UfPJ's "Congressional Action Days"

["Jose G. Perez" <jg_perez@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

If you read only the promo, you'd think it was a day of nationally
coordinated mass protests.  

Under the headlines: "Investigate the Lies -- End the Occupation --
Bring the Troops Home NOW!" the very top of the UfPJ web site's home
page militantly projects "a massive grassroots advocacy/pressure day"
urging people to "Take action."

But if you follow that "Take Action" link, you get a page substantially
discounted in militancy from the activist-sounding home page blurb.
"Grassroots Congressional Action Days -- Meet with Members of Congress
to Demand Investigation of Bush's lies leading up to war on Iraq."

No "Bring the Troops Home Now!" headlines. In fact, you have to scroll
well down into the text of the article --which was also mailed out
Tuesday as an "Action Alert" to 50,000 people, according to a UfPJ
person involved-- to find the one and only sentence in the whole piece
that talks about the big issue: "Push Congress to end U.S. military and
economic control over Iraq and bring the troops home now." The rest of
the article is completely devoted to the idea that Bush lied about WMD's
and so on to justify invading Iraq, and that Congress should investigate
this.

But the discounting doesn't stop there, not by a long shot. This isn't
mainly UfPJ's campaign, but is being actually organized by a group
called EPIC. People are referred from the UfPJ web site to an EPIC page
to get all the practical details. So it is EPIC that sets the real
national political character of this.

The EPIC page is headlined, "EPIC Accountability campaign."  

At the top is a quote --in italics so we understand that it is
especially significant-- from a New Yorker article by someone I'm sure
I'm supposed to immediately recognize, David Remnick. But being a dumb
spic down here in the sticks, of course I don't.

"In the case of Iraq, it's impossible to be indifferent to the prospect
that intelligence has been manipulated, forged, or bullied into
shape.... The Administration evidently calculates that its popularity is
such that no one much cares about the petty questions of means and ends.
The Administration is wrong. A serious investigation is urgently
needed."

I've got news for Mister Remnick. It *is* possible to be indifferent.
Latin American countries have been invaded and brutalized so many times
by your storm troopers, each and every time justified by a pack of lies,
that people who are branded "foreigners" and "illegal" in places with
names like Texas, California and Nuevo Mexico are quite likely to assume
what's being offered as justification for this invasion is a pack of
lies. What astonishes us is that someone would be surprised by the lies:
it is standard operating procedure, the U.S. modus operandi. 

The whole EPIC page is dedicated to harping on the idea that Bush lied.
How uncouth! How vulgar! How immoral!  Apparently some middle-class
liberals are shocked, just shocked, to discover that gambling is going
on in this establishment. 

At least the UfPJ page had the basic human decency to begin with the
thousands of deaths and untold suffering the United States has visited
on Iraq. No such luck on the EPIC page. Instead, we are told this: 

"Form a citizens' delegation and visit your Members of Congress in
August. Urge your representatives to work to end Pentagon control of
postwar Iraq. Express your concern about the growing number of American
and Iraqi civilian casualties. And urge your representatives to support
an open and thorough investigation into the growing scandal over the
misuse of intelligence on Iraq."

A 12-year war -- for that is what it has been for the people of Iraq --
is a cause for "concern." And of course, their concern extends only to
"American" and "Iraqi civilian" deaths.  What about Iraqi combatants?
Have the liberals no concern for them? Does EPIC feel no outrage at the
way the United States is hunting down like dogs those brave souls
resisting, arms in hand, the rape of their country?  Apparently not. And
of course, that W. would lie is much more serious: genocidal aggression
is a "concern"; some rich white kid who stole the last election lying,
now that's a real "scandal." 

But what really caught my eye is this: "Urge your representatives to
work to end Pentagon control of postwar Iraq."

It caught my eye, because, first, there is no such place as "postwar
Iraq." There is no peace. The war continues. The U.S. is still trying to
impose its will by force of arms with tremendous violence against the
resistance of the Iraqi people. 

