UFPJ national assembly calls Oct. 27 antiwar demonstrations

by Andrew Pollack / July 2007 issue of Socialist Action newspaper

An ambitious fall campaign was adopted by the June 22-24 national assembly of the biggest antiwar group in the U.S., United For Peace and Justice (UFPJ). Meeting in Chicago, delegates voted for a series of nationally coordinated local actions in the fall, culminating in six to eight regional demonstrations on Oct. 27, with the goal of putting more people in the street on one day than ever before.

The campaign was universally motivated by the recognition that while the antiwar movement has repeatedly turned out massive numbers, we now need to make the overwhelming and growing majority antiwar sentiment clear in the streets.

Three hundred people attended, of whom 237 were delegates from 184 organizations in 35 states. Attendees noted the small numbers in the room of youth, of Arab-Americans, Latinos and African Americans, and discussed steps to boost their involvement.

UFPJ's last national demonstration took place on Jan. 27, 2007; it was called to take advantage of expectations that the new Congressional Democratic majority would act against the war. With the vote to continue war funding, however, anger at the Democrats has soared—shown most dramatically by Cindy Sheehan’s denunciation of them.

The banner at the front of the hall in which the June assembly met stated: "Congress: End the War in Iraq!" As the gathering opened it was unclear whether this statement represented illusions in the Democrats, an attempt to capitalize on anger against them, or a combination of the two.

But it was clear from discussion at the assembly that many participants did hold illusions in the antiwar motives of congressional Democrats. This dovetailed with the sentiment expressed by some that mass marches were old hat and that "different" methods of protest were needed.

No individual could have typified this mindset better than the main opening-night speaker, Tom Hayden—an early leader of the 1960s Students for a Democratic Society and more recently a Democratic Party politician in the California statehouse.

In 1968, Hayden provided a case study in how to combine liberal politics with ultra-left tactics. While advocating such tactics at the Democratic Convention protests that year, Hayden was negotiating behind the scenes with Democratic Party "peace candidate" Eugene McCarthy about whether to call off protests if they would hurt his candidacy.

In his speech at the 2007 UFPJ assembly, Hayden urged attendees to "step up the struggle," to "confront the powers that be."

More proof that this combination of opportunism and ultra-leftism didn't die with the 1960s came from a Democratic Socialists of America delegate who argued for civil disobedience (CD), for "getting in the face" of politicians. This was the very same delegate who had earlier argued for keeping troops in Iraq until the country was "stable"!

More traditional liberal politics were advocated by John Cameron, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees of Illinois political director, who is active in Americans Against Escalation in Iraq. The latter group, The New York Times said in May, is "closely allied with liberal lawmakers, [and] helped assuage many progressives who were uneasy about voting for the war-financing bill, fearing criticism from the left."

Cameron denounced the "partisan" (rather than bipartisan) war and touted an "Iraq Summer" of lobbying and electoral work in 100 Congressional districts.

In stark contrast to such illusions was the argument made against an amendment asking UFPJ to push for impeachment of Bush and Cheney. Charley Richardson of Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) said Democrats are as pro-war as Republicans and are trying to gain the White House on the bodies of soldiers killed while Bush is still in office. Yet even Hayden felt compelled to pay tribute to mass action, complimenting UFPJ on having organized eight national demonstrations of over 100,000 people.

Discussion at the assembly centered on two documents drafted by the leadership, a “Strategic Framework” and a “Comprehensive Program.” The third drafts of each, incorporating member group amendments, were debated, further amended, and voted on. At past assemblies, resolutions and amendments had been presented from both the leadership and from delegates.

The leadership's proposals contained a wide range of activities around the war and connected issues such as immigration, social and racial justice, and U.S. interventions and occupations around the world.

The item generating the most discussion was point 7 of the Comprehensive Program, "Major Antiwar Mobilization This Fall." Point 7 mentioned proposals for local or national demonstrations, but instead recommended "a day of major regional antiwar demonstrations in six to eight cities around the country," to be big enough "so when the numbers are added up we will have put more people into the street on that single day than ever before."

