In order to understand why a section of the labour movement and a major social democratic trend in BC got involved in the antiwar movement in the first place, we must first understand the conditions that created the movement. Those conditions are, at the foundation, the global political shift of imperialists into an era of direct military intervention, assault and occupation of oppressed nations.

The response of social democracy to imperialism was to position themselves in control of the inevitable antiwar movement and to strategize on how they could best capitalize on the coming momentum. The antiwar movement provided this trend and part of the left who supported it in Canada with a major opportunity to build its voting constituency and to put pressure on the national capitalist ruling class in order to gain concessions.

In the beginning of Fall 2002, the future founding members of Fire This Time participated in initiating a new coalition in Vancouver to organize against the impending US invasion of Iraq. The antiwar coalition called the November 17th Coalition Against War. From the beginning, the broad November 17th Coalition, which later developed into Stopwar.ca, showed a distinct political division. This division, which eventually developed into a factional division, is based on fundamental political differences – differences that go to the basis of the involvement of tendencies active in Stopwar.ca. The division is now, and has always been, between movement-building and lobbying – the way each of these political objectives have played out has changed based on the momentum of the movement against war and the demands the movement made on organizers to respond effectively. During high momentum the intensity of the demands of the movement meant that the organizers of Stopwar.ca had to respond and listen to people in the streets. As momentum slowed, however, and the pressure reduced, differences became more visible and it became easier for some mainstream leftist organizers to ignore the voices in the streets.

For over a year, the different groups that have been active in Stopwar.ca that have worked against the interest of building an effective and broad movement were led by the Social Democratic trend. Along with Humanist, Centrist, and Stalinist tendencies, and despite political differences, an unprincipled front was created to work against the broad movement-building – and essentially revolutionary – tendency that Fire This Time, Youth - Third world Alliance and other independent activists belonged to. This unprincipled block consisted basically of the leftist status quo: the political trends and individuals who have been in the ‘progressive movement’ for decades – the usual suspects in the left; and they consisted basically of older white semi-political activists or hobbyists, partly labour and partly non-labour, who under any circumstances, no matter what they are, practice their business as usual, which fundamentally is to defend their official polite, harmless and safe leftist opposition. The role of the unprincipled grouping is, at its root, to maintain a status quo left that does not expand politically or in numbers out of control. Through that the dominant imperialist-capitalist status quo is maintained. As a result the capitalist ruling class is not threatened in a radical and militant fashion by a broad and effective movement, but is pressured to ‘lessen’ the exploitation, humiliation and attacks on all poor and working people in Canada. In the final analysis, by extension imperialism is free to plunder oppressed nations through war, occupation and whatever methods they deem necessary, against a radical-militant movement for fundamental change.

To understand why people who were involved in Stopwar.ca would not want a broad and expanding movement, one must understand that a broad and expanding movement is an uncontrollable movement – a movement with revolutionary potential. The role of this grouping necessitates that they do not allow the movement to expand in a way that would threaten their very survival and therefore, in Canada they must maintain the status quo. Revolutionary change would not only destroy the reactionary ruling class, it would also destroy the comfortable spaces that that ruling class keeps for polite and safe leftist opposition.

By taking up space and creating organizations and bureaucracy that have a ‘progressive approach’ while never effecting substantial change, the status quo left (SQL) has established itself as an important part of maintaining the current capitalist system. Capitalism is willing to make a comfortable space for the SQL and even make concessions now and again if it means that poor and working people on the whole will remain immobilized, ineffective and demoralized. The SQL does this job by taking the reins of a movement and pulling back.

It was on this basis that, in the fall of 2002, the intellectual and strategic leadership of the SQL in Canada felt the potential of a major antiwar movement and they predicted what was coming. The establishment of the November 17th Coalition and later Stopwar.ca – ‘a long-term organization’ – was with the understanding that their very existence was under threat if a movement rapidly grew without limitation and if especially young and third world activists posed themselves as the leadership. The role of the official leadership of Stopwar.ca has thusly been, since its inception, to cripple and limit an effective movement to become a low pressure one. This is the root of the division in political direction in the coalition.

