[mgj-discuss] FW: The Black Commentator on the anti-war movement

[Sara OBrien]

The Black Commentator

Commentary, analysis and investigations on issues
affecting African Americans
http://www.blackcommentator.com/21_commentary_2.html

ANTI-WAR HARD CORE AND ANTI-WAR LITE
PRIVILEGE, COMFORT AND FEAR CAUSE SCHISMS

As Blacks take leadership roles in the growing
anti-war movement, the more comfortable corners of the
Left are busy generating schisms, for no reason other
than to assure the War Party of their patriotism.
Privileged people are like that. They insist on having
their way and deciding who is and who is not good
company, even when the stakes are life and death -
possibly for the whole planet.

The Black Commentator could take the safe, diplomatic
course and pronounce that the emergence of rival
umbrellas among those who claim to lead the opposition
to Bush's war agenda is actually a positive
development, signaling maturity and the prospect of a
healthy division of labor. But that's nonsense. The
truth is, there is Anti-war Hardcore and Anti-War
Lite. African Americans are involved in both camps.

We are glad that there is resistance of any serious
variety, since it is clear to the clear-headed that
George Bush and his pirates are preparing to jail the
opposition, or worse, as soon as a domestic emergency
can be justified as part of the War on Terror. When
and if that time comes, safety will be found only in
huge numbers. Hardcore and Lite alike, all on the same
roundup list. What a country!

Having made the proper, nonsectarian noises, we will
come clean to express the most extreme irritation at
the nasty little people who, not content to simply do
something useful by organizing as many folks as they
can against Bush, feel it necessary to badmouth the
organizers of October 26's demonstrations. At minimum,
100,000 and 50,000 people protested in Washington and
San Francisco, respectively, against the wishes of the
corporate media, which virtually boycotted the events.
By proving that the opposition was capable of mounting
an effective popular response to the Bush
administration's war hysteria, the organizers may well
have changed the course of history and saved countless
lives. 

At the center of the October mobilization and the
follow-up demonstrations set for January 18 is
A.N.S.W.E.R., Act Now to Stop War & End Racism. Had it
not been for the A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition's efforts,
Bush and his media would have announced to the world
that the American people were solidly behind his war
plans. A.N.S.W.E.R. achieved what no one on the
"comfortable" Left would or could: they made Bush
think about the domestic consequences of his military
actions, by mounting demonstrations before the onset
of war on a scale that the Sixties movement did not
equal until at least 30,000 Americans and several
million Vietnamese were already dead.

A.N.S.W.E.R. brings the crowd

True to its acronym, A.N.S.W.E.R. has had some success
in darkening their coalition. One thousand people
turned out at Rev. Herbert Daughtry's Brooklyn church
for a November 21 rally. Daughtry's partner in the
National Action Network, Rev. Al Sharpton, spoke at
the October demonstration in Washington, as did Rev.
Jesse Jackson. The movement is still
disproportionately white, drawn largely from already
existing anti-corporate globalism groups, but
A.N.S.W.E.R.'s tireless efforts have been anything but
"narrow" or "sectarian." Heroic is a better word.

Now comes the nattering from places such as The Nation
magazine - people like columnist David Corn who
wouldn't lift a finger to stop the entire world from
going up in smoke if it meant associating with the
Workers World Party, the grouplet at the heart of
A.N.S.W.E.R. For a tiny outfit, the WWP has
accomplished a great deal, apparently having learned
well the lesson that you can't mobilize hundreds of
thousands of people simply by waving the Little Red
Book of Chairman Mao's quotations. Corn and other
sideliners complain that the WWP uses control of the
microphones to make "outrageous" demands (like freedom
for the man formerly known as H. Rap Brown). 

Corn and his crowd are the "sectarian" brats. We at
The Black Commentator judge activists by their
abilities to set people in motion. We are most
concerned that a bunch of middle-aged white children
are injecting their petty disputes, which originate in
political turf too small for anybody else to care
about, into a struggle to save what's left of American
democracy - a commodity that is worth more to us
because we have less of it. Human existence, itself,
is in jeopardy. Yet the destructive little brats want
to throw out the people who set the resistance in
motion. 

Blacks have enough sectarian problems of our own,
which we somehow manage to keep in check, if barely.
If the white Left finds that its ranks remain racially
anemic, they will have only themselves to blame.
African Americans will not be part of any
tantrum-throwing spectacles among the privileged.

