By Camille T. Taiara

Bay Area antiwar activists were ready to come out swinging after a presidential election between two hawkish candidates. About 3,000 took to the streets of San Francisco Nov. 3 for a march organized by Not in Our Name.

"No matter who won, we were still going to be up against some of the same problems," NION organizer Max Diorio told the Bay Guardian.

But progressives weren't quite ready for the mass turnout of Middle Americans in support of President George W. Bush. Antiwar activists are still grappling with the reality that Bush – despite lying his way into an occupation of Iraq that isn't going well by any measure – enjoys a good deal of popular support in this country.

"In a lot of ways, Bush won on a racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, imperialist platform," longtime community and labor organizer Cindy Wiesner, who now works as a trainer for anti-child sex abuse program Generation Five, told us. "People voted for that. In 2000 he stole the election. In 2004 he's been legitimized. We have to understand that's the terrain in which we're operating."

Now activists are trying to decide what's next. Although a collective appraisal of the significance of Nov. 2 is still in the works, the various Bay Area activists we spoke to in the days following the election agreed that now, at least, the lines have been clearly drawn.

While it may have been possible to at least have a dialogue with John Kerry, Bush has consistently disenfranchised, even criminalized, the left. Some activists hope those who traveled to swing states to stump for Kerry or help monitor the voting process will remain involved. But they also understand the need to return to the kind of long-term, community-based, grassroots organizing that can lay the groundwork for a fundamental shift in the nation's worldview.

What we need, they all agree, is to build a "culture of resistance."

"A lot of Bush's base voted against their own interests," said Sasha Wright, an activist with Global Intifada and Direct Action to Stop the War, alluding to the evangelical Christian right in particular. "Why? Because their church told them to. What are they providing those people that the left hasn't?"

She said the movement needs to speak to people on their terms. "The church provides community, gives people meaning. What we really need to look at is how can our movement provide the kinds of spaces [and analytical tools] that people can plug into."

For veteran community organizer José Carrasco, the answer is simple: address people's everyday needs and struggles in a way that connects them to the broader political context.

Carrasco was one of the main organizers behind Roots Against War, a coalition of mostly young people of color that emerged in opposition to the first Gulf War in 1991. Later groups such as Freedom Uprising and Siafu have followed in RAW's footsteps.

Carrasco, who founded the performing arts program Loco Bloco in 1994, said youths need to be taught about historic struggles against oppression and war. Many of the same students he began working with 10 years ago, when they were just 10 or 12 years old, could be seen playing drums on the back of an open-air truck during the Nov. 3 march, leading the people down Market Street and into the Mission District. Some of their parents were there too.

"The left needs to deepen its relationships with the oppressed in this country," Carrasco told us. But he also sees reasons for hope.

Progressives are much more savvy and well prepared today than they were four or five years ago. Locally, several organizations – including some relatively new ones, like Siafu and DASW – have already begun laying the foundation for a more profound, populist movement for social change. They've learned from past mistakes. Many have broken away from single-issue politics and replaced them with a deeper analysis of neocolonialism and class struggle. They've been building deeper relationships in their communities and broader alliances among groups. They're more organized and media savvy, can provide ad hoc trainings, and can mobilize more swiftly and effectively than before.

So while the traditional antiwar constituencies can still be called on to demonstrate against the occupation of Iraq (including a major nationwide mobilization planned for Inauguration Day) and whatever war Bush launches next, the seeds are now being sowed to provide a breadth and depth to the movement that could force fundamental progressive changes in the future.

And that's a good thing. Because if one thing is clearer than ever, it's that we've got one long, hard struggle ahead.

E-mail Camille T. Taiara