OpEdNews - Page 2 of Article: Time to Shake Up the Anti-War Movement

But the bottom line is numbers. Did they draw out the "silent majority "? No. Their rally was about the same size as ours (and included many of our people). It was hardly the breakthough that COW was predicting. There were a dozen Democratic state legislators. As for labor, state AFL-CIO President John Olsen spoke and there was a sizeable presence by SEIU-1199, maybe 50 or so union officials and members. That was about it.. Organized Jewish presence was invisible. No one saw a single sign from a Jewish organization and only one person objected to the tons of pro-Palestinian rights literature we gave out. On the other hand whatever was gained from the "middle " was lost from the fact the Muslims were conspicuous by their absence.

The COW strategy is a model for what shouldn 't be attempted on April 29th..

We have three weeks. Something has to be done to change the political direction of UFPJ. Ignoring Iran is maddness. Abandoning Muslims and Palestinians is disgraceful. Silence about Israel is inexcusable. We need to pressure the out of touch UFPJ leadership. We need public statements, petitions (one will soon be available at http://thestruggle.org/campaigns.htm )and a ton of emails to the UFPJ steering committee at their address ufpj-sc@unitedforpeace.org Tell them to change the demands and to get speakers who 'll talk about all the realities of the war.

(This article was published on Counterpunch.org)

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