September 2002: Inception of Nov 17th Coalition

Similar to many other places in Canada (and the western world in general) the intervention of part of official labour (OL) and SQL in the November 17th Coalition was to ensure that the inevitable rash of mobilization would not explode into an uncontrollable movement, and to redirect all possible energy into lobbying activity focused on pressuring the current government for some concessions. The intervention was to use antiwar sentiment against the current ruling administration, and redirect the energy of the working class movement into working to improve the position of OL and SQL in relation to the current ruling capitalist administration.

Members of Fire This Time, before our inception, were among the founders of the of the initial demonstrations – this was before even OL and SQL become aware of their role and their unprincipled block. The reasons for our involvement in building the antiwar movement overlapped in places with that of several healthy independent individuals’ and groups’ participation in the coalition. Where FTT diverged, however, was in the root of our involvement, which went beyond the war on Iraq and directly contradicted the root of other tendencies in Stopwar.ca; FTT saw the antiwar movement as a place to build an international movement against imperialist war and domination, and for self-determination for oppressed nations. FTT saw the antiwar movement as having the potential to expand in numbers and in politics. To go beyond Iraq and to fight for all oppressed people globally – and all oppressed people locally. It could be better understood if we activists take into the consideration the three years of worldwide anti-globalization movement, a movement whose main characteristic was hundreds of mass demonstrations globally. It was with this understanding that FTT went into the Stopwar.ca coalition with dedication and commitment to building the broadest, most powerful antiwar movement possible.

Working with Stopwar.ca despite having an understanding of what the official leadership — SQL and OL — was doing was based on the fact that in order to meet our objectives we would have to use the most effective avenues possible to organize, educate and mobilize poor and working people against war. And as long as we could do this effectively within Stopwar.ca it remained the best place from which to organize. FTT went into the coalition with the understanding that millions of people in the streets all around the world can potentially stop the war – with the understanding that millions of people in the streets is in fact the only way that oppressed people can effect change.

The history of Stopwar.ca, from the most minor fight to the most major, clearly illustrates how the defenders of the Status Quo Left upheld their mandate and how — if FTT managed to successfully build the movement and politics that we outlined — the split and our expulsion from Stopwar.ca was not a question of if it would happen, but rather when would it happen and how.

Early Stages: The First Signs of the Division

It was within the first stage that the politics of Stopwar.ca were established on some levels. On the issue of Palestine the SQL and affiliated groups and individuals saw the necessity to make a concession to elements pushing for a main focus on Palestine – or better to say, for an equal focus on Iraq and Palestine. The fact was that the SQL did not agree with bringing Palestine into the picture and saw the potential of it to limit their objectives because of lower consciousness on the occupation of Palestine. They did, however, later see that they could use this issue to maneuver and bringing it forward was accepted partially as a compromise and partially as a tactic to keep the movement from growing too rapidly. The approach that the SQL and OL trends had towards Palestine was from the opportunistic perspective of the right and they saw the concession of Palestine as having potential to alleviate pressure from other radical groups. While Fire This Time agreed with not having Palestine as a central focus at the beginning of the war and bombing drive by the US and UK, but rather exploring the Palestinian issue via the war on Iraq, this was an approach from the left and revolutionary working class position and was in fact more threatening than the push for Palestine as the central strategy at the beginning of the war on Iraqi people.

As a result, the second stage of this revealed to the lobbying tendency that an alliance could be forged with those advocating the focus on Palestine immediately with the US-UK campaign for war on Iraq. They were able to provide space, recognition and resources and in return gain the appearance of being connected to third world movements and communities of color. Finally, by using some elements of third world groups who were willing to cooperate with the SQL and OL for the reward of getting a position (material, financial and institutional help) within the SQL, they hoped to neutralize those groups, like FTT, who were introducing and advocating a more radical and effective agenda.

