> I sent the following joint statement to the United for Peace and Justice
> Steering Committee & Staff (<http://www.unitedforpeace.org/>) &
> International ANSWER organizers (<http://www.internationalanswer.org/>),
> in support of the Northeast Ohio Anti-War Coalition's call for a Unified
> Anti-War Action in the Fall. Please encourage organizations in which
> you are involved to issue a public statement in support of the NOAC's
> call and send it to the UFPJ SC & Staff and ANSWER organizers.
Why is it that some peace activists tend to be as dense when it comes to recent movement history as most Americans are about their own history? This effort to "unify" the Movement(sic) and give ANSWER more credibility works against the interests of activists and ensures that our dissent will continue to be squandered on pointless spectacles which only serve to swell the heads of the people involved with ANSWER.
Perhaps the news takes a while to get out to northeast Ohio, but in case the Ohioans have heard the news, many anti-war activists and groups have rejected ANSWER and their self-appointed role as "leaders" of THE peace movement. The UFPJ exists, in part, to provide an alternative to ANSWER. I know that I've supported UFPJ earlier this year, precisely because I wanted to see an alternative to ANSWER in anti-war organizing. I'm not fond of UFPJ's politics and it sucks what they did to the movement on F15, but they are more of a coalition of peace and anti-war activists than the so-called ANSWER "coalition."
Let's hope that UFPJ does the right thing and doesn't enable ANSWER by agreeing to this call.
Chuck Munson Infoshop.org