Though the daily reported that 3,500 people attended last Sunday’s Get Up, Stand Up! concert/teach-in/rally, the bleachers of the Toney Burger Center sure seemed emptier than that. But regardless of the crowd size, enthusiasm ran high at the three-hour event, which included music, tabling, and quite a bit of peace-sign displaying.
A hodge-podge of speakers, including local NAACP President Nelson Linder, columnist Molly Ivins, former Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, and many others, addressed a variety of thorny issues for progressives, including the pending war over oil, post-September 11 restrictions on civil liberties, unfair housing, racism … the list went on and on, which unfortunately gave the event an unfocused feel. Nevertheless, the afternoon included several compelling moments, including Austin Mayor Gus Garcia’s announcement that the City Council will consider an anti-war resolution at its meeting today; ACLU Executive Director Will Harrell’s invitation to the audience to help his organization, the NAACP, and others in lobbying the legislature to end its “addiction to incarceration” of nonviolent offenders; and UT journalism professor/anti-war activist Robert Jensen’s optimistic report from the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
“People of the world do not accept the American empire,” said Jensen, referring to the thousands of global activists and intellectuals who attended the forum to show support for alternatives to neoliberalism and corporate globalization. “We have the choice between empire and death, or resistance and life.”
This article appears in February 7 • 2003.