> None of this is separate from the very difficult tactical and strategic
> calculations that the US administration has to make. But it is the
> generals, and there is one heading the State Department now, who are often
> the most cautious. The main weakness of the peace movement at the moment is
> that it has failed to make a strong strategic link with the the movement
> for global economic justice that was developing so fast up to 10th September.
Thank you. This is what I've been saying to my comrades in the anti-glob/anti-cap movements. We've laid alot of groundwork in recent years with the anti-globalization movement. We should be making the connections between that work and the current U.S. war.
One of the problems that I've noticed locally (Washington) is that some activists thought that they could simply shift bandwagons from the anti-glob movement to the peace movement. Strategically, this is short-sighted, because we are still learning what the contours of this war will be. Is is a war against the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden? Or, is it a war like Donald Rumsfield described, a war on "terrorism" that will be like the Cold War?
This changing of horses in midstream has hurt the anti-globalization movement. It gives ammunition to our critics who say that we are simply malcontents who protest the hot topic of the moment.
The Anti-Capitalist Convergence here in Washington took stock of the changing situation after 9/11 and decided to go ahead with our anti-capitalist protests, but with a focus on war, militarism and racism. Many of the anti-capitalists who were going to come out for the anti-World Bank protests stayed home and organized local protests. But we managed to turn out around 2000 people who held a militant march through downtown D.C. to the World Bank. There were many people who warned us to stay home, but in the end we had few problems from patriots and minor problems with the police.
<< Chuck0 >>
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INTERNATIONALISM IN PRACTICE
An American soldier in a hospital explained how he was wounded: He said, "I was told that the way to tell a hostile Vietnamese from a friendly Vietnamese was to shout ‘To hell with Ho Chi Minh!’ If he shoots, he’s unfriendly. So I saw this dude and yelled ‘To hell with Ho Chi Minh!’ and he yelled back, ‘To hell with President Johnson!’ We were shaking hands when a truck hit us."
(from 1,001 Ways to Beat the Draft, by Tuli Kupferburg).