U.S. war threats: Challenges facing peace movement

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SOCIALIST ACTION AUGUST 1985 nationally coordinated protests in the fall. These actions can build on the success of the April 20 demonstrations which drew 125,000 people in five major cities.

Yet today the national organizations that helped plan the successful April 20 demonstrations have failed to call for any nationally coordinated fall protests. This is a setback for the anti-intervention movement.

Meeting in New York City on June 29, the national steering committee of the April Actions Coalition voted to reduce its level of functioning to that of a network that would simply communicate information about fall protest activities sponsored by other groups.

These actions include a week of activites around Central America organized by the Pledge of Resistance on Sept. 21-25; a National Anti-Apartheid Protest Day on Oct. I1 sponsored by the American Committee on Africa; an Oct. 19-25 Peace with Justice Week sponsored by the National Council of Churches; and the Nov. 23-25 Grassroots Actions Days called by the African Peoples' Christian Organization, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and others.

While all of these diverse activities have merit, they are certainly no substitute for the united and powerful response the movement is capable of Moreover, reflecting the diminished Socialist Action Forums:

SAN FRANCISCO "Direct Report from Cuba:

Cuba's view on the international debt."

Speakers: Karen Wald, journalist in Cuba for past three years and author of "Children of Che" and Alan Benjamin, editor of Socialist Action. Fri. Aug. 9; 8 p.m., 3435 Army St. #308 MINNEAPOLIS "How to stop U.S. wars-Central America to South Africa"

Speaker: Carl Finamore, staffwriter Socialist Action. Fri. Aug. 16; 7 p.m., Powderhorn Park Community Center, 3400 15th Ave. South.

CHICAGO "The fight for socialist democracy: The rise of Solidarnosc"

Speaker: Carl Finamore, staffwriter Socialist Action. Sat. Aug. 17; 7:30 p.m., Crosscurrents Hall, 3206 N. Wilton Ave. responsibilities of the network, the small administrative committee has replaced the national steering committee as the functioning leadership body. Thus, local coalitions which had previously played a major role on the steering committee have been removed from active participation.

In late March, it was primarily the local coalitions which successfully prevented the postponement or cancellation of the April 20 demonstration in Washington, D.C., after the administrative committee had twice made such proposals. And at the June 29 meeting, eight local coalitions joined representatives of the 2nd Emergency National Conference held in Minneapolis [see July 1985 Socialist Action] to urge nationally coordinated fall actions.

Therefore, the removal of the local coalitions from the leadership not only eliminates important viewpoints within April Actions but politically isolates the network from important regional forces that helped make April 20 a success. To make matters worse, few labor organizations have ever actively participated in the April Actions Coalition and none were present at the June 29 meeting.

A weak justification The network leaders justify their failure to call fall actions on the grounds that the coalition lacks "financial and other resources" and has "serious shortcomings...in terms of Black, Latino, women, and poor peoples' participation."

But national protest actions, as experience has proven, are the means to help overcome these shortcomings. Financial and other resources are won by organizing an action program. And an aggressive outreach campaign among Black, Latino, and women's organizations helps to gain the participation of oppressed nationalities, women, and poor people.

Unfortunately none of these efforts were considered. Instead, the coalition transformed itself into a network, refused to call national fall actions in its own name, and settled for the administrative committee holding summer and fall "meetings with key forces that need to play a more prominent role in the network."

This is inadequate to the coalition's admittedly "shortcomings.

It represents a very serious default in leadership and has already sent a discouraging message to the hundreds of organizations that mobilized last spring. In fact, most local April 20 coalitions have either dissolved or ceased to function.

Differences in orientation

The April Actions Coalition's real stumbling block to organizing united and massive fall actions flows from a false political conception of the kind of movement that is needed to stop the warmakers.

The central leaders of the April Actions Coalition-particularly the rep"An electoral focus means no mass-action orlentation."

resentatives of the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), the Mobilization for Survival, and the U.S. Peace Councilargue that the antiwar movement will fail unless it has an electoral vehicle. For them this means orienting to the Democratic Party-particularly to the "Rainbow Coalition" section of that party.

Of course, a working-class party controlled by the unions that enjoyed the active support of Blacks, Latinos, women, and other oppressed sectors of the population would be a tremendous boost to the movement against intervention in Central America.

But in the absence of such a party, an electoral focus invariably means abandoning a mass-action orientation in favor of political reliance on one wing of the capitalist class.

In the fall of 1984, these coalition leaders and the large bulk of the peace and solidarity organizations focused their energy on electing Democratic Party "peace" candidates to get rid of Reagan. This meant calling for a vote for Walter Mondale-the same Mondale whose idea for an embargo against Nicreforming the Democratic Party. In fact, in various forms they attempted to dilute or remove the mass-action component of the April Actions call.

For example, coalition leaders opposed a primary focus of mobilizing for the march and rally on April 20, emphasizing instead a four-day program including small civil-disobedience actions and lobbying.

In addition, coalition leaders twice proposed to postpone the April 20 demonstration. They justified these proposals on the pessimistic grounds that the turnout in Washington, D.C., would be small.

The events on April 20, of course, disproved the apprehensions of many of the coalition's leaders. The turnout in Washington, D.C., was much larger than anything they expected.

Indeed, April 20 proved that it is possible to tap the tremendous antiwar sentiment of U.S. working people through demonstrations based on the four themes of the coalition.

Unfortunately, the current network leaders fail to draw the obvious conclusions from , the successful April 20 actions by refusing to call for nationally coordinated fall actions.

They fail to understand that only consistent mass mobilizations by the American people can reverse the bipartisan war policies of the U.S. government. Only this approach relies on the mobilized strength of working people and helps advance their self-confidence and awareness of their own power to change government policy.

Escalations will require protests Despite the lack of a national focus, we can be hopeful that several local areas will attempt to organize large activities on the same date. For example, many leaders of the San Francisco April 20 demonstration have announced plans for a protest concert/rally for Oct. 26 and a conference on Nov. 1. They have urged other cities to cooperate in selecting the same date for activities in order to maximize the impact of the protests.

The 2nd Emergency National Conference Against Intervention in Central America/the Caribbean held in Minneapolis on June 21-23 has also called for actions on Oct. 26. And, significantly, the Seattle, Cleveland, Akron, Los Angeles, Toledo, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Minneapolis local coalitions have expressed support for fall actions.

Hopefully, it will not take the brutal escalations being planned in Washington to convince the whole movement of the need for large nationally coordinated protests.

A united movement in the streets is our best chance of stopping the warmakers.

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• HIROSHIMA ANNIVERSAR

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"It is Imperative for the movement to organize massive fall protests."