ANSWER's big plan revealed

Confounded as to why anti-war sentiment in the US has been steadily increasing while attendance at their demonstrations (in monotony) has been decreasing, the ANSWER Coalition (who I've made clear I'm no fan of) released a proposal yesterday, asking What Should the Anti-War Movement Do Now?:

It is clear that the anti-war movement is not sufficiently strong at the moment to bring this criminal and despised war to an end. Every organization must ask why is this so and most importantly what can be done to change the situation immediately.

The first question to ask and answer is: Can a people's movement in the United States overcome the commitment of the White House, Congress and the Pentagon to authorize, extend and finance the war and occupation in Iraq?

If the answer to the question is yes...we must assess various factors and craft a strategy that will be fundamentally different from the current path of the anti-war movement. [Emphasis added]

So what's this great "new" strategy?  Unfortunately, it doesn't involve ANSWER dissolving and us rejoicing.  It involves...hold your breath...one big protest!  Taadaa!  Because that new/old strategy of organizing big protests has been working so well, ANSWER wants to get one million people to march on DC.  In six months to a year's time.  In the meantime, you can all take a nap.

Brilliant!  Why didn't anyone think of having a big protest in Washington, DC before? 

Oh wait, they have? 

Oh wait, and the war is still going on? 

Oh wait, no one pays attention to a "movement" that only involves showing your face once or twice a year at a boring, cop-coordinated rally?

Is this really the best that the "leaders of the vanguard" at ANSWER could come up with?  I guess adherence to Stalinism really does stifle creativity.

No wonder the US left is a worldwide laughingstock.  It's been co-opted (willingly) by the likes of ANSWER and their cult of banality and faux-dissent.

At this point, I think Bill Hicks and I are going to go watch American Gladiators.

Comments

[yaman]

"...involves showing your face once or twice a year at a boring, cop-coordinated rally"

So true.

[Lucid Glow]

Yeah, that's my experience as well, to say it THE LEAST. Teadrinkers and hobby protesters all.

[Voice]

oh, ANSWER, when will you learn? Probably not anytime soon. Well, at least we all have something to laugh at! And that's no small feat these days.

[Voice]

oh, and forget American Gladiators. It's all about the Ninja Warrior, son!

This is childish and shameful and is exactly the type of self-righteous, self-contented mentality that is the cause of people living in the belly of the beast being hated by the rest of the world (it's actually worse than being a "laughingstock"). While I'm no fan of ANSWER, at least they're trying to build a mass movement. What the fuck are you doing to resist war and empire? Sitting around watching TV, and feeling justified because ANSWER sucks. Dude, we don't go to protests to express our allegiance to ANSWER. We go to show the rest of the world that Americans are not all down with what our government is doing. We go in order to build a mass movement of resistance. I'm all for other tactics besides big saturday walks in the park, but don't justify your passivity by redbaiting and faulting one of the few groups actually trying.

[scott]

Ninja warrior? Don't know it. I must be getting old. :)

As for Capt. Anonymous (how childish is that - to not sign your comments?):

Critiquing a dumb idea by a dumb organization is not "the cause of people living in the belly of the beast being hated by the rest of the world."

ANSWER is not trying to build a mass movement, they're trying to have one big protest a year from now. Don't lash out at me because ANSWER's rhetoric and actions don't match up.

As for what I'm doing to "resist war and empire"? More than showing my face once every blue moon, on bended knee, to obediently and without agency display my disagreement with war and empire - which is all "mass movement" ANSWER is calling for.

Think about it, anonymous - if ANSWER is really dedicated to building a mass movement, and the tactics is has used have clearly failed, then why is it doing the same exact thing over and over and over again? And on top of it, labeling it a "fundamentally different strategy"?

Did you even read the post or my other critiques of ANSWER? Cause I'm just reiterating myself here. And to clarify, the Bill Hicks, watching American Gladiators comment was a joke you apparently didn't get. Google is a solution, but for a true remedy, I suggest listening to the man himself.

[RedSword (velius2@hotmail.com)]

ANSWER, UFPJ, and all of the other State apologists who successfully, from rally to rally, stifle and recuperate what little social movement there is in the U.S. by boring us all to death with innane speeches by the various money-sucking special interest groups out there that use the Iraq war as a means to legitimize their woefully pitiful existence (if there were the capacity for woe and/or pity in this disillousined Army vet) have indeed reduced over 300 million human beings to the level of passive participation within their own miserable lives, logging onto Republicrat apologist websites like MoveOn and putting their e-mails on closed-worded 'petitions' that, from what I've seen on Capitol Hill lately, almost never, ever, cross the desk of anyone higher than a front-desk intern at some out-of-the-boonies Congressman's office, and feeling like they've done all they can to resist war and empire.

Anyway, good post, friend. And to Mr. Anonymous above, lose the faux-reality bubble and stop being a commie-hippie apologist. ANSWER/UFPJ/ETC. = Fail.

-Arterial Desolation

[alex]

haha, the basic problem with "movement" is that it has an end. the movement starts with a bunch of people deciding to herd and ends when they all go home.