[Peace-discuss] topic of conversation

[Ricky Baldwin]

Thanks for raising this, Al.

I think you posed the question exactly the right way
-- not, what are we as individuals to do, but we as a
movement.  I think the rest follows in a fairly
straightforward way, if we can think about it calmly
without letting our (understandable) fears take over.

Because we as a movement support certain principles, I
think that is how we proceed.  It would be repeating
the worst mistakes of past popular movements to get
distracted from our cause by the  elections.  The
cause always seems to suffer and the politicians
always seem to take us for granted.  So I think we get
their attention by raising more hell and expecting
them all to listen.

They won't, of course, at least not much.  So, there
must be some consequences for taking us for granted. 
The most obvious consequence is that we continue to
raise hell.  We criticize the lesser evils, too,
instead of helping them win.  That's most important.

On the side might write to Kerry and the DNC and
complain.  I do it whenever they send me one of their
farcical fundraising letters about all they supposedly
stand for: I tell them what I want them to stand for,
and really stand for, not the half-assed way they
stand for the things in their letter, and I tell them
they won't get a dime from me until they change.  

Letters to the editor are better, though, contrasting
the Hanoi Jane b.s. with Kerry's real b.s., for
example.  We can use Kerry's failings as an
opportunity to further assert and clarify our
opposition to war and occupation.

And, of course, some of us might want to vote for
Nader (gasp!) -- especially in those uncontested
states (if he gets on the ballot).  It's a way to send
a message that only takes a few minutes on one
particular day.

But, whatever we do, let me say it again, I think we
should absolutely not expend a lot of time and energy
trying to influence the elections or the candidates
directly.  We can have much more influence by being
the biggest, noisiest, most stubborn pain in the ass
that any party or candidate has to face.


Ricky

--- Alfred Kagan <akagan at uiuc.edu> wrote:
> Considering Kerry's recent statements, one  begins
> to wonder how he 
> would act in Iraq differently than a second Bush
> Administration. I 
> still think that Kerry would do things differently
> concerning 
> starting new wars, but I am beginning to question
> the Anybody but 
> Bush idea.  It seems to me that the anti-war/peace
> movement needs to 
> start thinking about how to pressure Kerry to at
> least be more like 
> Dean if not Kucinich on Iraq.  I can't say I know
> how to do that. The 
> Democrats always assume that anyone to the left will
> support them. Of 
> course, they complain about Nader but it is not
> clear to me that they 
> are willing to make any concessions to win the Nader
> votes.
> 
> What should the organized Peace Movement do?
> -- 
> 
> 
> Al Kagan
> African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of
> Library Administration
> Africana Unit, Room 328
> University of Illinois Library
> 1408 W. Gregory Drive
> Urbana, IL 61801, USA
> 
> tel. 217-333-6519
> fax. 217-333-2214
> e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Peace-discuss mailing list
> Peace-discuss at lists.cu.groogroo.com
>
http://lists.cu.groogroo.com/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss
> 



	
		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Tax Center - File online by April 15th
http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html