[Peace-discuss] Fw: The Long Peace Movement: The Silence of MoveOn

[unionyes]

This piece confirms what I suspected fairly early on about MOVE ON.

David J.

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Subject: The Long Peace Movement: The Silence of MoveOn


> The Long Peace Movement: The Silence of MoveOn
>
> by Tom Hayden
> [first in a series]
>
> The Nation.com - May 26, 2009
>
> http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090608/hayden
>
> The most powerful grassroots organization of the peace
> movement, MoveOn, remains silent as the American wars
> in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan simmer or escalate.
>
> When he met with Obama in February, Jason Ruben,
> executive director of MoveOn, told the president it was
> "the moment to go big," then indicated that MoveOn
> would not oppose the $94 billion war supplemental
> request, nor the 21,000 additional troops to
> Afghanistan, nor the increased civilian casualties from
> the mounting number of Predator attacks.
>
> What was MoveOn's explanation for abandoning the peace
> movement in a meeting with a president the peace
> movement was key to electing? According to Ruben and
> MoveOn, it was the preference of its millions of
> members, as ascertained by house meetings and polls.
>
> The evidence, however, is otherwise. Last December 17,
> 48.3 percent of MoveOn members listed "end the war in
> Iraq" as a 2009 goal, after healthcare (64.9 percent),
> economic recovery and job creation (62.1 percent) and
> building a green economy/stopping climate change (49.6
> percent--only 1.5 percent above Iraq.) This was at a
> moment when most Americans believed the Iraq War was
> ending. Afghanistan and Pakistan were not listed among
> top goals which members could vote on.
>
> Then on May 22 MoveOn surveyed its members once again,
> listing ten possible campaigns for the organization.
> "Keep up the pressure to the end the war in Iraq" was
> listed ninth among the options.
>
> Again, Afghanistan and Pakistan were not on the MoveOn
> list of options.
>
> Nor was Guantánamo nor the administration's torture
> policies. ("Investigate the Bush Administration" was
> the first option.)
>
> MoveOn is supposed to be an Internet version of
> participatory democracy, but the organization's
> decision-making structure apparently assures that the
> membership is voiceless on the question of these long
> wars.
>
> What if they included an option like "demanding a
> diplomatic settlement and opposing a quagmire in
> Afghanistan and Pakistan"? Or "shifting from a priority
> on military spending to civilian spending on food,
> medicine and schools?"
>
> This is no small matter. MoveOn has collected a
> privately held list of 5 million names, most of them
> strong peace advocates. The organization's membership
> contributed an unprecedented $180 million for the
> federal election cycle in 2004-2006. Those resources,
> now squelched or sequestered, mean that the most vital
> organization in the American peace movement is missing
> in action.
>
> What to do? There is no point raving and ranting
> against MoveOn. The only path is in organizing a
> dialogue with the membership, over the Internet, and
> having faith that their voices will turn the
> organization to oppose these escalating occupations.
> The same approach is necessary towards other vital
> organs of the peace movement including rank-and-file
> Democrat activists and the post-election Obama
> organization (Organizing for America) through a
> persistent, bottom-up campaign to renew the peace
> movement as a powerful force in civil society.
>
> This is not a simple matter of an organizational
> oligarchy manipulating its membership, although the
> avoidance by MoveOn's leadership is a troubling sign.
> There is genuine confusion over Afghanistan and
> Pakistan among the rank and file. The economic crisis
> has averted attention away from the battlefront. Many
> who voted for Obama understandably will give him the
> benefit of the doubt, for now.
>
> Silence sends a message. The de facto MoveOn support
> for the $94 billion war supplemental reverberates up
> the ladder of power. Feeling no pressure, Congressional
> leadership has abdicated its critical oversight
> function over the expanding wars, not even allowing
> members to vote for a December report on possible exit
> strategies. In the end, a gutsy sixty voted against HR
