Why the AntiWar movement is not being hijacked.

That's an unfair description of the problem. Yep, I was one of those folks involved back in the early 60's too and it was the same thing back then.

You are far too glib with the suggestion "they don't have to show up at these rallies if they don't want to" and "they could set up and plan Anti-war rallies of their own".

NO THEY CAN'T! That is PRECISELY what the "we know what's best" crowd does not allow. They will NOT stand aside an leave room for those who have different ideas about the most effective methods. Any demos anywhere anytime they insist on being "their way".

Let's get the history right, for those to whom it is history:
1945: Japanese kicked out of Vietnam. World War 2 ended Sept 2 1945. (Good way to remember: The US dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima, August 6, 1945 and Nagasaki, August 9, 1945, to warn the Soviet Union that this was to be the American Century. The Soviets were poised to attack and the Japanese were already suing for peace; this was just a racist, imperialist act.)

1946: French retake their old colony of Vietnam.

(1950-1953: US/UN police action in Korea, with its goal supposedly to fight communists and eventually retake China from the communists. 3 million Koreans die as do 54,000 Americans. Korea divided at the 38th parallel where US troops remain to date.)

1954: May 5, French defeated at Dien Bien Phu by Viet Minh. US sets up puppet government in South Vietnam after Vietnam divided. US stated goal is the same as Korea: defeat communists in Vietnam and retake China, all to maximize the profits of the capitalist class.

1964: Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, based on contrived incident, giving president war powers. Congress did not declare war.

1968: Tet Offensive; turning point of the war. THIS IS FOUR YEARS AFTER TONKIN RESOLUTION. Protests are massive at this point. The peace movement remains primarily an anti-draft student movement. Labor is not on board, for the most part, although American economy declines starting in 1965.

1971: US goes off gold standard. Most American troops withdrawn.

1973: Draft ends and so do most of the protests. Paris Peace Treaty signed, but Vietnam has no peace as capitalism prevails. American economy begins its steep decline from which it has never recovered.

April 30 1975: Liberation of Vietnam. The Vietnamese people retake Saigon and name it Ho Chi Minh City. The world celebrates defeat of the mightiest death machine it has seen since Nazi Germany. As Malcolm X said, it was this little people in black pajamas who fought back. We lost Malcolm in 1965, Martin in 1968, and the same CIA government also assassinated Pres JFK in 1963 and Attorney General RFK in 1968. Here in the Bay Area, I remember people dancing in the streets of Berkeley. It was one of those moments that you never forget, just like we never forget where we were when we heard that Pres JFK was assassinated on November 22, 1963.

Also in 1975: Former Portguese African colonies of Angola and Mozambique liberated. Portugal was liberated from its fascist Salazar-Caetano dictatorship in 1974. Portuguese colony of Guinea-Bisseau liberated in 1974.

The peace movement of today is much larger than it was at the end of the Vietnam War because the economy is much worse. Likewise, the peace movement during the Vietnam War was much bigger than during the Korean War. Those of us who remember the terrible past love today's peace movement. I just heard on KPFA on 1/19/02 that there is a weekly peace vigil in the Boyes Hot Springs area in Sonoma County. Such a thing would have been unthinkable during the Vietnam War as that was a very conservative area. 50% of the people going by that vigil support the peaceniks! That is incredible. These vigils are going on all over the country, in addition to the occasional larger demonstrations as we had in September and San Francisco and Washington, DC, and the smaller events such as we had on Jan 16, which simply marked the 11th year of war against Iraq, the ongoing war against Afghanistan and the birthday of Martin Luther King. That's all that demonstration was meant to be.

During the Vietnam War, as today, most of us carried on with our lives of working and/or going to school. Our political work was in our spare time, as now. The world was really not so different for most people then and now. The major difference for most people is that a dollar is not a dollar anymore: It does not pay the bills and there are not enough jobs for those measly dollars. We experienced high inflation during the Vietnam War, then watched the value of the dollar decline and the US became a debtor nation in the 1980s, when Pres Reagan increased our indebtedness tremendously to pay for the military.

Today's under 30 generation is a labor generation for it is now time for labor to fight back. The choice today is fight or starve.

To the above timeline, I add:
1917: Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, effectively ending World War 1, a war of colonial carnage, as is the US war against Afghanistan today.

1949: Chinese Revolution. Serious attempts to build socialism in China lasted until 1976. China is still far more advanced than its almost equally heavily populated neighbor, India, where Ghandhi's philosophy prevailed, as did capitalism. Restoration of capitalism in China began in 1986, but China remains more advanced than India. It was the outrage against the Chinese revolution by the capitalist class that led to the Korean and Vietnam Wars, both stated efforts to reconquer China for capitalism. The capitalists lost those two wars.

1959 Cuban Revolution. First socialist revolution in the Americas, or as Cuban Radio likes to proclaim, Cuba is "la primer tierra libre de las americas," the first free territory of the Americas. Cuba suffered greatly from the American embargo and now the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, but it remains one of the most advanced countries in the world in terms of life expectancy and infant mortality. The United States is the most backward country in the industrialized world in terms of those two key indicators.

To the Under Age 30 Generation: Do not worry about the size of our peace demonstrations; they will grow as events and the economy mandate. You are a labor generation and should be proud of that fact. You are carrying on the tradition of the most important generation in the US in the 20th Century, namely those who organized the labor unions in the 1930s. It was their success that made possible our peace and civil rights movements of the 1950s-1970s. Labor organizing is the most important political work anyone can do, and I guarantee you every single peacenik agrees with that statement.