"Assurances of "patriotism"

There are real differences between what we will call
Anti-War Hardcore and Anti-War Lite, although not
necessarily irreconcilable ones. The upstart, Lite
camp is gathered under the banner of the Win Without
War coalition. The core of the coalition employed the
slogan, "Keep America Safe: Win Without War."
Essentially, these groups are concerned that everyone
know how much they, like Bush, hate Saddam Hussein,
but feel that war is not the best way to deal with
him. Members include the National Council of Churches,
Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, the
Conference of Major Superiors of Men, the Leadership
Conference of Women Religious, Move On, the National
Organization for Women, Physicians for Social
Responsibility, Rainbow Push Coalition, Sojourners,
Women's Action for New Directions, Working Assets, the
NAACP, and Artists Against War.

In order to disassociate themselves from A.N.S.W.E.R.,
the Win Without War umbrella feels it is necessary to
declare, "We are patriotic Americans who share the
belief that Saddam Hussein cannot be allowed to
possess weapons of mass destruction." The implication
is that some people in the other camp are not
sufficiently patriotic. "We support rigorous UN
weapons inspections to assure Iraq's effective
disarmament," said the Anti-War Lite statement. It
continued, less defensively: 

"We believe that a preemptive military invasion of
Iraq will harm American national interests. Unprovoked
war will increase human suffering, arouse animosity
toward our country, increase the likelihood of
terrorist attacks, damage the economy and undermine
our moral standing in the world. It will make us less,
not more, secure."

If that will get them to the protests on time and in
large numbers, fine. The problem is, Win Without War
has not endorsed the January 18 A.N.S.W.E.R.
demonstrations, although some affiliated groups and
individuals will doubtless take part. Since most of
the coalition didn't have anything to do with the
October protests, their absence in January shouldn't
be of much concern. If they would be satisfied with
staging actions on their own schedules, such as the
small, scattered demonstrations that took place on
December 10, that too would be useful. But the brats
and dilettantes in their ranks are certain to grab
corporate media microphones to smear A.N.S.W.E.R.,
rather than tend to their own business. 

The Black Commentator believes that, in the end, it's
going to require that serious Black activists smack
the spoilers upside the head, so to speak, and teach
them how to be adult. Bush is deadly serious. The
resistance must be even more disciplined.

Peace, justice and good wages

Organized labor, at their best moments, understands
the value of solidarity, and dare anyone to challenge
their patriotism. The following resolution by the San
Francisco Labor Council is definitely not Anti-War
Lite:

Whereas, since the tragic events of September 11,
2001, we have seen the beginning of a relentless new
assault on labor - from the employers, and from the
government acting on their behalf; and

Whereas, using the so-called "war on terrorism" and
"national security" as a pretext, the Bush
Administration has spearheaded a renewed assault on
organized labor, starting with the use of Taft-Hartley
(and threats to militarize the ports) against West
Coast dockworkers...wholesale threats to the job
security and union rights of 170,000 federal
workers...the racist firings of experienced airport
screeners...threats to curtail the right to strike and
organize; and the impending contracting out of
hundreds of thousands of federal jobs. On more than
one occasion, government spokespersons have referred
to union actions defending our jobs, working
conditions and living standards as akin to terrorism,
or as "aiding and abetting terrorists", or as a
"threat to national security"; and

Whereas, Bush's war (on Afghanistan, Iraq, Colombia,
the Philippines, where next?) has become the main
engine for the repression of labor. "National
security", in the hands of a thoroughly anti-labor
Bush Administration, is being used as a bludgeon
against labor, with the intent of rolling back all the
gains workers have won since the 1930s, including
collective bargaining itself, and including social
programs championed by the labor movement like
welfare, social security, unemployment insurance; and

Whereas, a strong fight-back requires that labor make
it a priority to stake out a clear, forthright and
fighting stance against Bush's war, and see the
anti-war and anti-globalization movements as our
strategic allies, needed if we are to defeat the
assault on labor and move to the offensive. We got a
glimpse of the potential power of this combination
during the 1999 showdown in Seattle; and

Whereas, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. embodied the
coming together of the labor, anti-war and civil
rights movements during the tremendous upsurge of the
mass movement in the 1960s, and we need to revive this
powerful combination of the people's forces to defeat
Bush's war and the racism that underlies it and that
it promotes; and

Whereas, our opposition to the Bush Administration's
war on the Iraqi people, and to their attacks or
threats against other smaller, sovereign countries
around the globe, fits hand in glove with labor's
fighting defense of the interests of the working
people of all races and nationalities here at home;
therefore be it

RESOLVED: That the San Francisco Labor Council,
AFL-CIO, endorse the Martin Luther King weekend
anti-war activities - the January 18, 2003 marches in
San Francisco and Washington, DC in opposition to the
war on Iraq, and the Grassroots Peace Congress being
held in Washington, as well as the People's Anti-War
Referendum ["VoteNoWar"] by which millions of
Americans are casting their "votes" against this war;
and be it further

RESOLVED: That this council work to ensure that
organized labor and the national AFL-CIO take a clear
and early stand against Bush's war. 

