Ten Q&A on Anti-War Activism

by Michael Albert and Stephen Shalom posted October 24, 2002 (but still very relevant)

  (1) What are the reasons to oppose war in Iraq?
  (2) How does our dissent affect government policy?
  (3) How can we possibly get so many people to be against war?
  (4) Should antiwar organizing be single issue or multi-issue?
  (5) What is the relation between war and other left concerns --
globalization, capitalism, racism, sexism, future vision - and 
should we make these connections, and if so, how?  

  (6) Should antiwar work be single tactic or multi-tactic?
  (7) Why use any particular tactic? Why reject any particular
tactic?
  (8) How should we relate to groups doing antiwar work with whom
we disagree in significant ways ...Should we work with people we 

have serious differences with, avoid them,or what?
  (9) What is sectarianism? Does avoiding sectarianism require 

that we stifle all criticism? If not, how do we avoid it?
  (10) Most antiwar people oppose Saddam Hussein, the Taliban, al
Qaeda,and others like them. If you reject a U.S.military response, 

what alternative way(s) can weaken or eliminate their power? 

Assessing the Anti-War Movement

What is lacking in today’s peace movement? How can we turn popular antiwar sentiment into broad-based action? What strategies and tactics should we employ, and how should we relate to the elections?

The War Resisters League recently conducted a Listening Process, asking 90 grassroots organizers from across the county to reflect on the state of antiwar organizing in the United States.