{"id":30,"date":"2006-05-04T11:56:26","date_gmt":"2006-05-04T15:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.traprockpeace.org\/campus_antiwar_network\/index.php\/2006\/05\/04\/from-protest-to-resistance-cans-east-coast-conference-report\/"},"modified":"2006-05-04T11:56:26","modified_gmt":"2006-05-04T15:56:26","slug":"from-protest-to-resistance-cans-east-coast-conference-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/campus_antiwar_network\/blog\/2006\/05\/04\/from-protest-to-resistance-cans-east-coast-conference-report\/","title":{"rendered":"From Protest to Resistance: CAN’s East Coast Conference Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Traprock Homepage<\/a>
\nCampus Antiwar Network<\/a><\/p>\n

Report from CAN’s
\nEAST COAST STUDENT ANTIWAR CONFERENCE
\nHeld in New York City, April 29-30<\/p>\n

by Steve Jackson (UMD), Heather Squire (Brooklyn College), and
\nElizabeth Wrigley-Field (NYU), with help from Wes Hannah (Cornell)<\/p>\n

See photos and video coming soon at
\n http:\/\/www.campusantiwar.net\/<\/p>\n

The theme of the conference was FROM PROTEST TO RESISTANCE: REAL
\nSTRATEGIES TO END THE WAR IN IRAQ, and indeed one of the main
\nschievements of the conference was to begin to answer what kind of
\nresistance and strategy will be needed to end the war – and how the
\norganizing CAN chapters are doing today is a contribution to that.
\nStudents who came to the conference left with a greater sense of
\nrelevance, inspiration and clarity to continue organizing over the
\nsummer and come back to our campuses with a bang this fall.<\/p>\n

== Demonstrating against the war ==<\/p>\n

The conference kicked off with a massive CAN contingent for College
\nNot Combat, Troops Out Now in the April 29 protest march. Hundreds of
\nstudents from all over the Northeast joined in an unbelievably lively,
\nenergetic, chanting and dancing contingent. Because of the massive
\nsize of the overall march (UFPJ estimates 300,000), we were stuck for
\nan hour and a half in one spot waiting to begin the march, yet the
\nenergy never waned.<\/p>\n

The most popular chant of the day seemed to be our new chant, “1-We
\nare the students, 2-We hate recruitment, 3-We will not join the mil-i-
\ntar-y!” (To wrap up our conference on Sunday we did it with the
\nvariation “2-This is our movement.”) Other popular chants included
\nsome continuing favorites about troops out now, and “Make levees not
\nwar! What the hell are we fighting for?”, contributed by a wonderful
\ngroup of high school students who joined us.<\/p>\n

Throughout the march, we were enthusiastically recognized by
\npassersby, who seemed genuinely thrilled to see such a large, lively
\nstudent contingent. This was echoed by the excitement of CAN members,
\nmany of whom remarked that “It’s like our September 24 contingent all
\nover again.” [See report from that contingent on CAN’s website:
\nhttp:\/\/www.campusantiwar.net ]<\/p>\n

== Our Generation Says No! CAN and IVAW plenary ==<\/p>\n

On Saturday evening, the conference presented a panel to an audience
\nof 85 activists (about 75 of whom were students) at the Borough of
\nManhattan Community College, featuring 5 students with unique
\nexperiences resisting the war in Iraq. The students included: Anuradha
\nBhagwati, of Harvard University, Benjamin Eagle-Staton, of the Borough
\nof Manhattan Community College, Tariq Khan, of George Mason
\nUniversity, Jose Vasquez, of CUNY graduate center, and Elizabeth
\nWrigley-Field, of NYU, all of whose contributions to the conference
\nwere educational and inspiring. Each panel participant brought a
\ndifferent perspective on the war in Iraq, as well as intriguing
\ninsight into U.S. foreign and domestic policy.<\/p>\n

Noteworthy was the presence of the Iraq Veterans Against War
\ncontingent, who co-sponsored the plenary and brought considerable
\nenergy and enthusiasm to the discussion. Jose Vasquez and Anuradha
\nBhagwati, their representatives on the panel, brought many issues to
\nlight critical to understanding the present social uproar seen in
\ncities nationwide and the growing anti-war sentiment within the
\nmilitary.<\/p>\n

