calling for their removal from office and their conviction. Following presentations by Clark and some others, the members of the “tribunal” voted unanimously to indict Bush, Cheney, and others for war crimes.

IAC also has a connection to an organization calling itself the Korea Truth Commission (KTC), which proudly states that it is “dedicated to discovering and prosecuting alleged U.S. war crimes committed during the Korean War, as well as ejecting American troops from the Korean peninsula.” KTC has sponsored delegations to visit what it calls “civilian massacre sites,” and encourages Koreans to step forward “to tell their eyewitness accounts of the killing of civilians by U.S. troops.” At first blush, these may seem like the objectives of a nonpartisan group dedicated to bringing war criminals and human rights violators to justice. But closer inspection reveals that KTC, which ANSWER identifies as yet another member of its “steering committee,” also happens to be based at 39 West 14th Street, #206, in New York City. And its phone number is 212-633-6646. Moreover, KTC’s Washington, DC branch shares office space with the International Action Center’s chapter in that city. IAC ideology fits KTC like a glove, predicated as it is on a profound hatred of America. But in reality, there is no distinction between these groups; they are essentially one entity.

Further shoehorning its way into the office at 39 West 14th Street, #206, in New York City (and sharing the 212-633-6646 phone number) is No Draft, No Way! (NDNW), which depicts itself as an independent group taking a moral stance against America’s possible reinstatement of a military draft – basing this position on the conviction that the U.S. tends to use its armed forces for mostly evil purposes, and thus is neither worth defending nor serving. NDNW has set up an online petition that reads, “We, the undersigned, declare that we will refuse to be inducted into the military under any circumstance. Furthermore, we pledge to actively resist any return of conscription.” But as evidenced by its obvious alliance with the International Action Center, No Draft, No Way is an organization chiefly dedicated to excoriating America; its stated objective of preventing the potential deaths of would-be soldiers merely serves as a springboard from which to launch its anti-U.S. rhetoric.

The aforementioned Troops Out Now!  (TON) coalition is yet another notable entity with ties to IAC. Troops Out Now! proudly declares that it “joins the world movement against the war in calling for coordinated mass protests and resistance to the war and occupation of Iraq.” “It must be clear that the people will not be fooled by partial withdrawal plans,” adds TON. “We demand the withdrawal of all occupation troops now. . . . Let’s stand together with our sisters and brothers across the world against all colonial occupations from Iraq and Palestine, to Afghanistan and Haiti, to the Philippines, South Korea and Puerto Rico. Stop the threats on Iran and Venezuela. Hands Off Cuba. Together we demand no more new wars.” Troops Out Now! further asserts that it seeks “to stop the [U.S.] plan for [building a] world empire by military force”; TON’s prescribed method of resistance is to launch “a mass, militant movement that makes itself felt in the streets [and that will] bring the entire country to a halt.”

According to TON, America’s abominations are by no means limited to events overseas. Charging that the U.S. turns a blind eye toward its own destitute masses, TON states, “Amongst the many challenges that we face as anti-war activists and organizers, nothing is more important than linking the concrete struggles of poor and working people, especially people of color in this country, to the anti-war struggle.” Characterizing America as a veritable snake pit dominated by racist vipers, TON portrayed the December 2005 execution of multiple murderer Stanley “Tookie” Williams as “only the latest example of the systemic racism that oppresses, tortures and kills people in many different ways.” TON also contends that the chief torturer on the world stage was never Saddam Hussein’s Iraq but rather the United States. Moreover, TON sounds the trumpet in favor of expanded rights and amnesty for illegal aliens. “Our unity is strengthened,” says TON, “by supporting full rights for immigrant workers here in the U.S. -- not sweeps, arrests, deportation and fear. And our unity is strengthened by standing with people struggling for the right to return to their homes -- this includes tens of thousands of people in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast kept from their homes by the criminal neglect and racism of FEMA, to the Palestinian people struggling for the right to return to their historic homeland.”

