[Peace-discuss] Redbaiting & antiwar demos
C. G. Estabrook
galliher at illinois.edu
Sun Mar 22 18:32:23 CDT 2009
[There was some discussion of these demos at tonight's meeting. --CGE]
The Blackout of the March 21 Mobilizations
Redbaiting on the Left
By JOHN WALSH
The War on Iraq drags on with no clear end in sight. The war on Afghanistan is
being escalated. The war on Pakistan has also been stepped up, a war undeclared
by Congress, therefore unconstitutional and the basis for an impeachment. All
this has happened since Obama took office.
And yet with one exception, no national antiwar demonstration has been called.
Worse, to a large degree the one demonstration called, for this coming weekend,
March 21, has been blacked out on the “respectable Left.” This ugly fact was
brought home to me quite strikingly yesterday at a meeting of single-payer
activists, most also antiwar activists. No one with whom I spoke knew about the
coming demonstration! Part of the reason is that some have tried to
characterize this action as a fringe event, because it has been called by
A.N.S.W.E.R., about which more below and with which this writer is not affiliated.
This mobilization has a list of endorsers which are cannot readily be dismissed.
For starters: Cindy Sheehan, Code Pink, Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW),
Ron Kovic, Edward Asner, Mimi Kennedy, Ramsey Clark, School of the Americas
Watch, San Francisco Labor Council (AFL-CIO) and many other labor locals as well
as Green Party locals.
Despite this, the official peace movement, sock puppets of the Democrat Party,
like MoveOn and UFPJ, is refusing to join or even to publicize this effort in
any substantial way.
And this was predicted some time back by no less a monster than neocon
McCarthyite David Horowitz who wrote in the Wall Street Journal not so many
weeks ago as he gazed fondly on Obama’s inauguration:
“Consider: When President Obama commits this nation to war against the
Islamic terrorists, as he already has in Afghanistan, he will take millions of
previously alienated and disaffected Americans with him, and they will support
our troops in a way that most of his party has refused to support them until
now. When another liberal, Bill Clinton went to war from the air, there was no
anti-war movement in the streets or in his party's ranks to oppose him. That is
an encouraging fact for us..."
And so it has come to pass.
Now some in UFPJ have characterized A.N.S.W.E.R. as loony lefties because a
leading member is a group calling itself “Marxist-Leninist.” Zowie, kids! That
is really scary! I remind such people that Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther
King were not deterred from allying with “Marxist-Leninists,” nor were any of
those who joined in the fight against Nazism and Colonialism. What is the big
deal? If A.N.S.W.E.R. is the only group willing to organize a loud and clear
street opposition to the Obama version of war and empire, I for one will not be
deterred from joining in by a pathetic bit of redbaiting. And if only those
who call themselves “Marxists-Leninists” are willing to call such an action,
then perhaps there is something in the wisdom of Marx, and Lenin, that remains
of value.
So the question really is, Which side are you on? That of the Obamanation and
the Democrat Party version of war and empire? Or on the side of public, mass
opposition to the war? I hope that as many as possible choose the latter course
– in D.C., L.A or S.F.
John Walsh can be reached at John.Endwar at gmail.com
http://www.counterpunch.org/walsh03162009.html
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