An Appeal To U.S. Antiwar Movement To Organize United Demonstrations

The following is from U.S Labor Against The War (USLAW), a well respected anti-war organization endorsed by labor unions and union officers representing over 5 million trade union members.

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An Appeal to the U.S. Antiwar Movement for United Demonstrations in the Fall
by Nancy Wohlforth
May 4th, 2005


Greetings:

My name is Nancy Wohlforth. I am writing on behalf of United States Labor Against the War (USLAW), whose Steering Committee voted to sign "An Appeal to the U.S. Antiwar Movement for United Demonstrations in the Fall" and to disseminate that Appeal as widely as possible throughout the movement and to other concerned groups. (Please see the Appeal below and attached.)

It is our hope that groups opposed to the war will act promptly in endorsing and signing the Appeal and forwarding it to whatever lists of potential supporters of the Appeal they have access to.

While our emphasis is, of course, to provide a vehicle for groups active in the antiwar struggle to voice their support for united antiwar actions in the fall, we believe it is appropriate -- and indeed essential -- to reach out to any organization that, whatever its particular mission might be, agrees that the antiwar cause is strengthened to the extent that the movement is unified.

Please send notice of endorsements of the Appeal to unityyes@aol.com or to USLAW's mailing address at 1718 M Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20036. We request phone numbers of all endorsers.

Our goal is to get many signers to the Appeal by mid-May and then invite representatives from the various national antiwar formations to convene together, hopefully in early June, to decide dates, times and places for united actions this fall. We greatly appreciate your support for this undertaking.

In unity,

Nancy Wohlforth
USLAW Co-Convenor

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An Appeal to the U.S. Antiwar Movement for United Demonstrations in the Fall

We think it critical that U.S. antiwar leadership bodies initiate a call for united national demonstrations in the fall of this year. Powerful national mobilizations that confront the government in the streets with hundreds of thousands can be a crucial factor in bringing the unjust and immoral war against Iraq and the occupation of that country to an end.

We must remember the truth revealed by the Pentagon Papers: that mass actions against the Vietnam War were not ignored by the war makers. Rather, those in power viewed these actions as manifestations of a potential social upheaval too disruptive to be left out of their geopolitical calculations. Mass national actions remain the clearest, most direct means to demonstrate our opposition to the war and reshape the political landscape. They are also the type of activity most likely to penetrate the consciousness of the troops and to assure them that if they turn against the war, they will be welcomed into the safe haven of a movement millions strong and ever growing.

Over the past few years, the major antiwar coalitions in this country, to their great credit, have mobilized hundreds of thousands of people in the streets. Yet the war and occupation of Iraq continue, making clear that larger actions are required to get U.S. troops out of Iraq. No one can dispute the obvious: a united movement organizing united demonstrations can generate a larger turnout than the component parts of the movement can by organizing separately and sometimes competitively. Nor can anyone doubt that rank-and-file antiwar activists and their organizations want united actions and that they expect leaders of the major coalitions to act responsibly and join together to organize them.

The fall actions will also provide an opportunity for a united peace movement to address the Iraq war’s profound negative impact here in the United States.

Endorsers of the above statement will be listed on the USLAW web site at www.uslaboragainstwar.org and the list will be periodically updated. It is our hope that the major antiwar coalitions will take note of all the endorsements and respond positively to a follow-up invitation to attend a meeting in the near future of representatives from each group to decide the date, time, locations and other essential matters for the fall actions.

http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=8021

we have to get everybody together on this issue. you go to an anti-war rally, and half the people talk about columbia, haiti, and palestine. which are all good causes, but unless we focus on iraq, we have very little chance of making an actual difference.

this comes from someone in a campus anti-war group that is usually annoyed at the speakers that my anti-war friends, who have good intentions, usually get for our rallies.

The focus needs to be narrowed to Iraq and the destruction we've caused there and the future possibilities of Iran.

