Why Is There No Anti-War Movement?
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Activism
/ March 16, 2026
Why Is There No Anti-War Movement?
Exploring what might help us move to start building one.
Eric Blanc
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Anti-war demonstrators gathered outside the White House in Washington, DC, to protest the US and Israeli bombardment of Iran on February 28, 2026.(Celal Gunes / Anadolu via Getty Images)
Donald Trump’s war on Iran is very unpopular. As pollster G. Elliot Morris notes, it is the most unpopular a US war has ever been when it started. And “with just 38 percent of Americans in favor, support for bombing Iran is lower than retrospective support for the war in Iraq was in 2014.”
Why then has there been so little collective protest against the US-Israel offensive? Answering this question is not easy. What follows are seven hypotheses rather than definitive conclusions. But exploring why we’re lacking an anti-war movement today can help us move to actually start building one. And for the sake of Iranians, the Middle East, and working people in the United States, we’d better do so as soon as possible.
Americans Feel Powerless
A key reason so many young people in the 1960s threw themselves into the fight against US military involvement in Vietnam was that the civil rights movement had recently demonstrated the power of mass action. As Students for a Democratic Society’s founding manifesto in 1962 put it, “the Southern struggle against racial bigotry…compelled most of us from silence to activism.” Looking back, one participant recalled that such examples of success “gave the feeling that you could actually make a difference, that you needed to take a stand.”
Now the biggest obstacle we face in our country is a pervasive sense of powerlessness. To overcome this feeling of resignation, we need more inspiring examples of successful struggles. Minnesota’s successful mass resistance against ICE, for example, has begun to energize activism nationwide. The challenge now is to find and scale up winnable bottom-up campaigns, like getting our schools to break with ICE or getting millions of consumers to leave companies like OpenAI that are enabling Trump’s war machine. Proving in practice that we have power in smaller battles can inspire millions to join the fight against this administration’s worst horrors at home and abroad.
People Are Hoping the War Ends Quickly
Current Issue
April 2026 Issue
Like so many others, I wake up every morning hoping to see a headline suggesting that the always-mercurial Trump has decided to call a quick victory in Iran, like he did in Venezuela. At least, in that case, further atrocities against civilians would be halted.
Given the administration’s lack of …
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Current Issue
Activism
/ March 16, 2026
Why Is There No Anti-War Movement?
Exploring what might help us move to start building one.
Eric Blanc
Share
Copy Link
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Ad Policy
Anti-war demonstrators gathered outside the White House in Washington, DC, to protest the US and Israeli bombardment of Iran on February 28, 2026.(Celal Gunes / Anadolu via Getty Images)
Donald Trump’s war on Iran is very unpopular. As pollster G. Elliot Morris notes, it is the most unpopular a US war has ever been when it started. And “with just 38 percent of Americans in favor, support for bombing Iran is lower than retrospective support for the war in Iraq was in 2014.”
Why then has there been so little collective protest against the US-Israel offensive? Answering this question is not easy. What follows are seven hypotheses rather than definitive conclusions. But exploring why we’re lacking an anti-war movement today can help us move to actually start building one. And for the sake of Iranians, the Middle East, and working people in the United States, we’d better do so as soon as possible.
Americans Feel Powerless
A key reason so many young people in the 1960s threw themselves into the fight against US military involvement in Vietnam was that the civil rights movement had recently demonstrated the power of mass action. As Students for a Democratic Society’s founding manifesto in 1962 put it, “the Southern struggle against racial bigotry…compelled most of us from silence to activism.” Looking back, one participant recalled that such examples of success “gave the feeling that you could actually make a difference, that you needed to take a stand.”
Now the biggest obstacle we face in our country is a pervasive sense of powerlessness. To overcome this feeling of resignation, we need more inspiring examples of successful struggles. Minnesota’s successful mass resistance against ICE, for example, has begun to energize activism nationwide. The challenge now is to find and scale up winnable bottom-up campaigns, like getting our schools to break with ICE or getting millions of consumers to leave companies like OpenAI that are enabling Trump’s war machine. Proving in practice that we have power in smaller battles can inspire millions to join the fight against this administration’s worst horrors at home and abroad.
People Are Hoping the War Ends Quickly
Current Issue
April 2026 Issue
Like so many others, I wake up every morning hoping to see a headline suggesting that the always-mercurial Trump has decided to call a quick victory in Iran, like he did in Venezuela. At least, in that case, further atrocities against civilians would be halted.
Given the administration’s lack of …
Why Is There No Anti-War Movement?
What would you do if you ran things?
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Current Issue
Activism
/ March 16, 2026
Why Is There No Anti-War Movement?
Exploring what might help us move to start building one.
Eric Blanc
Share
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Email
Ad Policy
Anti-war demonstrators gathered outside the White House in Washington, DC, to protest the US and Israeli bombardment of Iran on February 28, 2026.(Celal Gunes / Anadolu via Getty Images)
Donald Trump’s war on Iran is very unpopular. As pollster G. Elliot Morris notes, it is the most unpopular a US war has ever been when it started. And “with just 38 percent of Americans in favor, support for bombing Iran is lower than retrospective support for the war in Iraq was in 2014.”
Why then has there been so little collective protest against the US-Israel offensive? Answering this question is not easy. What follows are seven hypotheses rather than definitive conclusions. But exploring why we’re lacking an anti-war movement today can help us move to actually start building one. And for the sake of Iranians, the Middle East, and working people in the United States, we’d better do so as soon as possible.
Americans Feel Powerless
A key reason so many young people in the 1960s threw themselves into the fight against US military involvement in Vietnam was that the civil rights movement had recently demonstrated the power of mass action. As Students for a Democratic Society’s founding manifesto in 1962 put it, “the Southern struggle against racial bigotry…compelled most of us from silence to activism.” Looking back, one participant recalled that such examples of success “gave the feeling that you could actually make a difference, that you needed to take a stand.”
Now the biggest obstacle we face in our country is a pervasive sense of powerlessness. To overcome this feeling of resignation, we need more inspiring examples of successful struggles. Minnesota’s successful mass resistance against ICE, for example, has begun to energize activism nationwide. The challenge now is to find and scale up winnable bottom-up campaigns, like getting our schools to break with ICE or getting millions of consumers to leave companies like OpenAI that are enabling Trump’s war machine. Proving in practice that we have power in smaller battles can inspire millions to join the fight against this administration’s worst horrors at home and abroad.
People Are Hoping the War Ends Quickly
Current Issue
April 2026 Issue
Like so many others, I wake up every morning hoping to see a headline suggesting that the always-mercurial Trump has decided to call a quick victory in Iran, like he did in Venezuela. At least, in that case, further atrocities against civilians would be halted.
Given the administration’s lack of …
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