Re: [Marxism] UFPJ Assembly, February 19-21

[aaron hess <aaronhess@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for the discussion of the UFPJ conference. 
-aaron hess



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Antiwar coalition holds national assembly meeting in St. Louis
Debating UFPJ's direction
February 25, 2005 | www.socialistworker.org

ERIC RUDER reports from the United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ)
national assembly meeting in St. Louis.

MORE THAN 400 activists and organizers gathered February 19-21 for the
second annual UFPJ national assembly to map out a strategy. The event
brought together people from UFPJ's 850 affiliated organizations.

In the opening plenary, Dave Cline, national president of Veterans for
Peace, expressed in stark terms the challenges facing the movement by
drawing on his experience as a soldier and antiwar activist during the
Vietnam War. "Having fought in Vietnam, I came back to the war at home
and fought in that war as well," Cline told the audience. "Three
factors ended the war--the continued resistance of the Vietnamese
people, popular opposition at home and the breakdown of the U.S.
military. The same three factors, though to a lesser degree, are
already at play in Iraq."

Cline's message--that the antiwar movement needs to focus on how to
support and organize a growing opposition on the streets and in the
military--was warmly received.

But it was also clear that the leadership of UFPJ has a different
focus in mind. Immediately after the speakers finished at the opening
plenary, the discussion was opened up by a question read from the
podium that came from the UFPJ steering committee: "What would a UFPJ
congressional strategy look like? How do we reach out to sympathetic
politicians?"

In case anyone needed clarification about who the "sympathetic
politicians" were, a representative of Progressive Democrats of
America was on hand to discuss local or state lobbying efforts with
anyone who wanted to.

Throughout the weekend, no one addressed the elephant in the living
room--the decision of leading members and forces in UFPJ to campaign
for John Kerry, a pro-war presidential candidate. For most of last
year, the antiwar movement was at a standstill--even as the potential
audience for antiwar opposition increased, and the U.S. occupation was
shaken by the Abu Ghraib torture scandal and a growing Iraqi
resistance.

This disorientation has continued in the post-election period, and was
evident over the weekend--for example, in the discussion of proposals
for mass mobilizations. Despite a "strategic framework" adopted
earlier in the day calling for UFPJ to focus on organizing against the
occupation of Iraq and its related consequences, proposals for mass
mobilization focused on demonstrations to reform the United Nations
and against nuclear proliferation.

Activists had to press for a large national demonstration focused
specifically on Iraq during a mini-plenary discussion.

Members of Connecticut United for Peace handed out a leaflet outlining
the reasons for such a demonstration. "Grassroots activity unearths
potential new recruits to our movement," read their statement. "Only
powerful national mobilizations that confront the government in the
streets with hundreds of thousands can turn them into confident,
steeled and combative new leaders for our movement...Mass national
actions remain the clearest, most direct means to demonstrate our
power and reshape the political landscape."

After some discussion, the mini-plenary agreed to bring a proposal to
the assembly floor for a September 10 national mobilization to march
on the United Nations and demand that the U.S. bring troops home from
Iraq now. UFPJ National Coordinator Leslie Cagan and UFPJ Co-chair
Lisa Fithian voiced their agreement with the call.

Delegates to the full assembly passed this proposal by an overwhelming
margin--and also voted for other initiatives including a grassroots
education and speaking campaign, a focus on organizing to expose the
local costs of the war, and a campaign to counter military recruiters
in high schools and on college campuses. This showed that among UFPJ
delegates were activists involved in local initiatives who were
anxious to get back to building a visible protest movement and who
hoped that UFPJ could serve as a vehicle to generalize these efforts.

Nevertheless, by the narrowest of margins, a proposal for a UFPJ
legislative and lobbying strategy passed, garnering 68 percent (a
"super-majority" vote of two-thirds was required to adopt a proposal).
And a proposal for UFPJ to mobilize demonstrations and direct action
against corporate war profiteers, the pro-war mainstream media and the
military--dubbed "People Power" by its sponsors--was narrowly
defeated, winning only 61 percent support.

One glaring weakness of the assembly was the virtual absence of Arabs
and Muslims--who have borne the brunt of the war on civil liberties.

Even the panel organized to address the challenge of building a
multiracial movement had no Arab speaker. And the discussion focused
internally on the question of "privilege" and the need to "build
trust" instead of coming to terms with UFPJ's reluctance to
incorporate opposition to Israel's occupation of Palestine into its
opposition to the U.S. occupation of Iraq--and its silence last year
as the issue of U.S. torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay grabbed
headlines.

There was no discussion of the most obvious way of building such
trust--namely, taking a strong stand against the witch-hunts of Arab
professors and antiwar activists.

In sum, the assembly demonstrated the ongoing gap between UFPJ's
stated aims and its practice.

Our movement has to put activism and protest ahead of looking for
friends within the pro-war Democratic Party. The key to moving ahead
will be in building local struggles and initiatives that can
strengthen the fight at its grassroots and form the basis for a
stronger national antiwar movement.

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