Some Thoughts on the Anti-War Movement

The recent movement against the impending war on Iraq brought together key organizations and voices of conscience in a way that rarely occurs in this country before. The movement included environmentalists, religious forces, women's groups, civil libertarians, peace groups, cyber-activists and more. For the first time ever there were statements against the war made by every major religious denomination, with the exception of the Southern Baptists.

In the months leading up to the war several million Americans marched and demonstrated, joined by the largest global peace demonstrations in history. A huge movement bloomed, seemingly out of nowhere.

Now the question is: What did the movement accomplish and where do we go from here? We at VVAWAI have a few thoughts to add to this important discussion.

Our actions and protests leading up to the war made a historic difference. People all over the world were heartened to know that there was an anti-war movement in the "belly of the beast." And now that they know it they will expect to keep hearing from us.

Did our demonstrations joined with the worldwide protests have an impact on shaping world opinion and limiting Bush's ability to line up more governments behind him? It sure did! There are now more people who don't trust anything the government says, and this group grows each day.

Several things stand out about this movement: It drew in many new people who had never attended a protest rally before and it drew in a wider array of young people. The movement is highly politicized, there were more globe flags than U.S. flags displayed and the movement did not fall apart or splinter over the Yellow Ribbon/Support the Troops propaganda the way it did during the first Gulf War.

Now what? Every single reason for opposing the war in Iraq has turned out to be true, despite government propaganda to the contrary. There is no democracy in Iraq, and very little food, water and electricity. There have been no WMDs found. So where are yesterday's large anti-war crowds? It's not that people have given up now that the war is over. People are having a hard time knowing how to challenge it, especially in an atmosphere where you're attacked even for the mildest dissent as allegiance to terrorism. And many people still have illusions about this government and really don't get that it is imperialism that is the problem. Some leading activists are now saying that we have no choice but to "back the last democrat standing." NOT!

We need to persist. If there is anything this war has taught us is that it will take more than a few large demonstrations to defeat this all out war on the world waged by the worlds sole superpower. We need to devise new and more powerful forms of struggle, draw in ever more diverse groups and marginalize no group. VVAWAI has never been in this to stop just one war. We are in it to change the whole world. That is an undertaking that will take more than a few months, it could take many years. We're up to it, are you?