WHAT NOW? Swarthmore prof and blogger Timothy Burke has what is,
for Tapped's money, some crucial advice on what the peace movement needs
to do now:
"This is not the time for the usual self-indulgent let-a-thousand-flowers bloom, let the nutty Spartacist have his turn at the podium, let Sheryl Crow talk about how war is bad for flowers and other living things, approach to political action. This is not a festival or a be-in or a happening. It�s not a space for creative frolics and really cool paper-mache puppets.
The war is coming, unless Saddam Hussein blinks in the next 24 hours. None of us can stop it. Give that up right now: you cannot stop the war. Don�t even try. Don�t even fantasize that you can.
You can only prepare to exact a political price from the people who led us so poorly to this point, and to do that, you need to make the war a bigger issue than the antiwar.
[Justin] Raimondo nails it perfectly: all the plans for direct action that involve "no business as usual" gimmicks like blocking traffic, chaining oneself to fences and the like are pure, unadulterated narcissism. They're about anointing yourself a virtuous, righteous person and performing your virtue on the public stage. You want that, come by my office and I'll give you a little "I'm a Good Person Because I'm Against the War" badge to pin on your shirt and I'll applaud you every time I see you walk by.
The "direct action" visions circulating out there now are not about building the largest possible coalition of opposition to the Bush Administration, not about building a political consensus, not about laying the groundwork for 2004. If you really care about opposing the war, you need to put your own selfish needs to proclaim your virtuousness aside and keep your eyes on the prize. Large public gatherings that are respectful, quiet and rhetorically modest would be a good thing, sure, but for the moment, little more than that."
One of the problems with these big marches -- impressive as they may be as shows of strength -- is that they have little lasting value. The broad anti-globalization/anti-war movement has tended to disdain actual electoral politics, believing it to be corrupt beyond repair (which is, in its way, the ultimate kind of cynicism). But in the long run, the way you win in a democracy is by winning elections, and you win elections by organizing for candidates and helping them raise money. No doubt, these candidates will be more mainstream, and more credible, than, say, the guys who run A.N.S.W.E.R. And that's the beauty of it. When you have a march, you pretty much have to let everyone have their say. The cranks who think Bush is "the real war criminal" get as much face time as the Jimmy Carters. Electoral politics imposes a discipline on activism, weeding out the cranks, building consensus and providing a kind of centrifugal force that keeps it all together. If the people who spend their time organizing and marching would spend even a fraction of that energy and time involving themselves in real electoral politics -- not futile, Naderite third-party runs, another form of political narcissism -- they could actually punish Bush for what he's done.
--
Frank H. Andorka Jr.
Managing Editor
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7500 Old Oak Blvd.
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