“Iraq Moratorium” proposal

The most significant alternative to this proposal was the “Iraq Moratorium,” put forward by long-time labor and antiracist activist Bill Fletcher Jr. and several others. They argued that the movement "has hit a strategic plateau" due to "over-reliance on national demonstrations" and needs to "move to another level."

They called for activities around the country on the third Friday of each month, starting Sept. 21, when "millions will break with their daily routine to take some concrete step" against the war. Participants would wear black ribbons and armbands, but specific actions would be decided locally.

The Iraq Moratorium harks back to the Vietnam Moratorium. Despite being started by liberal Democratic Party apparatchiks, the existence of large, democratic antiwar committees such as the Student Mobilization Committee and the National Mobilization Committee meant that local Moratorium activities ended up turning out millions at rallies, leafleting, door-knocking, and other activities on Oct. 15, 1969.

This in turn built momentum for the national demonstrations on Nov. 15, 1969, of three-quarters of a million in Washington and a quarter million in San Francisco—the largest mobilizations ever to that point.

The proposers of the Iraq Moratorium, rather than being pro-Democratic hacks, are long-time grassroots activists (although not immune to recommending election of Democrats). Yet at first, supporters of the Moratorium and other local actions combined their proposals in a package and counterposed them to mass regional actions.

UFPJ National Coordinator Leslie Cagan pointed out that all of these proposals were already in the Comprehensive Program. And it soon became clear that delegates saw the potential for local actions to build momentum for regional actions.

Arguments for mass action

Although time spent in two small-group sessions would have been better spent in the plenaries, the democratic functioning of the assembly was shown during the discussion period, in which attendees debated the alternatives. The majority responded favorably to arguments for turning majority antiwar sentiment into masses on the street in six to eight cities.

Former SDS leader Carl Davidson argued for mass action and against calls to "up the ante." Jeff Mackler of Socialist Action called for "bridging the massive opposition to the war, and our capacity to mobilize that sentiment, by mobilizing in mass action. While doing so we can build UFPJ into a powerful coalition."

On the floor and in the corridors attendees talked of how marches re-energized previous participants and inspired first-timers. Others pointed to their importance for getting a sense of the movement's diversity and making connections between struggles.

A straw poll showed a large majority in favor of doing just the six to eight regional actions, and an even larger majority in favor of using the local coordinated actions as building blocks for regional actions. When the final vote was taken that combined approach was adopted. In a workshop the following morning, UFPJ National Co-Chair Judith Le Blanc and Moratorium initiator Denis O'Neil discussed how the two sets of actions would complement each other.

The Comprehensive Program proposal noted that "pulling [the regional demos] off successfully will require a major commitment from groups within each region to work together (which in turn can help strengthen coalition building)." The first step in doing so occurred in regional caucuses to discuss where to hold the actions and to recommend dates back to the assembly as a whole. The date finally chosen was Oct. 27.

In these caucuses a list of attendees was compiled, and UFPJ members are now in a position to take the next step: building broad local and regional coalitions around these actions, and in the course of doing so to build UFPJ. The caucuses also called for the UFPJ national office to provide aid in getting regional coalitions going. (There was also discussion at the conference of new efforts to build local and neighborhood UFPJ groups.)

Forging links to allied struggles

The conference also discussed links to other struggles. Aarti Shahani of Familes for Freedom described the pro-military proposals in all pending immigration bills, including mandatory enlistment of youth seeking green cards and the role of war profiteers in building walls and high-tech surveillance infrastructure on the border.

A workshop on immigration the following day recommended education on worker rights, free trade agreements and war as causes of immigration and refugee crises, highlighting the role of the pro-war, anti-immigrant profiteers during the fall actions and inviting speakers on immigrant rights to these actions.

Michael McPherson, executive director of Veterans for Peace, and Ra Chaka, an activist in the Chicago Black community, urged turning out antiwar activists for protests called by African Americans and other oppressed groups, linking the brutality at Abu Ghraib with everyday violence by cops here. (This spring UFPJ in New York did just this by mobilizing for the rally against the cop murder of Sean Bell.)

McPherson also described VFP activities in support of Katrina relief and rebuilding efforts. Reports from regional workshops for southern and southwestern states showed a determination to take up these issues as part of the fall campaign.

