The antiwar movement isn't dead

[xchrom]

http://www.salon.com/news/iraq_war/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/07/19/antiwar_movement_lives_on

Todd Gitlin writes a convincing obituary for an antiwar movement killed by a thousand blows: crushed by Bush's pigheadedness, dumped in the media's black hole, rendered invisible by a volunteer army and drones, overshadowed by more urgent financial crises, chastened by the "unpleasantness" of adversaries from Taliban to al-Qaida to Gadhafi. He leaves out some other daggers to the heart of the movement: grass-roots election campaigns that lured away millions of activists; betrayals by the president and groups like MoveOn who used and abused the antiwar sentiment; craven congressional reps who violate the will of their constituents by continuing to fund war; powerful lobbyists for the war industry who wield enormous power in Washington; and the utter exhaustion that sets in after 10 years of standing up to the largest military complex the world has ever seen.

Despite all these challenges, however, the reports of the death of the antiwar movement are greatly exaggerated. Sure, there are no longer millions marching in the streets -- but there aren't millions marching in American streets for any cause these days. Lacking the staying power of Tahrir Square, our weekend rallies failed to effect policy and left people disillusioned -- and bored. That's why creative and media-savvy activism 2.0 tactics -- like flash mobs, Twitter culture jams and YouTube videos -- have emerged that engage with the younger generation.

And that's why the movement has transformed as well. Rather than marching in circles and chanting slogans to ourselves, we're reaching deep into our communities to make connections between the economic crises our neighborhoods face and the wars that rob us of scarce resources.

Take a look at the recent Bring Our War Dollars Home campaign spurred by CODEPINK, a campaign that gave a new burst of energy to the movement. We encouraged activists around the country to build local coalitions to push the passage of a resolution to stop funding wars and invest those monies into rebuilding America. From big cities like Los Angeles and Baltimore to towns like Ithaca, N.Y., and Worcester, Mass., coalitions of peace, labor, environmental, feminist and religious groups wrote letters, made calls, visited and otherwise cajoled their city officials. After dozens of victories, in June we took the resolution to the national U.S. Conference of Mayors, representing 1,200 American cities. Despite some hackneyed efforts to brand the resolution as being "against the troops," it passed overwhelmingly and has become a useful tool against congressional members who continue to vote more money for war.

[elocs]

1. Much to the chagrin of some who fantasize it happening, there will not be millions

taking to the streets for any one issue. Americans are too comfortable.

I don't recall hearing anything about the antiwar movement being dead but then I don't recall hearing much about it at all.

[MilesColtrane]

3. Yep.

No draft = No antiwar movement of significant size and impact

I'm sure that many who participated in the protests leading up to the invasion of Iraq saw that it had no effect on the Bush administration's actions and figured that future demonstrations were futile.

[awoke_in_2003]

4. "Americans are too comfortable"...

also, for many Americans, getting arrested at a protest will get them fired.

[elocs]

5. That is exactly right. You are not going to see Americans in great numbers take to the streets.

Even here in Wisconsin we managed to get tens of thousands protesting in Madison for a couple of weeks, but only for that long and the atmosphere there was pretty laid back.

[Doctor Hurt]

2. yeah it pretty much is.

It's hard to make people care when no one they know is dying.

[Demeter]

6. A general strike would be much more effective

against the largest corporate criminals.