HOW THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT IS BLOWING IT\r\n\r\n<\/p>
by Bill Weinberg\r\n\r\n<\/p>
Raining on a parade--or, in this case, an anti-war march--isn't likely\r\nto win one popularity contests. But somebody has got to raise the\r\nalarm. The upcoming Oct. 25 march in Washington DC is being billed as\r\na revitalization of the movement which made history with coordinated\r\nworldwide protests against the looming US-led assualt on Iraq Feb. 15.\r\nBut the new mobilization actually represents a dangerous step\r\nbackwards for the anti-war forces in the US.\r\n\r\n<\/p>
This effort displays more sanctimony than analysis, and the sloppy\r\nthinking in evidence is unlikely to do more than further marginalize\r\nopposition to the occupation of Iraq. The new campaign is failing on\r\nthree broad imperatives that are essential for an effective movement.\r\nWithout principled alliances and moral consistency we have no\r\nauthority to criticize Bush's policies. Without a realistic sense of\r\nour own power we are dooming ourselves to a cycle of empty (if\r\nself-righteous) enthusiasm followed by burn-out and demoralization.\r\nAnd without asking the tough questions we stand zero chance of ever\r\ncoming up with meaningful answers.\r\n\r\n<\/p>
1. Principled Alliances and Moral Consistency<\/strong>\r\n\r\n<\/p> One of the reasons Feb. 15 represented such an important step forward\r\nfor anti-war organizing in the United States was the emergence of the\r\nnew coalition United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), which coordinated\r\nthe protests nationally. Prior to this, most national anti-war\r\norganizing fell under the auspices of International ANSWER. The dirty\r\nopen secret on the American left--universally, but rarely openly,\r\nacknowledged--is that ANSWER is led at its core by an outfit called\r\nthe International Action Center (IAC), which is itself a front group\r\nfor the reactionary and Stalin-nostalgist Workers World Party. What\r\nnobody wants to say out loud is clearly evident: IAC and Workers World\r\nsupport genocide.\r\n\r\n<\/p> IAC's frontman, former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, is a founding\r\nmember of the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic,\r\nand IAC routinely dismissed accounts of the atrocities against Bosnian\r\nMuslims and Kosovar Albanians as imperialist \"lies.\" Even now, IAC\r\nsupports Milosevic almost without reservation, portraying him as a\r\ndefender of socialism. During the worst of the Bosnia bloodshed, IAC4s\r\nClark travelled to Bosnia to meet with Serb strongman Radovan Karadzic\r\n(now indicted on war crimes charges) and offer his support.\r\n\r\n<\/p> Workers World also supported Deng Xiaoping in the Tiananmen Square\r\nmassacre in 1989, portraying the protesters as\r\n\"counter-revolutionaries.\"\r\n\r\n<\/p> In 1991, Workers World split the movement aganst Desert Storm by\r\nrefusing to condemn Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. In the\r\nensuing years, Clark and IAC dismissed human rights allegations\r\nagainst Saddam as more imperialist propaganda.\r\n\r\n<\/p> Workers World Party--whose cadre such as Brian Becker are ANSWER's\r\nmost visible spokespersons--is a vigorous apologist of mass murder.\r\n\r\n<\/p> The progress that was made in the Feb. 15 mobilization towards\r\nbringing legitimate leadership to the anti-war movement has now been\r\nreversed, as UFPJ and ANSWER have joined forces for the Oct. 25 rally.\r\n\r\n<\/p> The movement has squandered its moral credibility by accepting\r\nANSWER's leadership. We have no authority to oppose US occupation and\r\naggression in Iraq when we are literally rallying around leaders who\r\nactively supported occupation and aggression in Bosnia and\r\nelsewhere--even in Iraq, where Workers World has asserted that\r\nSaddam's gassing of the Kurds was just another imperialist lie.\r\n\r\n<\/p> The frequent response to this criticism is that nobody will notice\r\nthat our movement is led by genocide-apologists, and it is more\r\nimportant to oppose the occupation of Iraq. This cowardly and\r\nhypocritical position undercuts our effectiveness by giving our\r\nenemies an iron-clad accusation of double standards to use against us.\r\nMoreover, the willingness to throw principles to the wind makes us\r\nlook desperate--like what, in fact, we have largely become: a movement\r\nwith no real faith in its own power.