> 2346 on May 14, but many defected to vote for the war
> spending, including Neil Abercrombie, Jerry Nadler,
> David Obey, Xavier Becerra, Lois Capps, Maurice
> Hinchey, Jesse Jackson, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Patrick
> Kennedy, Charles Rangel, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Loretta
> Sanchez, Rosa De Lauro, Bennie Thompson, Jerry
> McNerney, Robert Wexler and Henry Waxman. (Bill
> Delahunt, Linda Sanchez and Pete Stark were not
> recorded.)
>
> If there were significant pressures from networks like
> MoveOn in their Congressional districts, the opposition
> vote might have approached 85.
>
> Appropriations chair David Obey in essence granted
> Obama a one-year pass to show results in Afghanistan.
> If the war appears to be a quagmire by then, he
> claimed, the Democrats will become more critical.
> Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered the same message;
> according to the Washington Examiner, May 6: "There
> won't be any more war supplementals, so my message to
> my members is, this is it." Pelosi's words were
> carefully parsed, saying that the White House would not
> be allowed another supplemental form of appropriation,
> which is different from an actual pledge to oppose war
> funding.
>
> This one-year pass means that the grassroots peace
> movement has a few months to light a fire and reawaken
> pressure from below on the Congress and president. In
> the meantime, here are some predictions for the coming
> year:
>
> * Iraq: Will Obama keep his pledge to withdraw combat
> forces from Iraq on a sixteen-month timetable, and all
> forces by 2011? At this point, the pace is slowing, and
> the deadline being somewhat extended, under pressure
> from US commanders on the ground. Sunnis are
> threatening to resume their insurgency if the al-Maliki
> regime fails to incorporate them into the political and
> security structures. The president insists however,
> that he is only making adjustments to a timetable that
> is on track. Prognosis: Precarious.
>
> * Afghanistan: Will the Obama troop escalation deepen
> the quagmire or become a successful surge against the
> Taliban by next year? Another 21,000 troops and
> advisers are on their way to the battlefield. Civilian
> casualties are mounting, causing the besieged Karzai
> government to complain. Preventive detention of Afghans
> will only expand. US deaths, now over 600, are sure to
> increase this summer. Taliban may hold out and redeploy
> in order to stretch US forces thin. Prognosis:
> Escalation into quagmire.
>
> * Pakistan: US policies have driven Al Qaeda from
> Afghanistan into Pakistan's tribal areas, where the
> United States is attacking with Predators and turning
> Pakistan's US-funded armed forces towards
> counterinsurgency. Public opinion is being inflamed
> against the US intervention. Prognosis: An expanding
> American war in Pakistan with greater threats to
> American security.
>
> * Iran: With or without US complicity, Israel may
> attack Iran early next year, with unforeseeable
> consequences in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prognosis: Crisis
> will intensify.
>
> * Global: The United States will fail to attract more
> combat troops to fight in Afghanistan and Pakistan from
> Europe or elsewhere, causing pressure to increase for a
> non-military negotiated solution. Prognosis: Obama
> still popular, US still isolated.
>
> * Budget priorities: Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan
> will deeply threaten the administration's ability to
> succeed on the domestic front with stimulus spending,
> healthcare, education and alternative energy.
> Prognosis: false hope for "guns and butter" all over
> again.
>
> =====
>
> [Tom Hayden is the author of The Other Side (1966, with
> Staughton Lynd), The Love of Possession Is a Disease
> With Them (1972), Ending the War in Iraq (2007) and
> Writings for a Democratic Society: The Tom Hayden
> Reader (2008).
>
> Senator Tom Hayden, the Nation Institute's Carey
> McWilliams Fellow, has played an active role in
> American politics and history for over three decades,
> beginning with the student, civil rights and antiwar
> movements of the 1960s.
>
> Hayden was elected to the California State Legislature
> in 1982, where he served for ten years in the Assembly
> before being elected to the State Senate in 1992, where
> he served eight years.]
>
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