How to Raise the Social Costs to the Power Elite Re: the case against the case against "regime change" in Iraq

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>Yoshie Furuhashi:
>>  ...
>>  So, the question is how best to raise the social costs to the power
>>  elite, especially how best to make the anti-war movement rapidly grow
>>  _much larger and more militant_.
>
>If one is going to modify the behavior of another by exacting
>costs on the other, one must be sure to do so in such a way
>as to cost oneself much less than one costs the other, so that
>one can sustain the campaign for as long as necessary.  That
>implies that the anti-war movements must be intelligent, as
>well as large and militant, and be clever about when, how and
>where they commit their resources to the struggle, especially
>given that these resources are rather limited at the present
>time.  The early Civil Rights movement may be a better
>example for contemporary anti-warriors than the anti-Vietnam-
>War movement.  It was certainly more effective.
>
>-- Gordon

A number of activists who struggled in the Civil Rights movement 
often ended up sacrificing themselves much more than they cost the 
power elite in the short term, some of them paying with their lives. 
So, if the idea is that we can and must be smart and come out ahead 
in short-term cost-benefit calculation, the Civil Rights movement may 
not give us clues.  What we can learn from the Civil Rights movement 
is how to link local struggles with national mobilizations.  In the 
case of anti-war organizing, however, it is harder to find obvious 
local angles, unlike the Civil Rights movement, for which all 
segregated social spaces became potential targets for direct action 
and other forms of protest.  Any thoughts?
-- 
Yoshie

* Calendar of Events in Columbus: 
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>
* Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html>
* Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>