Peace Movement Unsettled As Groups Ponder What Next

by Rene P. Ciria-Cruz

Peace activists, unfazed by polls showing huge public support for the war, have had no problem finding suitable actions for protesters of any age or level of outrage -- from massive marches, online petitions and quiet neighborhood candlelight vigils, to die-ins, nude acrostics and controversial traffic stoppages.

They have also hit all possible targets of protest, including "jingoistic" media outfits and corporations who stand to profit from the war.

But the eventual victory of superior Anglo-American firepower was never in doubt, so some peace groups readily changed message once U.S. cruise missiles began raining on Baghdad.

"The more mainstream antiwar groups were saying 'Now that the war has started, let's move on, bring the troops home, make sure humanitarian aid doesn't become a U.S. propaganda tool,'" says Becky Bond, a producer with Working Assets Online in San Francisco. "The important thing is to reach for the middle."

These organizations, including faith-based peace proponents like the National Council of Churches, immediately began working for Iraqi relief and for the United Nations to be in charge of postwar reconstruction.

Working Assets launched a billboard campaign, "Support the troops, bring them home now," in California and other states. It has also begun raising money for UN-led humanitarian efforts (subscribers can round out their Working Assets phone payments with the money going to Iraqi relief or give donations online). "We're really focusing on helping build democratic structures in Iraq," Bond says.

Prominent peace advocate David Cortright, writing for The Nation, expresses similar views, calling for reconstruction of Iraq by civilian agencies, "an accurate accounting of the civilian dead," support for U.S. troops by demanding their withdrawal "as soon as possible" and condemning the cuts in veterans' benefits. He also wants to target any war or U.S. threats against Iran.

But Bill Fletcher Jr., president of TransAfrica Forum, in the same magazine writes that Cortright "is too cautious." Fletcher insists the pressure for "an immediate cessation of hostilities must go on, despite the fatalism being promoted by the media." He calls for opposing "empire-building" and supporting "Palestinian self-determination."

The strongest disagreement with shifting to post-war management issues comes from Walden Bello, a well-known international activist. "It would be betraying the Iraqi people to shift the struggle to the politics of reconstruction," Bello writes in his column in the Philippine Inquirer, a Manila daily. He calls the debate on whether the United Nations or the United States should be the one to manage postwar Iraq a false one.

This debate, he says, "would only have the effect of legitimizing" the invasion. "Support for the Iraqi people's defense of their homeland should remain the overriding stance of the international community," he argues. "Indeed, this should be the case even if Baghdad falls, for the fall of Baghdad will not mean an end to the war."

Some U.S. peace activists say the "mainstream movement" has failed to maximize black participation, even though polls show strong antiwar sentiment among African Americans. "There is a historic disconnect with minority communities that the movement must address," says Damu Smith of Black Voices for Peace in Washington, D.C.

The gulf exists because the movement has focused solely on the war itself and not made the link to "the war at home," says New York City housing activist Nellie Hester Bailey, a leader of the Black Solidarity Against the War coalition.

Bailey, who led a recent march in Harlem, says that while peace groups must keep questioning the legitimacy of the occupation, "We should also oppose the hundreds of billions of tax dollars for Bush's plan to wage endless wars, while our schools are falling apart and the budgets of states and municipalities are drained."

Indeed, protests organized primarily by African American and other minority activists linked the war to domestic issues while marking Martin Luther King Jr.'s death anniversary in early April. Thousands of protesters -- most from diverse ethnic backgrounds -- marched in Oakland, Calif., Leimert Park in South Central Los Angeles and Harlem with a common message echoing Bailey's.

"But we must keep on trying to short-circuit the U.S.-British occupation otherwise many more people will be hurt," Smith reiterates.

"You can't think of humanitarian aid without tackling the issue of an occupying army," agrees Leslie Cagan, co-chair of United for Peace and Justice in New York. Even distributing humanitarian aid "becomes a political problem depending on who's occupying the place," she adds.

Although peace groups are airing divergent messages, the tension is friendly, not antagonistic, Cagan says. "That has not always been true in our history as a movement, but this time we really have a strong tolerance for differences."

Her group is calling for a national conference at the end of May to "figure out where we are in the political moment and to map out priorities."