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News from the Global Appeal/Iraq project:
Anti-War Resolution Passes California Democratic Party Convention
LOS ANGELES. April 17. Two thousand California Democrats passed a resolution calling for termination of the Iraq war and occupation, including a US troop withdrawal "at the earliest possible time", at their annual convention in Los Angeles this weekend.
The resolution was devised by grass-roots Democratic peace activists, including the newly-formed Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), who fought an intense three-day battle before the party platform committee and on the floor. They faced severe pressures to water down or derail the resolution by more hawkish Democrats, including delegates associated with the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) who tried to "pull" the resolution from the party platform report, according to PDA executive-director Tim Carpenter. Delegates representing former presidential candidate Gen. Wesley Clark also tried unsuccessfully to weaken the resolution, Carpenter said.
The California resolution represents a far stronger position than that taken by the national Democratic Party during the 2004 presidential campaign. In addition, the struggle for its passage is a potential model for parties in other states as the national party seeks to contain anti-war forces among its rank-and-file. Carpenter, who began as a grass roots California party volunteer almost thirty years ago, has become a respected practioners of "outside/inside" strategies and tactics to pressure politicians.
In a significant development, the same progressive forces passed a resolution denouncing the Central American Free Trade Agreement, revealing growing and effective links between anti-war and anti-NAFTA-CAFTA-FTAA forces in the party.
Party chair Howard Dean, whose rise as a national candidate was based on his opposition to the invasion of Iraq, avoided any mention of the war and occupation in several appearances during the convention, though delegates from the Dean campaign supported the anti-war platform overwhelmingly. At the national level, leading Democrats have failed to unify in opposition to the war, leaving senators like Edward Kennedy and representatives like Lynn Woolsey, author of a resolution favoring withdrawal, on the margins.
Carpenter, PDA national chair Mimi Kennedy and local chair Marcy Winnograd predicted the success would inspire local peace and Democratic activists to increase the pressure at local levels to influence Congressional behavior. Not far off are the 2006 Congressional elections and the 2008 presidential primaries.
"Democrats can't hide and wish the war will go away, commented former state senator Tom Hayden, who spoke before a PDA gathering at the convention. "Rumsfeld has recently bragged that the US doesnt have an exit strategy, only a victory strategy. That should worry a majority of Americans who are seeing one billion of their tax dollars wasted every week in Iraq, who have seen 2000 Americans killed and unknown numbers of Iraqis, and who are ashamed of policies that have permitted rampant torture at Abu Graib, Afghanistan and Guantanamo. The Bush Administration still plans a permanent occupation and permanent bases in Iraq, and will have to be forced to leave by domestic public opinion, anger over budget priorities, unrest among military families, and the continuing collapse of the so-called "coalition of the willing"
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