"The meeting's objective was to strengthen the coalition's campaign to change Bush administration policies," said Bill Dobbs, media coordinator for the New York City based UFPJ.Ê"We want to get the U.S. people more involved in ending Bush's deceptive, illegal and disastrous policies."

Founded in October 2002, UFPJ sparked the two biggest U.S. protests against the Iraq War, in February and March 2003. During the last election, UFPJ demonstrated outside the Democratic Convention in Boston and the Republican Convention in New York City, a protest that attracted half a million people. Today, the organisation has close to a thousand local, regional and national peace groups under its umbrella, including Black Voices for Peace, the American Friends Service Committee, Military Families Speak Out, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and Veterans for Peace, among others.

"We are a part of a coalition that's broad-based but still a work in progress," said Michael McPhearson, Executive Director of the St. Louis based Veterans for Peace (VFP), which has 4,500 members. "We can only grow as long as Bush pursues his militaristic foreign agenda." The VFPJ held its first national assembly for peace and justice in June 2003 in Chicago. "We established our operational framework, elected our leadership and set our immediate priorities," Dobbs explained. " In our operating document, there is a line of text mandating that we hold a national assembly every 18 months."

The second national assembly in St. Louis, an intense working meeting held over two and half days, attracted some prominent personalities, including radical Angel Davis, Suheir Hammad of Def Poetry Jam, musician Tiye Giraud and actor Danny Glover. "Building a strong anti war movement in the world's one, unchecked superpower is central," Glover told the media. "That's why I'll be in St. Louis."

Glover, who achieved fame for his role in the "Lethal Weapon" series of movies, which also starred conservative Mel Gibson, joined the UFPJ protest outside the Republican National Convention last august, while supporting Dennis Kucinich's presidential campaign. In one voice over he did for a Kucinich commercial, Glover said: "If pre-emptive war continues to drive our foreign policy, if our volunteer troops are stretched thinner and thinner, you could be facing a compulsory draft. All young Americans deserve a world without end, not a war without end."

The speeches that military veterans and their families gave were a conference highlight, Dobbs noted. "They spoke in personal terms about the impact of the war on their lives and why they believe our troops should be bought back home now," he revealed.

During the weekend, the assembly held three plenary sessions with panelists addressing three major issues: the strategy needed to end the war in Iraq, the state of the U.S. movement and alliance building and "the state of the world-global movements building power." Throughout the two days, the delegates broke up into small groups to discuss, debate and decide upon a refined strategic framework for the UFPJ, as well as the various programmes, projects and organisational issues facing the anti-war coalition

About 60 proposals recommending strategies, campaigns and projects were brought forward for the Assembly to consider. According to an explanation on the UFPJ web site, "Some proposals were rejected because they fell outside the scope of the UFPJ's work (e.g. they advocated that we engage in direct electoral activity) or were utterly unfeasible (e.g. a proposal that we do on-the-ground organising in Iran."

During the first day, the assembly decided that the UFPJ's main objectivewould be to work for an end to the U.S. war in Iraq so that U.S. troops could be brought home. "We need to focus our work because we have only so many resources and can't go in a lot of different directions," said McPhearson, who was an assembly delegate. "That doesn't mean we don't have to work towards that goal to the exclusion of everything else taking place." As an example, McPhearson said the UFPJ would mobilise for action if there were any signs that the U.S. planned to bomb, invade or wage war against Iran, Syria, North Korea, or any other country.

On day two, the assembly agreed on the measures to further its goal of ending the Iraq War. "One of our major strategies will be to organise opposition in each state to the involvement of the National Guard in the Iraq War," McPhearson revealed. "By showing how the Iraq War is depleting our resources at home, we hope to put pressure on local officials and force them to take a stand against the war."

The UFPJ has organised some upcoming events that will help further its agenda. It is staging a big demonstration at Fort Bragg in North Carolina next March 19 and another demonstration in New York City in May, which will call for an end to both the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the global nuclear arms race. "This year marks the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but the horror and threat of nuclear war is fading from human consciousness," Dobbs said.

The anti-war coalition needs to be not only focused but patient as well, added Dobbs. "We will need to apply continuous pressure on the Bush administration if we hope to get it to pull our troops out of Iraq," he said. " We are mindful that the effort to end the Vietnam War went on for a very long time."

Ron Chepesiuk is a South Carolina-based journalist, a Visiting Professor at Chittagong University and a Research Associate with the National Defense College.