ANTI-WAR TACTICS
By Samantha Marshall
www.crainsnewyork.com
May 17, 2008
Groups reach out to voters, focus on troop withdrawal
Hosting a potluck dinner on Staten Island and endorsing congressional candidate Steve Harrison, a Democrat, were all in a Saturday night's work for Peace Action this past weekend. Like most other anti-war groups around the city, the organization is going to the grassroots level in its efforts to push its agenda in this year's election cycle.
“A borough on any given night has a meeting going on about the war,” says Judith LeBlanc, national organizing coordinator for United for Peace & Justice, a coalition of peace groups headquartered in Manhattan. “It's amazing what volunteer peace-minded folks are doing to keep the pressure on.”
Whether they're veterans groups, faith-based organizations or strident peaceniks, the scores of anti-war organizations born and based in the city are starting to step up efforts to influence voters and get talk of Iraq troop withdrawal on the front burner between now and November. They're holding town hall meetings, distributing voter guides and busing demonstrators to debate venues. But many, because of their 501(c)(3) federal tax-exempt status, must stop short of overtly endorsing a candidate.
“I got a circular from our national office just today reminding us to be careful,” says Ben Chitty, a member of the steering committee for the local chapter of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, which originated here. Proliferating peace groups
Since the Vietnam War and, more recently, Sept. 11, peace groups have proliferated in New York City. United for Peace & Justice counts 175 groups among its members, including the War Resisters League and the Bring Them Home Now campaign. But so far during this election year, the groups have been much less visible on the national stage, prompting some local activists to fret. “If our peace movement wants to make some far-reaching gains in the 2008 election cycle, it doesn't have much time to waste,” wrote UFPJ steering committee member Carl Davidson in a memo in March.
In many ways, local peace groups no longer have to be as overt in their support of a nominee. Sen. John McCain is the only presidential candidate beating the war drum and, unlike during the last national election, the anti-war stance has become mainstream. Only one in three Americans agrees that going to war with Iraq was the right thing to do, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released last Thursday. Anti-war sentiment is such a given these days that peace groups fear the topic will disappear from the national conversation. Only one in five respondents to the Quinnipiac poll says the war was the deciding factor in who to vote for this fall, placing the issue far behind the economy among voters' concerns. UFPJ's last big event in New York City, “River to River” in March, was to have demonstrators join hands across the city, but fizzled when organizers couldn't find enough hands to make it to the river. Educating voters
To change that, groups like Peace Action are attempting to educate voters with nonpartisan guides on the candidates. They are also focusing more on the war stances of local representatives ahead of Congressional elections this summer. Peace Action's national office, for example, which can be more politically active than its local chapter because it is not a 501(c)(3) organization, is endorsing Mr. Harrison to replace Republican Rep. Vito Fossella, who represents Staten Island and part of Brooklyn and whose pro-war voting record irks local activists.
Peace Action of Staten Island, meanwhile, has prepared questionnaires for congressional candidates throughout New York state. It plans to mail out thousands of voting guides and distribute them outside polling stations during local elections over the summer. Instead of candidate endorsement, its efforts include public outreach on issues that haven't been picked up by media outlets, such as the Winter Soldier hearings in Washington, D.C. The hearings feature individual testimony from Iraq and Afghanistan veterans about topics such as the failure of the troop surge. Members of Iraq Veterans Against the War are sending out video streams of the testimony in e-mail blasts and making sure copies are sent to candidates' headquarters.
Peace groups will also continue to employ less-subtle methods of drawing attention to their cause. UFPJ plans banner drops during the Fourth of July and the Sept. 21 African American Day parades and intends to bus in hundreds of demonstrators with peace placards when the presidential debate takes place in the city on Oct. 16.
Of course, some anti-war groups are skeptical of all presidential hopefuls and their willingness to end the war soon enough. “We don't want to play a sucker's game of endorsing a candidate wholesale,” says Matthew Smucker, national field organizer for the War Resisters League. “Our role is to build a base that they want to court but can't count on for full blind allegiance.”
