War Protesters Press Message to Lawmakers

They think of themselves as loyal soldiers of peace, and they used to feel that way about liberal Rep. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica). So disabled Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic and other anti-war activists went to Levine’s field office Friday and got the congressman on the phone.

“I want you to search your conscience today, and think of the courage it will take to speak out,” Kovic implored.

Over the speaker phone, Levine said he has already searched his conscience. Congress, he said, should give President Bush authorization to wage war with Iraq because a serious threat is the best hope of preventing war.

Then don’t vote your conscience, the activists told him. Vote the conscience of your district.

Arguments and demonstrations like this one were repeated across the nation Friday as Congress debated whether to authorize war. Escalating as surely as the armies in the Persian Gulf region, the anti-war movement pressed its message to a divided Congress while organizers staged protests in many cities and recruited for peace rallies scheduled during the next two weeks.

In Atlanta, Coretta Scott King, widow of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., called for a new anti-war movement to be launched Tuesday, her assassinated husband’s birthday and the U.N. deadline for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait. Her husband’s birthday and the national holiday Jan. 21 in his honor could prove to be days of renewal for an anti-war movement like the 1960s opposition to the Vietnam War.

“Even if the Administration waits until the 16th or later before launching a military offensive, war against Iraq will still be wrong,” she told a news conference. “And so I’m urging everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of peace to use this holiday to launch a new anti-war movement that will not rest until a peaceful resolution of the conflict in the Persian Gulf is secured. I can think of no more fitting tribute to his memory.”

She said that acts of civil disobedience to oppose an American-led war in the Persian Gulf may become appropriate if fighting begins and escalates.

“The followers of Martin Luther King Jr. should protest against it with the same fervor that brought an end to the Vietnam War,” she said.

Former U.S. Atty. Gen. Ramsey Clark, organizing marches in San Francisco, urged people to protest in the streets against U.S. involvement in a Persian Gulf war.

“Only one force on Earth can stop this war and only one force will start it--the President,” said Clark, founder of the Coalition to Stop the U.S. War in the Middle East. “And the only power that will stop him is the people. If you and I take to the streets every day and tell everyone who will listen, ‘No war,’ it won’t happen. So you and I have a chance.”

And in San Francisco there were questions about whether the suicide of a man who doused himself with gasoline and set himself aflame was not, in effect, a protest for peace--like those of Buddhist monks who immolated themselves in Vietnam during the conflict there. No note was found, but anti-war pamphlets were discovered stuffed in a book of quotations at his side.

As Kovic and others staged a sit-in at Levine’s office near Los Angeles International Airport, more than 60 other activists rallied outside the Orange County offices of Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach).

Few peace activists are surprised that Republicans such as Cox and conservative Democrats support the authorization for war. What troubles many peace activists is why fellow liberals such as Levine and Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) have taken what they consider a hawkish stand toward Iraq.

Some activists felt that Levine and Berman believe they are supporting Israel in endorsing the authorization of war. But Jerry Rubin, Los Angeles director of Alliance for Survival, said that granting President Bush such power will not serve to protect Israel.

The activists, who remained in the office Friday evening, said they would stay until Congress votes, waiting until Monday, if necessary. During their sit-in, they plan to use Levine’s office as a base for organizing, said Carl Rogers, a co-founder of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.