\r\n\r\n<\/p> 2. A Realistic Sense of Our Own Power<\/strong>\r\n\r\n<\/p> The cynicism which has led to the tactically and ethically disastrous\r\nalliance with ANSWER is, paradoxically, the flipside of a naive\r\nutopianism. \"People marched and demonstrated a whole lot to try to\r\nstop the war, and we weren't able to,\" UFPJ's Leslie Cagan was quoted\r\nin the Washington Post Oct. 19. \"That had, I think, for some segments\r\nof the activist community, a little bit of a demoralizing effect.\"\r\n\r\n<\/p> The notion that the Feb. 15 mobilization was going to \"stop the war\"\r\nis a simple denial of political reality. Equally so is the notion that\r\nthe mobilization was not worthwhile because it failed to \"stop the\r\nwar.\"\r\n\r\n<\/p> Millions worldwide in the streets clearly would not deter Bush, but it\r\nalmost certainly helped sway others in positions of power to rein in\r\nthe worst excesses of what Bush had planned. The \"shock and awe\"\r\nbombardment of Baghdad was to have dwarfed the massive aerial\r\nbombardment of 1991's Operation Desert Storm, with Pentagon officials\r\nactually calling it a \"21st Century Blitzkrieg.\" In the actual fact,\r\nfar fewer missiles fell on Baghdad in 2003 than in 1991. The London\r\nTimes reported May 2 that the Pentagon cut the planned bombing\r\ncampaign in half after the commander of British forces in the Persian\r\nGulf argued that it would have disastrous political consequences. Many\r\nfactors doubtless played into this thinking, including the threat of\r\nunrest in the Middle East, the risk of defection or destabilization of\r\npro-West Arab regimes--and, we can safely assume, the global wave of\r\nprotests.\r\n\r\n<\/p> The Feb. 15 mobilizaiton probably saved countless Iraqi lives. And--if\r\nwe could build on the progress intelligently--it would put us in a\r\nstronger position to oppose the current occupation.\r\n\r\n<\/p> By setting up unrealistic expectations, we assure our own\r\ndemoralization and burn-out. We have to accept that the struggle\r\nagainst US imperialism will probably persist for generations, and we\r\nare in it for the long haul. This means resisting the temptations of\r\nself-delusion and easy answers.\r\n\r\n<\/p> 3. Asking the Tough Questions<\/strong>\r\n\r\n<\/p> Soundbite pseudo-analysis is an inherent danger of activism, which\r\nmust be guarded against at all times. Slogans like \"Bring the troops\r\nhome\" and \"US out of Iraq\" are handy for fitting on a placard, but\r\nthey inevitably dodge the really tough questions. Having now plunged\r\nIraq into social entropy, destroyed the country's infrastructure and\r\nbrought to a boil myriad ethnic and religious conflicts which had been\r\nsimmering under the Saddam dictatorship, it might be the height of\r\nirresponsibility for the US to just unilaterally withdraw. It would,\r\nin fact, be a violation of the responsibilities of an occupying power\r\nunder international law.\r\n\r\n<\/p> We must be clear that US imperialism will never act in the interests\r\nof the Iraqi people, whatever rhetoric about \"freedom\" and \"democracy\"\r\nis cynically employed. Empires act in the interests of empire: they\r\nalways have and always will. But a unilateral withdrawal which allows\r\ngenuinely freedom-hating jihadis to take power would not be in the\r\ninterests of the Iraqi people either. \"US out of Iraq\" only works as a\r\ndemand if we have some kind alternative to offer.\r\n\r\n<\/p> We are not going to arrive at answers to such difficult questions\r\nmerely by thinking about them--and we have largely failed to do even\r\nthat. We can only begin to find alternatives to support in Iraq by\r\nopening a dialogue with pro-democracy, anti-occupation Iraqis, either\r\non the ground in Iraq or in exile. The work of the San Francisco-based\r\nOpen World Conference of Workers to seek out and support dissident\r\nunionists in Iraq is a step in this direction. So is the Independent\r\nMedia Center network's effort to support a Baghdad IMC. But the\r\nmainstream anti-war movement has dodged its responsibility on this\r\nfront, the leaders being apparently too pre-occupied with maintaining\r\nand strengthening their own position of leadership.