AFSC and Global Exchange have committed some paid organizers dedicated to either Iraq-related issues or peace-movement organizing. Both have contacted me (by e-mail and phone), regarding upcoming UfP activities. They did so only on very short notice, though. They are still way behind the learning curve.
In any case, the difference between ANSWER and UfP doesn't lie in the number of paid organizers.
The other reasons mentioned by Liza are what is crucial:
At 1:08 PM -0500 1/23/03, Liza Featherstone wrote:
>1)IAC (the front for the WWP before ANSWER became the front for IAC)
>continued working on Iraq after the Gulf War, protesting the
>embargo, the bombings when nobody else was doing anything.
<snip>
>3)The emerging, more organized national coalitions are still much newer than
>ANSWER.
>
>4)ANSWER was strongly opposed to the war on Afghanistan, so while
>many other groups were dithering and processing about that, they
>were getting some structure in place. Ditto on Palestine. Both to
>their credit. And since they aren't democratic and don't much care
>about subtlety, it's no problem for them to quickly assemble
>simplistic messages on issues that most people think are kind of
>complicated.
Notice that (1), (2), & (4) are not really separate points. -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/>