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Hidden with code "Submitted as Feature"Hidden with code "Submitted as Feature" |
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News :: Organizing |
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Youth and students across state demanding: Military recruiters out of our schools! |
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by Bryan G. Pfeifer
Email: bgp (nospam) iacboston.org (unverified!) |
01 Oct 2005
Modified: 11:21:08 PM |
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From the Berkshires to Worcester to Boston, many students at the states’ 120 private and public colleges and universities and numerous high schools are engaging in on-going anti-war and/or counter-recruitment actions or bringing new ones to life. |
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Youth and students across state demanding:
Military recruiters out of our schools!
By Bryan G. Pfeifer
An increasing number of youth and students across Massachusetts are engaging in an array of creative protest actions demanding that military recruiters get out of their schools now.
From the Berkshires to Worcester to Boston, many students at the states’ 120 private and public colleges and universities and numerous high schools are engaging in on-going anti-war and/or counter-recruitment actions or bringing new ones to life.
This battle took a step forward the week of September 25 as students at two separate campuses squared off against campus cops, school administrations and the Pentagon.
And a Boston street rally Oct. 1, organized largely by high school students, clearly demonstrated that the need for taking the counter-recruiting message to the streets and engaging in other direct action is urgent.
At least 29 soldiers from Massachusetts have died in Iraq, possibly thousands more have severe injuries such as loss of limbs and/or suffer from depleted uranium poising as well as post traumatic stress disorder which usually afflicts a former soldier for life.
Campus cops attack and mace students
On Sept. 29 in the lobby of the Holyoke Community College (HCC) cafeteria, over 30 multinational and LGBT students protested on-campus recruiting by the Army National Guard. Another focus was the Pentagon’s bigoted “don’t ask, don’t tell,” policy which essentially bars LGBT persons from enlisting. The students insist this policy is a violation of the college’s and the state’s non-discrimination laws.
According to protest sponsors, the Holyoke Community College Anti-War Coalition, during the action, a campus cop ripped a placard away from a student protester. As the student attempted to retrieve his sign he was assaulted by four officers who grabbed his limbs and hoisted him off the ground one making a homophobic comment as he did so. When other students attempted to intervene on behalf of their friend, one was maced.
As the police assault was taking place, members of the College Republicans cheered on the brutality. One of the campus cops involved is an advisor to the HCC College Republican club. At least 20 local and state police in riot gear and gas masks arrived with boxes labeled “gas masks.” One student claimed a group of state police pointed guns at him.
After menacing the students, the police dispersed them. No arrests were made, but the coalition is worried that the administration will take punitive action against the protesting students, many of whom are from Holyoke, the poorest city in the state with an over 50 percent Latin@ population according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Holyoke also has a significant Black population.
The Holyoke students are demanding an immediate, unconditional public apology from the college; a pledge of non-retaliation against the activists involved; a thorough and impartial investigation into these incidents; and that military recruiters are banned from campus.
Students are asking supporters to contact HCC President William Messner at (413) 552-2222 to express support for these demands.
Recruiters return to Harvard
For the first time in over 30 years, military recruiters returned to Harvard setting up at an undergraduate career fair September 30. The Army, Marines, CIA, the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency were present.
The recruiters, originally tossed from campus as a result of Vietnam War-era campus rebellions, have also been kept off campus because the Pentagon refused to sign Harvard’s non-discrimination pledge specifically in relation to the bigoted “don’t ask, don’t tell,” policy.
Although the school claims it bowed to pressure due to the Pentagon’s threat to cut $400 million in federal funds, the same day the recruiters returned the university announced its’ endowment is now $25.9 billion (www.thecrimson.com).
Furthermore, Lawrence Summers, Harvard president and a supporter of biological determinism, has been waging a years-long campaign for the recruiters’ return.
In response, the Harvard Initiative for Peace and Justice (HIPJ) held an anti-war and counter-recruitment rally despite not having a permit and the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Supporters Alliance (BGLTSA) distributed dozens of leaflets protesting the Pentagon’s bigoted policies (http://hcs.harvard.edu/~queer/).
Taking it to the streets
Hoisting the banners “We won’t fight,” and “No empire,” over 50 Radical Youth Alliance members and their allies protested the “Armed Forces Career Center” near the Boston Common Oct. 1. Alliance members are mostly high school youth and students from many schools in the Greater Boston area.
“We’re particularly targeted by recruiters. We’re the ones they want to be cannon fodder,” said a student from the Cambridge School of Weston.
Some other high schools represented were the Art Institute of Boston, Buckingham Browne & Nichols, Cambridge Rindge & Latin and Somerville. Members of the Communication Workers union, Direct Action Network, the International Action Center, International Socialist Organization, Service Employees union, SHARC (Statewide Harm Reduction Coalition), Stonewall Warriors, Troops Out Now and Workers World Party also participated.
Chanting “Fight for schools, not for oil,” many participants held aloft various placards including “Feed the cities, not the Pentagon,” “No draft, no way,” “No imperialism,” “Stop the war on youth: From here to Iraq,” and “U.S. Out of the Middle East.”
“They’re professional liars. They’ll say anything to send people off to war,” said Nick Giannone of the October 29th Coalition, a union boilermaker from Quincy, and an alliance ally.
For almost three hours the peaceful participants, menaced by over 10 cops guarding the front of the recruiting center and more in four nearby police cruisers, handed out to passerby counter-recruitment information, October 29 (www.oct29.org) and Dec. 1-3 “National Strike Against Poverty, Racism and War,” (www.troopsoutnow.org) leaflets.
The Weston student declared the Oct. 1 action was the first of many to “directly antagonize the war machine.” He said that as the war chews up money for people’s needs and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, “people in general are fed up" especially youth, students, the poor and people of color.”
But taking inspiration from the 300,000 plus anti-war rally in Washington D.C. just days before on Sept. 24, he said the alliance is working with a broad cross-section of progressive organizations to build “a constant campaign of counter-recruitment.”
He concluded, “We have power, we have a voice and we can make an impact.”
-- 30 --
Union labor donated |
See also:
http://www.troopsoutnow.org
http://www..nodraftnoway.org
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This work is in the public domain |
