I don't know what exactly Rahul had in mind, but I'd measure the anti-war movement by its collective public actions (as Brad Mayer argues, "Opinion kept private don't mean a thing): e.g., petitions, letters, vigils, lobbyings, sit-ins, die-ins, educational forums (e.g., lectures, panel discussions, etc.), cultural activities (e.g., plays, concerts, film screenings, poetry readings, etc.), street theaters, zap actions, rallies, demonstrations, electoral campaigns, etc.
>Is it because there are fewer demonstrations and that the number of
>participants at those demos has diminished?
The last big nationwide mobilization focused on opposition to the occupation of Iraq was held on March 20, 2004. Below the scale of big demonstrations organized nationwide, though, local activities of all sorts (not just demonstrations) focused on opposing the occupation also declined since then. Things are just now picking up, probably because voter registration and ballot access battles are just about over.
>You can only circle round the City Hall of San Francisco or the
>White House in DC before it starts to become old hat and uninspiring.
I agree with you, but the "March for Women's Lives" (which, in reality, was the "March for the Democrats" -- <http://montages.blogspot.com/2004/04/here-to-lead-or-here-to-be-led.html>) on April 25, 2004 was pretty big (its organizers said more than a million came), even though there was nothing innovative about its format. The World-Says-No-to-the-Bush-Agenda march in NYC had a very good turnout (about 500,000), too, for a march held near the end of August (which is usually not a good time for organizing a big demonstration). This march was also an old-fashioned one: big-name speakers (Michael Moore, Bob Edgar, Jesse Jackson, etc.), NYC Democratic Party politicians, and lesser known organizers spoke, the march kicked off, followed the predetermined route, and then dispersed. (It was so hot that I almost melted down, and after the march, my fellow Columbus activists and I didn't have any energy left to look up our friends in NYC [except Loren <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2001/2001-February/002493.html>, our old Columbus friend who now lives in NYC]). So, it's not like big boring marches and rallies died as protest formats. :-|
>So, I agree that part of the problem may be that people pin their
>hopes on Kerry being better; but part of the problem is to come up
>with more effective forms of protest than the traditional
>ring-around-the-rosey peace march. These types of demonstrations
>served a purpose and now that is spent. Obviously no attractive
>POSITIVE alternatives have been proposed, or anyhow took root, and
>so people are going to fall back on voting against Bush and hoping
>things get better.
Hopefully, left-wing labor activists now involved in the Million Worker March organizing will be able to organize actions against the occupation at the point of production and in working-class communities of color in the near future. -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>