Behind the Placards

"If public-opinion polls are correct, 33 percent to 40 percent of the public opposes an Iraq war; even more are against a unilateral action. This means the burgeoning anti-war movement has a large recruiting pool," writes David Corn. Most Americans, however, won't agree with the agenda of the Workers World Party, which organized the recent anti-war demonstration in Washington. The WWP is a "small political sect that years ago split from the Socialist Workers Party to support the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956" and which today supports North Korean dictator Kim Jon-Il and former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. "The anti-war movement won't have a chance of applying pressure on the political system unless it becomes much larger and able to squeeze elected officials at home and in Washington," Corn writes. "To reach that stage, the new peace movement will need the involvement of labor unions and churches. That's where the troops are o in the pews, in the union halls. How probable is it, though, that mainstream churches and unions will join a coalition led by the we-love-North-Korea set?"