An article by Michelle Goldberg at Salon today outlines several anti-war organizations' plans of action if and when the war starts. More importantly, she also examines how some of these plans may end up working against the anti-war movement and even the Iraqi people. You can read the full article here: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/03/14/war/index.html
While I don't believe that the anti-war movement should roll-over and die the day the war starts, I do think that any actions taken should be extremely well-thought out. With the mainstream media being the obedient conservative lap-dog that it is, it's important to minimize any action's susceptibility to media spin as possible. Here's a perfect example from the Salon article showing how media spin of protests in the 60's backfired on the anti-war movement:
That's just what Paul Berman fears. Berman, author of the recent book "Terror and Liberalism," is a veteran of the '60s peace movement and an opponent of the Bush administration, but he believes no good can come of war opponents rampaging through the streets. "This is just going to create a real crisis within the country," he says. "It's a completely destructive thing to do."
He's done it, and now believes that the days of rage he participated in during the '60s helped prolong the Vietnam War. "At the time I did some of that myself and thought it was doing good, but now it's apparent to me that all that stuff just fell into a trap laid by Richard Nixon," he says. "That kind of stuff allowed Nixon to win in 1968 and again in 1972, and a Democratic president would surely have withdrawn sooner. And so in effect, although it's painful to say so, I think that kind of stuff had the effect of prolonging the war. It played into Nixon's hands. There were famous scenes where Nixon specifically ordered that his entourage drive through streets where he knew he'd be attacked by demonstrators because he wanted the right scenes to appear on TV. He presented it to the public: You had to choose between Richard Nixon or some long-haired marijuana-smoking lunatic communist. Guess what. The public chose Nixon."
Brian Douglas
Welcome to the Cleveland Non-Violence List Serve. Visit our web-site at www.clevelandnv.org
Please remember to post in plain text and post only the essential text (do not forward messy messages or webpages.)
The Cleveland Non-Violence Network is the listserve of activists in the Cleveland area committed to a non-violent, justice-based response to terrorism and promoting peace nationally and internationally.
To post a message, send an e-mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To unsubscribe, send a blank e-mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
If friends want to subscribe, tell them to send an e-mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To read this list on the web, please visit: http://www.topica.com/lists/ClevelandNV
Wendy Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] List Moderator
==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84CHQ.bdsLNU.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
TOPICA - Start your own email discussion group. FREE! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/create/index2.html ==^================================================================
