Dear National Assembly,
The Brooklyn Greens / Green Party of NY, which is an endorsing organization of the National Conference in Cleveland, met yesterday and discussed the Action Proposal submitted by the cc of the Assembly. We have a number of concerns about it.
When we first endorsed the Cleveland gathering, it was because we agreed with the proposal for a new and democratic antiwar organization that would:
1) up the level of militancy of the antiwar movement
2) provide new frameworks for organizing
3) reject ties to the Democratic party
4) provide for more democracy within the movement
5) include the call for Immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan as well as Iraq, and
6) tie the demand for withdrawal to the fight against torture, the destruction of civil liberties and environmental devastation.
Since that time, and while appreciative of the work of the coordinating committee, we note that the trajectory of the organization seems to have moved fairly dramatically to the same old stuff we've been hearing for years. We fear that the purpose of this new organization is in doubt and that the cc has lost its way.
We ask the coordinating committee to please clarify the purpose of the National Assembly as currently conceived. If it's just going to repeat the work of UFPJ or ANSWER, albeit with a more democratic face, what's the point?
The Brooklyn Greens / Green Party of NY wants to see a new antiwar organization that overtly, as part of its mission:
a) Supports and helps to organize global direct action (as distinct from civil disobedience) campaigns against all of the various facets of the U.S. war machine.
b) Organizes labor actions and strikes against the war, similar to the May Day west coast shutdown of all the ports on the Pacific coast.
c) Supports military resisters politically, financially and legally.
d) Fights for restoration of civil liberties, freeing of all political prisoners and an end to the U.S. government policy of torture.
e) Mobilizes for a new and independent investigation into the events of 9-11, and explores the relationship between those events and the U.S. government's war for empire and oil, and the consequent decimation of civil liberties, promotion of torture, and devastation of the environment.
f) Provides material aid to specific projects involved in Iraq's resistance to U.S. military occupation.
We can expand on each of these essential amendments to the the cc's "Action Proposal" in the near future, if there is interest in what we have to say. We note that the changes that have been made to the original conception of the Cleveland conference have greatly discouraged us; these amendments would require re-thinking the purpose of the National Assembly itself.
We remain hopeful that we can work together to build an effective and democratic antiwar movement in the U.S. independent of the Democrat and Republican parties.
Thank you, Mitchel Cohen Petros Evdokas Robert Gold Robb Ross
on behalf of the Brooklyn Greens / Green Party
Mitchel Cohen 2652 Cropsey Avenue, #7H Brooklyn, NY 11214 (718) 449-0037 mitchelcohen at mindspring.com