[Fwd: Re: [L-I] Query Re: "Support the Troops -- Bring Them Home"]

[Carrol Cox]

Odd that I should have not connected this topic with the slogan that the
SWP popularized: "Bring the troops home now." That slogan caught on
_outside_ the 'reach' of SWP influence because it was a good way to say
"Surrender now!" The SANE slogan mentioned below, "Negotiate Now,"
was/is just one of the many ways in which people avoid coming fully into
awareness of what it means to demand that a war end. Of course that
slogan could also hide the hope and/or expectation that "negotiations"
would just be another way of (the U.S.) "winning" the war. Hence it or
similar demands were made by those who fundamentally supported U.S. war
aims but didn't want to be so crude about it. "Bring the troops home
now" cut through all that bullshit, and though I never liked the SWP,
they did in pushing that slogan provide a valuable service to the
anti-war effort. Once that viewpoint became dominant, one no longer had
to fumble around answering the idiotic question, "But what do _you_
think 'we' should do?"

Waving flags and saying "support the troops," etc. are only temporary
crutches because they don't influence anyone, except the people who are
doing the waving or chanting the slogan: it makes them feel more
comfortable. I simply don't believe that anyone ever changed from
supporting the war to to opposing it because a demonstrator waved a
flag. And in even the short run, a slogan or symbol designed only to
make one feel more comfortable (that is, to conceal from oneself the
real thrust of one's position) doesn't build much spirit or influence
many people.

We oppose this war because we oppose the war aims of the U.S., correct?

Carrol

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [L-I] Query Re: "Support the Troops -- Bring Them Home"
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 16:13:36 -0800 (PST)
From: John Catalinotto <johnottocat at yahoo.com>
Reply-To: leninist-international at lists.econ.utah.edu
To: leninist-international at lists.econ.utah.edu

Early in the anti-Vietnam war movement (1964-65),
Youth Against War and Fascism raised the slogan "Bring
the GIs home now!" It contended successfully with
"Negotiate Now" at a SANE-organized demonstration in
Washington on Thanksgiving weekend, 1965. Another
favorite was "Big firms get rich, GIs die." Later, the
SWP used "Bring the troops home" with and without the
now, as I remember, but maybe someone who was with
them then can comment. It was always a natural
response to "Well, we have to support the troops,
don't we?" I was organizing troops against the war
then, in the American Servicemen's Union, so it always
seemed obvious.

John Catalinotto
--- Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> wrote:
> When and where did the slogan "Support the Troops --
> Bring Them Home" 
> originate?  In the anti-Gulf War movement?
> 
> -- 
> 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/>
> 
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> Leninist-International mailing list
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