http://www.zmag.org/wspjart.htm

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We Work for Peace and Justice

Building a movement powerful enough to stop the war in Iraq or to successfully curb a next war in Syria, Iran, or Venezuela, involves many factors. Among these, and perhaps the most fundamental, is sufficient numbers.

To successfully challenge those in power, our movement must constantly grow in numbers as well as consciousness and commitment. We must reach out to people who are against the war, but who have not yet acted on their beliefs. We must reach out to people who are troubled by what they are witnessing, but who have not yet decided to oppose the war and the policies behind it. We must reach out as well to those who now support the war, but without full knowledge of the context, history, and implications.

A key task therefore, in addition to demonstrating, is to talk to people, to hear their misgivings, their confusions, and their insights, and to provide an alternative viewpoint able to generate critical solidarity that can last. We need to address the people whose addresses we don't have. We need to go door to door in neighborhoods and dorms, and we need to do it over and over. We need to talk to coworkers on the job, to people who we encounter during the day shopping, to our neighbors, and to the person next to us in class or in church or wherever we may be. We need to organize.

On a larger scale, our collective efforts can also reach out to audiences beyond our current membership. Our marches can go through neighborhoods instead of only downtown. People on the marches can go and talk with those who will inevitably be drawn to watch such events. Thousands of groups can go into shopping areas and set up tables and then talk to those in the area. Talk. Talk. That is the foundation of building larger demonstrations, deeper commitment, and raising costs for elites, and thus winning change.

If 100 or 500 or 5,000 or 50,000 people or more are ready and willing to block streets or obstruct buildings as a means of pressuring elites in a context where support is growing, that's wonderful, especially when the targets are part of the war machine, as in the efforts to block military trains in Europe. But shouldn't as many people, the next day, or the day before, or both, be willing to spread out and talk to the population, facilitating their becoming actively involved as well?

Our demonstrations create a context that facilitates reaching out to organize the populace, but as important as they are, marches, rallies, and obstructions won't by themselves do that organizing. To hear views and to change minds requires that we listen and then convey evidence, arguments, and also sympathy and respect for where people are at. It takes talk.

To win against this war, the next war, and the causes of war and of injustice more broadly, we need to assemble tens of millions of active, committed movement members. But even if we continually talk to those who disagree with us, how can we know what we are accomplishing, and what can be our point of entry?

A possible technique would be for all of us, worldwide, to go to people with a statement for them to sign -- something that's timely but that won't grow stale, something that is concrete and specific, but that is also universal enough for international use and thorough enough so that to get signatures we will have to address all the issues that obstruct people becoming actively involved in a growing movement for peace and justice.

Maybe something like this:

"I stand for peace and justice.

I stand for democracy and autonomy. I don't think the U.S. or any other country should ignore the popular will and violate and weaken international law, seeking to bully and bribe votes in the Security Council.

I stand for internationalism. I oppose any nation spreading an ever expanding network of military bases around the world and producing an arsenal unparalleled in the world.

I stand for equity. I don't think the U.S. or any other country should seek empire. I don't think the U.S. ought to control Middle Eastern oil on behalf of U.S. corporations and as a wedge to gain political control over other countries.

I stand for freedom. I oppose brutal regimes in Iraq and elsewhere but I also oppose the new doctrine of "preventive war," which guarantees permanent and very dangerous conflict, and is the reason why the U.S. is now regarded as the major threat to peace in much of the world. I stand for a democratic foreign policy that supports popular opposition to imperialism, dictatorship, and political fundamentalism in all its forms.

I stand for solidarity. I stand for and with all the poor and the excluded. Despite massive disinformation millions oppose unjust, illegal, immoral war, and I want to add my voice to theirs. I stand with moral leaders all over the world, with world labor, and with the huge majority of the populations of countries throughout the world.

I stand for diversity. I stand for an end to racism directed against immigrants and people of color. I stand for an end to repression at home and abroad.

I stand for peace. I stand against this war and against the conditions, mentalities, and institutions that breed and nurture war and injustice.

I stand for sustainability. I stand against the destruction of forests, soil, water, environmental resources, and biodiversity on which all life depends.

I stand for justice. I stand against economic, political, and cultural institutions that promote a rat race mentality, huge economic and power inequalities, corporate domination even unto sweatshop and slave labor, racism, and gender and sexual hierarchies.

I stand for a policy which redirects the money used for war and military spending to provide healthcare, education, housing, and jobs.

I stand for a world whose political, economic, and social institutions foster solidarity, promote equity, maximize participation, celebrate diversity, and encourage full democracy.

I stand for peace and justice and, more, I pledge to work for peace and justice."

Signed,

Ezequiel Adamovsky, Argentina

Vittorio Agnoletto, Italy

Christophe Aguiton, Italy

Michael Albert, USA

Tim Allen, USA

Tariq Ali. England, England

Bridget Anderson, England

David Bacon, USA

David Barsamian, USA

Phyllis Bennis, USA

Elena Blanco, Venezuela

Nadine Bloch, USA

Peter Bohmer USA

Patrick Bond, South Africa

Jeremy Brecher, USA

Paul Buhle, USA

Nicola Bullard Thailand

Leslie Cagan, USA

Alex Callinicos, England

Daniel Chavez, Netherlands

Noam Chomsky, USA

David Cromwell, England

Will Doherty, USA

Brian Dominick, USA

Barbara Epstein, USA

Laura Flanders USA

Bill Fletcher, USA

Eduardo Galeano, Uruguay

Susan George, France

Andrej Grubacic, Sebia

Marta Harnecker, Chile

Tom Hayden, USA

Doug Henwood, USA 

John Hepburn, Australia

Edward Herman, USA

Pervez Hoodbhoy, Pakistan

Sut Jhally, USA 

Robert Jensen, USA 

Boris Kagarlitsky, Russia 

Sonali Kolhatkar, USA 

Saul Landau, USA 

Joanne Landy, USA

Rahul Mahajan. USA 

Dawn Martinez, USA 

Elizabeth, Martinez, USA

Rania Masri, USA

George Monbiot, England

Hector Mondragon, Colombia 

Suren Moodliar, South Africa

Adele Oliveri, Italy

Pablo Ortellado, Brazil

Cynthia Peters, USA

Justin Podur, Canada

Vijay Prashad, USA

Prabir Purkayastha, India

Milan Rai England

Nikos Raptis, Greece

Michael Ratner, USA

Judy Rebick, Canada

Tanya Reinhart, Israel

Carola Reintjes, Spain

Arundhati Roy, India

Marta Russell, USA

Manuel Rozental, Colombia

Stephen Shalom, USA

Norman Solomon, USA 

Lydia Sargent, USA

Roberto Savio, Italy

James Tracy, USA

America Vera-Zavala, Sweden 

Peter Waterman, Holland

Robert Weissman, USA

Tom Wetzel, USA

Tim Wise, USA

Howard Zinn, USA