A MESSAGE FROM THEIR FOUNDERS
Dear Rodger,
Let's not beat around the bush. We're writing this letter to encourage
you to make a donation to United for Peace and Justice, a generous
donation.
[...]
There is something else, something less tangible, that UFPJ has
provided. The work of previous years laid the foundation for more
recent important efforts. For instance, a few months ago the U.S. was
poised to take military action in Syria, action that could have easily
escalated into regional warfare with the U.S. in the middle of it all.
But the quick action of the peace movement (and others) helped make
visible the widespread public opposition to such action. There are at
least two things that made it possible to move quickly and effectively:
1. in no small
measure, our collective work against the war
in Iraq had taught us valuable lessons about how to pressure
Washington, and
2. a set of relationships
between organizations
had been built by working together in the UFPJ coalition and we could
skip the getting-to-know-one-another phase of movement work.
Blah-Blah-Blah
(Received e-mail)
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UFPJ was officially created on
October 25, 2002 in the Washington, DC offices of People For the
American Way. Its initial membership consisted of approximately
70 organizations.
Prior to UFPJ's founding, the anti-war movement had earned a reputation
as a hodgepodge of radical elements. All the large-scale peace
demonstrations to that point had been held under the auspices of International ANSWER,
an organization aligned with Global Exchange, headed by the longtime
pro-Castro communist (CodePink)Medea
Benjamin; Not In
Our Name,
a project organized
by Ramsey Clark and fellow leaders of the Revolutionary Communist Party;
and the Marxist-Leninist Workers World Party. United
For Peace and Justice was created explicitly to put a milder face on
the anti-war movement, although from its inception UFPJ shared with the
aforementioned groups a passionate hatred for the United States and for
capitalism.
The
Co-Chair
and
principal leader of UFPJ is Leslie Cagan, an original founder of the
Committees of Correspondence (a remnant organization created by the
American Communist Party upon going out of business) and a
strong supporter of Fidel Castro since the 1960s; Cagan proudly aligns
her politics with those of Communist Cuba.[Full]
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Why
am I doing this? Again? Is it to alleviate outrage I'm
feeling—that
people who advocate the overthrow of our (erstwhile?) way of life can
publicly beg support, as though, somehow, the effect of all their
efforts were salutary?
Not that I have the influence of even a gnat on the national debate, but
most everyone here feels the same. Those who don't are pretty
much
beyond undestanding who we were, and why we were so successful.
Still,
when I'm in charge, these people will no longer be heard from (in the
best possible way of course).
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