Right. Organizing cannot happen without a spontaneous rise of interest in action on the part of potential constituencies for organizing; at the same time, potential constituencies have nowhere to turn without experienced national organizers with time, energy, dedication, access to resources (money, facilities, lawyers, etc.), know-how, and most importantly, _a current (i.e., not outdated!] list of contact persons who are themselves good local organizers with good phone trees and mailing lists_. This last part -- a good and current list of contact persons who are skilled local organizers -- cannot be developed overnight. It has to be patiently developed over a decade or so (through trials and errors, through what may look like many failures) with constant updating. That's what WW/IAC/ANSWER has and NION, United for Peace, etc. have yet to match. Any "coalition" who fails to inform preexisting local organizers -- who have contact information of local liberal and left-wing organizations (churches, ethnic orgs, student orgs, community orgs, etc.) and activists -- of an upcoming nationwide action at the very least a couple of months ahead of time cannot hope to achieve a big turnout. -- 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/>