Nancy Lessin of MFSO announced that there were now 2000 signatures of active-duty service members on the antiwar Appeal for Redress. Members of MFSO, Veterans for Peace, and Iraq Veterans Against the War were active participants in the Assembly.

Saturday evening featured speakers from around the world. First off were two Iraqi unionists being toured around the country by U.S. Labor Against the War (see accompanying article). Also speaking were members of a Vietnamese delegation in the U.S. fighting for compensation for millions suffering from Agent Orange.

Dr. Mona El-Farra of the Gaza Red Crescent and the Middle East Children's Alliance noted that Palestinians' suffering did not begin with the 1967 war (an event marked by the June 10 protest and June 11 lobbying day co-sponsored by UFPJ and the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation) but with the ethnic cleansing of 1948, which made refugees of the majority of Palestinians, and she called for the right of return for all Palestinians. She also denounced the U.S. role in setting up recent events in Gaza.

Before delivering a powerful poem about the daily injustices suffered by Palestinians, Palestinian-American poet Gihad Ali explained that the right of return would never be given up.

More actions around Palestine

The space given to El-Farra and Ali to espouse views more radical than UFPJ has adopted is indicative of a recognition by the antiwar group of a shift in world politics making the fight against U.S. support for Israeli apartheid an inseparable part of the fight against war in Iraq and throughout the region. In her report on UFPJ's work over the past year, Judith LeBlanc talked of the need for more national UFPJ actions around Palestine.

To concretize this sentiment, a delegate from the Middle East Crisis Committee in Connecticut proposed events to commemorate the Naqba (the events of 1948), support for the educational Wheels of Justice tour, and the movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. The proposal narrowly lost.

Nonetheless, attendees at a Palestine workshop later that day showed that delegates were eager to take up Le Blanc's challenge. At the workshop—chaired by the U.S. Campaign's Josh Reubner and UFPJ's most prominent Middle East analyst, Phyllis Bennis—agreement was reached to have UFPJ sponsor educational activities around the country on Nov. 29, 2007, marking the 60th anniversary of the UN's partition of Palestine.

Also approved were a speakers' bureau and materials to educate around the Naqba, the right of return, and other issues, educational materials on BDS, and links from UFPJ websites to sites dealing with Israeli apartheid and the right of return. Results of the workshop were reported to the assembly as a whole, and while no formal vote was taken (or on other workshops' results), the ideas were warmly applauded.

This motion on Palestine, following on the June 10 rally, marks a significant shift for UFPJ. While it has had speakers on Palestine at some previous events, and a formal position against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, it had often given a back seat to the issue out of a perceived fear of alienating supporters.

The task now for supporters of Palestinian self-determination, while aggressively building the fall antiwar campaign, is to discuss how to make UFPJ-sponsored Nov. 29 commemorations and other activities as big as possible and to draw in significant Arab-American participation in UFPJ.

U.S. Labor Against the War activists also caucused during the weekend. They discussed possible future tours of Iraqi unionists, and ideas for building the Moratorium and the regional actions among coworkers, including especially among union members who are in the service or veterans or have family members who are. (In one small group discussion a participant pointed out that if we really want something "different" in our activities, rather than civil disobedience, we could make a bigger impact by ensuring large, visible contingents of vets, labor, and labor vets in the front ranks of our mass demos.)

In this workshop as well, the question of Palestine came up, and USLAW chair Michael Eisenscher described his plan to put together the task force on Palestine voted for at its last convention.

Before the assembly met, the ANSWER coalition issued an open letter proposing a national action in either the fall or spring, without setting a date, and called abstractly for unity in the movement. This took by surprise many who've watched past battles between antiwar groups.

The letter likely stems from ANSWER's weakness, having lost members in a split to the Troops Out Now Coalition, which, like ANSWER, is controlled by one radical tendency and does not hold democratic meetings on either local or national levels. At the UFPJ Assembly (which ANSWER did not attend), a motion for a "unity summit" along the lines of ANSWER's proposal received very few votes.

Certainly local and regional coalitions building UFPJ's fall campaign can involve any and all antiwar forces. But our main task is clear: to build those coalitions and make Oct. 27 and the actions leading up to it as massive as possible.