Re: Antiwar movement, WWP, Liberals et al

["Derek S." <derektheredrebel@xxxxxxxxx>]

Lou Paulsen wrote:

> But if by "coalition" you mean a formal organization
> that is going to be in
> existence for a long period of time, more than a
> year, say, that will
> include as voting members all the forces that ought
> to be involved in
> anti-war work in the US at this time, and that will
> organize and plan these
> major actions, their political demands, their
> speakers' lists, etc. - well,
> who knows if there will be such a thing?  Doesn't
> that depend, not on you
> and me, but on a whole lot of people and forces that
> we don't control?

It seems to me like you do have some sort of control.
You have some authority right now in the movement. It
seems that you've used that authority, so far, to make
calls for the attendance and endorsement of your
events. This is a start, and by seeing the turnout at
the protests, a good one at that. But why not now use
your authority to make a call, not for endorsements
and attendance, but for a broad, democratic coalition
of everyone against the (US and/or UN) war to get
together, make the important decisions together, and
organize together? A coalition like this would surely
be much more effective in terms of building bigger
actions. With everyone having a say, you'd have much
more people having more at stake, and thus you'd have
many more groups/activists working harder to build
*our* anti-war movement.

I was in LA for the NOIN rally a few weeks ago. It was
very impressive for LA (about 5,000 people), but
that's not saying much. I saw ANSWER people there, and
I know they endorsed the demonstration. It seems to me
to be pointless to have these two separate groups
operating side by side, especially since it seems you
basically agree on the crucial questions in regards to
the war on Iraq. Why not issue a genuine call to them
(and the rest of the Left) to join forces in a broad,
public coalition, and be willing to engage in the
rational discussion necessary to do so? You say that,
regarding a broad, democratic coalition: "well, who
knows if there will be such a thing? Doesn't
that depend, not on you and me, but on a whole lot of
people and forces that we don't control?". Of course
this is true to a certain extent, but you guys have
the authority to begin to get something like this
started. The only precondition is that you be genuine,
in the sense that you're ready and confident enough to
operate within a broad coalition movement that you
don't fully control, but have a say in just like
everyone else who is against war with Iraq. If your
goal is to stop the war, it is in your interest to get
something like this going.

I'm not so naive to believe that the Left is just so
friendly and rational when it comes to working
together, nor that there aren't ulterior motives
involved in anti-war work and having the real decision
making power in this or that "coalition". But when you
belong to the group that has the most clout, by far,
in the current state of anti-war organizing, and then
when challenged with the idea of forming a much
broader anti-war coalition with a very different
structure and potential for effectiveness (but one
which you wouldn't fundamentally control) you then
throw your hands up and say that there's not much
anyone can do right now concerning this, that's it's
out of our control, I think this is an sorry,
deterministic excuse. YOU DO have some authority to
get talks going to start this necessary coalition. I
really appreciate the fantastic work you've done, but
I really wish you'd take this turn and go to the next
level. I think it would be embraced by most.

Taking another turn: I'm here in Duluth, MN for
several months. We had a demonstration on Sat. with
about 400-500 people, mostly ordinairy folks. This
went beyond the expectations of organizers here; 500
people here is equivlant to about 50,000 in a city
like LA or NY. And we were flocked with hinking horns
and peace signs from passerbys. It goes to show that
the anti-war sentiment in present even in small cities
throughout the nation.

Best,
Derek

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