The antiwar movement goes mainstream
Groups like NOW, the Sierra Club and the National Council of Churches -- plus a raft of celebrities -- reach out to Middle America as they denounce a preemptive, unilateral war with Iraq.
By Michelle Goldberg
Dec. 12, 2002 | For months, Americans opposed to Bush's belligerent unilateralism toward Iraq but uncomfortable with the radical sectarians leading many antiwar marches have felt excluded. Sure, some mainstream opponents to an Iraqi war have been able to overlook the dubious politics of early antiwar organizers Not In Our Name and the ANSWER coalition, groups tied, respectively, to the Shining Path-supporting Revolutionary Communist Party and the Kim Jong Il-loving Workers World Party.
But others have felt nearly as alienated by their warmed-over lefty rhetoric as they have by Bush's bellicosity. As George Packer wrote in the New York Times Magazine on Sunday, "If you're a liberal ... why is there no anti-war movement that you'd want to join?"
One might have finally appeared Wednesday, when many of the pillars of progressive politics in America announced they were banding together to oppose a preemptive, unilateral war on Iraq. The Win Without War coalition includes the National Council of Churches, NOW, NAACP, the Sierra Club, MoveOn, Working Assets, Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, Physicians for Social Responsibly and Veterans for Common Sense. Taken together, these groups represent a vast swath of America -- the National Council of Churches alone indirectly represents 50 million congregants -- and they aim to channel their millions of members into antiwar activism.
"We will bring into the antiwar movement millions of people who have concerns and fears but have not had an outlet for them," says Michael Kieschnick, the president of Working Assets. "We're going to give them an outlet. When those millions get engaged, whether through street events, letter writing, visiting the representatives, calling and writing Bush -- when those millions move, I think Bush will have to pause."
Win Without War is also behind the antiwar letter signed by hundreds of celebrities that came out Tuesday -- a letter that, for all the mocking it engendered, made the news in a way mere civic leaders no longer can. The mainstream media has virtually ignored even the largest antiwar demonstrations, but on Wednesday, Janeane Garofalo was on "Good Morning America," offering a far more scathing critique of Bush's Iraq policy than any milquetoast Democrat or platitudinous pundit.
Also on Tuesday, United for Peace, a coalition comprising many of the same groups that work closely with Win Without War, held vigils and protests throughout the country to mark Human Rights Day. The New York Times reported that that there were more than 150 events, each ranging from a few dozen to a few hundred people. In New York, 100 people were arrested at a nonviolent protest in front of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, including Daniel Ellsberg and Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry's.
"I think [the mainstream peace movement] will come with some rapidity now," says the Rev. Peter Laarman, an organizer with United for Peace who helped put together Tuesday's U.N. protest. "There were a lot of people early on who said something is better than nothing and lent some support to ANSWER and Not In Our Name. I myself signed the NION statement, but I did so after telling them, 'I need you to know that I know who you are.' Many of us saw the need to build things that are not in any way beholden to other agendas and that have the capacity to reach people."
<http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2002/12/12/peace/index.html>
Carl
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