On Thursday, December 12, 2002, at 10:55 AM, Carl Remick wrote:
> [Jeez, I guess the antiwar movement isn't just a front for the Forces
> of Darkness after all! Hope somebody will alert Messrs. Corn, Gitlin
> and Cooper. From Salon:]
>
> 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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