[lbo-talk] UFPJ Leadership Funks Out

[Carrol Cox]

The following paragraphs from a curren Counterpunch article are the most
depressing news that I have read since 9/11. What they indicate is that
the Anti-War Movement has been dissolved in practice by its ostensible
leadership. I never dreamt that the ABBs could sink so low. I was
enraged by their desertion of their responsiblities during the electoral
campaign, but I assumed that they would wake up after the election. It
seems that their desertion is final.

Carrol

http://www.counterpunch.org/smith02242005.html

The Anti-War Movement After Kerry

EXCERPT: SINCE THE election, the antiwar movement is showing signs of
revival, but the same leadership responsible for the movement's hiatus
during the presidential campaign is once again seizing the reins of
control over the movement.

These antiwar leaders have yet to acknowledge their own role in the
Kerry debacle, much less the antiwar movement's decline. Most accept the
view that Bush's re-election provides indisputable evidence that
"Christian values" and conservative politics dominate among the U.S.
population--requiring those on the left to adapt yet further rightward
in the aftermath of Kerry's defeat.

United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) co-chair Bob Wing lamented recently,
"Our original hope was that the movement would grow...But things have
not worked out that way, and it is dangerous and unstable for a
coalition to have a broader and deeper political unity than most of its
member groups."

Medea Benjamin, cofounder of the women's peace group Code Pink, told the
San Francisco Chronicle on January 23: "It was easier to mobilize people
before the war. Now, many pe