[O29] Troops out NOW or "at some unspecified date in the futureto be determined according to the whim of Congress"?

[nick giannone]

What do we want?

Moderate Reform!

When do we want it?

Eventually?

I truly believe that this supposed split in the anti-war movement is being 
manufactured by people who strategy consists of nothing more than electing 
democrats in 2006. If there is a movement that can stop the war before then, 
the democrats will have nothing to run on because we all know that they have 
no plans to meet the needs of the people and they can only go with the 
lesser of 2 evils bullshit that caused the antiwar movement to disappear 
during the entire 2004 election season.

These other groups that are pushing the "Out Eventually" line have no 
visible presence on the streets with the exception of the Move On vigils for 
Cindy Sheehan who is not shy about saying "OUT NOW". I'm not arguing for 
these groups to be excluded but we should not give them a platform if they 
are doing nothing to help us in return.

I encouage anybody who is unsure about where they stand on this to hit the 
streets and see what the people say. I'm hearing more of "we gotta get the 
fuck out of there" than anything else.

I don't want to be too combative towards allies in the antiwar movement but 
there are credibility issues with certain groups whose antiwar activity has 
consisted of:
-Endorsing a man literally covered in the blood of Vietnamese liberation 
fighters who also supported the war in Iraq.
-Ignoring the pro-war stance of the Democratic Convention in Boston.
-Backing down on the right to march in Central Park in NYC during the RNC 
(we all went anyway) and accepting the West Side Highway
-Trying to separate the movement by attempting a separate rally in DC.

-and last but not least, the most baffling of all, after 5 times the 
expected turnout at the "OUT NOW" 9/24 event in DC, there is a retreat 
towards "out eventually"

Good luck to anybody who thinks that the the Democrats (Vietnam, Dominican 
Republic, Lumumba'assassination, Clinton's attempt to start the Iraq war in 
98) will stop this war.

-nick


>From: DAVID KEIL <dmkeil at gmail.com>
>Reply-To: DAVID KEIL <dmkeil at gmail.com>
>To: o29 at massglobalaction.org
>Subject: Re: [O29] Troops out NOW or "at some unspecified date in the 
>futureto be determined according to the whim of Congress"?
>Date: Sat, 1 Oct 2005 10:27:42 -0400
>
>This is to agree with Keith, Dave, Arlene, Brian, John, and Nate, and
>to thank Gary for starting the thread. Gary is letting us know about a
>development within UFPJ in which one of its national co-chairs, Judith
>Le Blanc, is advancing a new approach: "It is up to us to turn the
>growing opposition to Bush into a massive movement to set the date and
>bring the troops home now."
>
>This in effect appears to advance two contradictory demands. (Unless
>"set the date" means "set the date as today". But "set the date"
>doesn't mean that, it means "You, President Bush, set the date." We
>know Bush well enough to know that the date won't be today if he gets
>to set it.)
>
>Le Blanc urges us to build a movement that "reaches out beyond its
>traditional constituents..." I think she means reaching out beyond its
>current components. In that sense I agree with the article. I choose
>to read "a massive movement to set the date and bring the troops home
>now" as signifying a massive movement in the streets composed of two
>wings: (1) a wing that wants setting the date for withdrawal and (2) a
>wing that demands immediate withdrawal.
>
>I agree with this idea of a unified movement despite different
>perspectives. The alternative is to invite the set-the-date people to
>sit out the antiwar activities and let the out-now people handle
>everything. The alternative is an organizational split, just after the
>successes in overcoming splits in the movement, first in Boston, then
>nationally. I don't favor an organizational re-splitting process.
>
>The set-the-date people, who seem to be centered in Congress, the
>AFL-CIO leadership, MoveOn, and Progressive Democrats of America,
>should be invited to join this out-now movement without necessarily
>dropping their war-now/peace-soon perspective. If they are slow to
>join because they are uncomfortable in an out-now crowd, we should
>demand that they join and should make it more uncomfortable for them
>to be outside than to be inside the action coalitions. If they miss
>October 29, we should say, "Don't miss the next one that we're
>planning."
>
>Unfortunately, Judith Le Blanc's slogan, "Set the date and bring the
>troops home now," is too self-contradictory to raise as a single
>demand for an action. For that reason we need to have a debate, as we
>have had on this listserv. The debate might get warm. One side is
>going to win and the other is going to lose. If the out-now side
>loses, it needs to build a cohesive out-now wing and bring its out-now
>placards to every action, it needs out-now leaflets and out-now web
>sites and an out-now media presence. But I don't think out-now will
>lose, because it makes too much sense to too many people. If we send
>our weakest out-now debaters out against set-the-date as debate
>training, I think they're going to win even against the strongest
>set-the-date advocates.
>
>Every action needs a strong out-now speaker to explain the right of
>self-determination and to explain the connection between out now and
>supporting the needs of military families and of soldiers, female and
>male. Don Gurewitz, who led the Student Mobilization Committee during
>the Vietnam war, is a Boston person. I wish he could be asked to speak
>October 29. I wish a group like Student Mobilization Committee existed
>on every campus. SMC never wavered from Out Now.
>
>Of course, the scenario of a two-winged movement is hypothetical,
>because the set-the-date people aren't yet too involved in building
>actions like S24 and O29. So I agree with Judith Le Blanc that we
>should reach out beyond the current components of the movement. If the
>set-the-date forces aren't used to marching in the streets, we should
>take them by the hand. We should invite and demand that they join the
>united antiwar actions and bring their ideas on demands to the
>post-O29 planning meetings for democratic discussion and decision
>making.
>
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>O29 mailing list
>O29 at massglobalaction.org
>http://massglobalaction.org/mailman/listinfo/o29_massglobalaction.org

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