1.  Encouragement from Howard Zinn
2.  Nonviolent Peaceforce
3.  New Jonathan Schell article on the new "superpower"
4.  Robert Jensen on fear and the peace movement
5.  How the peace movement blew it

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1.  On Getting Along
     By Howard Zinn

You ask how I manage to stay involved and remain seemingly happy and adjusted to this awful world where the efforts of caring people pale in comparison to those who have power?

It's easy. First, don't let "those who have power" intimidate you. No matter how much power they have they cannot prevent you from living your life, speaking your mind, thinking independently, having relationships with people as you like. (Read Emma Goldman's autobiography LIVING MY LIFE. Harassed, even imprisoned by authority, she insisted on living her life, speaking out, however she felt like.)

Second, find people to be with who have your values, your commitments, but who also have a sense of humor. That combination is a necessity!

Third (notice how precise is my advice that I can confidently number it, the way scientist number things), understand that the major media will not tell you of all the acts of resistance taking place every day in the society, the strikes, the protests, the individual acts of courage in the face of authority. Look around (and you will certainly find it) for the evidence of these unreported acts. And for the little you find, extrapolate from that and assume there must be a thousand times as much as what you've found.

Fourth: Note that throughout history people have felt powerless before authority, but that at certain times these powerless people, by organizing, acting, risking, persisting, have created enough power to change the world around them, even if a little. That is the history of the labor movement, of the women's movement, of the anti-Vietnam war movement, the disable persons' movement, the gay and lesbian movement, the movement of Black people in the South.

Fifth: Remember, that those who have power, and who seem invulnerable are in fact quite vulnerable, that their power depends on the obedience of others, and when those others begin withholding that obedience, begin defying authority, that power at the top turns out to be very fragile. Generals become powerless when their soldiers refuse to fight, industrialists become powerless when their workers leave their jobs or occupy the factories.

Sixth: When we forget the fragility of that power in the top we become astounded when it crumbles in the face of rebellion. We have had many such surprises in our time, both in the United States and in other countries.

Seventh: Don't look for a moment of total triumph. See it as an ongoing struggle, with victories and defeats, but in the long run the consciousness of people growing. So you need patience, persistence, and need to understand that even when you don't "win," there is fun and fulfillment in the fact that you have been involved, with other good people, in something worthwhile. Okay, seven pieces of profound advice should be enough.
Howard Zinn

2.  Information on the Nonviolent Peaceforce, an alternative to military intervention.
http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2003-03-26/feature.html/2/index.html

3.  Jonathan Schell writes an introduction to articles on the new "superpower" - the people of the world - http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030414&s=schell  I will try to get a copy of the issue so we can see what the articles have to say - they focus on 14 countries where people are opposing war.

4.  This piece reminds me of the verse in "Throwing Stones" (video clip I showed at HOPE OUT LOUD) that went "There's a fear down here we can't forget, hasn't got a name just yet, always awake always around, singing ashes ashes all fall down" - Robert Jensen attempts to name that fear, and encourage us to stay engaged in spite of it.
http://www.ramallahonline.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=1397

5. Though I don't 100% agree with the writer of this editorial, in that I think there were voices raised to make the points he says should have been made, I think there is a lot of truth in what he says. Food for thought re: where we go from here.

How the Peace Movement Blew It
Commentary by Mark LeVine for
The Christian Science Monitor

As an increasingly bloody war unfolds in Iraq, the antiwar movement needs publicly and honestly to examine how it failed to stop a war against a nation that hadn't fired a shot at us; a war that the United Nations, world opinion, the blowback from previous wars, and even common sense and decency all screamed against. Where did we go wrong? On the broadest level, the movement didn't offer the most important alternative to war: hope. In the past weeks, I have spoken with middle-class Americans from New York to California and have been surprised by the near unanimous distrust of our government's stated aims and prosecution of this war. But these newly skeptical patriots have been further depoliticized rather than mobilized by the failure of the antiwar coalition either to address the moral complexity of the conflict or to offer a coherent alternative to it.

Despite the sordid history and present reality of U.S. Middle East policy, Americans intuitively believe that most Iraqis would be better off under U.S. rather than Saddam Hussein's occupation. It is to the antiwar movement's discredit that it never acknowledged the need for Hussein to face justice. Without it, cynicism and apathy rather than hope and activism became the response to the administration's war discourse.

And we played right into the president's game. When he catalogued Hussein's past crimes and duplicity, we either ignored it or shouted, "No war!" and, "Give peace a chance!" To which Mr. Bush replied, "I did." Hussein's record of violence and deceit allowed Americans grudgingly to accept the president's arguments for war despite his innumerable distortions of fact
and evidence.

Moreover, by focusing on the quantity of protesters rather than the quality of our discourse, we deluded ourselves into thinking that our protests were delaying the war. But Bush was just playing for time till all the men and materiel were in place for war.

We should have responded: "You're right, Mr. President, Hussein is a criminal who should be removed and brought to justice. But so should almost every regime in the Middle East, including our allies, since they are all oppressive (even brutal) and semidemocratic at best." We should have presented a detailed plan with maps and arrows diagramming which regimes should face justice next. We should have pointed out what international architecture (such as an expanded International Criminal Court that could try leaders while in office) would be necessary to prevent a concerted move by the world community against oppression and dictatorship from being a
cover for an unending war for an American Empire.

We should have demanded an expanded Security Council with no vetoes, while at the same time demanding the removal of Libya and Sudan from the UN Human Rights Commission. We should have called on the president immediately to cut off all economic and military aid to any government that does not meet strict democratic and human rights standards - be it Israel or Pakistan. Most important, we should have demanded that he follow the logic of his own arguments for a new Middle East, which require a shift not just in U.S. foreign policy but also in the hyperconsumerist, world-toxic culture that drives it.

So how can the peace be won? First, articulate a holistic critique of, and alternative to, Bush's postwar vision. Second, demand significant representation in the postwar "reconstruction regime," and if refused, infiltrate it with the coordinated efforts of international humanitarian and relief organizations. Third, force public scrutiny of companies that will be awarded billions of dollars of "reconstruction" contracts, especially those with close ties to the White House. More broadly, engage in unprecedented levels of education and protest to help the public understand how the coalition of arms and oil companies behind this war is reaping profits at the expense of America's healthcare, education, retirement, and criminal-justice systems - in short, our future.

The forces for peace, democracy, and justice can successfully challenge America's Middle East policy when the blowback from our invasion and occupation of Iraq comes. But we must learn from our mistakes and transform ourselves from an antiwar coalition into a large-scale social movement with an unflinching, worldwide commitment to justice. That means one uncompromised by ideological blindness to crimes not committed by the West or its allies.

Such a vision, and the hope it would foster, has never been more sorely needed.

• Mark LeVine is assistant professor of history at the University of California at Irvine specializing in contemporary Middle East politics, religions, and cultures.