good news

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>Hi Listers,
>
>Just want to point out that while the WWP/IAC were initially -- and in my
>view, unfortunately, for all the reasons Nathan and ChuckO have mentioned --
>the most prominent anti-war "coalitions," they certainly don't control the
>movement anymore. Not on campuses, not in numerous IAC-free coalitions in
>cities and communities nationwide, not among religious types and not among
>people of color and immigrants working against the war in their own
>communities.
>
>WWP is still more visible than I'd like, but I agree with Paulsen's comment
>that some on the list are exaggerating its power. The eclipsing of the WWP
>doesn't mean that the anti-war movement doesn't still have a lot of the same
>problems it did; one of reasons the WWP bothers some of us so much is that
>its flaws aren't unlike much of the rest of the left, just in a more
>exaggerated cartoonish form (bland mechanistic slogans, boring protests,
>cookie-cutter analysis, self-marginalization). Still, the emergence of all
>these other elements in the anti war movement is a very good thing.
>
>Liza

99.99% of any organizing, be it anti-war or anything else, is rather 
"bland" and "boring," however.  The most important jobs of a 
political organizer are among the most mundane & tedious: to collect 
phone numbers, e-addresses, & addresses of activists & would-be 
activists, organize them in a usable database, & update it 
continuously; to send info of upcoming events & meetings in a timely 
& reader-friendly manner; to know what skills & resources other 
organizers have at their disposal; etc.  You marginalize yourself if 
you avoid the mundane & tedious.
-- 
Yoshie

* Calendar of Anti-War Events in Columbus: 
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>
* Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html>
* Anti-War Organizing in Columbus Covered by the Media: 
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/media.html>