[lbo-talk] UFPJ Leadership Funks Out

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com, Thu Feb 24 15:46:55 PST 2005:
>So lemme see if I have it right - the fact that the American 
>population hasn't signed on with the antiwar movement is the fault 
>of the leaders of the antiwar movement, and not the predilictions of 
>the American population.

The population is more in favor of bringing the troops home than ever 
before, according to the Harris poll:

<blockquote>The Harris Poll. Feb. 8-13, 2005. N=1,012 adults 
nationwide.  MoE ±  3.

"Do you favor keeping a large number of U.S. troops in Iraq until 
there is a stable government there OR bringing most of our troops 
home in the next year?"

                    Bring

        Wait for    Home In

       Stable Govt. Next Year  Unsure

              %         %         %
2/8-13/05    39       59         1
11/9-14/04   50       47         2
10/14-17/04  47       50         3
9/9-13/04    38       54         7
8/10-15/04   40       54         5
6/8-15/04    39       56         6
4/8-15/04    42       51         8
2/9-16/04    45       51         4
10/03        46       47         7

<http://www.pollingreport.com/iraq.htm></blockquote>

The changes in proportions of those who say "Wait for Stable Govt." 
and "Bring Home in Next Year" show the negative impacts of electoral 
campaigns (in which both the Democratic and Republican Parties' 
presidential candidates favored continuing the occupation of Iraq) on 
sentiments against the war on and occupation of Iraq.

Last year, after climbing up to the high point of 56% on June 8-15, 
the voices that said "Bring Home in Next Year" decreased 
significantly, *reaching the low point of 47% on November 9-14 and 
getting reduced to a minority for the first time since Harris began 
to poll on this question in October 2003*.

The latest numbers show a recovery of sentiments against the war and 
occupation -- despite the ruling class propaganda about the 
successful Iraqi elections -- probably because the negative effects 
of electoral politics have worn off.  We'll see if we can capitalize 
on the change through actions against the occupation on March 19-20, 
2005.
-- 
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/>