But Troops Out Now! is no grassroots network of patriotic Americans dutifully chastising their nation in hopes of rectifying a small handful of perceived flaws. Rather, it is a group of passionate America-haters who are committed to bringing about the nation’s ultimate demise. TON is based at 39 West 14th Street, #206, in New York City, and can be reached by phone at 212-633-6646. Its overriding allegiance is not to “peace,” but rather to Ramsey Clark and his fellow communists at the International Action Center. 

Activist San Diego (ASD) is another affiliated “peace” group describing itself as “a social justice organization that promotes and facilitates the development of an active, inter-related, progressive community in San Diego through networking, culture and electronic technology.” ASD helps leftwing activists consult and coordinate activities with one another via “cyber contact.” Publicizing events chiefly in the San Diego area, ASD deems such prominent leftists as Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, and Howard Zinn men of great “insight.” Strongly opposed to America’s 2003 invasion of Iraq, ASD has enthusiastically supported the anti-war rallies held in cities across the United States. On its website, it promotes marches sponsored by Code Pink for Peace, founded by the hardline communists Jodie Evans and Medea Benjamin, and urges its readers to sign the anti-President Bush petition of VoteToImpeach.org.  ASD shares office space for its East Coast operations at 39 West 14th Street, #206, in New York City, where its phone umber is 212-633-6646.

Another noteworthy organization with ties to IAC is the People’s Video Network (PVN), which says, “We are a group of media activists who video and audio podcast, produce and edit dvd’s and videos about issues the corporate media will not touch. In our archives are hundreds of dvd’s and videos documenting the struggle. We have sent correspondents to the Lacondon Jungle, Russia, Cuba, Korea, Puerto Rico, South Africa, and Iraq. Our goal is to break the information blockade of big business media.” All PVN videos share one overriding theme: that the United States is a fundamentally racist, discriminatory, evil nation. Among these productions are such titles as: Korea & the Struggle Against U.S. Imperialism; Demand Justice for Katrina/Rita Evacuees in New York (which accuses the U.S. government of having turned its back on Hurricane Katrina victims in August 2005 because they were poor and black); March on New Orleans: 'We Shall Not Be Moved' -- The Hurricane and Bush’s Criminal Negligence; U.S. Occupations from Haiti to Iraq; and Audio Commentaries by Mumia (which provides a platform from which the incarcerated cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamal portrays himself as a “political prisoner” of a corrupt, racist justice system). Other PVN productions concerning this Abu Jamal include Legal Developments in the Case of Mumia Abu Jamal, and Mumia Addresses The World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa – a 2001 event that degenerated into an anti-Semitic, anti-American hate fest. 

The People’s Video Network has also produced a Palestine Organizers Video, which features what PVN calls “moving talks” given “in support of Palestine” by Michael Shehadeh, who hosts the program Radio Intifada and is an official of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Free Palestine Alliance. This PVN video also features a “Call to Action” by Ramsey Clark and Sara Flounders, a pro-Hamas communist and a member of the Workers World Party. In addition, Clark is featured in a two-hour videotape of the December 13, 2001 forum, “What Is Behind the War on Terrorism?” – wherein he portrays the war as a U.S. government-concocted pretext for stripping Americans of their civil liberties and creating a police state. Anyone wishing to contact PVN can do so at 39 West 14th Street, #206, in New York City (or by calling 212-633-6646).

That very same address and telephone number will also put one in touch with the headquarters of the Mumia Mobilization Office, which organizes demonstrations on behalf of Mumia Abu Jamal. Mumia’s “political prisoner” status is further trumpeted by Youth and Students for Mumia, an organization that is likewise situated at 39 West 14th Street, #206, in New York City, and can be reached by phone at 212-633-6646. Rainbows Flags for Mumia (RFM) shares the same contact information as well. RFM describes itself as “a coalition of over 200 organizations and individuals of the lesbian, gay, bi, two-spirit and trans people who are organizing to stop the execution and to demand a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal.”

