> (Having read through a lot of the work done by the Australian secret service in
> the 60s, it is remarkable just how much they overestimated - from our position -
> the threat of apparently insignificant Maoist groups and how much they worried
> about freaks with long hair or unkempt armpits. I doubt much has changed,
> considering the sorts of questions I get asked by the police when they arrest me
> at demos. (note: I have neither long hair nor maoism.) We're so used to thinking
> we never win that we are sometimes blind to the fact we scare the living hell
> out of Them.)
>
> But anyway - so, how would you stop a war?
I don't think there is any easy answer to that question. The other night I was showing a friend who is staying with me some of my paintings from art school (University of Kansas, mid-80s). One of the paintings was an expressionistic depiction of US warplanes bombing Central American villages. My friend (who is roughly the same age and an activist for just as long) got to talking about how many wars we had protested during our short 30-something years on this planet. Of course, we had protested against the U.S. wars in Central America. I protested the Gulf War in Madison, where I had just graduated from as a new librarian. During the course of the 90s, I've protested various U.S. bombings in front of the White House. I've lost count. There were attacks on Iraq and there was that night that Clinton bombed Sudan and Afghanistan. I was out there with my offensive sign, which Hitchens later mentioned in one of his books.
The the U.S. attacked Yugoslavia in 1999 and the American Left had a massive heart attack, probably because they weren't used to a Democratic president waging an all out war. I dutifully went to demos, included the IAC one in June where we all got sunburn and marched over to the Pentagon on a Saturday afternoon. The war had ended and we got some sun.
Several days ago, somebody passed around a brilliant article from a guy who was disgusted by the constant parade of anti-war movements. I think the current situation is more promising, but I understand where he is coming from. I remember how quickly the anti-war movement died out during the Gulf War. I remember the peaceniks in Madison trying to get the City Council to pass a resolution declaring Madison a draft sanctuary. Nobody was being drafted, but hey, the pacifists have ot have their 60s moment.
I think one of the chief problems causing the ineffectiveness of anti-war activism has to do with the left sectarians who jump in and try to run things. There main priority is recruiting new people and establishing street cred for their party. They have no strategy for fighting a systemwide, coordinated resistance to the U.S. war machine. Can anybody explain to me why the ISO is spending so much time right now trying to take over student anti-war groups? I hear complaints fromstudents here in Washington and elsewhere. They don't have a strategy to resist the war--they just see this as the crisis du jour that will provide them with a young gullible recruiting class.
I'm doing lots of anti-war organizing and I hear from friends that they are worried about the war. It shocked me to realize that an Iraq War is the least of my worries. I'm more worried about fighting work so I can pay the rent. I'm more worried about going to a new temp job, despite having a cold, because I desperately need work right now. This war stuff seems very remote to me, even though I read articles, post news, and do anti-war activism.
The anti-war movement kind of reminds me of the days I worked at a theme park in Kansas City. The train ride was pretty cool the first few times it came around, but it then it got boring. Even after I spent some time as a fireman on the train, and learned what it was like to work next to an open propone torch in 100 degree weather, that got boring too.
So, you see, you can't blame me for being so negative about anti-war groups like ANSWER. I'm tired of their ride. I want to escape the theme park and go home.
How do you stop a war? Like I said, there are no easy answers, but I have a few opinions. We need to start being more honest about our history and that includes dispensing with the myths about how activists stopped the Vietnam War. We need to understand that the state can't be defeated by mass spectacles on the Mall, but does get worried when lots of movements break out that it can't understand. We have to put a stop to the protest du jour mentality that the Left engages in, where it drops all work on one issue to go work on another hot one. This war situation has prompted more than a few activists to drop their work on economic justice, anti-globalization, and anti-capitalist issues, precisely at a time when most Americans are worried about the economy. Where did the economic critique go in the anti-war movement? Where are the signs that read, "IT'S THE ECONOMY STUPID!"
We are also dealing with a regime that took power illegally and knows it. I don't think we've done enough to attack the legitimacy of the Bush Regime. Where are the calls and signs that read, "WE DEMAND NEW ELECTIONS IN 2003!" It sounds weird for an anarchist to point this out, but the Bush adminstration is skating on thin ground when it comes to legitimacy. Perhaps we can enlist help from non-Americans in pursuing a peaceful regime change in this country. Barring that, I think we are headed for civil war at this rate.
Other thoughts? If you read up on your history of the Vietnam War, you'll come across stories of GI resistance within the ranks of the military. You'll hear about the GI Coffeehouse programs. Anti-war and peace activists need to build bridges to military people and their families. The families and members of the National Guard are the most upset right now, because most NG members only do the NG to pick up some extra money each month. National guard families aren't going to be too happy about their loved ones and breadwinners being taken out of the country for a long period of time during tough economic times.
That's my take on the situation.
Chuck0
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"The state can't give you free speech, and the state can't take it away. You're born with it, like your eyes, like your ears. Freedom is something you assume, then you wait for someone to try to take it away. The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free..." ---Utah Phillips