What
Is A Peace Voter To Do?
By Kevin Zeese
11 January, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Interviews with Cindy Sheehan and David Swanson on next steps for
the anti-war movement
The
Iraq War and occupation is at a critical moment. The peace movement
needs to be focused to face the challenges before us. This article will
be the first in a series reporting on interviews of anti-war activists
in order to develop a common agenda, strategy and tactics for the peace
movement. This article summarizes interviews with Cindy Sheehan and
David Swanson. (A link to the videos
is at the bottom of this article.)
The anti-war movement has
come a long way since its low point – the re-election of President
Bush in 2004. Peace voters dominated the electorate in 2006 with the
defeat of some leading Iraq War hawks, e.g., Sen. George Allen (VA)
and Sen. Rick Santorum (PA) who were formerly talking about running
for president. And, the leadership of the Congress changed hands from
the Republicans to the Democrats. But now, there is talk of escalation
in Iraq and the Democrats have taken the power of the purse –
the only way they can end the war – off the table.
What is a peace voter to
do?
Cindy Sheehan woke up the
peace movement after the 2004 presidential election year when the movement
went adrift quietly and in some cases aggressively supporting the “I
can manage the war better” Kerry campaign. When
she camped in a ditch outside of President Bush’s
ranch in Crawford she awoke the peace movement and gave it direction,
visibility and energy. I asked Cindy what peace activists should be
doing now? Her response emphasized that we have the power – citizens
opposed to the war must continue to lead the government out of Iraq.
Rather than “building a movement” we should focus on taking
action now – as successful actions result in expansion of the
movement.
She also talked about the
mistake she made of supporting a pro-war candidate like Sen. John Kerry
and how she would not make that mistake again. She now believes that
in order to get the government we want we need to vote for people who
represent our views. She is supportive of Rep. Kucinich’s campaign
and hopes he runs independently if he does not win the Democratic nomination.
In the general election she will support the anti-war candidate and
urged a third party challenge if Hillary Clinton, John McCain or other
hawkish candidates.
Sheehan emphasized that it
was time to make it clear to the Democrats that they would not be given
a free ride. It is well and good to focus on health care, salaries and
social programs but we cannot pay for such programs if we are spending
hundreds of billions of dollars on Iraq. To ensure ending the Iraq war
is a priority the peace movement needs to escalate our efforts against
politicians from either party who continue to support the war. The key
test is not opposing the escalation, that is not enough, elected officials
must stop funding the war and bring the troops home. She urged visiting
your elected representatives and sitting in their office until they
agreed to end the war – occupy the offices of those who favor
occupation of Iraq.
Cindy urged a “peace
escalation” in response to talk by the administration about increasing
the number of troops in Iraq. She began the peace surge on the opening
day of Congress by taking
over a press conference where Majority Leader Rahm Emanuel
was speaking.
My second interview was with
David Swanson of AfterDowningStreet.org.
We talked at sunset outside of the White House as a demonstration was
just getting started behind us. David is an untiring activist who has
worked on both the Iraq War and impeachment of President Bush among
other issues. While he urged activists to insist their elected representatives
oppose the so-called surge, he said that was not enough and lets them
off too easily. Elected officials need to stop the war and withdraw
the troops. He talked about the need to withdraw
the troops in ways that give Iraq a chance, i.e. funding
the reconstruction, urging Iraqi’s to return home and underwrite
the cost of a peace keeping or security force.
David described
the demands the peace movement should make on Congress
as falling in to two broad categories: stop the funding and begin withdrawal;
investigate the misuse and manipulation of intelligence and other crimes.
David also talked about the
“peace surge” and Cindy Sheehan’s takeover of a Democratic
leadership press
conference. He first described the effort by Capitol Hill
police to keep anti-war activists from being information into the House
office building. But, after going up the chain of command activists
were allowed to bring in materials for Members and their staff. He then
described the takeover of the press conference with Cindy leading a
chant of “de-escalate, investigate, troops home now.” After
a handful of chants Majority Leader Rahm Emanuel ran from the room and
the media asked Cindy to take the podium and she responded to questions.
We are at a critical time
in the Iraq War. There is a new Congress that knows the voters want
the Iraq War to end. We sent a message that careers will be ended over
the Iraq War. Politicians up for re-election don’t want to suffer
the fate of Senators Allen and Santorum (there are 22 Republican Senators
up for re-election in 2008 and 12 Democrats). Not only are President
Bush, and some key senators (e.g., Senators McCain, Graham and Lieberman)
calling for an increase of troops but there is also a lot of talk in
the media about an attack on Iran.
The anti-war movement has
shown it has political muscle, now it must work in a coordinated way
to achieve our goals – end the Iraq War, prevent an attack on
Iran and investigate those responsible for getting the U.S. into this
mistaken quagmire.
You can see the full video
interviews at: http://democracyrising.us/content/view/708/164/
Kevin Zeese
is director of DemocracyRising.US and a co-founder of VotersForPeace.US.
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