Second because of the bit about "Pentagon control." Iraq is not under
the control of the Pentagon. It is under the control of the U.S.
government. The Pentagon is following the orders of the President,
orders duly authorized and financed by the very congresscritters we're
supposed to go lobby next week.

Who would EPIC have take over from the Pentagon? The Department of
Homeland Security? The Bureau of Indian Affairs? Or, in keeping with the
neoliberal privatization religion, a wholly-owned subsidiary of
Halliburton? Let me assure the brothers and sisters from EPIC their
concern is quite unnecessary. Iraq has already been placed under the
control of a Halliburton subsidiary. It is called the White House. It is
not under "Pentagon" control.

And lest people think I'm picking on EPIC for an unfortunate wording
whose intention was to oppose the occupation, consider this from EPIC's
own "Action Alert" for the Congressional Action Days: "Use the meeting
to urge your Members of Congress to support a full investigation into
the growing scandal over the misuse of intelligence on Iraq. And
encourage them to press the administration to end Pentagon control over
postwar Iraq. The power to hold U.S. officials accountable for the Iraq
War, and prevent future conflict, is yours."

Encourage the Congresscritters to lobby the President: now there's an
idea that will get you far! The antiwar movement is reduced to
indirectly advising the unelected Bush Junta on how to carry out a
kinder, gentler occupation. Kill the Iraqis, but by peaceful means. EPIC
want us to "hold officials accountable" for the Iraq invasion and
"prevent future conflict." But what about the occupation and war going
on right now, today? On that they have nothing to say except that Rummy
shouldn't be in charge, it should be some other white, rich, right-wing
Republican.

That shows the real point of the silly phrase about "Pentagon control."
It is to weasel out of saying something else, which can be quite pithily
expressed in two miniscule one-syllable words: "Out Now!" EPIC doesn't
want to say it, they're not for it, because there isn't a single
congresscritter out there who agrees with it, at least not in public,
and especially not among the "front runners" for the Democratic Party
nomination next year. And "we" don't want to embarrass "our" friends.
Some people have strange friends.

An antiwar movement built on that kind of basis is a fake and a fraud.
The antiwar movement must be based on the bedrock principle of respect
for the right of the Iraqi people to self-determination.

The United States has absolutely no right to dictate --or even
discuss!-- how the Iraqis will shape the future of their country. Not
the Pentagon, not the Congress, not the White House, not the
corporations, not the United Nations: the people of Iraq must be masters
of their own fate.

Of course, demanding of the criminals in congress --who are just as
guilty as Bush is of this war of aggression-- that they get their army
out of Iraq NOW would quite ruin the cozy tête-à-tête EPIC projects
between the congresscritters and the "citizens" (no "wetbacks" need
apply -- more on this in a little bit). 

These are meant to be intimate affairs between "citizens' delegations"
of "two to four like-minded citizens" who are instructed to be polite,
well dressed, mild mannered, and obsequiously thankful to the
congresscritter for having condescended to meet with unworthy rabble
like us, since we understand that "Our struggle is not the most
important thing in the world of Congress." And, of course what *could*
be more important than "the world of Congress?"

Frankly, I don't really believe EPIC's tactic of getting people to hide
their antiwar convictions while visiting the congresscritters will work.
I think the people that will be motivated to take part will *insist* on
presenting the demand that the U.S. government get out of Iraq, lock,
stock and barrel, and right now, EPIC's careful evasions around this
central issue notwithstanding.

Now, if this were projected as just one more of many activities around
Iraq that UfPJ were involved in, I might be tempted to say, let it pass
(except for the "citizen" bit which is absolutely INTOLERABLE and I'll
get to it in a minute). In a broad coalition there is room, arguably,
even for this. But as of today, this is the ONLY Iraq-focused "action"
the national coalition is carrying out.

Even projects that have been publicly referred to --including a "week"
of actions Oct. 4-13 mentioned in Leslie Cagan's widely circulated memo
about unity negotiations with ANSWER and others, is totally absent from
the UfPJ web site and I can't find *anyone* who knows the first thing
about this nine-day "week."

