Big Win on Iran: Progressives Give Peace a Chance

“What we have seen over the last few months is a muscular and resurgent progressive movement, with the grassroots strength to prevent a rush to war. We appreciate the leadership shown by President Obama and many members of Congress on this issue, and we’re glad to see that AIPAC has stepped back from the ledge of partisan warmongering and is giving diplomacy a chance. MoveOn members will continue to organize to ensure that hawks both inside and outside of Congress cannot force our nation into an unnecessary and costly war, and that diplomacy is given space to succeed. Our nation learned a painful lesson in Iraq. We must avoid another unnecessary war.”

— Anna Galland, executive director, MoveOn.org Civic Action

Since November, MoveOn has been mobilizing its millions of members to avoid an unnecessary war with Iran and support diplomatic efforts to address the status of Iran’s nuclear program–a potential first step in de-escalating a decades-long standoff between the United States and Iran.

The organizing has made an impact. The National Journal recently quoted two Democratic Senate aides saying that the impressive volume of calls and activism from constituents supporting diplomacy were instrumental in the decision to shelve new sanctions.

Here’s some of the work MoveOn members have done since the interim deal with Iran was announced:

· Starting in late November, after the interim deal with Iran was announced and reports surfaced that Congressman Cantor was trying to work with Congressman Hoyer on a sanctions bill, nearly 150,000 MoveOn members signed a petition calling on Democrats not to join with Republicans and torpedo negotiations. MoveOn members also made thousands of phone calls to the House and Senate prior to the holiday recess.

· In January, when the Senate returned and new sanctions were on the table, MoveOn worked with progressive allies like Berim.org to generate more than 10,000 phone calls to Congress from MoveOn members demanding diplomacy, not new sanctions that could lead to a rush to war with Iran.

· In early February, MoveOn, again working with Berim.org and progressive partners, flew MoveOn members from across the country to Washington for meetings with their representatives on Capitol Hill as Sen. Menendez held a Foreign Relations Committee hearing on sanctions legislation.

· On Tuesday, Sen. Chris Murphy partnered with MoveOn.org to continue to mobilize grassroots support for diplomacy by authoring a MoveOn Petition stating that the “Senate should give negotiations the opportunity to succeed before voting on any additional sanctions or other efforts that would undermine diplomacy.” More than 63,000 MoveOn members have already signed.