To build a movement able to marshal sufficient numbers of sufficiently informed and committed people to compel ruling elites around the world, and ultimately in the US, to restrain or even terminate their war designs out of fear of the repercussions of their not doing so. That means getting lots of chicks to come out for these rallies. We need lotsa chicks, preferably naked. If they're naked, you're halfway there, right? And nobody can ignore a naked chick, unless maybe it's another naked chick.

The demand "Let the inspections work" has three meanings, one that the Left should endorse, one that is reasonable but inadequate, and one that is immoral and quite dangerous. We're just not sure what they are. The alternative to inspections would be to either do something of substance, and that would mean the world would lose a perfectly good dictator, or to do nothing, which is what we'd like best, of course. Now, if the Man, the Powers That Be, the Establishment, felt that having the inspections was a good thing, we'd obviously have to change what we think, and we could denounce them as unwarranted interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign dictatorship and demand that they stop. Then we could go back to bitching about the sanctions, which are another alternative to war, and which haven't worked, but we won't admit that. See? And what about all those dead babies, huh?

There are two parts to the Left response to terrorism. First, the US Left ought to demand that its government cease carrying out and supporting terrorism. Like, you know the U.S. is the greatest terrorist threat in the world, don't you? 'Cause of, ummm... Chile. They did something there, man, and it was, like gross. Terrorism, of course, is not confined to Muslim fundamentalists crashing planes into the World Trade Center. It is terrorism also to bomb Afghanistan knowing that reputable aid agencies warned of a potential humanitarian catastrophe. I mean, you never read about it when it happened, and people don't talk about it, but that's why it's silent genocide. As for anti-Western terrorism, just ignore it, man. It doesn't apply to us. Probably doesn't even apply to anyone we know. If the U.S. would just change its entire foreign policy, and the structure of its government, and put us in charge, then it would all go away.

The reason to oppose a war, first and foremost, is that it is immoral, not that it will cost a lot. I mean, like, all war is immoral, except for when it's run by Third World dictatorships, and fighting back is immoral, too.

War is corporate globalization writ violent. Corporate globalization is capitalist market competition writ international. The connection between war and the basic institutions we live within is unbreakable. So we have to, like, smash the state, y'know?

In the US, polls show that African-Americans are more skeptical of war than the population as a whole. Nevertheless, it's probably still the case that current demonstrations are disproportionately white and middle class. But to a considerable extent this is a function of which sectors of society can most easily take the time and expense to travel to major anti-war events. I mean, like, Negroes can't even afford bus fare to come out and demonstrate in favor of Sammy. Can you believe that? Is this country hosed or what?

On the one hand, there is the need to reach out to underrepresented constituencies with information and organization. On the other hand, there are things that need to be done to our movements and their agendas. So, basically, was we really need is more chicks. Once you get the chicks — and I'm talkin' chicks who put out, man! — then you get the guys. And once you've got that, you've got, like a movement, y'know? You don't have to worry about the financing, because we've got, like, Soddies and Libyans and student unions to take care of that...

There is a tendency in all organizing to focus, very understandably, on the immediate present. We want to get some task done. In this case we want to prevent a war — or perhaps if that fails, to end one. But y'gotta think in the long term, man, like two, three, maybe even four months down the road, and who knows what's gonna happen then?

In a word, yes. The international opposition to this war, and war in general, and to corporate globalization, and to racism and market exploitation — and so on — is currently magnificent in scale, breadth, diversity, and energy. I mean, we got chicks from all over the world show up.

Too many people think that success is a function of numbers of people, or whether some short term goal is attained or not — such as closing down an elite meeting. It isn't. It's volume, man. The more noise you make, the more attention you get. The more attention you get, the more likely you are to get on television. What we are doing is, or ought to be, always conceived and measured in terms of the overall struggle for peace and justice, not a momentary aim. Otherwise, the teevee guys will ignore us.