Brian Becker; behind A.N.S.W.E.R.

This is a screen shot from the video I took Friday afternoon of the protest at the Israeli Embassy. The man in the picture is Brian Becker the national coordinator for ANSWER.

ANSWER is;

The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition formed on September 14, 2001. It is a coalition of hundreds of organizations and prominent individuals and scores of organizing centers in cities and towns across the country. Its national steering committee represents major national organizations that have campaigned against U.S. intervention in Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Asia, and organizations that have campaigned for civil rights and for social and economic justice for working and poor people inside the United States.

Steering Committee:
IFCO/Pastors for Peace
Free Palestine Alliance – U.S.
Haiti Support Network
Partnership for Civil Justice – LDEF
Nicaragua Network
Alliance for Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines
Korea Truth Commission
Muslim Student Association – National
Kensington Welfare Rights Union
Mexico Solidarity Network
Party for Socialism and Liberation

Well, I got interested in him because of the comment by BufordP on the original post IDing him. So I zipped around the internet looking up information on him. I dug up this story about Becker in the New York Times (in reference to the protest in DC last March that I also covered);

Brian Becker, the national coordinator of the Answer Coalition and a member of the Party [for] Socialism and Liberation, said the group held out little hope of influencing either the president or Congress. “It is about radicalizing people,” Mr. Becker said in an interview. “You hook into a movement that exists. in this case the antiwar movement and channel people who care about that movement and bring them into political life, the life of political activism.”

The Party for Socialism and Liberation states it’s goals;

We are fighting for socialism, a system where the wealth of society belongs to those who produce it, the working class, and is used in a planned and sustainable way for the benefit of all. In place of greed, domination and exploitation, we stand for solidarity, friendship and cooperation between all peoples.

Back in 2002, David Corn identified Becker with the Workers World Party;

Officially, the organizer of the Washington demonstration was International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism). But ANSWER is run by WWP activists, to such an extent that it seems fair to dub it a WWP front. Several key ANSWER officials, including spokesperson Brian Becker, are WWP members. Many local offices for ANSWER’s protest were housed in WWP offices. Earlier this year, when ANSWER conducted a press briefing, at least five of the 13 speakers were WWP activists. They were each identified, though, in other ways, including as members of the International Action Center.

Workers World Party goals;

Workers World fights for a socialist society, where the wealth is socially owned and production is planned to satisfy human need. That’s also what workers around the world, from Cuba to China, have been struggling for. The U.S. rulers have spent trillions of our tax dollars trying to stop them in a global class struggle. WWP promotes international working-class solidarity, the right of every nation to sovereignty and self-determination, and militant resistance at home to imperialist interventions and wars. Do you belong in such a party?

So reading Becker’s statement to the NYT, and considering his membership in these organizations, it seems to me that he’s just organizing these demonstrations to recruit for the socialists and nothing more. The protests are nothing more than recruitment meetings.

From the September March on the Capitol

It’s probably easy to recruit in the slammer, too.

Category: Antiwar crowd, Protests/Rallies