[Peace] lessons from anti-gulf war organizing and a proposal for future o rganizing

[Haber, Laura]

Lessons from Anti-Gulf War Organizing and a Proposal for Future Organizing

It has become painfully clear that we are headed for a war which will likely
result in massive civilian casualties, will give Bush sweeping powers to
violate civil liberties, and will provide a screen behind which he can cause
harm with impunity, within this country and internationally. In light of
this reality, it is imperative that we organize mass resistance to war.  

It seems useful to examine local organizing against the Gulf War to see if
we can learn anything from some of our past successes and mistakes. I'm
relying mostly on my own memory and perceptions rather than written
documentation or conversations with other anti-Gulf War activists so
inevitably there will be some omissions or misrepresentations. I hope that
this will be seen as one person's attempt at a dialogue and a proposal to
begin the process of forming an organized resistance movement.

Background
During the buildup to the Gulf War, activists in C-U decided to start up an
anti-war group. Much of the impetus came from people who were involved in
the PRC (Progressive Resource/Action Coop), SANE/FREEZE (a peace group), the
Performer's Workshop Ensemble, and activists from numerous other groups in
town (I know I must be leaving some groups out!). Meetings were held at the
Illinois Disciples Foundation and most of the initial organizing leadership
came from the PRC - a program of the Illinois Disciples Foundation. After
lengthy deliberations the group came to be called CAWG - the Committee
Against the War in the Gulf.

CAWG had a somewhat decentralized committee structure. Most major decisions
were made at large weekly meetings of the entire membership and then carried
out by the committees. The committee structure seemed to work pretty well.
The weekly meetings were frequently long and painful. 

CAWG committees:
Action: organized a rally on the quad every Weds at noon and an
informational picket at the Urbana Post Office every Saturday, organized a
large rally and march in front of our Congressperson's office in downtown
Champaign
Emergency Response Network: organized a march scheduled to take place at a
predetermined time after the start of bombing and starting at our then
Congressperson's office and ending at the quad
Education: organized numerous panel discussions, teach-ins and other
educational events, organized a speaker's bureau of people who were sent all
over town to talk about the war (fraternities and sororities, residence
halls, high schools, etc.)
Publicity/Outreach: made and put up fliers, publicized CAWG events,  put
together phone trees, etc.
Media/Spokespeople: media strategy, spoke to media
Veteran's caucus: anti-recruitment education, support for people avoiding
military service, support message that anti-war does not equal anti-veteran
or anti-troops
Other committees that I'm forgetting?

Successes
1) We worked hard to reach out to groups and people everywhere and didn't
rely solely on traditional peace groups. Thus we were able to build
coalitions that went beyond the usual peace constituencies.
2) We had a very deep and nuanced analysis of the war that drew connections
to many other issues that weren't initially obvious to people who simply
didn't want a war: the context of US foreign policy, racism, sexism, the
impact of war on the poor and people of color at home, misplaced national
priorities in funding war vs. social programs, the plight of veterans after
wars are fought etc. This broader focus allowed us to attract people and
build coalitions with groups who might not join a group that was simply for
peace or against violence. It also deepened the commitment of people who
were united in their opposition to the war and encouraged them to become
lifelong activists as it became clear to them that the problems were more
pervasive and less easily solved than by a cessation of the war.
3) We trained a lot of people in security and provided security for all of
our events.
4) We employed diverse and creative tactics alongside the usual rallies and
marches.
5) We were extremely visible.
6) We had a number of veterans in our group. This allowed us to more
effectively make the argument that one could support the troops without
supporting the war.
7) We mobilized thousands of people to oppose the war many of whom were new
to activism.

Mistakes
1) We spent too much time trying to decide on a name. There was one long
conversation just about whether it should be Committee Against War or
Committee Against War in the Gulf or Committee Against The War in the Gulf.
While it seems laughable now, our debates over our name reflected underlying
differences between pacifists and people who were against this particular
war but not pacifists. It is entirely possible that such divisions could
occur again.
2) We spent a lot of time hammering out a mission statement that we all
could agree on. Although it was important to talk about what we stood for
instead of assuming agreement, perhaps a broad consensus and diverse
messages would have been better than ideological unity. 
3) There were some tensions between people who favored more traditional
protest tactics and those who favored less traditional and more creative
performances. We should have found a way to accommodate and value such
differences rather than seeing them as an obstacle.
4) I'm not sure how to have participatory democracy without long, painful
mass meetings. 
5), 6)?

Proposal
1) We should form an anti-war group that has regular meeting times and a
regular meeting place or join one that is already active.
2) We should reach out to all of the people who feel isolated in their
opposition to the war and help them create an outlet for their fear and
frustration.
3) We should begin to mobilize people for a public demonstration both
locally and in Washington DC.
4) We should not limit ourselves to mass mobilizations but, rather, we
should be flexible and creative with our tactics.
5) In this climate of flag-waving, I anticipate that there will be a
backlash against anti-war protesters so we should make sure that we have
well-trained security at all of our events.
6) Our attempts to mobilize people should go beyond the groups that we
already work with.
7) We should reach out to anti-war veterans and to people who are seeking to
avoid military service.
8) We should draw connections between the war and racism, corporate
globalization, imperialism, and our anti-democratic government. The war can
be a pedagogical tool to expand people's awareness of social justice issues.
Keeping our focus broad in this way also keeps us from being distracted from
all the other misdeeds that are occurring while the war dominates the
headlines. 
9) Although we should seek to draw connections to other issues, we cannot
expect that everyone will draw those connections in the same way or to the
same extent. We should be open to and even embrace this possibility rather
than requiring ideological purity or following an ideological line. 
10) While we may not be able to prevent a war, we can make a war very
difficult to wage, help each other find our voices, challenge the illusion
of a pro-war consensus, and educate and mobilize new activists. If we see
our role solely in terms of preventing war, we risk disillusionment and
despair should the war start and continue despite our opposition. So, we
must realize that we are part of a movement whose aims are broader than
stopping a war.

Groups and people to reach out to (not exhaustive):
Churches, Synagogues, Mosques
Remnants of peace/disarmament movement
Independent Media Center
School for Designing a Society
Socialist Forum
Greens
Progressive Resource/Action Coop
University Registered Student Organizations such as TEAM, Civic Action,
Greens, Students for Palestine, Student Peace Action
People within University units such as Women's Studies, History,
Afro-American Studies, Afro-American Cultural Program etc.
Professors for Peace

I put this forward with much trepidation at the amount of work that is ahead
of us. But I know that I will find it hard to keep my hopes in tact if I
don't have ways to speak out against the war and a community that shares my
commitment. We all need this. Some of our efforts can be done in isolation
but we will be stronger if we can also build a movement.

I'm not proposing that I lead this group or suggesting that I have all of
the answers. This is just a contribution to a dialogue that I'm sure is
already going on in people's living rooms and kitchens. Let's expand the
dialogue.