The UfPJ leadership has even succeeded --don't ask me how-- in failing
to approve so much as a merely *token* endorsement of the October 25
March on Washington initiated by ANSWER, never mind coming to an
understanding that would make it the central focus for the entire
antiwar movement in the fall. October 25 isn't even *mentioned* on the
UfPJ website in a shameful omission that SCREAMS divisiveness and
sectarianism, and despite the UfPJ's web site stated editorial policy
that "United for Peace & Justice aims to publish anti-war news and
information that will be of use to peace activists all over the United
States and the world. Every event or idea on the site has not
necessarily been endorsed by the organizations in United for Peace and
Justice." The home page of the web site is promoting a yet-to-be-defined
anti-Bush protest --which quite possibly will become a pro-Democrat
event-- more than a year from now, but has NO room for October 25, the
central focus of efforts to reactivate the antiwar movement to fight the
war that is actually going on right now.

This would all be almost comical except that UfPJ claims to be the main
national antiwar coalition. There is a tremendous, immediate, pressing
need to reactivate a broad-based, independent antiwar movement. The
biggest issue I have with UfPJ isn't that it is doing this
congresscritter project, but that it seems to be completely defaulting
on the most important task. And thus the attempt to present this
ultra-feeble congressional belly-crawl as some sort of "massive" event
acquires a significance it would not otherwise have. It is an attempt to
convey an impression of UfPJ's activities that does not coincide with
the facts on the ground.

And if THIS lobbying campaign is grassroots organizing, then the only
thing I can say is that the roots of my grass are very, very different
from some other people's.

For me, grassroots would mean, first of all, the Latino community where
I live, in Georgia, which numbers probably close to a million now and is
growing explosively. Yet we are, in our overwhelming majority, not just
implicitly but even *explicitly* excluded from this "grassroots" effort.

Implicitly, because the object is to lobby "our" congressional
representatives. But as it happens, *we,* the Latinos in Georgia have no
one to lobby. We have no representatives. The Congresscritters that
people in the UfPJ leadership apparently consider "our" representatives
won't even let us vote! And to add insult to injury, EPIC quite openly
proclaims an EXCLUSIONARY requirement: a "citizens' delegation" composed
of "two to four like-minded citizens." CITIZENS!!!

And UfPJ makes an activity like this its *main* activity opposing the
war? When it is organized on a basis that says EXPLICITLY to millions of
Latinos, fuck off, we don't want your kind here?

UfPJ, you either accept us ALL as we are, papers or no papers, or you
join the U.S. English and the pig Anglo politicians like Pete Wilson and
Schwarzenegger in attacking us and excluding us. And the community will
treat you accordingly. It is that simple.

Would UfPJ have accepted a lobbying campaign that said, two to four
like-minded gentiles? Two to four like-minded males? Two to four
like-minded white people? Two to four like-minded straights? Why does it
accept two to four like-minded citizens?

I'll tell you why. Because to some people, "citizen" is interchangeable
with "person." Latino immigrants harvest the food they eat, build the
houses they live in, pave the roads they drive on, fight the wars their
government orders. But to them, the Latino doesn't exist as a human
being. EPIC and the UfPJ leaders weren't *trying* to exclude us, they
did it automatically, without giving it a second thought, as a matter of
course, all the while fooling themselves into thinking they're really
right on and antiracist, why look, they even promote the Immigrant
Workers Freedom Ride on the home page of their web site.

If you want to know why the antiwar movement is so white, why there was
such a huge last-minute scramble to get at least a few "minorities" to
the UfPJ conference in June, realize that racist insults like the
"citizen" one are a dime a dozen, and they are inextricably tied to the
*refusal* of liberals and those who go chasing after them to recognize
and defend, in practice, on the ground, the right of the Iraqi people to
self-determination.

As for the rest of it, what UfPJ is *not* doing as a national coalition
reminds me of the line in the movie Little Big Man that concludes Jack
Crabb's "Soda Pop Kid" period. And it's what his sister told him: "there
ain't nothing more useless than a gunfighter that won't shoot people."

There ain't nothing more useless than an antiwar coalition that won't
fight against the war that is actually going on.

José