\r\n\r\n<\/p> Whatever happened to CARDRI, the Committee Against Repression and for\r\nDemocratic Rights in Iraq, the progressive London-based exile group\r\nthat opposed both the Saddam dictatorship and US imperialist designs\r\nin the 1980s? Does CARDRI still exist? Are any of its members still\r\nvocal and active? It is from such voices that we must seek\r\nleadership--not from the self-appointed cadre of Workers World, or\r\neven the comparatively innocuous Leslie Cagan.\r\n\r\n<\/p> I offer that the alliance with ANSWER may actually make the Oct. 25\r\nmobilization more counter-productive than worthwhile, but I am aware\r\nthat many dedicated and sincere activists will be attending despite\r\nmisgivings. At a minimum, I hope I have provided some fodder for\r\nserious discussion on the bus ride to Washington.<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"Raining on a parade--or, in this case, an anti-war march--isn't likely to win one popularity contests. But somebody has got to raise the alarm. The upcoming Oct. 25 march in Washington DC is being billed as a revitalization of the movement which made history with coordinated worldwide protests against the looming US-led assualt on Iraq Feb. 15. But the new mobilization actually represents a dangerous step backwards for the anti-war forces in the US.","numcomment":10,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2003\/10\/90685.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":90733,"heading":"red baiting article","article":" Thanks for that wonderful piece. How's things down at the CIA building? Have you selected enough phony "radicals" ready to "lead" the anti-war movement yet? How much are you paying them?","author":"Provocateur Detector","parent_id":90685,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-25 18:31:42","modified":"2003-10-25 18:31:42","fileurl":""},{"id":90735,"heading":"Provocateur Detector","article":"--Thanks for that wonderful piece.--\r\n\r\nYou're welcome.\r\n\r\n--How's things down at the CIA building?--\r\n\r\nFine. And how are things at Langley?\r\n\r\n--Have you selected enough phony "radicals" ready to "lead" the anti-war movement yet?--\r\n\r\nWe'll find out.\r\n\r\n--How much are you paying them?--\r\n\r\nHold on. Let me ask krankyman.\r\n\r\nHe said "Pennies on the dollar." We're Cheap Labor Conservatives.","author":"Provocateur","parent_id":90685,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-25 18:37:14","modified":"2003-10-25 18:37:14","fileurl":""},{"id":90736,"heading":"Thank you for this article","article":"I have made the same arguments within my circle of friends and have routinely pointed to this website for further documentation on this subject:\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/authoritarianopportunistswhocozyuptogenocidaldictators-forpeace.org\/\r\n\r\nfor those interested in reading the direct quotes of the Workers World Party, and related links that provide analysis.\r\n\r\nIt is imperative that we all join forces to fight this illegal war and the Bush administration, and for that reason, I'll will attend the Oct 25 march. However, I will not be silent in exposing International Action Center and the Workers World Party for their apologies for state terror. We must not, and should not, blindly follow sectarian sects like IAC and WWP if we are to have any moral credibility when talking about the war in Iraq.\r\n\r\nThank you for the above article\r\n\r\n000","author":"000","parent_id":90685,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-25 18:38:13","modified":"2003-10-25 18:38:13","fileurl":""},{"id":90742,"heading":"How is the anti-war movement blowing it?","article":"Well, the war happened despite their best efforts.\r\n\r\nI guess we can just chalk it up to total incompetence.\r\n\r\nImagine that! Chanting, drums, and crapping on the street didn't stop the war! Amazing!\r\n\r\n","author":"nonanarchist","parent_id":90685,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-25 18:46:29","modified":"2003-10-25 18:46:29","fileurl":""},{"id":90744,"heading":"HOW THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT IS BLOWING IT","article":"It's too late. We've lost. We're all a bunch of losers anyway, what did we expect. I mean, look at us. We don't bathe, and when we do we don't use soap or water, we don't comb our hair, we wear weird clothes and get strange piercings and tatoos, we hit the bong almost every hour of the day, we flunk out of school, we blame everyone but ourselves for our own shortcomings. Face it. We're a bunch of idiots. We deserve to lose.","author":"it's me, man","parent_id":90685,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-25 18:49:28","modified":"2003-10-25 18:49:28","fileurl":""},{"id":90747,"heading":"More ANSWER Bashing --SO TIRED!!!","article":"Ho-Hum, the same old tired argument about how the organizations that developed into ANSWER were pro-communist or pro-dictatorship, Ho-Hum, pulling out the Tiannemen Square issue (without context yet again) blah blah blah.