Mobilization capacity doesn't simply come from the number of "members" in name only. What you want to know is the number of organizers and activists. Do liberal peace groups and churches outnumber "the whole lot of the sects combined" listed in the "Red Encyclopedia" in the number of organizers (often misleadingly and pejoratively called "cadres") and activists? That is debatable. Liberal peace groups and churches probably have more _paid_ organizers and larger numbers of "members" in name than an assortment of socialist orgs listed in the "Red Encyclopedia" do, but that is neither here nor there. Peace Action, for instance, claims to be "the largest grassroots peace organization in the country," but how many skilled unpaid organizers does it field nationwide, how many unaffiliated local organizers can it contact, and how many activists can it mobilize to an action it calls? Liberal churches often issue good statements concerning "peace and justice" issues, but do the statements of liberal top leaders of such churches translate into congregations' actions in the streets? Not necessarily, and even when they do, only very slowly, with a small exception of a few traditionally pacifist denominations (which are much tinier than the Catholic Church and liberal mainline Protestant denominations).
That said, what I want to have is as accurate information as possible about each left-wing organization, liberal peace group, and liberal church against the war on Iraq in the following respects:
(1) the number of paid organizers that it employs; (2) the number of unpaid organizers who work for it; (3) the number of activists who belong to it; (4) the number of unaffiliated organizers that it can contact; (5) the number of unaffiliated activists that it can mobilize.
Hardly any empirical _quantitative_ research has been conducted by sociologists of social movements on anti-war mobilization capacities, however, and I have yet to find a useful study that covers the present and the last couple of decades. -- 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/>