Something quite extraordinary happened this month. Both the global warming and antiwar movements went mainstream, and are now front page news, being taken seriously by mainstream media and governments, with the vast majority of the populace now supporting both movements.
It took the global warming movement two decades and the antiwar movement four years to move from the fringes to center stage. That both broke through in the same month signifies something profound churning in the heartland. Will the movements get co-opted? Sure, that’s always a danger, but consider this – maybe the center is moving leftward.
As a small example, from the comments in Red Flags to their excellent and thoughful post, Antiwar and looking ahead: What’s it going to take?
What actually impressed me was the way some fairly mainstream people seem to be moving to the left. Leslie Cagan and UFPJ actually let a Palestinian group condemn the occupation on stage. Michael Lerner spoke with a Muslim cleric on stage.
Unless you’re inside the antiwar movement, this might not seem much. But UFJP has been adamant, until Saturday apparently, in not ever allowing mention of Palestine from the podium at their demos. So this was quite unusual for them.
The job for organizers is to move the center to the left and link up the movements. The antiwar and global warming movements share much in common. Let’s join together into a united front.