\r\n\r\nLike we really need to worry about this when the conservative pro-capitalist imperialist opposition is and was:\r\n\r\nPro-Porfirio Diaz: Many of you white liberals could give a shit about dark people unless they're miles away, but consider how US transnational capitalism supported the dictator of Mexico at the turn of the century who was instrumental in the murder of thousands of indians and Mexican peasants.\r\n\r\n-Pro-Hitler: Ford, Prescott Bush, and all the other "wonderful" American entrepeneurs that thought fascism was a good idea in the 1930s\r\n\r\nPro-Stalin: After all, he was good for American capitalists in defeating Hitler and covering our government's ass when \r\nit turned out that supporting nazis was a bad idea. But then apparently supporting a communist dictator was worse.\r\n\r\n-Pro-Saddam: Sure, he killed Kurds with chemical weapons, but hey, our capitalist government provided him with them and then Rumsfield arrived in the early 1980s to pat him on the back.\r\n\r\nDo I need to go on...\r\n\r\nWhy does the ANSWER coalition need to apologise for their past mistakes when the opposition doesn't have to apologise for shit.\r\n\r\nThat is the weakness of the anti-war movement and the left is that we don't express our passion for the movement the way the morons on the other side do (and their's involves a passion for racism, xenophobia, white supremacy, you name it).\r\n\r\nWe should take credit for having more heart, compassion and integrity, but that doesn't mean that we can't show our fangs. Although I know its hard when the corporate media colludes with the government to make sure we are either demonized or ignored.\r\n\r\nStop obsessing on the past, red-baiting bullshit and move forward. You ask many young people today, with the exception of those being brainwashed by Ann Coultier the moron and the Young Republicans, and you'll find that most youths today could give a shit about the "red scare" and wonder what people were so afraid of in the 50s and 60s. I wonder myself...ya'll were so brainwashed back then, but of course\r\nlook at the frenzy being whipped up under the "War on Terrorism" whatever the fuck that is.\r\n\r\nI've noticed that its mostly white liberal males who get all \r\nbent over the "commie thing" with respect to the activist groups and they want an umbrella organization that is more \r\n"moderate" or less "tainted" or whatever. Ya'll just want to protect your privilege and your fake fantasy that "one day things will return to normal." \r\n\r\nGrow Up, Grow Some Balls, and MOVE ON PEOPLE!!!\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n","author":"mediawatcher","parent_id":90685,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-25 18:57:26","modified":"2003-10-25 18:57:26","fileurl":""},{"id":90750,"heading":"Yikes! The Commie Anti-War People Are Protesting! Give me a break!","article":"I'll be on the bus too. I hope my red bandana doesn't scare you white liberals into thinking I'm a pro-Stalin, pro-Chinese dictatorship commie. Or will it be my black skin?\r\n\r\n","author":"MC Bushkilla","parent_id":90685,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-25 19:07:36","modified":"2003-10-25 19:07:36","fileurl":""},{"id":90754,"heading":"Yes, I am a red baiter","article":"For those who don't know the definition of red baiting, let me explain.\r\n\r\nRed baiting is exposing the hypocrasy of the authoritarian left and their apologies for genocide. They make apologies for dictatorships such as China, North Korea, the Shining Path, Saddam Hussein, Milosevic, etc, etc, etc, depending on which flavor you choose to examine.\r\n\r\nRed baiting is also exposing the ridiculousness and the failures of Trotskyism, Leninism, and Stalinism. It is also means being honest about the fact that Fidel Castro is a dictator (a gilded cage is still a cage) http:\/\/www.illegalvoices.org\/apoc\/books\/cuban\/preface.html\r\n\r\nRed baiting is also exposing the atrocities they have commited in places like Spain during the Spanish Civil War, and in places like Kronstadt during the Russion revolution.