[Peace-discuss] How the AFL-CIO, Dems & Obama stopped the war...

[C. G. Estabrook]

[From an interview with Jerry Gordon, secretary of the National Assembly to End 
the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations, published today in Counterpunch
<http://www.counterpunch.org/jacobs04302009.html>. --CGE]

...Let’s go back to the largest action against the Iraq War which was held 
September 24, 2005 in Washington D.C., which drew some 700,000 people. 
Unfortunately, two things of a distinctly negative character happened in the 
aftermath of that action.

One was the swing against mass action by big chunks of the movement, who 
advocated electoral politics as the central strategy. The focus was on electing 
a Democratic Party majority in both Houses of Congress as the way to end the 
Iraq War. Well, the Democrats got control of both the Senate and House of 
Representatives as a result of the 2006 elections but the war continued and even 
escalated. And the Democrats continued voting to fund it.

The other negative development was the split in the antiwar movement. Instead of 
parlaying the success of the 2005 mobilization, which was co-sponsored by United 
for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) and the ANSWER Coalition, and concentrating on 
organizing even larger united actions, the movement fractured, with UFPJ leaders 
declaring they would have no further collaboration with ANSWER. This severely 
weakened the movement and it remains a continuing and festering problem.

The current period has ushered in major developments that profoundly affect the 
antiwar movement. The first, of course, is the very severe economic crisis. For 
tens of millions of people in this country, the central issue today is survival. 
Ending the wars and occupations is no loner the priority it once was, especially 
since U.S. casualties are much less than they were in the previous period. Today 
we are witnessing increasing numbers of protest actions against budget cuts, 
denial of essential social services, assaults on workers’ living standard and 
their right to organize and bargain collectively, mass unemployment, housing 
foreclosures, lack of health care coverage, breakdown of the infrastructure, 
environmental issues, etc. In short, American society faces a deep crisis of 
epidemic proportions which grows worse by the day. The antiwar movement is 
struggling to connect its issues to the fightback on other fronts and to 
demonstrate its relevance by arguing, among other things, that the choice is 
guns or butter, because we can’t have both. So our greatest challenge is to make 
that connection and that is an ongoing process.

The other major development is the election of Barack Obama to the White House. 
Elected as an antiwar candidate, Obama has already dashed the hopes of millions 
by escalating in Afghanistan, which he continues to argue is the “good war,” and 
by intensifying the drone bombings in Pakistan.  At the same time, he says he 
will not pull out all U.S. troops from Iraq until 2011.That’s much too long for 
many in the antiwar movement but since the casualties are down and the direction 
appears to be to get out, large numbers are prepared to give Obama the benefit 
of the doubt and no longer feel the same compulsion to take to the streets to 
demand “Out Now!”

As long as Obama’s maintains his credibility and popularity in the conduct of 
foreign policy, and as long as illusions persist that the Iraq War is winding 
down and that the U.S. will indeed withdraw all of its forces, and as long as 
the rationale for continuing the war against Afghanistan and Pakistan is not 
challenged more assertively, the antiwar movement will not likely draw the kind 
of crowds it did in the past. But everything changes and that will certainly be 
the case here as the economic meltdown accelerates, the number of casualties in 
Afghanistan climbs, and new flareups and conflicts erupt in Iraq. The National 
Assembly believes that these and other developments will result in our antiwar 
message resonating more broadly, as we proceed and persist in the struggle to 
strengthen, rebuild and unite the antiwar movement...


C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> Bob--
> 
> Your paragraph below passes beyond wishful thinking, into the realm of 
> fantasy.
> 
> The Democrats (& Obama), with the support of the minuscule organized 
> labor movement (riven by personal rivalries), effectively neutralized 
> the public's opposition (>70% in 2006) to the Iraq war and coopted the 
> explicit anti-war movement during the drawn-out presidential campaign. 
> Obama in office has continued the Mideast war even more aggressively and 
> violently than Bush, particularly in "AfPak."
> 
> In Iraq the Bush policy has been maintained -- continued occupation, 
> permanent bases, effective control of the government. As John Pilger 
> writes, "Perhaps the biggest lie ... is Obama's announcement that the US 
> is leaving Iraq, the country it has reduced to a river of blood" (as you 
> documented). The Bush/Obama timetable for withdrawal is neither.
> 
> The way to a just foreign policy can't be a misrepresentation of what's 
> going on at home or abroad.  --CGE
> 
> 
> =======Bob Naiman wrote
> 
> "...In January 2007, President Sweeney denounced President Bush's 
> proposed military escalation in Iraq. In March 2007 the General 
> Executive Council of the AFL-CIO called for the end of the U.S. military 
> occupation of Iraq and a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. forces. The 
> AFL-CIO statement played a significant role in aligning Democrats in 
> Congress in favor of a timetable for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. And the 
> insistence by Democrats in Congress - especially presidential candidate 
> Barack Obama - in favor of a timetable for withdrawal decisively 
> strengthened the hand of the Iraqi government in successfully demanding 
> a timetable for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq from the Bush Administration."
> 
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/reform-us-foreign-policy_b_191587.html 
> 
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