Obama escalates the war, the Antiwar Movement gears up!
The United National Antiwar Conference held between July 23rd and 25th in Albany, NY, gathered around 800 hundred peace activists and delegates from all over the country. The UNAC was initiated in 2009 by the National Assembly to End the Wars and Occupations as a response to the war escalation of the Obama administration and the need to revitalize the anti-war movement within a democratic grassroots framework. Today it has 31 co-sponsor organizations.
The escalation of the war by the Obama government, with the absolute support of both parties (Democrats and Republicans) has begun to break the myth of the “Change” the Democratic president marketed during his campaign and first months in office. Facts speak louder than words: Not only did Obama fail to bring the troops back home, close the illegal prison at Guantanamo and prosecute war criminals, as the majority of the American people asked him to do, but he furthered the militaristic and imperialistic project of the Bush regime by escalating the war.
The Obama administration has increased war spending in Iraq and Afghanistan far beyond the already skyrocketing amounts under Bush: in 2009 it reached $200 billion ($120b in 2005, $170b in 2007), and in 2010, around $130 billion have been already approved by the US congress at the request of the president. The last package of $37 billion passed July 27th.
Afghanistan is still occupied by 100,000 foreign soldiers, 68,000 of them being from the United States. In January, Obama got the US Congress to vote the war credits to send 30,000 additional soldiers to the occupied country. The reason for this is the increasing resistance of the Taliban guerilla who controls between 70% and 90% of the territory and is a de facto “shadow State.”
And the Iraq war is not close to an end either, given that Obama has conditioned the withdrawal from the country on political peace there, without wanting to understand that such a peace could only be build by the Iraqi people once the US and other foreign invaders leave the country and remove all their troops and military bases. Given this context of deepening political crisis for the current US president, whose popular support is at its lowest, the revitalization of the antiwar movement shown at the Conference gives us hope to build massive actions next spring.
A successful Conference with a clear strategy: mass mobilization to end the occupation!
Most of the old-timer organizers present at the conference asserted that this was the most successful national antiwar conference since the beginning of the war in 2001, in terms of attendance and active participation as well as in terms of representation of the different groups involved from all sides in the movement to bring the troops home now. The success of the conference was also in its profound democratic character: all groups and individuals were able to submit action proposals, amendments, and resolutions, and democratic mechanisms where agreed upon to discuss them, giving as long as the majority needed before voting to endorse or oppose them.
The UNAC reaffirmed by an unanimous vote the strategy to bring the troops home now: unity in action among the different anti-war forces, massive mobilization with the aim of including the broadest sectors of society, and democratic functioning such as the one that was put in practice during the 3 days of intense discussion and debate in Albany. It was made clear once again that neither the American people nor the Afghanis or Iraqis can rely on the traditional parties in government (Republicans and Democrats) nor on the ruling elite that is profiting from the war to end the massacre: they can only rely on themselves, in their own power that needs to be organized, because they are the broad majority who opposes and suffers the effects of the war. This was the main lesson of the end of the Vietnam War, where the imperialist power had to retreat, defeated abroad and at home. But also it is the lesson of the Civil Rights Movement and the Women’s Movement.
The organizers of the Conference voted an ambitious but necessary plan of action to pressure the government to immediately end the war: local and regional protests in October 2010 to mark the ninth year of the U.S. war on Afghanistan followed by a massive campaign of teach-ins, propaganda, education and local and regional networking to prepare bi-coastal mass spring demonstrations on April 9th 2011.
Solidarity with the Muslim Community in Albany: end Preemptive Prosecutions now!
Another important achievement of the UNAC was the demonstration of solidarity in support with the political prisoners like Mumia Abu Jamal and Lynne Stewart, and the rejection of racist attacks and illegal prosecutions like the ones enacted against the Muslim community in the US. The end of the Conference was a march through the city of Albany across the immigrant neighborhoods to the Mosque in support of the Muslims targeted by the outrageous “Preventive Prosecution.”
In 2004, the Albany mosque was raided by the FBI and put under surveillance, the Immam and another community member arrested and imprisoned “preemptively,” that is to say on the basis of simple suspicion by the US state. We ended our march in the Mosque, where we were generously welcomed by the members of the community who shared with us the recent years of fear, terror and racism they had to endure but also their resistance and struggle to defend their civil and political rights, organizing with the Muslim Solidarity Committee and Project Salam in Albany.
After the 9/11 attacks a wave of racist attacks to the Muslim community was unleashed, with mass arrests of more than 2000 Muslim Americans without any proof and any respect of their constitutional right to defense, many of them being imprisoned up to today, without any proof being publicly released against them.
A step forward: the vote to boycott Israel and end US support to Israeli occupation of Palestine
One of the major debates at the UNAC was about the necessity of including a boycott of Israel. Some of the organizers and groups present at the conference opposed an amendment to the Action Program proposal to demand the end of US aid to the Israeli state (military, economic and diplomatic) and the US support of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. They supported it in theory but practically only as an annex resolution, with the argument that it would make it very difficult to rally organized labor to the antiwar movement as well as Israeli peace groups.
