Re: [Marxism] UfPJ says no to united antiwar march

["Andrew Pollack" <acpollack2@xxxxxxxxx>]

re the report Eli quotes: It's true. I was there.
Supporters of March 21st asked that that action not be counterposed to
April 4th -- and we still don't see them as counterposed. The UFPJ
leadership insisted they had to be. Their arguments in favor of April
4th were that the focus had to move away from the war. In the words of
UFPJ-NYC leader Leslie Kielson, "we're used to being in opposition, to
being an antiwar movement. Now we can be proactive," because "we're in
a new period." And the idea of a march in DC -- instead of NY, where
April 4th will be -- was vetoed because it would seem to be opposing
Obama. Over and over the need to realize "this is a different moment,"
to be part of the "Obama movement," was stressed.
After the vote on these two actions was taken, at a workshop on the
economic crisis, I said that it would be great to get unions involved
in April 4th and bring their demands for the kind of jobs and services
they need for their members and communities (sounds pretty proactive
to me!). Unfortunately UFPJ instead is only calling for a 25%
reduction in war spending (which would probably leave us at levels of
4 or 5 years ago). So rather than integrating the war and the economy
in a genuinely progressive way -- i.e. no troops in Iraq and
Afghanistan, and jobs and services for all who need them -- they will
demonstrate where, and with only those demands, that they feel won't
anger Obama.
(It must be emphasized that NONE of the March 21st supporters have any
intention of going after Obama in an ad hominem way; the target is
rather Washington's policies.)
Andy P.

On 12/16/08, Eli Stephens <elishastephens@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> My only source of information is a commenter on my blog, but it sounds fairly 
> authoritative:
>
> UFPJ recently defeated a proposal to
> support a united anti-war march in Washington D.C. on the sixth
> anniversary of the Iraq war, Saturday, March 21, by a vote of 111 to
> 49. Instead, United For Peace and Justice voted in favor of their
> program "Yes We Can... End the War" for a Saturday April 4 march on
> Wall Street, focusing on the recession.
>
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