The resolution was approved unanimously. These men and
women have seen the enemy, and it is Bush. They don't
waste time and resources in anguish over the presence
of people carrying Little Red Books. And there is no
more fitting activity during the week of Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr's birthday than to march in the
interest of peace.

Glover and Belafonte in Cuba

Among the Black signers of the Artists Against War
petition are Diahann Carroll, Charles S. Dutton,
Laurence Fishburne, Robert Guillaume, LaTanya
Richardson Jackson, Samuel L. Jackson, Blair
Underwood, Alfre Woodard, and Danny Glover. Glover
joined Harry Belafonte, who is as hard core a veteran
for peace as they come, for a press conference at
Havana's Hotel Nacional, where they generally agreed
on professional and political matters. It was Glover's
fourth attendance at the Havana Film Festival;
Belafonte has only "missed four out of 24 festivals."

Belafonte deplored the state of Hollywood cinema,
saying he found the "highest movie-making standards at
festivals in Havana, Cartagena [Spain] and Brazil,
where cinema is an art showing more sensitivity than
just aiming at the market." Glover repeated to the
international press his stand against Bush's war
plans: "My position on the war is very clear, above
all for the impact that it will have on women and
children in Iraq who are already suffering the
consequences of sanctions."

Belafonte had a ready answer for those who question
the propriety of criticizing the U.S. in a Cuban
forum. "Many of my friends are journalists," said the
singer-actor-activist, "and they tell me that there
has never been as much censorship as now, and if they
rebel then they will just lose their jobs."

Anti-War Lite Glover and Hard Core Harry were quite
compatible. If only the white folks of the movement
could just get along....

No cost, no excuse

Baltimore City Councilman Kwame Abayome got unanimous
support for his anti-war resolution, part of a growing
urban peace offensive. The Black Commentator urges our
influential readership to consider the language
approved by Baltimore's local legislators:

FOR the purpose of reaffirming the articles of the
United Nations Charter and the principles of
international law on the peaceful resolution of
disputes, opposing the United States' continued and
threatened violation of the United Nations Charter and
of international law by the unilateral, preemptive
military action against the nation of Iraq, opposing
the continued nonmilitary sanctions and proposed
escalated military action, and urging the Bush
Administration and our federal representatives to work
with and through the United Nations to obtain
compliance by Iraq with the United Nations Security
Council resolutions concerning the development by Iraq
of weapons of mass destruction and to support fully
the return of international weapons inspectors to Iraq
for that purpose and to actively support the United
Nations' diplomatic efforts to support and encourage
democracy and respect for human rights in Iraq and all
nations.

The $200 billion cost of the war - for starters - will
wreak immediate disaster in every city of the nation.
The least that city councils can do is go on the
record with their non-binding opinions.

In industrial and mostly Black and Hispanic Elizabeth,
New Jersey, Councilwoman Pat Perkins Aguste convinced
her colleagues to pass a "Culture of Peace" resolution
that, she said, "we take to mean no aggressive war
with Iraq." 

"There is a role for us to play," said the Black
lawmaker. "If we are asked to play a role we should
step up."

The $2 trillion war

If the United States conquers Iraq and sticks around
for ten years, the total cost to the economy could
rise to $2 trillion dollars. That's one-fifth of the
value of the nation's yearly goods and services, 40
times the annual value of all U.S. agricultural
exports to the world, the whole federal budget for one
year... it is unfathomable to all but the war
profiteers who are even now dividing contracts.

As when confronted with an earlier, $200 billion
estimated cost of several years' involvement in Iraq,
the White House called the discussion "premature,"
since "we're hoping for a peaceful solution."

Occupation and peacekeeping could cost $500 billion,
according to the report of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences. Most of the rest of the damage
would result from economic recession, caused by
disruption in oil markets.

In a best-case scenario, the benefits to the U.S.
economy of Iraq's oil resources would amount to only
about $40 billion. 

The figures tell the tale. The pirates are in charge.
Only they stand to profit.

The Anti-War Lite crowd doesn't understand who they're
up against.

http://www.blackcommentator.com

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