This debate of course polarized the room, and the debate time was extended up to four times to allow the comradely discussion on this very important issue. Our opinion is that the final vote to include the amendment was correct and a step forward, not only because the issue of the boycott of Israel-the first ally of US imperialism in the region-is a principled position, but because it also corresponds to a change in the national and international resistance against the Israeli occupation and US foreign policy in this region.
The pro-Palestinian organizers were completely right to argue that there has been a taboo against discussing the crimes of Israel. But popular support for the Palestinian people among the US population has grown since the invasion and slaughter in Lebanon in 2006, and further invasions and occupations of Gaza in 2008-2009 producing more deaths among civil population because of lack of access to food and medical services and finally the outrageous assault to the humanitarian flotilla this past summer.
Furthermore, as Ross Caputi, Iraq Veteran and antiwar activist at the University of Boston, pointed out, there is a resurgence of the DBS (Divestment Boycott and Sanctions) campaigns against Israel and a revitalization of the student groups Students for Justice in Palestine. On the East Coast many groups have appeared, and on the West Coast the Divestment Campaign at UC Berkeley led by SJP in coalition with other 30 groups mobilized around 800 supporters to have the student government pass a divestment bill.
Against the threat of losing the expected support of “US labor” if we call for the boycott of Israel, we should consider, maybe more seriously, the threat of losing an active constituent at the front of the antiwar movement: the pro-Palestinian activists and organizers, who are bringing every day more young recruits from the university campuses and colleges. There is a new generation that is not afraid anymore to call things by its name: Israel is a racist and colonial state that is accomplishing the genocide of the Palestinian people for the last 70 years.
There are also many rank and file workers who are increasingly uncomfortable with the complicit silence of their union leadership when Gaza gets invaded and when the flotilla was attacked. Even if we recognize that there is a lot political education to be done to counter the pro-Zionist propaganda to rally masses of workers around this struggle, these are the people we want to bring to the antiwar movement. This is why we believe that the vote to call for the boycott of Israel was not only a progressive one, but a crucial one for the political growth of our movement.
Uniting with the other fighting movements: all out on October 7th , April 9th and May 1st!
The Conference voted to endorse and participate in the March for Jobs in Washington DC on October 2nd. But most importantly, it voted to link itself to the two most popular rising movements in the United States which are opposing the war on working class people and oppressed communities: the public education and the immigrant movement. The University of California students and academic workers also sent letters of solidarity to the UNAC that were received with great enthusiasm.
The Conference organized specific workshops addressing the common aspects and intersections of the antiwar struggle with the one for public education and for immigrant rights. Student organizers from California, Florida, Minnesota, Massachusetts, New York State and Connecticut shared experiences and strengthen relationships to build a national network of resistance. Jackie Hayes and Colin Dunnaruma explained us that the university public system in New York (SUNY) is going through a major process of privatization, very similar to the UC one.
In this sense the UNAC was also a step forward to raise the consciousness of activists from the different sectors on the need to be united in our struggle against the common policies of the government that affect all of us. The next step, beyond raising these 3 major issues of our country in our respective movements (the need to end the war, to restore public services and to fight for full and unconditional legalization) and making conscious connection is to show unity in action on October 7th, April 9th and May 1st. Not only because all these issues are tied together: the racism abroad and at home, the money spent on the war and not on jobs and education, the denial of equal access to education for the working class, oppressed and undocumented communities, the racist and economic character of the de facto military draft etc, but because none of our movements will be victorious unless it becomes a mass movement that mobilizes large sectors of the population. Not only our current problems are tied together, but our futures are tied, too!
We need to remember that in the midst of the worst financial crisis the federal budget is still centered on the war funding: 54% of the federal resources were spent on the war (current military and past military that includes Veterans benefits and the interests of the debt) in 2009, that is to say $1.449 billion according to the independent research group War Resisters League. Just to give a sense of the scope of the robbery of the American people that this war represents, the budget deficit in the State of California, which is the official excuse for slashing public services (education, social services etc) and laying off thousands of public and unionized workers was $24 billion in 2009 and $19 billion this year.
The deepening of the economic crisis for the American working people is making clearer and clearer the objective basis that motivates the need to unite our movements. We need to work now to keep building them through mass mobilization towards a common united fighting front against the government policies.
Bring the Troops Home Now!
End Preemptive Prosecutions Now! Free Mumia, Lynn Stewart and All Political Prisoners and Victims of Preemptive Prosecutions!
End Military, Economic and Diplomatic Aid to Israel! Boycott Israel Now!
Support the Iraqi, Afghani and Palestinian Resistance!
Money for Jobs and Education Not For War and Incarceration!
Stop the War on Immigrants! Full Legalization Now!
All Out On October 7th, April 9th and May 1st
