> I told them that two out of three Americans now opposed the war in contrast
> to maybe one out of 100 elected politicians. The problem is not in the
> heartland. The problem is at the national level. As popular opposition to
> the war across the country has mounted, the demonstrations have got smaller!
> There is no visible national strategy to end the war and bring the troops
> home. I attribute this in considerable part to the disastrous fealty of the
> leadership of some of the big organizations to the Democrats. This explains
> why United for Peace and Justice, for example, was missing in action for
> most of 2004. It didn't want to rock the Kerry boat, even as Captain Kerry
> was drilling holes in its hull.
>
> Defenders of UPFJ said it register an antiwar presence at the Democratic
> convention in Boston, and anyway, it couldn't get too far ahead of the
> general mood of its base, which of course raises the question of how much of
> a left exists in the country these days. As your CounterPunch editors
> pointed out last week, If it wasn't for Cindy Sheehan and Jack Murtha the
> antiwar movement in this country would have all but disappeared as a
> presence on the national political agenda, from the late summer of 2005 on.
Is it now time for good ole ChuckO to say "see, I told you so"?
Cockburn eloquently states the obvious in this article, but the anti-war left is still plugging their ears to any kind of critical anaysis.
Let me modify that statement: there has been a thaw in the groupthink in recent months, with more people in the movements openly criticizing the protest-as-usual strategy that is ineffective and boring.
As some of you know, I've been a persistent critic of ANSWER and UFPJ from the start of ANSWER in September 2001. Having been involved with the anti-globalization movement in Washington, I had plenty of first hand experience with the WWP and the IAC, parent organizations to ANSWER. I spoke up after ANSWER was formed, because I had first hand experience with the pathetic protest politics of the IAC during the Balkans War (and their anti-Iraq sanctions protests).
There were a few of us in 2001 who loudly pointed out that ANSWER was a front group which would stick to organizing the same protest over and over and over again. I was absolutely correct in my predictions--many anti-war people wasted their time and resources on the "better than nothing" mobilizations organized by ANSWER and later by UFPJ.
For my outspoken criticism, I was rewarded with a smear campaign by ANSWER, which spread rumors about me personally, and used proxies generally to attack anarchists and other ANSWER critics. Rumors were spread that I was a cop. Critics of ANSWER were accused of red-baiting. We were accused of being sectarian and being against "unity." People told us that it was no big deal if people just went to ANSWER protests because nobody cared who organized the protests.
This all goes to show how reactionary and myopic the American Left is these days. There is no big strategy because everybody has the attitude that we have to be "unified" and just attend the next mobilization (held every six months at the convenience of the organizing coalitions and divorced from any kind fo strategy against the war). There is no strategy because critical thinking and debate is discouraged. In my years of criticism of ANSWER, their leaders have NOT ONCE responded to me or my criticisms. The only time they have responded to criticisms is when the right wing attacks them, or some prominent leftist raises criticism.
UFPJ isn't much better, but as Cockburn points out, their decision in 2004 to not protest in order to please the Democrats pretty much writes them off as a credible anti-war coalition.
What should be done? The one good thing about protests last week is that they were organized locally by the hundreds of local anti-war groups which have sprouted up in the past 3+ years. There needs to be broader discussions in the movements about strategy. Sacred cows need to be turned into hamburger, such as the beliefs that the anti-war movements need coalitions like UFPJ and ANSWER, and the belief that national mobilizations change public opinion or government policy.
George W. Bush has announced that the "war" will go on for years, so the anti-war opposition has plenty of time to have an open, honest discussion about tactics and strategy.
Chuck Munson