\r\n\r\nThe time of the "red" is over and people are fed up with the brutal injustices that go along with the failed ideologies of authoritarian state revolutions.\r\n\r\nIt is so predictable the way the authoritarian communists pull out the word "red baiting" everytime someone exposes their politics to the mainstream. It reminds me exactly of the use of the word "anti-semitism" which gets trotted out every time someone criticizes the state of Isreal.\r\n\r\nNormal americans are very anti-authoritarian and hate the boss as much as they hate the traditional "reds".\r\n\r\n000\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.geocities.com\/CapitolHill\/1931\/secHcon.html","author":"000","parent_id":90685,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-25 19:10:51","modified":"2003-10-25 19:10:51","fileurl":""},{"id":90763,"heading":"this isn't red baiting","article":"Red baiting would be to attack the WWP with the intent of discrediting the anti-war movement. This article criticizes the fact that a single group, the IAC, exercises control over who can organize and speak at the big rallies. Also, the accusation that UFPJ is \"white liberals\" and ANSWER is not is false. I've peeked in on a couple ANSWER meetings, and most of the people there are white males over the age of 50. The insiders seem a bit younger, but they're white too. Maybe they are revolutionists and not liberals. Maybe the rally organizing meetings are different, but that's my limited experience.\r\n\r\nUFPJ's politics are on their front page:\r\nhttp:\/\/www.unitedforpeace.org\/\r\nAs for whether they're \"liberals\" or not, they are liberal inasumuch as many of the groups in UFPJ are liberal. In that regard, ANSWER is also liberal. The WWP also supports reform. Just look at their paper: the rhetoric is revolutionary, but they support reform too. The main difference between UFPJ and ANSWER is that UFPJ is a coalition of different organizations, organized as a representative democracy. ANSWER is an organ of the IAC, which is an organ of the WWP. ANSWER is certainly more flexible (and liberal) than WWP, but, that's still not the same as a coalition.\r\n\r\nNo comment on NION - haven't been to their meetings, nor do I know their structure.\r\n\r\nOverall, I think these organizing efforts are awesome, and everyone participating is to be commended, but the leadership of ANSWER (and NION), won't help the broad progressive movement grow. The various communist sects are top-down and corporate; this works well at mobilizing quickly, but it's anti-democratic. Democracy is bottom-up, grassroots, diverse in ideology, and (because it requires bottom-up communication) sometimes slow. \r\n\r\nThere's something that's an in-between form of democracy that is a corporate structure that accepts feedback from the rank-and-file. It's like the \"suggestion box\" used at corporations, where the failings of corporate domination and management political maneuvering are supposed to be mitigated by anonymous complaints to the higher-ups. That isn't real democracy. It's more like head games.\r\n\r\n(I'm not a member of a group in UFPJ.)","author":"more rational","parent_id":90685,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-25 20:16:59","modified":"2003-10-25 22:24:06","fileurl":""},{"id":90771,"heading":"Red-baiting","article":"What's the worse fear of an authoritarian activist organization? That rank-and-file activists might compare notes and actually engage in some critical thinking about the organization.\r\n\r\nThis charge of "red-baiting" has been thrown out by supporters of ANSWER so many times that they just look stupid. What us the first response of ANSWER supporters to any criticism? Accuse them of red-baiting. There is no dialogue, just an effort to make the critics go away. Authoritarians can't handle democracy and transparency, which is why they react to movement discussion of their organization with the accusation of red-baiting. Never mind the fact that most of ANSWER's critics are reds or are sympathetic to reds. What we have here is an organization that doesn't belong in the movement.\r\n\r\nCan we vote them out of the movement or something like they do in those reality TV shows?","author":"Veteran activist","parent_id":90685,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-25 21:43:05","modified":"2003-10-25 21:43:05","fileurl":""}]}