[Peace-discuss] Anti-War Resolution Passes California Democratic Party Convention

[David Green]

Anti-War Resolution Passes California Democratic Party
Convention 

LOS ANGELES. April 17. Two thousand California
Democrats passed a resolution calling for termination
of the Iraq war and occupation, including a US troop
withdrawal “at the earliest possible time”, at
their annual convention in Los Angeles this weekend. 

The resolution was devised by grass-roots Democratic
peace activists, including the newly-formed
Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), who fought an
intense three-day battle before the party platform
committee and on the floor. They faced severe
pressures to water down or derail the resolution by
more hawkish Democrats, including delegates associated
with the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC) who tried to “pull” the resolution from
the party platform report, according to PDA
executive-director Tim Carpenter. Delegates
representing former presidential candidate Gen. Wesley
Clark also tried unsuccessfully to weaken the
resolution, Carpenter said. 

The California resolution represents a far stronger
position than that taken by the national Democratic
Party during the 2004 presidential campaign. In
addition, the struggle for its passage is a potential
model for parties in other states as the national
party seeks to contain anti-war forces among its
rank-and-file. Carpenter, who began as a grass roots
California party volunteer almost thirty years ago,
has become a respected practioners of
“outside/inside” strategies and tactics to
pressure politicians.  

In a significant development, the same progressive
forces passed a resolution denouncing the Central
American Free Trade Agreement, revealing growing and
effective links between anti-war and
anti-NAFTA-CAFTA-FTAA forces in the party. 

Party chair Howard Dean, whose rise as a national
candidate was based on his opposition to the invasion
of Iraq, avoided any mention of the war and occupation
in several appearances during the convention, though
delegates from the Dean campaign supported the
anti-war platform overwhelmingly. At the national
level, leading Democrats have failed to unify in
opposition to the war, leaving senators like Edward
Kennedy and representatives like Lynn Woolsey, author
of a resolution favoring withdrawal, on the margins. 

Carpenter, PDA national chair Mimi Kennedy and local
chair Marcy Winnograd predicted the success would
inspire local peace and Democratic activists to
increase the pressure at local levels to influence
Congressional behavior. Not far off are the 2006
Congressional elections and the 2008 presidential
primaries. 

“Democrats can’t hide and wish the war will go
away”, commented former state senator Tom Hayden,
who spoke before a PDA gathering at the convention.
“Rumsfeld has recently bragged that the US doesn’t
have an exit strategy, only a victory strategy. That
should worry a majority of Americans who are seeing
one billion of their tax dollars wasted every week in
Iraq, who have seen 2000 Americans killed and unknown
numbers of Iraqis, and who are ashamed of policies
that have permitted rampant torture at Abu Graib,
Afghanistan and Guantanamo. The Bush Administration
still plans a permanent occupation and permanent bases
in Iraq, and will have to be forced to leave by
domestic public opinion, anger over budget priorities,
unrest among military families, and the continuing
collapse of the so-called ‘coalition of the
willing’.”