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In the sixties, the anti-war movement started with small groups of dedicated radical organizers on the college campuses, and grew to eventually include thousands of fairly regular people.

Today's anti-war movement is the same thing.

Only completely backwards, shrinking from large, newsworthy demonstrations in February and March, down to...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A group of about 600 peace activists and veterans marched through the streets of San Francisco today demanding that the U.S. government pull all its troops out of Iraq immediately.

The protesters, sponsored by San Francisco's Global Exchange and the Bay Area chapter of the antiwar group Not in Our Name, started at Mission and 24th streets shortly before 1 p.m. Saturday and marched up to the intersection of Market Street and Van Ness Avenue in an hour."

Someone in "the movement" must be paying some attention to the polls. The tapdance is pretty obvious:

[Medea Benjamin of Global Exchange says] "We are rebuilding the anti-war movement into an anti-occupation movement. We've dissolved the whole issues of being for or against the troops. Now we are with the troops and we all want them to be brought home."

Ms. Benjamin also flirts with the heart of the issue:

Today's rally was smaller than pre-war rallies before the Iraq War started. Benjamin said the movement is still rebuilding. She said it will be difficult to draw attention to the anti-occupation movement in Iraq because the public is preoccupied with the recall of Gov. Gray Davis.

"But we still have 49 other states we can organize in," she said. "And once students are back in school it will be easier to organize."

Once students are back in school.

Once there are classes to be skipped, and professors nostalgic for the sixties to be mollified on school time, and middie-top wearin' college babes to draw the hackey-sack playin' guys, then we'll see that "anti-occupation movement" swinging into gear.

Count on it.

Posted by Mitch at August 10, 2003 10:13 AM