We always carry a salf-made banner with the body counts of US and Iraqis.

i'm involved in this student movement going at at the U of Minnesota to save the General College, which allows many poor and working people access to the U.

people from all different groups came together, united around this ONE issue, we staged a sit-in, we camped out in front of the Pres's office for over a week, and tomorrow we have a big rally in front of the regents meeting.

after the whole GC thing is over, we will all go back to what we usually do. we are a diverse group, have no doubt. regular joes who made it into GC and feel the need to fight to save it, anarchists, socialists, anti-warers, and people who just happen to feel strongly on this issue. but we are all UNITING on this, and it is truly beautiful, and it feels like we are really making a difference.

Tomorrow we can talk about colubmia a palestine, but it needs to be apparently that the most important issue, and the issue that is most vulnerable for the american empire, is Iraq. After we unite around that and get the troops home, we can deal with every other problem the world has.

It seems that perhaps due to personality conflicts, political sectarianism and disagreements on strategy that many anti-war leaders and groups have so far failed to unite.

That must end. I hope this sincere call for united mass anti-war demonstrations can cure this disease that is afflicting the anti-war forces.

We can unite in anti-war action while we respectfully agree to disagree on other matters.

I hope that anti-war DU'ers who read this call for unity and agree with it will become signers of this important statement and will circulate it to your associates and friends on your e-mail lists, meetings, etc.,

You can sign that letter at:

http://uslaboragainstwar.org/petition.php?pid=9

For early risers who haven't seen this call for united action.

Sending an enormous, united, vociferous message about Iraq is the best thing we have now to prevent an invasion in Iran.

A visible majority will send a strong message to Washington that we won't tolerate their fight-picking.

Focusing on Iraq also will get more moderate peole interested. They don't have access to the sources most activists do, but even the polls indicate that most of the country no longer supports our presence in Iraq. We need thousands at our protests, not dozens--and we can get them if we have the right approach and a united message.

Would that all of us on the Left could heed this call when it matters so much. It does appear that we are learning from our past mistakes.

We don't even agree on the right thing to do. With Vietnam it was simple - Get Out Now. It isn't that simple in Iraq. A lot of people here don't think that's the right thing to do. So basically, what would be our demand? To get out? To start giving Iraqis jobs instead of Halliburton? "Bush sucks" is hardly a theme for a protest - you've got to *demand* something.

And I agree with the point about pet issues. Half of the time they're not even good issues. It's stupid whack-job shit like Mumia.

Not that it matters, since protests don't work anyway.

If you get a permit beforehand, and agree on routes and traffic with the police, and ensure that nobody gets out of hand, WHY the hell should the powers-that-be worry about you?

It's when you don't follow the rules, and you stop traffic, and disrupt the conduct of day-to-day business that you get the attention of the king.

There's a whole world of room between the permitted, constrained 'pseudo demonstrations' we've beeen having, and the molotov-throwing demonstrations of say, Berlin in the '60's. When was the last time we simply had a 'sit down strike' in a public place, for example? Or marched down the street without checking whether it was 'okay' with the police first? You don't need to get 'violent' to have an effective demonstration, but you DO need to break some rules!

If you can't threaten the establishment with some disruption of commerce, you cannot get their attention, period.

had Zinn recalling the first demonstration he attended.

He said some Communists from his neighborhood took him to it (this was before WWII). When they got there, Zinn was confused because no one seemed to be there. One of the people he was with told him to wait until the clock struck 10. The moment it was 10:00, people came out of nowhere unfurling banners and pulling out placards and coming together in the streets for the demonstration.

Police came in on horseback to disperse the crowd, hitting them with clubs.

I was reminded of your post when I heard his recollection. I think we might need to start organizing these kinds of "unpermitted" events.

Did that stop MLK? Did they move the venue? No.

They ended up getting beat up by police, dogs and firehoses. If they hadn't, or had moved the march somewhere else, would it have had the same effect on the movement and the nation? No.

Did the British grant a permit to Gandhi to march to Dandi to make salt? No, in fact they arrested him for it.

Non-violent civil disobedience means nothing without the DISOBEDIENCE part. Without it, it's just a parade -- an officially sanctioned way to blow off steam and exhaust dissent.

As a wise friend of mine once said, "nothing radicializes somebody like a billy club to the head." One of the dynamics of uprisings is that you provoke the authorities into overreacting and taking action that outrages those who haven't chosen sides yet. We don't do that here. In fact, it seems like many consider it a terrible failure when it does happen. I think we're ultimately scared of that route.

