There are a lot of new antiwar initiatives just getting off the ground. The movement is building. There was a great student conference at George Washington University on Friday, which brought together 200+ activists from 51 different campus antiwar groups. A joint conference was held in California, with reps from over 35 universities, and a new national network was launched, the 'national campus antiwar network'. We will be coordinating actions and building for the Feb. 15 United For Peace mobilization in New York City. The 15th is going to be huge.
The liberals' attacks on ANSWER and other radical groups is driven by people who accept a large part of Bush et al's case for war on Iraq. It's pure red-baiting, no different than the kind of thing prowar liberals dished out to SDS and the far left during Vietnam. Liberals like Todd Gitlin should decide which side they are on. Of course, within the movement there does need to be a healthy debate about not only strategy and tactics, but politics. Too often activists, particularly in the global justice movement, have shied away from that. ANSWER's model for organizing will not allow us to build the broadest possible movement. This is not because they aren't patriots, but because they have a top-down approach that does not build on the energies of activists on the ground- particularly on campuses. They also open the door to attacks on our movement because they can't defend their shitty politics. But I am very confident that the new forces emerging are going to help open the way to a broader movement.
I think it is important to separate the question of ANSWER's stalinist politics from the issue of anti-imperialism. The movement needs to be as broad as possible-- and it will be strengthened by gaining an understanding of how US power works across the world. The Bush Doctrine is nothing less than a bluepring for a new american empire. This is the only conclusion one can come to after reading the 'national security and strategy document,' and paying attention to discussions taking place within the US ruling class. 'Humanitiarian intervention' has been the achilles heel of the US left for quite some time. Perry Anderson's editorial in the last issue of New Left Review took this up very well, as has the International Socialist Review and Monthly Review. (A lot of good magazines have 'review' in their title.) The war against Iraq is
a key piece in a much larger project of securing 'american primacy' in the Middle East. If radicals and marxists can engage the new movement on these questions-- in a clear, accessible way-- the movement will be the stronger for it.
__________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com