I first started doing left protest activism in 1985 in the SF Bay area, and have been to many many demonstrations and protests in my life, including the huge anti-war protest in DC that was part of the global opposition to the US war in Iraq before it began.

Every single time this group ANSWER shows up! And has always somehow managed to be on the steering committee and leadership?!?!

Invariably they push some far left position that seems almost explicitly intended to undermine the broad base of appeal of the protest. So for example, you are coming to protest the US war in Iraq and you are hearing ANSWER tell you about Cuban political prisoners falsely accused of terrorism.

I mean, ok sure, there are Cubans in the US imprisoned falsely accused of terrorism, haven't looked into it but seems plausible, etc. But pushing the protest to these more fringe kinds of demands? That definitely seems like infiltrator fed / FBI psyops 100%.

Now, all these years later, I am seeing the same ANSWER group show up in headline photos around the world with the Gaza protests???? (Someone pointed out that ANSWER was founded after 9/11.)

It's almost like the editors of these mainstream media are smearing broad popular protests as fringe and far left and they know to make sure and put some fringe banner in the photo, and ANSWER is always there to oblige.

Now let's be clear, I am an anti-imperialist. But you don't build a movement for a ceasefire by alienating people who are pro-ceasefire, people who might not be ready to send material aid to Hamas because Hamas' cause is just (setting aside whether their cause is just at the moment) but are really important to mobilize still. Taking such a far extreme position and putting it in the front and top seems explicitly calculated to discredit the protest, splinter unity around common positions, alienate broad popular appeal, look loony and fringe, discourage ordinary people from joining, give a photo-op to to mainstream who are trying to undermine protests... etc.

How the f does ANSWER manage to do this? I mean, they must have the historic record for longevity as a continuous operating coalition - most "coalitions" fall apart for whatever reason at some point. All these years?

So what is going on here - is anyone researching ANSWER and looking into who they actually are, how they are obviously run by the feds etc etc etc? Because I'm pretty sick of seeing them claw their way to the top of the peace movement every freaking time people go into the streets - it is a clear red flag for me that the movement is not appealing to broad masses of people, is soon to split and splinter and become neutralized and never really grow to truly reflect popular sentiment for peace, is infiltrated at the top by feds, etc.