The stable of political leftists at 39 West 14th Street, #206 is joined also by the National People’s Campaign (NPC), a self-described “nationwide organization of progressive activists” dedicated to combating: a “resurgence in reactionary extremism”; “the right wing’s continual encroachments upon basic human, civil, and economic rights”; and “a political climate which is becoming increasingly hostile to working people, people of color, women, the unemployed, gays and lesbians, and other marginalized groups.” Depicting the U.S. as a racist land with a long, enduring track record of exploitation and oppression, NPC marks Thanksgiving Day each year as a “National Day of Mourning” for the historical sins committed against American Indians. In a similar spirit, NPC also runs a campaign called Demand Freedom for Leonard Peltier, an American Indian rights activist who murdered two FBI agents in 1975 and is now serving a life sentence in prison. In IAC’s printed literature, Peltier describes himself as a man “deprived of freedom” by a government “that keeps getting more oppressive and tyrannical,” and by a nation where “fears are heightened as a tool to keep the war machine alive and increase the destruction of Mother Earth.”

Mumia Abu Jamal and Leonard Peltier are by no means the only leftist icons who complain that they are wrongfully imprisoned. Consider Gerardo Hernandez, Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labanino, and Fernando Gonzalez – more commonly known as the “Cuban Five.” This quintet claims not only to have broken no laws, but to actually have been “working to save Cuban and American lives from terrorist organizations that operate in Miami.” In fact, they were caught trying to infiltrate U.S. military bases and Cuban exile groups in South Florida, and were consequently sentenced in December 2001 to prison terms ranging from fifteen years to life. Their cause has been taken up by an organization called the New York Committee to Free the Cuban Five, which is based at 39 West 14th Street, #206 (212-633-6646).

The Association of Mexican American Workers (AMAT) is likewise headquartered at 39 West 14th Street, #206, and can be reached by phone at 212-633-6646. Advocating for the “rights” of illegal aliens residing in the United States, AMAT and its fellow IAC constituent groups lament that this segment of the U.S. population is “under severe attack”; must endure “brutal working conditions”; faces the constant threat of “racist attacks” by “vigilante hate groups”; and finds it “almost impossible . . . to obtain drivers’ licenses.” Moreover, AMAT participates in most of the anti-war and pro-“civil liberties” events at which IAC maintains a presence. 

Anyone interested in purchasing an array of leftist, anti-American screeds can contact Leftbooks, also located at 39 West 14th Street, #206, in New York City (212-633-6646). Leftbooks features a host of publications that present favorable portraits of such figures as Che Guevara, Mumia Abu Jamal, and Hugo Chavez. Most prominent among the authors whose works are available through Leftbooks is Ramsey Clark. Leftbooks’ featured titles include, among others:

• The Fire This Time: U.S. War Crimes in the Gulf
• Challenge to Genocide: Let Iraq Live
• The Children Are Dying: The Impact of Sanctions on Iraq
• Hidden Agenda: US/NATO Takeover of Yugoslavia
• Metal of Dishonor: Depleted Uranium, How the Pentagon Radiates Soldiers & Civilians with DU Weapons
• We Want Freedom (by Mumia Abu Jamal)
• The Defense Speaks for History and the Future (which claims that “the 78-day bombing of all of Yugoslavia, based on the charge of ‘mass graves’ in Kosovo, was . . . a fraud and war propaganda – a weapon of mass deception – to justify the U.S. military and corporate takeover of the entire region”)
• We Won’t Go! – The Truth on Military Recruiters & the Draft (which encourages readers to “Help build an army of none”)
• Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower (lauded on the Leftbooks website as a “well-aimed critique of the evils of U.S. global interventionism”)

The Rosa Parks Day (RPD) headquarters is also based at 39 West 14th Street, #206 (212-633-6646). Notably, this organization has virtually nothing to do with the woman in whose memory it is named. Rather, its raison d’etre is to condemn the United States as a nation whose civil rights record has actually worsened since Rosa Parks’ historic 1955 action aboard a Montgomery, Alabama bus. Here is how one RPD co-tenant, Troops Out Now!, has managed to associate Ms. Parks’ legacy with anti-Americanism:

