What do next weekend's actions mean? Here's one take on it

(Cindy Sheehan speaking in Union Square on Monday before the NYPD stormed in and broke up the meeting.)
Photo by Dan Cohen

From the Village Voice:

The New Fight Against the War
A big march in D.C. marks a change in tactics for those who want the U.S. out of Iraq
by Jarrett Murphy

Anyone who thinks today's anti-war movement is trapped in tie-dyed '60s nostalgia should go to the United for Peace and Justice website, where one can sign up online to participate in civil disobedience next Monday, at the close of a three-day protest in Washington. It's not just a sign that the peaceniks of 2005 are Internet savvy; it's a signal that the movement thinks the D.C. rally is the moment to turn the tide against the war.
"We expect upwards of 100,000 people," says Bill Dobbs, spokesman for UFPJ. "This is going to be a big protest because of what has happened over the summer." He means the chain of events over recent months that includes the Downing Street memo, the formation of an "Out of Iraq" caucus in Congress, the attacks that killed scores of soldiers from Ohio, and, of course, Cindy Sheehan.
"She showed the cost of this war, the cost that the administration wants to hide," says Nancy Lessin of Military Families Speak Out. And Sheehan's protest is part of the reason why, Lessin says, "we're going to have the largest contingent of military families ever assembled speaking out against a war in certainly the history of this war and probably any other. We're expecting over 200 military families from all over the country."
The weekend of protest begins on Saturday, September 24, with a march and concert. Sunday there's an interfaith service. And on Monday, while some lobby Congress, others will get busted at the White House. Both are newly prominent tactics in the fight against the war, and products of the realization that protest alone won't work.

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