Tough Choices About the War

The protests go on and on and eventually blend together in the public mind like an endless tapestry of chants and signs and marches.

But the marches have varied in size, political views expressed and intensity. And, depending on whom you talk to, the anti-war movement at present is either strong and well-organized, or disorganized and splintered.

Infighting is indicated by the inability of the national anti-war movement to get together on a date for a Washington protest. Last weekend, a crowd descended on the nation's capital, organized by a group that did not condemn the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. This weekend, another group--one which does condemn the invasion--will stage its own march in Washington.

Such divisiveness is also apparent locally. Last Saturday, the Committee Against a Vietnam War in the Middle East held a rally at City Hall Plaza in Boston while the Emergency Coalition for peace, Justice and Non-Intervention in the middle East held another rally on the Boston Common. While the Vietnam group eventually joined the coalition group, they held separate rallies for at least an hour.

Even on campuses, the movement is divided. a letter to the two groups urging reconciliation, it sent representatives to a student anti-war conference in Chicago last weekend and is selling tickets to buses headed for Washington this weekend.

At a recent organizing meeting, the Campuses Against War group had difficulty even agreeing on a slogan. "Support our troops, bring them home," brought a cavil from a Spartacist who said that they weren't her troops. At the Chicago conference, delegates reportedly argued for more than an hour over the proposed inclusion of the word "now" in the slogan "U.S. and allied troops out now."

Still, considering the conflict's early stage, members of the anti-war movement say the movement is remarkably strong in numbers and very well organized. And they note that in the '60s, it took years of fighting in Vietnam--plus the end of college deferments for the draft--to catalyze the nation's youth into a cohesive protest movement.

Today, even where critics of the peace movement see opportunistic splinter groups, defenders see the beginnings of an inclusive coalition. The fact is that Greenpeace, the Marxist Leninist party, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power and the Spartacist Youth League all made appearances at the Common.

Anti-war activists say they'll learn from their mistakes, and add that they can only get better. At the City Plaza rally Saturday, amateur guitarist Peter Desmond led the demonstrators in renditions of "Down by the Reverside." he observed tat the crowd was disorganized, but said, "We'll get better at stopping the war any day now."