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It was an hour past the announced closing time for the "Only You Can Stop the War" teach-in, and the overflow audience at the Caltech amphitheater had begun to thin.
After patiently listening to numerous speakers talk about everything from biological weapons to the New World Order to the Catholic bishops' statement on a just war, the last speaker, Teresa Sanchez, rose from the steps, approached the podium and spoke:
"We need to redefine the scope and nature of the peace movement."
Sanchez, 27, is a 10-year veteran of what she calls "solidarity work." She has worked to obtain American political and public support for Central Americans and others engaged in regional struggles in Indochina, Korea and the Philippines. The tall, slender woman's calm, cool manner sometimes runs counter to her impassioned rhetoric.
Referring to the cost of war, the "S & L ripoff," the slashed funds for social programs, she spoke of the "rising anger and desperation" that has resulted.
"The peace movement has traditionally been led by those least affected by (war) at home. It is within our communities-the most fertile ground-where the new peace movement can grow out of the dozens of grass-roots groups working for peace, civil rights, drug (abuses), police abuse, toxic waste. A new peace movement to be really effective must be built on a new basis, linked to all the issues that affect our lives."
In effect, Sanchez described the new movement she has been instrumental in forming-the Los Angeles Coalition Against U.S. Intervention in the Middle East. The most visible and active anti-war group locally, it is also the most controversial to some other anti-war organizations:
Thus far, the coalition has refused to condemn Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, referring to it as the "move" into Kuwait; it has insisted on linkage of this crisis to the continuing struggle for Palestinian statehood; it does not support the blockade of Iraq, calling it an act of war, and it has not supported the United Nations' role, saying that body has been co-opted by the U.S.
Numerous individuals and several longstanding, mainstream peace groups-such as local chapters of SANE/Freeze, Physicians for Social Responsibility, the American Friends Service Committee-are uneasy with the coalition. Privately, and sometimes publicly, they express fears...