[Peace-discuss] It isn't easy

[C. G. Estabrook]

[A comment on the anti-war movement, its task and necessity, from Noam
Chomsky, in "Imperial Ambition," an interview in the current Monthly
Review <http://www.monthlyreview.org/0503chomsky.htm>.  --CGE]


Q: You've described the level of public protest and resistance to the Iraq
war as "unprecedented"; never before has there been so much opposition
before a war began. Where is that resistance going?

CHOMSKY: I don't know any way to predict human affairs. It will go the way
people decide it will go. There are many possibilities. It should
intensify. The tasks are now much greater and more serious than they were
before. On the other hand, it's harder. It's just psychologically easier
to organize to oppose a military attack than it is to oppose a
long-standing program of imperial ambition, of which this attack is one
phase, and of which others are going to come next. That takes more
thought, more dedication, more long-term engagement. It's the difference
between deciding, okay, I'm in this for the long haul and saying, okay,
I'm going out to a demonstration tomorrow and then back home. Those are
choices, all of them. The same in the civil rights movement, the women's
movement, anything ... be realistic. Abolitionism -- how long did the
struggle go on before they made any progress? If you give up every time
you don't achieve the immediate gain you want, you're just guaranteeing
that the worst is going to happen. These are long, hard struggles. And, in
fact, what happened in the last couple of months should be seen quite
positively. The basis was created for expansion and development of a peace
and justice movement that will move on to much harder tasks. And that's
the way these things go. It isn't easy.

  ==============================================================
  Carl Estabrook
  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [MC-190]
  109 Observatory, 901 South Mathews Avenue, Urbana IL 61801 USA
  office: 217.244.4105 mobile: 217.369.5471 home: 217.359.9466
  <www.carlforcongress.org>
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