REPORT ON UNITED NATIONAL ANTIWAR COALITION
CONFERENCE
MARCH 23-25,
By Marilyn Levin, Co-Coordinator, UNAC
As the United
States, in its desperation to control world resources and maintain its power,
threatens to attack Syria and Iran, works to stifle popular resistance
movements, slashes our standard of living, poisons our environment, and
systematically dismantles the Bill of Rights, well over 500 antiwar and social
justice activists gathered in Stamford, CT, March 23-25 to lay out an Action
Program that can challenge the NATO/G-8 Agenda for war, austerity, and
repression. Many participants praised the breadth and depth of issues and the
caliber of the speakers and presenters in 50 workshops, six plenary panels, and
keynote addresses by environmentalist Bill McKibben,
historian and commentator Vijay Prashad, economist
Richard Wolff, and Muslim Peace Coalition founder Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid. National antiwar
leaders Medea Benjamin, Ann Wright, and David Swanson
also played a significant role.
The diversity
and youth of participants was significant for a large national antiwar
conference in recent times. Much of this was attributable to the organizing
efforts of the Muslim Peace Coalition, assembled due to the initiative of a number of important
clerics and community leaders, brought busloads of Muslim activists to the conference from
Comparing the
attendance at our first conference to this one shows a significant improvement
in composition that indicates the achievements of UNAC and changes in the
broader movement. The
A number of important
African-American political leaders lent their prestige to the conference. There
was a special lunch program -- The War at Home on the Black Community: Mass
Incarceration, Unemployment, Stop and Frisk, that featured Dr. Khalilah Brown Dean, a researcher on Black incarceration;
Larry Holmes, a leader of the International Action Center; and Black Agenda
Report staffers Glen Ford, Nellie Bailey, and Bruce Dixon. Highlighting the
New Jim Crow and the pervasive racism that generates it, as exemplified by the
murder of Trayvon Martin and the community response,
points to the necessity for a new civil rights movement. There were also
workshops on antiwar organizing in the Black community, organized by Ana Edwards
of the Virginia Defenders, and the contradictions of the imperialist’s agenda
for full spectrum dominance with a BAR panel. Black Agenda Report
Executive Director Glen Ford spoke on a plenary panel and introduced the Action
Program to the conference. This conference recognized the fact that opposition
to the war at home on the Black community must remain visible and at the center
of antiwar organizing in the
Labor was not
a large component but there were leaders of important labor actions of the Longshore and Warehouse Union on the West Coast - Mike
Fuqua, a Longview strike leader and Clarence Thomas, ILWU Local 10 Executive
Board -- and Andrew Murray, British leader of a huge strike action in England
as well as a national leader of Britain’s Stop the War Coalition. The
connection of labor and the Occupy movement in confronting the economic attacks
on working people and youth was stressed.
There were
leaders of Puerto Rican and Colombian major student strikes and a Honduran
presence. DRUM (Desis Rising UP and Moving) and the
May 1st Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights played a
significant role in the conference in involving South Asians and immigrants and
highlighting their struggles.
The continuing
struggle to “Free Palestine” was emphasized with two workshops, Andrew Dalack, speaking for USPCN (US Palestine Community
Network), and resolutions to support BDS, the Global March to
The focus on
NATO/G8 and the importance of building the national mass mobilization called
for
UNAC recently
placed a full-page ad signed by hundreds of supporters of civil liberties
across the country and around the world demanding that permits for May 20 be
granted by reluctant city officials. The national coalition that UNAC helped
form and actively builds, CANG-8 (Coalition Against the NATO/G8 War and Poverty
Agenda) and attorneys from the National Lawyers Guild and the ACLU spent months
effectively countering city official measures and media hype designed to
discourage participation in the massive mobilization of antiwar and social
justice forces that are expected to be in Chicago on May 20. In fact, as of now,
the right for a permitted march and rally within "sight and sound" of
NATO's war-making gathering has been won. In spite of the administration’s aims
to stifle protest, the May 20th mobilization is steadily gaining
wide support, including endorsements from Occupy Chicago, the National Nurses
Union, and Rev. Jesse Jackson of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, headquartered in
The
significance of the new Occupy Movement and relating the economic crisis and
war economy were addressed by speakers and a number of workshops. Leaders of
the struggles against drones and nuclear power and weapons led several
workshops.
The expanding
assaults on human rights and civil liberties was featured in many workshops
dealing with Guantanamo, torture, indefinite detention, Islamophobia,
the use of law and prisons for social control, and the curtailment of our
rights to protest.
It was
striking that there seemed to be consensus that US imperialism was the central
unifying cause of the worldwide atrocities of never-ending war, austerity and
repression and that this system of rule by the 1% must be defeated if a new
order representing the interests of the 99% can be fostered. This theme was
stressed repeatedly. Another striking feature was that in an election year,
where traditionally the political emphasis of much of the left has been to
defeat Republicans and avoid mass action, there was strong criticism of Obama
and the Democratic Party administration as servants of the rich and just as
culpable for the wars at home and abroad. The current election cycle was not a
major concern at the conference.
The
contentious issue in 2010 was over the demand to End All US Aid to
The
controversial issue this year was over what position to take on
The Action Program introduced by the UNAC Coordinating Committee
was well-received and accepted as the working document of the conference. It
begins WE, THE NINETY-NINE PERCENT, AFFIRM THAT: The history of all
successful social movements demonstrates that the few, the one percent, NEVER
yield to the MANY unless the MANY are organized democratically, independent of
the institutions of the status quo, united in struggle in massive numbers and
confident in victory.
The final
Action Program, as amended and passed by the conference, listed 18 actions.
Building the national march protesting NATO and the G-8 in
A strong and
united national movement that relates to the global struggles against
imperialist crimes is even more essential today. We can no longer be a “single
issue” movement, as the Empire operates on all fronts against the 99%. However,
the struggle to end war and repression, the major tools they use to maintain
dominance and social control, must be at the core of our work.
UNAC is a
major national antiwar and social justice coalition. In this time of
never-ending war, our collective efforts to build strong actions to challenge
the war, austerity, and repression agenda of the 1%, are critical. Where would
we be if there was no visible, unified antiwar movement in the
___________________________________________________________________
Resolution
adopted by the March 23-25 UNAC conference on
U.S./NATO Troops Out Now! No to Imperialist Wars, Occupations, Sanctions,
Embargoes!
Self-determination for All
Oppressed People!
The
United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) was founded on the principle of
self-determination for all oppressed nations and peoples. We demand the
immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S./NATO troops, mercenaries and
drones from
We have
seen the horrific consequences of
It is our
task and obligation as antiwar and social justice activists within the