Which is why the real problem might be that people just don't care enough to actually change things. After all, we're not the ones getting bombed every day, we're not the ones doing without electricity, we don't have to worry about tanks driving down our own streets. I think too many people ultimately LIKE the status quo as far as their own personal lives is concerned.

But we don't want to fell guilty about it, so we engage in a twice-yearly 'collective handwashing' and say, "Not in My Name". But our LACK of action and committment makes "Not in My Name" into an excuse, not a demand.

That being said, I'll be there in September, or August, or whenever people gather against war. I just don't think we're going to get anywhere until we're ready to get arrested en-masse in the process and stop asking for permission first.

Does anyone remember how many workers' heads were cracked, how many were arrested and even killed so that we could have 40 hour work weeks, benefits, safe working places, etc.?

I said in a post yesterday that the Bush regime seems to want to take us back to the Gilded Age (the era of robber barons and unregulated corporate domination of government). If that's true, then we should note that the 1870s-early 1900s was a time of a radical labor movement that resisted and defied the bosses and state power. There were often violent clashes between workers and state militias/police.

If that's the game these fascists want to play, I think we might have to start reminding them exactly how that game is played.

but you are so right, staying with their rules is a guaranteed lose.

We must by all means demonstrate. The problem is, we will get our heads cracked . . . and this time it will NOT be on TV. A few people will know, but not enough to matter. I'm afraid that if it doesn't show on TV in our stupid culture . . . it didn't happen. Moreover, the corporate media will be laying lables on us like there is no tomorrow. Lib-rulls. Cowards. Conspiracy Nuts. All the usual to deflect any attention from our just cause.

So what OTHER kind of protest can we do?

I have been pushing citizen's initiatives to prohibit bribery. REAL bribery, like campaign contributions to get favorable legislation passed or to prevent curbs on health care or the like. Or to keep us in a very profitable war, for a few. If our corporations can't bribe our politicians, they can't control them!

The problem is, very few people seem to understand this concept and the implications it holds. BUT collecting signatures is a very concrete protest that has the potential to just keep building and building. The people who sign then have some involvement as well, which is good. So far, we have only collected about 100 signatures in Florida, because only two of us have been trying. Not enough people are helping and we seem to be at a standstill. I think if we could get our amendment on the ballot it would pass, because who is going to vote in favor of bribery? But just like with the street protests, I can't seem to get people interested in participating. Any ideas? The web site is http://breakthelink.org.

One of our top goals should be to DEMAND that Bush address the lies he told us to get support for Iraq. We have all the proof we need with the Blair minutes. It puts the burden on Bush and his people. We don't have to offer a solution in this case. Our goal is simply to achieve an increased % of the US population that believes Bush LIED us into Iraq. That % was 50% before the release of the Blair memo, and 57% believe the war was not worth it. I think there is a ripe situation for more Americans to believe Bush lied, if they have the information that the MSM won't report.

Blair memo:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1593607,00.html

I think almost everyone here now supports an end to the occupation. There is some disagreement on whether the anti-war movement should call for an end to the occupation now or demand that a date be set to end the occupation.

However, the number of Americans in the general public who are against the war and at the same time support Bush's occupation of Iraq is getting smaller everyday. Many DU'ers have changed their opinion on this over the course of the past year and now favor an end to the occupation. This trend will continue as the war grinds on.

So I hope that the many different anti-war organizations and activists, national and local, will heed the call of U.S. Labor Against the War for powerful national mass anti-war protests and sign the declaration.

And building such mass national protests can in fact be helpful in building ongoing long-term local activities and organizations in opposition to Bush's imperial foreign policy. It's not one or the other.

Sign the call!

after the demonstrations.

Here's something I posted yesterday in response to another thread (I added "militaristic foreign policy" after re-reading it):

Apparently anti-war demonstrations are planned for October

But I agree with you that broader demonstrations are necessary and, most importantly, need to be part of a coordinated effort to reform corporate media ownership, the electoral process, our militaristic foreign policy, and put enormous pressure on Democrats to be a real opposition party.

In other words, marching around in DC ain't enough...it's just a visible expression of a larger, concerted grassroots effort needed to push forward a progressive, pro-democracy agenda.

