{news} Nader and Libertarians Not Welcome- A splintered Anti-war Movement

[Green Party-CT]

February 12, 2007

Nader and Libertarians Not Welcome
A Splintered Antiwar Movement

By John Walsh

The roster of speakers for the UFPJ demonstration in Washington D.C. on
January 27 speaks volumes. The key was not so much who was included but 
who
was not. The list of speakers certainly had a lot of wonderful 
activists in
the peace movement, but to a considerable degree it was a line-up of
Democrats and movie stars.

Ralph Nader, who was in Washington that weekend, was pointedly not 
invited
to speak. On Saturday night Nader was reportedly inquiring of other
independents just who had been invited to speak among their growing 
number.
Imagine that; the only antiwar candidate in the 2004 elections was not 
an
invited speaker, even though he and Cindy Sheehan drew tremendous 
applause
at the last mass rally in 2005 (Notice how these rallies occur now only 
in
only non-election years, nicely tailored to get activists to work for 
Dems,
but not to pressure the Dems to take a strong anti-war stand.) The
non-invitation removed Nader from the movement every bit as effectively 
as
the censors armed with air brushes removed dissidents in the 
"socialist"
Czech republic chronicled by Milan Kundera. Nor was there anyone who 
spoke
as a representative of the Green Party, even though at least one 
speaker was
in fact a Green and even though an informal survey showed an enormous 
number
of people in the crowd were Greens or Green sympathizers. Yes, the 
Greens
were "permitted" a feeder march but their only organized presence on 
the
Mall that this writer could find was a small card table with three 
women
staffing it.

There was not a single Libertarian speaker even though the Libertarians 
and
Old Right have been far more outspoken in opposing the war than the 
liberal
"Left." Compare the pages of The American Conservative or Antiwar.com 
with
the editorials of The Nation, which endorsed the pro-war Kerry 
candidacy in
2004. This writer tried for months to get Ron Paul, the
Libertarian/Republican Congressman from Texas, now a Republican 
presidential
candidate, invited to speak at the rally and did so also in 2005. 
Several of
us made an appeal to get Justin Raimondo, the Libertarian editor of
Antiwar.com invited to speak. We got no response from UFPJ, and still 
have
received none. In contrast, Raimondo advertised the UFPJ demonstration 
in a
prominent place on his web site, and he even offered to pay his own air 
fare
to D.C. to speak. But no response was forthcoming from whatever 
committee
decides on the speakers, a committee which is none too visible. UFPJ 
was
just plain rude to Raimondo. In general it appears that the liberal 
"Left"
has scant knowledge about the Libertarians and less desire to acquire 
it.
Libertarians are just "a bunch of selfish people," according to the PC
liberals. But there are more things in heaven and earth than the very 
PC
have dreamed of.

There were far fewer kaffiyas in evidence than in the past, the 
inevitable
result of reading ANSWER out of the official antiwar movement. (To be 
fair,
Noura Erekat and Joshua Reubner, both from the same organization, US
Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, spoke.) The only reason given 
for
UFPJ's severing relations with ANSWER is that their members were 
"impossible
to deal with in meetings." That is hardly a political reason. Bad 
manners
are not a reason for excommunication. If so, the antiwar forces would 
not be
talking to the crotchety Barney Frank. I do not know a lot about 
ANSWER, but
I do have a great deal of respect for Ramsey Clark, one of its leaders. 
And
I also have a lot of respect for ANSWER's ability to turn out young 
people
and its boldness in organizing events like the demonstration against 
Bush on
the occasion of his inauguration. At the demonstration I heard no 
mention of
AIPAC's obvious role in ginning up the war on Iraq or Iran. At this 
point in
the development of the movement after the paper of Measheimer and Walt 
and
after Jimmy Carter's book, this is indeed a troubling omission.

What is the matter with Democratic politicians, you may say. Nothing, 
as
such. And the politicians speaking at the rally were among the best 
that the
timid Dems have to offer - Maxine Waters, John Conyers and Dennis 
Kucinich,
for example. But these Democrats do not represent the Democratic Party; 
they
are an idealistic few on its fringe. To have only Democrats and no 
others is
to create the false impression that the Democratic Party is a vehicle 
for
peace. And it creates false hopes about what the Dems will do without 
mighty
pressure.

So the peace movement is being increasingly tied to the Democratic 
Party.
This is certainly the strategy of MoveOn.org and of "P"DA 
("Progressive"
Democrats of America) ? and now apparently also UFPJ. This may be why 
the
rally seemed far smaller and certainly far less spirited, stodgy I 
would
say, than in the past. Let's hope that the hard working and committed 
people
working in UFPJ turn from this path and do more to bring the splintered
movement together. Because if the antiwar movement is divided, we are
subject to being conquered ? just as surely as the Sunni and the Shia. 
It is
time for the Democratic Party to serve the Peace Movement and not the 
other
way around. We shall see what course UFPJ takes to turn this around. 
Right
now, it does not look good.

John V. Walsh can be reached at John.Endwar at gmail.com.

http://www.counterpunch.org/walsh02122007.html


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