By Bruce Burleson
June 2006
As we build a movement that is ostensibly aimed at driving out
the criminal Bush regime and, hopefully, replacing it with something better, it
is essential that this movement be as broad-based and inclusive as
possible.
This past weekend, antiwar movement activists met at the
Greater Boston Stop The Wars Coalition (STWC) strategy session in Boston to discuss, debate
and make proposals for the future of the antiwar movement. Some of the discussion involved the need to
‘think out of the box.’ Meaning, to
encourage people to get involved who aren’t ‘activists’ or “on the left.”
During the discussion, several people brought up the need to
go out into the community and meet individual people and groups of
people where they are at. In other
words, we have to be talking to folks we aren’t used to talking to. We have to be talking to everyone from our
next door neighbors to the workers who pick up our garbage every week. We have to be going to civic association
meetings, neighborhood watch groups, and town hall meetings. We have to be going places that are outside
of our usual sphere of race and class.
We WCW’ers who are white and middle-class and are afraid of
door-knocking or leafleting in Black neighborhoods need to get over the
fear. Why? Because no one wants Bush gone more than
people of color who have suffered the worst under his rule. Will we be listened to? Yes. I
live in a Black neighborhood everyone is listening! The challenge, of course, is to get people to
organize and take action. That is always
a work in progress.
One person at the strategy session brought up the need to
reach out even to those who we ordinarily think of as ‘conservative’ or ‘right
wing.’ This is an extremely important
point to consider. As we organize and
meet new people, is everyone we meet going to be a progressive, or even a
bleeding-heart liberal? Or even a
liberal? Or even a centrist? Absolutely not! We are going to be talking to ordinary
proletarian folks, many of whom voted for Bush once or even twice.
The people we meet are going to vary in their overall
political outlook, but opinion polls are showing that support for Bush(even
among those who think of themselves as conservatives(has been slipping for some
time. It is safe to say at this point
that there are millions of people out there who, in reflecting upon their
choice to vote for Bush, are thinking:
‘oops!’ The reason is that they
see Bush as having gone too far(even in the direction of theocracy.
In World Can’t Wait we are highly critical of the idea of
theocracy(the political doctrine where state and religion unite and become one
and the same. We are highly critical(and
rightfully so(of people like Pat Robertson, and groups like BattleCry and the
Promise Keepers, who would love to see such a theocracy come about.
However, the very fact that we are an organization that
opposes theocracy means that we have to be careful in our approach to talking
to people of faith. We have to be
extremely careful not to come off with an ‘I’m right, you’re wrong’ attitude
when talking to people about questions of faith. It is not our job to convince people
to not believe in God. From personal
experience I can tell you that it usually doesn’t work anyway! It is our job to get rid of the Bush
administration before it starts persecuting people for being something other
than the Pat Robertson variety of Christian.
While it is true that evangelicals are often narrow-minded
and prone to being brainwashed as religious fascists (I was once a born-again
Christian myself so I know), it is important not to lump all evangelicals–or
even “born-again” or “pentecostal” folks into that category
in a blanket fashion. After all, anyone
can be narrow-minded or brainwashed.
I’ve even met people who have turned Marxism-Leninism(a political
philosophy that I hold dear(into a religion where fanatics scream at each other
at demonstrations. The Sparticist League
is a case in point. As fallible human
beings, we are all prone to lunacy and fanaticism, whether Christian, Atheist,
Leninist, or otherwise.
One reason not to be judgmental of people of faith can be
found in the history of civil rights movements in the United States. History has taught us that often people of
faith–even people of extreme forms of faith–are sometimes compelled to build
progressive social movements. The most
obvious example is the critical role the Black church played in the civil
rights movement during the 1950s and 60s.
One does not have to be Howard Zinn to understand that without the Black
church, the civil rights movement would never have even gotten off the ground,
let alone succeeded as it did.
So as we organize and meet new people, we need to be careful
not to lump people together into ambiguous categories, i.e.
“christian=fascist.” When I
was a born again Christian, I observed that the views of people in my church on
the relationship between church and state were varied. While some people thought that the United States
was “god’s” country and ought to be a “christian nation,” I
knew people who, despite being staunch conservatives, still opposed the idea of
theocracy, mostly because it went against “the founding fathers” who
were viewed as “inspired by god.”
In fact, there were a few young people in the church(despite the
conservatism of the church leaders(leaned toward socialistic political views
based on their interpretation of the bible (e.g., the scene where Jesus told
his more wealthy followers to redistribute their financial resources to the
poor). So it is easy to see that
political consciousness is often an individual phenomenon, even among circles
to which we often give blanket dismissal as hopelessly conservative. As long as people are willing to think, no
one is ever hopeless!
The questions remain as we approach church gates in search
of allies for our movement: who are our
friends and who are our enemies? Well we’re just going to have to find out as
we organize. As for me, living here in Boston’s inner city,
church folks are some of the groups I’ll be talking to. I am hoping that the strategy for building
World Can’t Wait in Boston
will be a strategy of meeting new individuals, as well as talking to people and
groups that leftist activists don’t usually talk to. I can’t speak for others who join up, but I
know I’ll be contacting the Nation of Islam, for example. Why?
Because they oppose the war and are highly critical of the Bush
administration. Also I’ll be leafleting,
postering, tabling and utilizing online resources such as the MeetUp.Org web
site.
The strategy I suggest for building and recruiting for WCW
both involves recruiting individuals and recruiting organizations. First of all, anyone and everyone, regardless
of political creed or religion, should be asked to get involved, and should be
treated as equals and as comrades in the struggle. Second of all, WCW should be diverse in its
reaching out to organizations. History
has taught us that coalitions are highly effective agents of social
change. We should invite as many
organizations as possible to join up with WCW in a common effort to overthrow
Bush(every group from your local parent-teacher association to trade unions. And by reaching outside of our usual box of
activists, we will gather together We The People who will drive out the Bush
regime and fight for a better United
States and a better world.