Antiwar movement losing steam?????

[Chuck0]

Thomas Seay wrote:
> 
> --- Max Sawicky <sawicky at bellatlantic.net> wrote:
> > One tiny addendum to peaceniks of all stripes.
> > The idea of the movement--however you want to
> > characterize it--as losing steam at this point
> > is ridiculous.
> >
> 
> Since I was the one to start this thread, let me say
> that I HOPE that the movement will pick-up, however I
> think that with its present de facto leadership,
> Workers World Party, that the anti-war movement will
> continue to degenerate UNTIL independent forces create
> a space for themselves and break free of the
> procrustean bed laid out for them by WWP.

The problem as I see it is that the usual suspects in the Left are
trying to create *one* big movement that has common goals and de facto
leadership. This is the approach used in previous anti-war campaigns by
the Left. On the other hand, the anti-globalization/anti-capitalist
tendency has been a diverse collection of movements, networks and
currents. I'm not sure that all Leftists understand this fact, but I do
know that certain groups, such as the SWP in the U.K. and Resistance in
Australia, have been engaged in long-running campaigns to hide the
nature of the movement from new recruits and possible recruits among new
activists. It's in their interest as organizations committed to
"democratic centralism" to protray the anti-globalization tendency as
*one* movement. This suits their propaganda (see Resistance's writings
on S11) about being "leading" organizations at major
anti-capitalist/anti-glob protests. The funniest thing about reading the
literature of these organizations is that it took the longest time for
them to admit that the black bloc even existed!

Thomas is right and Chris is right about a little division not being bad
for the anti-war cause. The resistance to the Vietnam War took several
years to get rolling--we can't expect to come up with the right slogans
and actions so soon after 9/11. The current situation is much different
that Vietnam, the Gulf War, or the War against Yugoslavia. 

Chuck0