“The war in Iraq that has now destroyed the lives of more than 2,100 U.S. soldiers and 100,000 Iraqi people; the racism and neglect at all levels of government in the wake of Hurricane Katrina; growing poverty and inequality; the drive to make the Supreme Court even more anti-woman and anti-civil rights; and Rosa Parks’ [recent] death . . . have made this 50th anniversary [December 1, 2005] of her arrest an even more serious and somber occasion to reflect on the need to restart the movement against poverty, racism and war. . . . We urge you to join the more than 1,000 organizations that are also supporting and participating in the . . . Rosa Parks Anniversary Nationwide Day of Absence Against Poverty, Racism, and War. On that day, no school, no work, and no shopping – only protest marches, rallies and teach-ins. . . . Let us use this anniversary as an occasion to affirm that the struggle must continue, and that we cannot separate the struggle against racism from the struggle for the right to health care, a quality education, affordable housing, and jobs that pay a living wage with benefits including the right to organize. Moreover, central to a new Movement must be ending the war in Iraq and bringing the troops home now. . . . It is time to declare that poor and working people will not sit in the back of the economic bus that only runs to make the rich richer. We will not ride in the back of a bus that wants to run over the rights of women, people of color, immigrants, youth, LGBT people and workers. We will not ride in the back of a bus that will cut health care, food and housing programs to pay for war and transfer more wealth to the rich.” 

An organization that helps finance the activities of the groups based at 39 West 14th Street, #206 in New York City is the People’s Rights Fund, or PRF (which is also based at that address, and also shares the 212-633-6646 telephone number). Established in 1986, PRF is a not-for-profit 50l(c)(3) foundation that claims to provide “funding
for educational programs on peace, civil rights, civil liberties, economic inequality, anti-repression and social justice issues.” 

ANSWER in particular is also sponsored by a second 501(c)(3) – the Alliance for Global Justice (AGJ), a Washington, DC-based charity that crusades for “economic justice” (i.e., socialism) and opposes free-market capitalism, underwriting and publicizing the activities of revolutionary Marxist movements from Nicaragua to Mexico. For its January 20, 2005 counter-inaugural protest, ANSWER requested that donations be made through AGJ, which shares office space with ANSWER’s Washington, D.C. headquarters at 1247 “E” Street Southeast. This relationship ties AGJ not only to ANSWER, but also to the International Action Center and every other IAC-affiliated organization named in this article. 

In summation, the International Action Center has deep communist roots, has supported some of the world’s most barbaric regimes, and is unwaveringly dedicated to America’s ultimate transformation into a socialist state. Candidly admitting to such realities, however, would not play well in Middle America. Thus IAC presents itself instead as an organization committed to “peace,” “social justice,” and “human rights.”  It condemns the United States for supposedly denying these ideals to its own people and to many more around the world. And by associating its organizational mission with these same ideals, IAC effectively appeals to millions who are unaware of its actual, radical motives.

To broadcast the notion of American evil as widely as possible, IAC has created numerous “faces” for itself, each one serving as a unique portal through which IAC can reach a portion of the public. But in the final analysis, there is no difference between any of these nominally distinct organizations. The International Action Center is Ramsey Clark, is ANSWER, is People Judge Bush, is the Korea Truth Commission, is No Draft, No Way, is Troops Out Now, is Activist San Diego, is the People’s Video Network, is the Mumia Mobilization Office, is Youth and Students for Mumia, is Rainbows Flags for Mumia, is the New York Committee to Free the Cuban Five, is the National People’s Campaign, is the Association of Mexican American Workers, is Leftbooks, is the Rosa Parks Day headquarters, is the People’s Rights Fund.

Finally, it should be noted that IAC’s involvement in the anti-war movement extends beyond its intimate links to the groups named previously in this article. It is also a member organization of the United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) anti-war coalition led by the lifelong communist Leslie Cagan, a strong supporter of Fidel Castro who proudly aligns her politics with those of Communist Cuba.

Such are the agendas, activities, and affiliations of the International Action Center, the heart and soul of one of the most influential anti-war movements in American history.