By Samantha Marshall
www.crainsnewyork.com
May 17, 2008
Groups reach out to voters, focus on troop withdrawal
Hosting a potluck dinner on Staten Island and endorsing congressional candidate Steve Harrison, a Democrat, were all in a Saturday night's work for Peace Action this past weekend. Like most other anti-war groups around the city, the organization is going to the grassroots level in its efforts to push its agenda in this year's election cycle.
“A borough on any given night has a meeting going on about the war,” says Judith LeBlanc, national organizing coordinator for United for Peace & Justice, a coalition of peace groups headquartered in Manhattan. “It's amazing what volunteer peace-minded folks are doing to keep the pressure on.”
Whether they're veterans groups, faith-based organizations or strident peaceniks, the scores of anti-war organizations born and based in the city are starting to step up efforts to influence voters and get talk of Iraq troop withdrawal on the front burner between now and November. They're holding town hall meetings, distributing voter guides and busing demonstrators to debate venues. But many, because of their 501(c)(3) federal tax-exempt status, must stop short of overtly endorsing a candidate.
“I got a circular from our national office just today reminding us to be careful,” says Ben Chitty, a member of the steering committee for the local chapter of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, which originated here. Proliferating peace groups
Since the Vietnam War and, more recently, Sept. 11, peace groups have proliferated in New York City. United for Peace & Justice counts 175 groups among its members, including the War Resisters League and the Bring Them Home Now campaign. But so far during this election year, the groups have been much less visible on the national stage, prompting some local activists to fret. “If our peace movement wants to make some far-reaching gains in the 2008 election cycle, it doesn't have much time to waste,” wrote UFPJ steering committee member Carl Davidson in a memo in March.
In many ways, local peace groups no longer have to be as overt in their support of a nominee. Sen. John McCain is the only presidential candidate beating the war drum and, unlike during the last national election, the anti-war stance has become mainstream. Only one in three Americans agrees that going to war with Iraq was the right thing to do, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released last Thursday. Anti-war sentiment is such a given these days that peace groups fear the topic will disappear from the national conversation. Only one in five respondents to the Quinnipiac poll says the war was the deciding factor in who to vote for this fall, placing the issue far behind the economy among voters' concerns. UFPJ's last big event in New York City, “River to River” in March, was to have demonstrators join hands across the city, but fizzled when organizers couldn't find enough hands to make it to the river. Educating voters
To change that, groups like Peace Action are attempting to educate voters with nonpartisan guides on the candidates. They are also focusing more on the war stances of local representatives ahead of Congressional elections this summer. Peace Action's national office, for example, which can be more politically active than its local chapter because it is not a 501(c)(3) organization, is endorsing Mr. Harrison to replace Republican Rep. Vito Fossella, who represents Staten Island and part of Brooklyn and whose pro-war voting record irks local activists.
Peace Action of Staten Island, meanwhile, has prepared questionnaires for congressional candidates throughout New York state. It plans to mail out thousands of voting guides and distribute them outside polling stations during local elections over the summer. Instead of candidate endorsement, its efforts include public outreach on issues that haven't been picked up by media outlets, such as the Winter Soldier hearings in Washington, D.C. The hearings feature individual testimony from Iraq and Afghanistan veterans about topics such as the failure of the troop surge. Members of Iraq Veterans Against the War are sending out video streams of the testimony in e-mail blasts and making sure copies are sent to candidates' headquarters.
Peace groups will also continue to employ less-subtle methods of drawing attention to their cause. UFPJ plans banner drops during the Fourth of July and the Sept. 21 African American Day parades and intends to bus in hundreds of demonstrators with peace placards when the presidential debate takes place in the city on Oct. 16.
Of course, some anti-war groups are skeptical of all presidential hopefuls and their willingness to end the war soon enough. “We don't want to play a sucker's game of endorsing a candidate wholesale,” says Matthew Smucker, national field organizer for the War Resisters League. “Our role is to build a base that they want to court but can't count on for full blind allegiance.”