June 6-8, 2003 - Campus Anti-War Network (CAN) Spring Retreat - Blue Mountain Center, Blue Mountain Lake, NY

Twelve members of CAN's Coordinating Commitee and other committees came together for a weekend retreat, courtesy of the Blue Mountain Center (http://www.bluemountaincenter.org). The beautiful location in the Adirondacks provided the perfect setting for reflection, discussion and getting to know each other. Students came from the breadth of the country - from California, Texas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Washington, DC, Vermont, Massachusetts and New York State, representing all of CAN's regions. They worked long hours, with student-led educational workshops, working groups and dialogue on CAN's directions. At the end of a long Saturday that lasted until 1 AM, they built a camp fire and told very funny ghost storiesr. Then, amazingly, they were back at it, meeting from 2:30 AM to 4:30 AM before finally calling it a 'night.'

The Campus Anti-War Network (CAN), comprised of over 115 active college and high school student organizations, is a democratic, grassroots, 'student owned and operated' national network. Traprock has provided coverage of CAN's growth from its genesis as a national listserv on grassrootspeace.org/students102602.html" target="_blank">October 26, 2002, its national organizing conferences on grassrootspeace.org/CANjan1703.html">January 17, 2003 in DC ( we hosted their key note speaker, Jeremy Corbyn, British Labour MP and faciliated Helen Salmon coming as a student ambassador from the UK) and San Francisco, it first national conference in grassrootspeace.org/CANFeb2203/" target="_blank">Chicago on February 22-23, it's national student grassrootspeace.org/can05april03.html" target="_blank">Calls to Action of April 5, 2003 in Austin, San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago and DC, and its regional conferences and educational programs. See our main portal to grassrootspeace.org/studentactivism.html" target="_blank">student activism for more information on CAN's history, and VISIT its website at http://www.antiwarnetwork.org

Watch for details on CAN's national conference in late October/early November, 2003. This summer, CAN committees are busy working on literature, educational programs, events and website development. College and high school organizations that are interested in joining the Campus Anti-War Network should go to its website. Review its 'points of unity' and consider joining this dynamic and democratic network. Students run it and ensure that it is a bottom up, not a top down organization.

The photo album shows the discussion during a student-led workshop on the war at home, as well as some group shots. Hear the discussions! grassrootspeace.org/CAN07June03PartA32min.mp3" target="_blank">Part A (32 minutes) and grassrootspeace.org/CAN07June03PartB35min.mp3" target="_blank">Part B (35 minutes) are mp3 files.

Photographs © 2003 Charles Jenks; all rights reserved