In the trenches
Can the anti-war movement survive the outbreak of war? Nyier Abdou finds activists smoothly shifting gears
The past months have seen the world polarise on the issue of war in Iraq, but as the United States and the United Kingdom stood poised for war on Wednesday, so too did the imposing international anti-war movement. After an unprecedented show of opposition well before a declaration of war, anti-war activists have not faltered in the 11th hour. In power centres like Washington and London, groups were organising demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience early in the week, leading up to an expected outburst of dissent this weekend.
Medea Benjamin, of the San Francisco-based peace group Global Exchange, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the anti-war movement was not waiting for the war to begin to act out. On Monday, 54 activists were arrested at the Capitol building in Washington after trying to cross a police line and speak to representatives. On Wednesday, protesters dressed in "bloody" clothing arranged a "funeral procession" for the expected casualties of war that was to pass the halls of Congress and move on to the house of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Benjamin says that she expects, "more dramatic actions" in the coming days, with protesters shutting down federal buildings, government offices, highways and major intersections.
"Every community is planning for the day the bombs begin to drop," Benjamin said. "Unfortunately, it's going to get very ugly here," she added. With an increased terror alert in the US, Benjamin predicts further oppression of the anti-war movement and "more hate crimes against Arabs [in the US]".
"There will not be business as usual for a government that tramples on democracy and international law for the sake of oil and imperial design," concurs Peter Lems, of the Philadelphia- based American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). "The date for war has been set. Now, we resist."
Resistance has been marked as the final machinations for war unfurled in Washington. Commenting on the series of vigils and local demonstrations in towns across America, Mike Zmolek, outreach coordinator for the US-based National Network to End the War Against Iraq (NNEWAI), enthused that it has been "an amazing week". "It is unprecedented," he said. "This is not about the usual suspects. This is about mainstream America coming out to say 'no war'."
Grass-roots action is expected to increase across the country, as contingency plans were long set for the day bombing began. Zmolek noted that there is a "significant" peace lobby effort, with a press conference by dissenting members of Congress set to be held on the lawn of the Capitol on Wednesday. "We are going to see widespread civil disobedience actions across the country," he said.
While the ferocity of the international anti-war movement has managed to astound lawmakers and activists alike, a sense of fatalism hangs over activists as they shift from protesting against the outbreak of war to protesting against a war itself. "People are very angry and in a sombre mood," remarks John Rees, co-founder of the London-based Stop the War Coalition. "People have to come to terms with the fact that they didn't 'stop the war'." But Rees made it clear that impending war has not slowed the anti-war movement. Huge student demonstrations were taking place in cities across Britain on Wednesday and were set to continue into the following days. Rees added that industrial action also looked likely.
Spontaneous demonstrations continue to spring up -- demonstrators gathered outside the British House of Commons on Tuesday as the final debate on action in Iraq took place, and some 1,000 people occupied the road outside the British parliament on Wednesday. Asked if he thought the pace of activism would be stymied by a "quick war", Rees remarked that he thinks people will "suspend judgement" given all the "unknowns in the equation". "The US is promising elections [in Iraq] in months," says Rees. "Anyone who believes that, is not closely in tune with reality." He added that in the face of the horrors of war, he found it unlikely that people would, "draw the conclusion that they were wrong to oppose it".
Conceding that with such short notice, his coalition cannot hope to see demonstrations this Saturday akin to the massive demonstrations on 15 February, Rees noted that demonstrations will continue to be called in the following weeks. Expecting "terrible carnage" in Iraq, Rees maintains that there is certainly no futility in giving expression to an evident outpouring of public anger. "If we can make the war shorter, if even by one day, then we can save lives," he said.
Global Exchange's Benjamin argues, however, that once the war begins, the anti-war movement could itself become more polarised. "Now is a not a time when the ranks of the anti-war movement will grow," she said. But passions will become more enflamed. "Those who were against the war, but not vehemently, might move toward a position that says 'Now we must support our troops'," she said, noting that this will be particularly true in the halls of Congress. Those who were fervently against the war, on the other hand, "will feel even more opposed, and feel more strongly about their position". She added that until now, there has been no passionate pro-war movement. "We've had a passionately pro-war president, a pro-war media -- but not a pro-war movement," she said.
Benjamin argues that one place where the anti-war movement will truly feel the effect of the war is that people will increasingly be divided into, "those who support our troops and those who don't". Dismissing this schism as misguided, Benjamin said that it is the responsibility of the anti-war movement to make it clear that the best way to support the troops is to "bring them home -- alive". Noting that anti-war activists will increasingly be painted as "un-patriotic", Benjamin said, "We're bracing ourselves for a very difficult time."
While some argue that the advent of war in Iraq will deal a devastating blow to the anti-war movement, it would be unrealistic to suppose that those most active in the movement did not see this day coming. "I don't think that people are disillusioned very much at all," maintains NNEWAI's Mike Zmolek. "But that's not to say that many people will not become disheartened or afraid once the bombs start dropping on Baghdad." If any illusion has been shattered, he said, "it is the illusion that the Bush administration ever had any intention of listening to any segment of the American public that disagreed with their war plan."
Both Zmolek and the AFSC's Lems echoed Benjamin's predictions that there will be a campaign to denigrate anyone seen as not supporting US troops. "It is already under way," says Zmolek, but he added that, "I think the anti-war movement is prepared for this." In this kind of environment, Zmolek says, it will become increasingly more difficult to organise anti-war activities, "but as stories of Iraqi civilian deaths and even American deaths start to mount, public support for the war effort will weaken. It will weaken steadily as this turns into a long-term and perhaps violent occupation of Iraq."
"There is a great deal of resignation to a war," says Lems. "There may be a shift in public sentiment [towards] supporting the soldiers, even as many continue to have questions about the war. However, there is such deep opposition in so many communities that protests will be quick, visible, and vocal."
Lems maintains that the American public is finally waking up to a sense of isolation, and the effects this may have in the long term. People are, "starting to fathom the breech of UN protocol," he says, and are beginning to realise that, "far too often the face of the United States is seen as militant and vengeful around the world".
"I have a strong sense that the rush to war will not play well amongst even the mainstream public," suggests Zmolek. "In the short term, I think the anti-war movement will grow, and will grow more angry." The long term, he says, "is anybody's guess". A short and "clean" war that could be painted as a success could bolster US President George W Bush's approval ratings. On the other hand, terrorist attacks against Americans could serve to divide the American public further, into those who stand by the president and "those who will feel even more strongly that invading Iraq was not in the country's interests if it meant more innocent Americans dying as did on 11 September."
For now, it is clear that the heart of the anti-war movement continues to pulse frantically. Stop the War's Rees says that people are "sorry" they couldn't stop the war, but that he feels certain that they will still be turning out in "large numbers". Global Exchange's Benjamin also warns that all is not lost on the anti-war front. "There is this incredible international community," she says, adding that, as people in countries across the world register their dissent, it will fuel a movement that continues to gather enormous strength.