Sorry. I am wrong regarding the time points. I should have said four years between the Gulf of Tonkin resolution and the Tet Offensive. However, I still can't see why other organizations can't simply try and get permits elsewhere. Nobody is keeping people from going out on the streets. Dissent isn't illegal(yet).

I certainly agree that we should encourage those who are never happy with the peace demonstrations to organize their own demonstrations. The First Amendment is our permit so they do not have to get a city permit if they do not want to do so. The more demonstrations, the better as far as I am concerned. I read all of the little newspapers that are sold at these events because they all have at least one article worth reading. One of those papers seems to make it its business to criticize every demonstration that is organized, yet for some reason, they attend all of them. I call this group Bar Flies United because they promote the use of alcohol and tobacco. They always show up with a hand-held microphone and someone spends the entire rally time before a march screaming into that poor little microphone, causing those of us with good hearing and wanting calm nerves to go as far away as possible from these hysterical types. They claim to be recruiting people with this act, but I fail to see how anyone would want to join such a scene. In any event, I do not agree with every point on the agenda of those who do organize most of these peace rallies but I, and most others, show up because we agree with the basic reason for the rally, usually a peace rally. If we can, we bring our own signs, posters, leaflets and newspapers. Those of us who enjoy making up chants, including myself, do so, and we never have a problem. I never have any idea what the official chants are and could care less. These peace demonstrations are simply a way of voting with our feet for peace and reaching out to whoever does show up with our ideas. At the same time, we should try to have a good time as life is too short for endless whining and these demonstrations are great street theater. As Billy Shakespeare said, all the world's a stage, and these peace demonstrations are a wonderful fresh air forum in motion, complete with music, chants, costumes and huge puppets. I love the whole show and we can be sure the ruling class despises all of it, which makes it that much better. Get a life, folks. Let a million demonstrations bloom!

the fact is, the only group who has done something so far has been the ISO. furthermore, there is a split in the left, between liberals who are (secretly) for the war and the more radical elements. basically, if you understand and hate imperialism, you will want to get out there. if you dont, you probably secretly far arabs and want the US to bomb them to hell. also, there is no coherent message for the "anti-war" movement just as there is not a coherent message for the "anti-globalization" movement ... the only coherent message is "anti-imperialism" and "anti-capitalism" ... anything else is milkwater and this is the natural result of it.

Correction to "Justice's Timeline":

To the above timeline, I add:

1917: Bolshevik Revolution in Russia: a coup by a cabal of dictatorial Marxists without popular support, effectively ending the genuine soviet/anarchist revolution against tsarism/feudalism and ushering in an era of barbaric state socialism.
1949: Chinese Revolution. Serious attempts to build Stalinism in China. Led to famine in the 50s and cannibalism in the sixites. Oppression continues today. Yesterday's leninists are today's hedge fund managers.

....stop with the dissembling and admit right up that you're a vandguardist nimrod. Everyone's welcome in the coalition, to be sure, but no one is welcome to cloak elitist ideas with feel-good talk about peace and cooperation. And calling people "anticommunist" just because they are wise to your stalinoid tactics is sleazy.
leninist manipulation was a big problem in the sixties; indeed, the trot/maoist attempts to take over SDA were a major cause of that organization's collapse. yes, the student movement was an umbrella for most of the great social movements of the sixties; but IT WAS NO THANKS TO BONEHEADS LIKE YOU. Vanguard groups were parasites living off the hard work of new left activists. So don't act shocked now that we're calling you on the carpet now. And don't invite people to your meetings just so you can use them to promote your sicko one party agenda.
So repeat after me, Justice, and write down a hundred times:

I am an elitist.
The Bolshevik Revolution was a sham; the soviets did all the work and then Lenin and Trotsky shot them in the back and kept the seat warm for Stalin.
Mao was a Stalin knock-off who killed millions.
State Socialism, like phony Beatlemania, has bitten the dust.
I am really sorry I peddle this tired old crap, and I promise to read all the anarchist classics from A to Z, and then write a 500,000 word self-criticism but keep it to myself.

This krondstat guy is just dreadful. He talks so much superficial anti-communist bullshit, I could just get bored to death.

Anyone interested in the history of 20th century revolutions would do well to read a diversity of different books from supporters, critics, the disillusioned and the unrepentent. Diatribes by knuckle-heads help no one learn why these revolutions didn't fully succeed. They also totally insult the millions who fought and died to end colonialism, stop the first world war, end serfdom and fight for communism.

Obviously they didn't have all the answers, look where we are. But I really hope we learn from history, not the wierd extrapolations krondstat comes up with.

The Russians had a fucking king before communism came. They were being murdered by the millions. And they showed, for the first time in the entire history of humanity, that working people can lay hold to the government of society. What they did and why are much longer discussions, but anti-communism was promoted by the government to make us distrust the very idea of change. "Careful what you fight for, you just might get it."

Well, I want socialism. And liberty. And I want to know what people did.

Ask around, read source materials. Some suggestions:
State and Revolution, Lenin
What is to be done?, Lenin
10 Days That Shook the World, John Reed
Class Struggles in the USSR, Charles Bettelheim
Let History Judge, Roy Medvedev
Critique of Soviet Political Economy, Mao Zedong
The selected writings of Clara Zetkin

I'm sure others could suggest more. These are a fairly diverse lot of writing from socialists. They are to the point. I particularly recommend the "Class Struggle in the USSR" books. They come in two available volumes from Monthly Review Press in New York City.