From the beginning of Stopwar.ca, before the invasion even began, there were attempts to cancel Vancouver’s participation in the international January 17th demonstration because of ‘lack of time to plan!’ Despite the fact that these initial attempts to slow down were not successful, they did establish the concept of ‘being careful’ and ‘not burning people out.’ They established a fear in some organizers of being irresponsibly swept away. This was expanded upon later and was important in the campaign to build a low-pressure movement. This leadership, instead of exploring the militant and radical potential of the activist-organizers, advocated the reactionary aspect of the comfortable capitalist life of the political and social activists.

As the beginning of the war drew nearer, February 15th was called as an international day of action as well. This demonstration was the largest one globally, and in Vancouver as well. With over 30,000 people on the street, Vancouver showed its potential to mobilize and to expand. This was the last demonstration for which the Vancouver official labour movement came out in full force. Within weeks, in the middle of March 2003, Bush gave 48 hours notice for the beginning of the war March 20th. That evening, the Coordinating Committee of Stopwar.ca met and made no plans for a response. The next evening, the Outreach Committee of Stopwar.ca met and within the 2-hour meeting four consecutive demonstrations was called beginning on the night of the approaching invasion and war.

Next Stage: SQL and OL Open Attack on Third world and Young activists

The next evening during the general meeting of Stopwar.ca, the movement-building tendency — including FTT — who were most active in the Outreach Committee, were attacked for the first time by the lobbying tendency — the SQL and OL. The four planned demonstrations were condemned and the Outreach Committee was labeled renegade. Ironically all these arguments and attacks fell to pieces, however, as a cell phone rang and a member of Stopwar.ca informed the meeting that the US had begun bombing Baghdad. Immediately the entire meeting moved to the Vancouver Art Gallery where they were met with an amazing, militant demonstration of 2,000 people — exactly the way the Outreach Committee had planned and predicted. The next day began with the March 20th Students Walk Out. Young people left their campuses across the Lower Mainland and flooded downtown. The streets of Vancouver became the streets of the world as youth marched globally against war. At 5 pm students joined with hundreds more people for the Outreach Committee’s second rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery. People filled up the Robson side of the Art Gallery, the crowd thick all the way across the street.

It was during this time that Fire This Time made a significant intervention in the antiwar movement and began publishing the first of six Updates on War. These included important assessments and analysis of the Vancouver antiwar movement in the context of the international resistance and imperialist developments. The updates also included the first published public announcements of Stopwar.ca meetings. These Updates were instrumental for educating public on imperialist war and aggression considering that up to this date Stopwar.ca never published one piece of documentation on its stance or political analysis of the imperialist war drive and antiwar movement-building.

On Thursday the Outreach Committee met again and began organizing the first Lower Mainland-wide forum/meeting to build a network against war and expand the organized movement beyond Vancouver proper. The meeting was scheduled for March 23rd in New Westminster.

After the Friday mobilization, which again saw people in Vancouver mobilized and energized for hours into the night, Saturday March 22nd brought 10,000 people to the streets on three days notice. This rally ran incredibly long and it became very clear that the lobbying tendency in Stopwar.ca was functioning more slowly than the movement as these organizers began to ask people to go home and hundreds of people refused to leave. Saturday, March 22nd saw the people of Vancouver on the streets from morning to sundown.

The next Stopwar.ca general meeting followed a week of demonstrations, it followed a week of devastation and destruction in Iraq and it followed a major inaugural organizing meeting of the Lower Mainland Network Against War. At that general meeting the lobbying tendency — the SQL and OL — who was nervous about and scared of the rapid growth of the antiwar movement and the role we play in it, again condemned the level of action and won a close and crippling vote: the decision was made to not call any rallies after March 29th; to instead sit down to a major strategy meeting on April 2nd.