That's where the disconnect is, in my opinion, between marches and effective change. We get tens of thousands out in the streets, but then everyone goes home and complains because the media didn't cover it, as if that would somehow magically change everything.

I want to see the marches get the coverage they deserve, but, again, they should only be the tip of the iceberg that brings down Bush's seemingly invincible Titanic administration. Before we even get into the streets we need to organize groups in our neighborhoods, towns, counties, regions. We can use the Internet as a great way to organize and to disseminate information, but we've got to get offline and into face-to-face meetings. There has to be the social part, the sense of real human connection and solidarity, or else the movement will evaporate into virtuality. The revolution, as Steve Earle sings, starts now in our own hometowns, in our own backyards. Not on the Internet.

We need to have specific targets and objectives for these groups to take action on.

We go to the march as an energizing show of strength--not with any delusions that a march by itself will change anything, but to show ourselves and those in power that we're not alone.

Then, when we return to our homes, we keep the momentum going through the grassroots activist groups and networks and personal relationships and coalitions we built prior to the march.

I know this goes on to some extent, but it's not coordinated and there isn't the kind of national leadership and consistent follow through necessary to build a movement, and not just a march.

I propose this:

We absolutely BURY Washington DC and MSM offices with paper letters that ALSO include the 5/1/05 Sunday Times Downing Street Memo (it's 4 pages printed out, but is not actually much text because of the narrow column). I propose that everyone's letter include a few direct quotes from the memo (there are sooo many to chose from), and have the attached Blair memo any combination of: highlighted and/or underlined and/or annotated.

Then we mail our letter + 4 page Blair memo to EVERYWHERE that we see fit. I am going to start with every office location of my 1 Representative and 2 Senators. (This is in addition to calling their offices nearly every day to ask when the fuck they are going to take action on the documented proof that Bush lied us into iraq.)

Smoking gun Blair minutes/memo:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1593607,00.html

Sadly, the news today out of Iraq is of an entire US squad cut down, with all either killed or severely wounded. How many have died since the publication of the Blair minutes on 5/1/05?

Everytime a politician and/or beltway talking head is on TV speaking about time tables for withdraw from Iraq & they do not mention the bases under construction---they are misleading the public, lying.

The average American has no idea that the bases are being built. Can you imagine how recruitment levels would drop like a 2ton rock if they knew that they would be stationed indefinetely in a hostile area?


THE MESSAGE: THE LIED TO GET US INTO A WAR & THEY ARE LYING ABOUT HOW

LONG WE ARE GOING TO BE THERE!!!

:kick: for other :dem: who haven't seen this yet.

and concentrate on the Project for New American Century (PNAC) and Bush's "Doctrine of Pre-Emptive War."

I wish that we could get the "Free Mumia Screamers" to join with us in more "directed" Demonstrations.

I, like many demonstrated, but was turned off at C-Span coverage of screaming people. Not that those who "scream" about all the abuse issue the world over shouldn't be screaming (how could one not scream at what we see out there in the world today?).

BUT....we who were against the Iraq Invasion should be forever grateful that we had those "Instant Protests" organized for us by the A.N.S.W.E.R. and United for Peace groups because THEY knew the protocols for getting the permits and had enough experience to be able to keep most of us from getting arrested or beat up in the way we would have been if we'd tried to do it on our own. We, who were against the Invasion of Iraq will always be grateful to those who "paved the way easily" to allow our Demonstrations.

Agree that we were not so successful...But how do we know? I the Bushies/PNAC had their way we might be engaged in Syria and Iran right NOW...but because we demonstrated we might have "put the brakes" on some of their wilder intentions. Plus the Worldwide Demonstrations couldn't have hurt our cause, either.

It's time to "Move On" however. And, I don't have a clue as to what we can do. If we cut out "ANSWER" and "United for Peace" then we have to put in place another organization which can swiftly move with lawyers and experience to get permits and to provide security for the new Iraq Invasion targeted protests which will "cut out" the screamers
about Mumia and Human Rights abuses all over the world.

I don't think we have a big enough organization with legal, financial and security help in place to do something "very different." :shrug:

I don't know what to do...:-(

n/t

:kick: