Thursday, January 02, 2003

The Peace Movement Grows Up and Gets Healthy The peace movement will become a far more potent political force this year, but may confront a far more dangerous opposition because the stakes seem to be getting higher and higher.   As Joshua Marshall points out, Bush is rapidly digging a deeper and deeper hole with North Korea, in a way that makes the U.S. a potentially irrational danger in the same way that North Korea may be.     There is also a good article on AlterNet about the greater depth of experience in the peace movement today.    However, the most encouraging news for me comes from Boston.  Last month, a number of black political leaders and activists in Boston held an initial organizing meeting with peace and justice groups, including United for Justice and Peace, with the aim of building a broad coalition involving the city and the suburbs, focused around militarism, racism, and repression.  The basic idea is that the activists want to make the connections between the costs of the war and military operations abroad, and the lack of resources to deal with social problems here.   People who attended came away saying it was one of the best organizing meetings they had attended in years.  Several concrete things came out of it.  One was the support of many groups for MLK events focused around opposition to the war.  Black Voices of Peace is also supporting the large demonstration called in Washington that weekend.   Secondly, in the Boston area both the city and suburban groups will be raising money for Barbara Lee, the Congresswoman from Oakland who has been one of the most courageous legislators standing against the war on terror and the attack on Iraq.  She will be visiting Boston at the end of the month.   There are plans for another organizing meeting later in the month, with the possibility of building a truly progressive alliance, involving both elected city councilors, state reps, community organizations, and much of the peace movement.   What is exciting is that these diverse groups are already confronting the issues involved in working together—and by so doing are creating a model that can be used to oppose the politics of divisiveness.   This is why the anti-war movement appears to be developing deep roots, and if we are truly entering a dark age of reckless war, corporate repression, and empire building, the good news is that there is a counter reaction that will eventually have the strength to offer an alternative way.  It will gain its strength from the connections it makes among the different groups in our society who are all losing in different ways from a government policies so committed towards corporate enrichment at the expense of quality of social life. It is also healthy.  As recorded by some psychologists from the University of Sussex, "Many published activist accounts refer to feelings of encouragement and confidence emerging from experiences of collective action," said Drury. "But it is not always clear how and why such empowerment occurs, so we aimed to explain what factors within a collective action event contribute to such feelings." He said the interviews revealed that the key factors were that participants felt they had a collective identity with fellow protestors. They also derived a sense of unity and mutual support from taking part. Such was the strength of the feelings they experienced that the effects appear to be sustained over a period of time. "Empowering events were almost without exception described as joyous occasions," said Drury. "Participants experienced a deep sense of happiness and even euphoria in being involved in protest events. Simply recounting the events in the interview brought a smile to the face of the interviewees."     11:21:49 PM   comment []

© Copyright 2003 Toby Sackton. Last update: 2/2/2003; 5:54:52 PM.