At this point in the movement it became clear that young people and people from the third world had a strong position in the streets but not in the leadership of Stopwar.ca. This again amplified the polarization and showed, for the first time publicly, the division between building a movement against war and steering the movement into lobbying. The necessity to ensure that the official leadership of Stopwar.ca represented the movement in the streets was essential in establishing a close relationship with the movement and developing a leadership that could effectively respond to it.

After this meeting it became clear to many members of Stopwar.ca that, in order to respond effectively to the movement, organizing would have to happen outside the coalition in addition to the organizing within Stopwar.ca.

On Friday, March 28th, Fire This Time and other members of Stopwar.ca organized a meeting of 20 people (organizers within and outside of the coalition) who were interested in continuing to organize mobilizations. Out of this meeting the organization Youth - Third world Alliance was born. Youth - Third world Alliance (Y3WA) decided to work within Stopwar.ca and also externally when necessary, and on this basis the first major demonstration organized outside Stopwar.ca was called for April 5th by Youth - Third world Alliance. Within Stopwar.ca, the SQL and OL narrowly defeated a motion to endorse this march and rally by two votes: 33 against, 31 for and 25 abstentions. Despite lack of support and official endorsement, around 1,000 people participated in this rally. The Failure to Shift from Antiwar to Anti-occupation It was during this period that momentum began to slow. Stopwar.ca organized its next action on April 26th as a ‘Picnic for Peace,’ breaking from the strategy of energizing mobilization, in favour of settling into a quiet summer routine — all before the official end of the war was declared.

When, on May 1st, George W. Bush announced that major military combat in Iraq was over, the lobbying tendency in Stopwar.ca sighed with relief and began pushing with greater success to shift into a campaign against the ‘Star Wars II’ Missile Defense program, and for boycotts of US products. This approach fit directly in line with the social democratic, liberal and middle class humanist trend’s conference on peace in Ottawa, which Stopwar.ca participated in. The movement-building tendency, however, recognized the need to shift the political focus of its organizing into a focus on occupation and war now that the occupation had really begun. Unfortunately, this shift failed to happen and the movement slowed even more drastically.

The summer set in at this point and the lobbying trend of Stopwar.ca began to resign itself to taking a summer break. The movement-building tendency continued to fight, but under the weight of global demoralization and the pressure of ‘slowing down’ within Stopwar.ca, it was difficult to maintain momentum objectively.

Deepening Divisions: Open Factional Fight Begins

It was during this low point in the summer that internal structure and strategy discussions were silenced. The lack of a clear strategy for building the antiwar movement in the short or long run, and the lack of adequate structure, was amplified by a homophobic attack by a member of Stopwar.ca — and a member of the SQL — on another member. The lobbying tendency attempted to cover up and silence the physical and psychological assault, whereas the movement-building tendency attempted to use the incident to establish policy and set a precedent for how Stopwar.ca was going to proceed politically. The movement-building tendency again came under vicious attack, including character assassination, a smear campaign, and racist and sexist slurs, for its work to address the assault in a political manner. The developments of this incident lasted from June until July and further enforced the basis of the division that already existed in political vision and strategy.

In late August, when the coalition began to again piece itself together and prepare for the fall strategy, it was clear to all members of the coalition that the factional division was nearing its peak and would soon develop into a split if space was not allowed for the existence of a loyal opposition and sharing the leadership within Stopwar.ca. Within weeks, perhaps days, the lobbying tendency — the SQL, OL and their block members — began secretly organizing a secret clique for the purging of ‘disruptive’ tendencies; obviously FTT, Y3WA and their supporters. We know now for sure from documents we have and also admittance by some members of this secret clique that, in a secret and unofficial meeting of selected coalition individuals, this secret clique decided to expel Fire This Time (FTT) members from the Stopwar.ca coalition on the first point of agenda in the October 15th, 2003 general meeting. This was five days ago. With this a new era has begun. The era that will be marked by a great antiwar, anti-occupation movement consisting of thousands of youth, women, people of colour and third world people.