Once again, I find myself agreeing with Nathan, but I'll extend his argument in a direction that he'll disagree with. Numbers are important, but as Nathan says, symbolic protests in Washington, DC are of less value than door-to-door and face-to-face organizing. Many activists are tired of rallies-as-usual (typified by the WWP/IAC methods of protest) as being yesterday's flavor of dissent.
Coherent arguments and face-to-face organizing are important, but we also need a widespread campaign of resistance, sabotage, subversion, and outright opposition to the war machine. This can range from civil disobedience to grafitti campaigns to civil disorder on the streets. We need to raise the economic and security costs to the point where the American state is forced to keep troops at home in order to maintain order on the streets.
We also need to do more outreach to people in the military, especially those in the National Guard. If any of you have read up on the history of GI rebellion during the Vietnam War (as detailed in Kevin Keating's 'Harass the Brass,' and other sources) you'll know that internal dissent in the military really helped sabotage the U.S. war effort. The U.S. state invokes the spectre of the "Vietnam Syndrome" to justify military actions that don't require conscription. One of their tactics is to use the National Guard. Well, guess what, there is a growing dissent out in the hinterlands among working people who have family or friends in the Guard. Most of the people who join the Guard do so to get a little extra spending money. I've heard through my sources that at least in some areas of th country, there is alot of worry about the National Guard being sent to Iraq or wherever for the War on Terrorism.
Perhaps we need to find these people and get them hooked into the anti-war network.
<< Chuck0 >>
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"...ironically, perhaps, the best organised dissenters in the world today are anarchists, who are busily undermining capitalism while the rest of the left is still trying to form committees."
-- Jeremy Hardy, The Guardian (UK)