By David Swanson
Among the many national organizations opposing further war funding are these: AfterDowningStreet / WarIsACrime.org, Alternet, The American Friends Service Committee, American Homeless Society, The Backbone Campaign, Brave New Films / Rethink Afghanistan, BuzzFlash, Calitics, Campaign Corner: A Home for Progressive Populist Candidates, Campaign for Peace and Democracy, CODE PINK, Consumers for Peace, Democrats.com, The Democratic Activist, Down With Tyranny, End US Wars, FireDogLake, Global Exchange, Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, Global Peace, Green Change, Iraq Veterans Against the War, JobsForAfghans, Just Foreign Policy, Justice Through Music, Liberty Tree, MichaelMoore.com, Military Families Speak Out, Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS), The Nation, National Education Association Peace and Justice Caucus, Peace Action, Peace Majority Report, Progressive America Rising, Progressive Democrats of America, Progressive Push, Proposition One Campaign, The Rag Blog, TheRealNews.com, TruthDig, United for Peace and Justice, US Labor Against the War, Velvet Revolution, Veterans for Peace, Voters for Peace, Win Without War, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, World Can’t Wait, and the Young Turks.
And, probably many more.
The extent of this opposition surprised me when I posted a quite clumsy and innacurate blog complaining about the lack of war opposition, and groups complained to me about it.
It’s certainly true that many large groups are just not interested, including some that opposed war funding when there was a different president. Amy Goodman describes this phenomenon in the case of MoveOn.org today.
And many groups were more active last year but have scaled back their efforts for a variety of reasons.
A lot of war opponents are focusing most of their energy on other things.
But the antiwar movement is in fact broader and closer to succeeding now than it has been in a decade. Last summer, with an all-out effort that surprised many of us, we were able to compel only 32 Democrats to vote against war funding. We now clearly have over 40 and perhaps 80 to 90 committed to voting No. Clearing the 40 mark forces the Democratic leadership to pass the war funding with Republican votes, an endeavor that may prove difficult given Republican opposition to passing anything useful, such as funding for schools or jobs.
Thirty House members have sent a letter to the Speaker effectively saying they will vote No, and 19 have sent a similar letter to the President. A whip list measuring the growing resistance to the war economy is posted here: http://defundwar.org
A number of congress members are trying to organize others to vote No on a procedural rule vote to prevent a vote on the war funding. They should all be encouraged in this. Others intend to vote No once or twice, how ever many times the war funding or a larger bill is offered, even if their No votes might actually block it.
We’ve compelled them to separate the pig from the lipstick and to admit that the Democratic Leadership is aligned on war with the Republican caucus.
Now, how close can we come to stopping the escalation funding?