A central theme of my published work at Adonde Press, since its founding in 2015, is advocating for building an anti-imperialist peace majority in the US. However, we need to acknowledge that after decades of activism resisting US military aggression, war budgets, nuclear weapons, coups and sanctions we have fallen far short of building a public majority with the power to contest US imperialism or prevent even one war.
Not the genocide in Gaza under two presidents. Not the US – Israeli attack on Iran. Not the barbarous Israeli war on the people of Lebanon or the cruel blockade of Cuba. To put it bluntly, we cannot continue to let down our brothers and sisters who are killed and maimed by US bombs and whose nations, homes,workplaces and institutions are destroyed by the US military.
In an interview in 2021, Vijay Prashad, Executive Director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, called on the US peace movement to reassess its work. “The general strategic orientation to building a peace movement in the US is just not working…something else needs to be tried.”
I agree with Prashad – what we have been doing is not working. My latest book Challenge Capitalist Political Power proposes a political,programmatic and communications strategy to address Prashad’s critique.The book argues for combining the struggle fora working class program for social benefits with a demand for peaceful foreign policy.These set the terms of the struggle against the status quo of militarism, war and austerity.
We need a multi-year, national,coordinated peace campaign to convince Americans to back demands for a peaceful foreign policy. Polls show most people are tired of endless wars. The task is to mobilize their discontent and create a means for them to express it.
Let’s begin in Minnesota. Let’s build on the ICE OUT organizing. Let’s educate, organize and mobilize for peace. Let’s challenge capitalist political power and imperialism regardless of which major party is in power. Let’s build an anti-imperialist peace majority.