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Below is the address given to the United
National Antiwar Conference in Albany, N.Y., by Christine Gauvreau, speaking on behalf of
the National Assembly. It appears in the August 2010 edition of
Socialist Action newspaper.
The war in Afghanistan is already the longest war in U.S. history. In Iraq the pain and suffering just goes on and on
and on. Equally morally repugnant is the vicious propaganda campaign
and illegal blockade against Iran. The U.S. flaunts all world opinion and continues to
support the brutal Israeli regime: its apartheid walls, dark prisons,
criminal blockades, and its nuclear arsenal bristling with weapons
aimed at the other nations of the Middle East and South Asia. From Korea to Costa Rica, the U.S. military machine is in deadly motion.
There is only one force on earth that can put
this monster back in its cage. That is the force that we saw in motion
in 2006 when millions of immigrant workers took to the streets. That is
the force we sensed when the Oakland longshoremen let that Israeli ship sit idly
in their port. That force is the political mobilization of working
people in their millions abroad and here at home. We can't do that
today, but everything we can do should be designed to lead us to that
place.
So the strategy advocated by the National
Assembly can be summed up easily: We privilege united-front mass
actions independent of the Democratic and Republican
parties.
What does that mean? Let 's take the call for
unity.
Almost every single one of us is here in this
room because we sense we need unity to get the job done. It is obvious
that the 10 U.S. warmakers are united. They do not let
tactical differences—about surges or no surges, negotiations or not,
warlord A or warlord B—they do not let these tactical differences
prevent them from blocking together to keep the war machine humming. Wasn't this totally clear at early
this month when, despite the face-saving gesture provided by the Rule,
Congress continued to fund the war?
We too must embrace those actions that can
unite us. When I look at this room I know that I am looking at the
leaders of hundreds of Saturday vigils, hundreds of brown-bag lunches
at Congressional offices, hundreds of potlucks and tours, pickets and
phone campaigns, hundreds of election campaigns, dozens of courageous
acts of individual witness. Every single one of these activities knits
the fabric of our movement. Every single one of these activities binds
and forges us into an organizing force. But they are not enough!
This year let us use every one of our many
campaigns to build toward a giant united action on April 9. Let us use
every press conference on “Bringing the War Dollars Home” to begin to
build momentum toward a united mass action on April 9. Let us use every
city council vote on budget cuts to garner an endorsement for April 9.
Let us use every student demonstration for
education not war, every fight against teacher cuts, every tour of Gaza
Flotilla survivors, every Honduras solidarity action, every protest of U.S. crimes in Haiti to publicize a mobilization that builds and
builds and builds. We can each continue our dearest projects but bring
it all together in a common action whose size and diversity will make
the antiwar movement visible to those who increasingly need to find it.
Some of you are asking: Does it make sense to
talk of mass actions?
The call for a march [in Washington, D.C.] for
jobs, not war on Oct. 2 is a signal
that time when we can put sizeable numbers of antiwar people into the
streets is near. The rally of hundreds of thousands in Arizona to beat back the racist anti-immigrant law
about to take effect tells us this is possible.
Did you experience the power of the rally of
200,000 Latino workers in Washington, D.C., last March? The Equality march of 200,000 last spring? The
stirring mobilizations of thousands of Arab
Americans during the invasion of Gaza? And let us not forget that growing outcry
against the preemptive prosecutions of innocent Muslim Americans is
challenging the ideology of the War on
Terror at its very root. The antiwar movement has been at a low
level of mobilization but things are changing. We must have things in
place.
This conference, organized on the basis of
broad sponsorship and one person-one vote, is the tried and true
mechanism for getting demonstrations that the whole movement can buy
into. If we can make democratic functioning in large open conferences
the norm, we can move away from divisiveness and toward
cooperation on regular mass actions. We can begin that process
here.
Finally, I want to address the third component
of our strategy—political independence. The National Assembly firmly
believes that to build a movement strong enough to push back the
warmakers, the demonstrations that we call together must be visibly
independent of both political parties. We all know that Congress thinks
they have us in their pocket. We have to let them know that we are
going to fight for what we want—what working people at home and abroad
need—no matter what they do. They have to know in their bones that the
consequences of their inaction on the war will be the complete
alienation of the vast majority from their political system. They have
to truly and deeply fear the growth of a movement that cannot be
comforted with a meeting with a Congressional aide.
But there is a much more immediate and
pressing reason why our united actions must be organized around demands
that reflect what we really want. We are organizing in the Great
Recession, and that means that politics are extreme and polarized.
The vast majority of the people who are
victimized by this war hate all politicians, and especially those in power.
They hate whatever regime is in power because their life is in shambles
and there is no end to the misery in sight. The jobs are not coming
back. Their homes are not coming back. The deportations are not going
to end.
If we tie our demonstrations to the defense of
the indefensible things going on in Congress, we risk losing the people
we need to the other political force that is willing to stand up
and just say no to politics as usual. We risk driving at least some of
the Anglo victims of this war to the extreme right, to the Tea Party or
to whatever radicalized rightist force is willing to stand up say no to
parliamentary games.
In that sense, the decision about what next in
U.S. politics is really and truly up to us. The
stakes are extremely high. But I think that we here in this room can
rise to the challenge and be part of the process of real fundamental
change. We can and must shape actions that truly speak to all those who
have thrown away by their employers and the banks and the politicians.
We can and must help them experience their own agency and innate
political power in the streets.
So I say, let us forge an agreement on
political independence and unity in action right here and right now.
Out Now! Money for Jobs Not War! On to April 9!
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