A great article from The Mercury News on the anti-war protests tomorrow, Anti-war movement taking shape.

On A.N.S.W.E.R., the sponsors of the protests, "Many of A.N.S.W.E.R.'s lead organizers have close ties to the International Action Center, formed by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, and to the Workers World Party (WWP), a socialist sect whose politics often are criticized as too left, too doctrinaire, even for Bay Area liberals. Some of the WWP's more controversial positions are its support for the governments of Iraq and North Korea; its backing of former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic; its claims that reports of Serbian atrocities against Muslims and Croats were overblown; and its defense as recently as 2000 of the Chinese government's deadly crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989."

On the A.N.S.W.E.R.'s anti-israeli stance, "One of the biggest divides is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While more moderate anti-war groups like the ``Win Without War'' coalition have pointedly skirted the contentious issue so as not to alienate mainstream Americans, the World Workers Party, the International Action Center and now A.N.S.W.E.R. are staunchly pro-Palestinian.

``"In the anti-war movement it's some kind of taboo thing to bring up Palestinians,'' said Richard Becker, a member of A.N.S.W.E.R.'s steering committee and a longtime member of the WWP. "But if the United States is arming Israel, that's a war. Some view Israel as a shining example of democracy in the Middle East, and they are worried that liberals will withdraw support from the anti-war movement if we criticize Israel. But we think it's possible to have big, mass actions and support the Palestinian cause at the same time."``