|
I think most peace activists realized long before March 2003 that the whole thing was a complete scam. My ma, who is a mainstream Democrat, and close to eighty, had no problem seeing that. Congress and the rest of them have only politics as their excuse. Ok, so what else is new?
What we need to do is figure out where the PEACE MOVEMENT needs to go. Here's a proposed strategy:
The peace movement is definitely not as strong as the popular support for peace now would sustain. And that is something that the peace movement activists need to rectify in three concrete strategic ways:
First, and most important, there needs to be some kind of mass-based peace organization to reach out to a much higher degree to the mainstream, the people who have NEVER been to a peace rally regarding the Persian Gulf. For that, only one type of organization can really do the trick fast -- to reach the vaguely antiwar but non-political/barely political mass, you need an organization that canvasses door-to-door for donations and members the way Greenpeace and PIRG do. But they can't just be 'managed' organizations of the type critiqued by Theda Skocpol in DIMINISHED DEMOCRACY. This organization, as ACORN and some other groups do in many urban neighborhoods, must also ORGANIZE members into active chapters, asking each when they become a member if they are willing to be contacted to be organized or whether they only want a subscription.
This kind of coupling of canvassing/mail order (where they don't canvass yet) with chapter organizing (not limited to urban neighborhoods) can bring hundreds of thousands of ACTIVE NEW people from places where the peace movement is now weak into the movement.
EVERY member of Congress should have some members of this group ("PeaceAmerica" or something like that) to pester them. This group, not only opposing the Iraq War but certain other basic issues of militarism (like Star Wars and bunker buster bombs) could develop a mass base in the millions, and could easily finance itself with the canvass money after a minimal initial money investment; indeed, it could be a framework for a sustained movement against militarism and interventionism at the grass roots, something this country really lacks.
There is much more to be said about how issues of demands and militancy should be handled, but that is just an opening idea. Anyone interested can email me, or send a DU message.
Second, and also crucial, is to insist at the UN, that the General Assembly, where the US does not have veto power, hold one of its "special sessions" on the war in Iraq. There have been at least a half-dozen over the last 30+ years that I have been involved in politics, and more before that. Then ALL countries would have one vote, and it would be possible to hear from and even establish rudimentary negotiations with some organization POLITICALLY representing the resistance in Iraq. It is important to bring these issues out of the arena of terrorism and repression and into the arena of political demands and political power. (Noam Chomsky has noted many times how the US, being weak in the latter and strong in the realm of force PREFERS the arena of force deciding matters.)
Third, as for Congress, we need a core of really strong pro-peace members of Congress, especially in the House, ones who would oppose the war in Kosovo as well as Iraq, (separating the liberals from the progressives) to form a Peace Caucus. This caucus would be in a position to work with the peace MOVEMENT, and bring its demands to a broader range in Congress. Only this way will there be a SUSTAINED pressure for peace in Congress, linked to a well-organized national peace movement of the kind still lacking today. Then this caucus could work within broader arenae like the proposal mentioned in the BOSTON GLOBE piece today, and keep the fires burning perennially, instead of an item here or there, that doesn't really succeed in cracking the VERY powerful walls of the imperialist state. And that is what we have -- whether you like the buzzword or not -- it's imperialism.
(this is reposted from elsewhere)
PLEASE RSVP!!!!!
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
