[PEN-L:30436] Seize the Moment (by Max Elbaum)

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

This article appears in Vol. 1, No. 16 of Anti-War Perspectives,
published by the Burlington Anti-War Coalition in Burlington,
Vermont. The issue will come off the press today, September 21, 2002
at a Vermont statewide conference "Stop the War: Organizing for
Social Justice." For more information about the conference, go to
http://woofnet.com/stopthewar/

Seize the Moment

By Max Elbaum

As threats to invade Iraq mount, there is both greater urgency and
increased opportunity to reach out broadly with an antiwar message.

For readers of this newsletter there is no need to re-state the
reasons invading Iraq would be a human, environmental and political
catastrophe. What's remarkable is that leading figures in the
policy-making elite - for their own reasons - are proclaiming that
unilateral U.S. action could lead to disaster. Today's Republican
dissidents will fall in line behind Bush if an invasion does occur.
But for the moment, their orchestrated campaign to slow Bush down has
created the biggest opening for public debate over the "war on
terrorism" since 9-11.

The challenge to the antiwar movement is whether we can take
advantage of this opening to qualitatively expand our influence and
impact. Can we turn widespread doubts about an invasion into a
grassroots opposition movement powerful enough to register in
national politics? Can we move those who think this particular
invasion might not be a good idea toward a broader critique of the
"war on terrorism" and the racist, empire-building agenda that
underlies it?

In working to meet those goals, we now have a year's rich organizing
experience to draw upon (as well as the experience of previous
antiwar movements). Every group and individual activist brings
something to the table. Conferences like the Sept. 21 gathering in
Burlington give us the chance to build a movement that is both rooted
in and greater than the sum of its individual parts.

War Times (www.war-times.org) brings to our collective effort the
experience of putting out a nationwide, free, bilingual antiwar paper.

War Times was conceived last fall by Bay Area radicals rooted largely
in racial justice, immigrant rights, and
anti-prison-industrial-complex work. We had participated in an ad hoc
series of strategy discussions and inter-generational dialogues in
which 100-200 activists - about half 1960s veterans and half younger
folk, about half white and half activists of color - grappled with
the complexities of the post-911 world.

The idea behind War Times was that a missing piece of the antiwar
mosaic was an accessible, consistent source of information that could
be given to folks rather than something requiring people to "come to
us." Already-committed activists are flooded with information (from
e-mail lists, the web, subscription-based publications, and, in some
areas, Pacifica or similar radio stations). But with antiwar messages
shut out of the mainstream media, folks not already within the
antiwar loop have little access to voices and arguments of the
opposition. That's why, despite how costly it is, we decided that a
free, printed newspaper could be a crucial tool to expand the reach
of on-the-ground organizers.

Key concepts for War Times were "educational moment," "entry-way" and
"constituency consciousness."

Educational moment, meaning 9-11 sparked widespread discussions of
the U.S. role in the world, "why they hate us" and so on, opening
doors to at least introduce radical perspectives to folks who
ordinarily would not even talk about politics. It was - and remains -
a time when seeds can be planted that can later bear fruit in people
taking to the streets.

Entry-way meaning that War Times would not try to duplicate the
already excellent work of so many organizations and media outlets.
Rather, it would be a vehicle for introducing new people to the
essential arguments against the war and making them aware of all the
other organizations and media-projects of the antiwar movement.

Constituency consciousness, finally, has two meanings. Politically,
it meant identifying the paper's audience as the unconvinced, ranging
from soft supporters of the war to vacillating opponents.
Sociologically, we have tried to produce a paper useful to all
constituencies, but especially aimed at workers, communities of color
and immigrant communities. While people of conscience from all strata
oppose this war, it is these overlapping and specially-impacted
sectors which, if galvanized in their millions, can anchor a powerful
antiwar movement. Hence the bilingual character of War Times - in
just about every big city in the country today, rooting oneself among
working people necessitates efforts at least in Spanish as well as
English.

Based on these concepts, since February War Times has produced five
issues. Roughly 100,000 copies of each have been distributed by
400-600 organizations and individuals in all 50 states, D.C. and
Puerto Rico. About one-third are gotten out by traditional or new
peace organizations or coalitions; one-third by campus distributors
(including in high schools); and one-third by labor or community
organizations which are not principally antiwar formations but which
want to educate their members and periphery and link opposition to
the war to their ongoing agenda. We've assembled an e-mail list of
over 7,000 people who receive notice of each War Times new issue and,
beginning this fall, periodic announcements of major antiwar actions
and resources.

Besides a constant scramble to finance this effort (60% of the
$125,000 we've raised so far comes from individual donations of $5
and up), we are constantly trying to overcome shortcomings in War
Times work. There is an ongoing tension between the need to keep
articles short and the overall paper readable vs. dealing with the
full and complex range of issues in front of us. There is also
one-sidedness in which movements we have closest connections with and
cover well; our roots give us much stronger ties to the racial
justice movements, for example, than to the anti-corporate
globalization movement, a weakness we hope to overcome.

Beyond all that, War Times is not and cannot be a "stand-alone"
effort. It is dependent on and meant to serve organizing groups and
coalitions. In developing those crucial forms, we play only a
secondary role. But based on some direct involvement plus extensive
interaction with organizers who distribute War Times all over the
country, we have learned some lessons.

One is that building stable antiwar formations requires both dealing
front-and-center with the inherent racism of the "war on terrorism"
and with the negative racial dynamics that frequently penetrate into
the movement itself. Coalitions are fragile and unstable unless
organizations and activists rooted in communities of color have a
central seat at the table formulating policy and strategy.

Another is that the most successful efforts are those which are the
most-outward looking, where the left elements grasp that the
anti-imperialist wing of the antiwar movement will grow only in
tandem with a much broader peace-and-justice movement. When such
sentiment is consolidated, folks have a stronger basis to put the
many political differences within the movement into proper
perspective, and avoid the tendencies to infighting and
self-marginalization which have too often undermined the good
intentions and hard work of so many activists.

Finally, we've been reminded that there's no substitute for grappling
with how to get some real political muscle in the way of the
government's war machine: what steps will lead to expanding our base
and having a measurable and cumulative impact on actual events. Given
our initially small size and what we have been up against since 9-11,
there are no easy answers here. But nothing builds self-confidence
and heightened morale like actually making a difference "out there."

The April 20 actions were a huge boost to our collective morale
precisely because they had focus and scale sufficient to show there
was a real movement - especially in solidarity with Palestine -
actually existing on the ground. Today, the over-riding challenge is
to formulate and then follow through on an equivalent activity that
throws down the gauntlet against Bush's plan to invade Iraq. Clusters
of activists across the country, from nationally prominent leaders to
salt-of-the-earth organizers in the trenches, are beginning to take
on this question with vigor and urgency. If a creative plan for
mobilization can be united upon by an accountable constellation of
forces who have earned some moral and political authority, I am
convinced it will unleash tremendous energy and enthusiasm from the
grassroots. Then, together, we will be able not just to understand
and denounce the real "axis of evil," but throw a serious wrench into
its deadly war machine.

Max Elbaum is one of the editors of War Times.
--
Yoshie

* Calendar of Events in Columbus:
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>
* Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html>
* Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>