War Resisters League Listening Project

Ellie Keen — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:45:02 +0000

Survey results recently published in The Independent newspaper showed that 66% of the British population thought we should never have gotten involved in Iraq and 74% thought British troops should be withdrawn as soon as possible. Notwithstanding this overwhelming support for the anti war position, the associated movement is currently not sufficiently supported to achieve its objectives.

In order to learn from a similar situation in their country, the oldest secular peace organisation in America the War Resisters League (WRL), conducted structured interviews with a hundred activists from a wide range of peace movement organisations and published their findings in a special edition of their journal WIN. Needless to say there is much for the British peace movement to learn from WRL’s enterprise.

Interviewees were all asked a series of questions and their responses were collated and presented by major themes. Obviously responses were not homogonous but WRL manage to convey a consistency in their presentation that clearly points to a direction going forward. For me this was conveyed in WRL’s national field organiser Matthew Smucker’s closing words in the report. Addressing the question ‘can we do it’, he replies “the answer-the future-depends on who the ‘we’ is”.

Most respondents to the question ‘what is lacking in the peace movement’ thought there was a shortage of active participants together with an absence of opportunities for newcomers to get involved in productive work. Many suggested that the movement was out of touch and Greg Layton from US Labor Against the War suggested using standard market research approaches to craft messages for target constituencies. Most people thought that the movement lacked strategy both in terms of overarching framework and short term winnable campaigns.

Funding and resources were thought by most to be lacking and Patrick Reinsborough from the smartmeme Strategy & Training Project, identified the peace movement’s alienation from philanthropic foundations as a major cause of funds deficiency.

Interviewees perceptively highlighted many constraints to the peace movement. Michael Mc Phearson of Veterans for Peace felt that the movement should shift its appeal from moral argument to explaining in practical terms why war is bad for the public at large. Co Chair of United for Peace & Justice Judith Leblanc believes a major constraint is politics, she says “if people conceptualise this (anti war) as a left movement then you automatically cut yourself off from 65 of the 70 percent of people who oppose the war”.

Many interviewees identified a dearth of skilled organisers and a lack of organisational development holding back the movement. Kelly Campbell of the September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows said “we need organisations willing to take on a focus on skills building …you talk about (the campaign planning tool) power mapping for a campaign and some people have no idea what that is”. Other respondents noted a lack of leadership development. Xiomara Castro of the Ella Baker Centre observed “it’s the same people running the meetings, or the same people are part of a few overlapping organisations. There are no stepping stones, no mentorship, no room to grow into involvement”.

WRL’s major conclusion is that to be effective, the anti war movement has to increase capacity. It notes that mass movements are typically not built by recruiting members individually. Rather they come about by getting buy-in from already organised and resourced sectors. But as Michael Mc Phearson says “sometimes if you work with one group you risk alienating a wing of your organisational core”.

WRL believe for the anti war movement to realize its full potential its objectives have to be accepted as their own by existing organisations. It points to the West Coast Longshoreman’s Union 2008 Mayday anti war strike as an example. Instead of individuals having to assimilate into a counterculture to participate, the antiwar movement should be developing relationships with the leaders of established labour, student, community and faith groups etc, whereby those organisations adopt, necessarily winnable, campaign objectives of the anti war movement.

Space limits doing full justice to the WRL report and peace activists should get a copy of their own from the WRL website (It costs $4 www.warresisters.org). The September Convention of the Left in Manchester devotes a full day to the issue of peace. Participants at this important day should bear in mind Judith Leblanc’s remarks above, that the peace movement is not an exclusively left movement and also when she says “The vitality of the left is only realized when it’s related to that broad cross-section of folks in the political centre …. We must do whatever we can to engage and activate and leverage that (anti war) majority”.

Hugh Tynan | ukwatch.net

War Resisters League Listening Project