No to the War - Yes to Affirmative Action
The tragic turn of events in regard to the war on Iraq poses a real opportunity to increase turnout for the Civil Rights March on April 1st and to build a critical alliance of the new civil rights movement and the new antiwar movement - an alliance which is critical to the success of both movements.
Over the next days, the Bush administration will almost certainly defy world popular opinion and crash ahead with their plan for a massive war, invasion and colonial occupation of Iraq. The new civil rights movement that has emerged in response to the attack on affirmative action must continue to oppose this new US war on Iraq.
In recent weeks millions of Americans have marched in opposition to this war. These antiwar actions have been the largest mass mobilizations in this country in many years. The overwhelming majority of people who have participated in these antiwar actions support affirmative action. The problem has been that the antiwar movement in this country so far has been overwhelmingly white and that the majority of these protestors have not understood the importance of their participating in the new civil rights movement and in particular in their attending the April 1 demonstration in Washington DC in defense of affirmative action.
Two weeks ago BAMN issued a declaration in opposition to the new war on Iraq. Acting on that statement, many BAMN and other civil rights organizers around the country have approached antiwar activists in their schools and areas. These efforts have met with mixed results. On may occasions we have met with difficulty getting white antiwar activists to understand why they should come to DC on April 1. We have had some initial discussion of this and what it will take to get a breakthrough on this question. In order to have the best chance of winning, the new civil rights movement needs to draw in as many forces as possible from the antiwar activists who also support affirmative action, and there needs to be a very dynamic alliance between the new civil rights movement and the new antiwar movement.
In approaching antiwar activists to come to Washington on April 1st, we should be making the following arguments.
An American antiwar movement cannot win - cannot stop this war - as an overwhelmingly white movement. Only the power of racially integrated mass struggle can force the US government to back away from their plans of invasion and colonial occupation of Iraq. An antiwar movement that is overwhelmingly, disproportionately white simply cannot command the power necessary to convince the Bush administration to back away from this adventure.
To get black, Latino and other minority participation, the antiwar movement must support the struggle for integration and equality. The antiwar movement must take up the slogan - No to the war - Yes to affirmative action. The antiwar movement cannot succeed unless it integrates and it cannot integrate unless it fights racism actively. A mass antiwar movement with the power of integrated mass action CAN WIN. To stop a racist war abroad, we must fight racism at home. The civil rights movement must make clear: Our main enemy is the racist inequality and segregation right here in this country.
Civil rights organizers must make clear that an attack on educational and employment opportunities for oppressed people necessarily means an increase in repression in general in American society. The government's attacks on civil liberties will increase dramatically if the rightwing is allowed to get away with defeating affirmative action. We must tell antiwar activists that it is a glaring injustice and an untenable contradiction for this society to have an aggressive affirmative action policy for black and Latino people (and poor people of all races) to kill and die in the armed forces at the same time as opportunities in higher education and in the professions are being narrowed further and further. Effective opposition to the war must include standing against this injustice.
We must give the anti-war movement supporters a concrete way to act on the antiracist ideals that the overwhelming majority of them hold. Our movement must learn the lessons of the struggles of the past. The new civil rights movement needs to work closely with the most consistently antiracist elements of the new antiwar movement. We must also make clear that the anti-war sentiment at the Civil Rights March on Washington on April 1 will be enormous. Concrete progress toward the unity of the new civil rights movement and the antiwar movement is being made already. On Saturday, March 15, Winnie Kao, a BAMN organizer, spoke to the national antiwar mobilization of 100,000 people in Washington, DC. She called on the antiwar movement to march for affirmative action, integration and equality on April 1 at the US Supreme Court.
It is the mass democracy of the street that is the power that can defeat the attack on affirmative action and stop the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. By learning from the past, we will increase both movements' chances of success. We must link these struggles. Together we can win.