For instance, Anuradha Bhagwati spoke about the pressures within the
\nmilitary that restrict dissenting voices, they include peer pressure
\nand the internal guilt of “abandoning” your fellow troops. Jose
\nVasquez described seeing pictures of the torture at Abu Ghraib, and
\nhis realization that he identified more with the tortured prisoners
\nthan the soldiers. Thus, he vowed he would never be deployed there,
\nwhich has led to his seeking CO (Conscientious Objector) status while
\nhis unit deploys there, and his work to form a grassroots chapter of
\nIVAW in NYC. Their sentiment was crucial and inspiring to hear because
\nso often we as students and activists lose morale due to varying
\nforces. However, their presence buoyed our spirits and re-emphasized
\nthat our actions are not in vain. Together as students and soldiers we
\ncan do more than any of us can do alone.<\/p>\n

Another moving speaker was Tariq Kahn, an experienced anti-war
\nactivist, who described his past activist efforts and subsequent
\nabuse. In September, after peacefully protesting military recruiters
\non his campus he was attacked and arrested. However, with the support
\nof his fellow students and activists nationwide, the charges were
\ndropped. His example is further evidence that we are not alone. We are
\na part of a social movement that spreads nationwide and together we
\ncan stop this unjust war.<\/p>\n

Benjamin Eagle-Staton spoke about racism and colonialism, linking the
\ndehumanization of Muslims and the violence against Iraqis to racism
\nand police brutality against African-Americans and others in the
\nUnited States. Elizabeth Wrigley-Field argued that what students do on
\nour campuses and in communities can affect whether soldiers buy into
\nthe government’s racist explanations for their suffering, or turn
\nagainst the war itself; and that our activism can raise the confidence
\nof soldiers, as well as Arabs and Muslims, to actively oppose the war
\ndespite the pressures on all of them to stay silent.<\/p>\n

Evident from the cohesion of the groups (students, activists, Muslims,
\nsoldiers) was an underlying emphasis on the potential contributions we
\nall can make to the withdrawal from the Iraq war. Just as those who
\nparticipated in the 1960\u2019s civil rights movement, we too are making
\nour voices heard regardless of how it may seem. Together we can make a
\ndifference and we are making a difference. Evidence of the theme of
\nsolidarity could be seen in the cohesiveness of the panel despite
\ntheir different ideologies. People of varying backgrounds came
\ntogether to discuss, encourage, inspire, and stand united against the
\nwar.<\/p>\n

== Organizing the student antiwar movement ==<\/p>\n

If Saturday’s amazing contingent and plenary helped show that building
\na grassroots movement — in our schools and in the military — is
\npossible, Sunday’s workshops reminded us why it is necessary. The
\nthree workshops — Is there a civil war in Iraq?, Will there be war
\nwith Iran?, and Reflecting on our movement for free speech — made it
\nclear that if we do not organize ourselves to stop it, we can expect
\nour government to bring ever greater brutality and violence to Iraq,
\nto spread this violence across the Middle East and around the world,
\nand to suppress any attempt to stop them, even if it means blatant
\nviolations of our rights.<\/p>\n

The civil war workshop raised many important questions about how
\nwidespread the ethnic sectarianism in Iraq is, why sectarian violence
\nhas increased over the course of the occupation, how the US occupation
\nrelates to earlier periods in Iraqi history, the attitude the US
\nantiwar movement should take toward Iraqi politics, and what role our
\nmovement can play in creating a better life for Iraqis.<\/p>\n

The workshop on Iran discussed why the U.S. has its sights on Iran,
\nthe likelihood of different forms of military attack, and what our
\nmovement can do to prevent this tragedy from taking place. This
\nproduced much discussion among the whole conference later in the day
\nabout the place of Iran in CAN’s organizing.<\/p>\n

Finally, the free speech workshop brought together CAN’s history of
\ndefending students from repression with a necessary discussion about
\nhow to continue this work in the future. Kicked off by students who
\nthemselves faced repression this year, the discussion centered on
\nlearning from what worked in defending them — and beginning to plan
\nhow we can go on the offensive and defend our rights pro-actively, as
\nwell as continuing to react as new instances of repression come up.
\nThis also furthered our commitment to restarting the national free
\nspeech working group, in addition to starting a new working group to
\nresearch our universities’ connections to the war.<\/p>\n

After the workshops and conference-wide discussions on the U.S. plan
\nfor the Middle East and the organizing we’re doing on campuses, we
\ntook up proposals to vote on. We passed three proposals with
\noverwhelming support. The first was to call for emergency student walk-
\nouts in the case of an attack on Iran. This item had already been
\npassed by both the West and Mid-West conferences so now it has
\nnational CAN endorsement. We discussed the possibility of a slow
\nescalation or summer attack in Iran, in which case a walk-out might
\nnot be as effective or viable. In light of this, the need for
\nalternate forms of action regarding Iran will need to be discussed in
\nthe near future. The second item we passed, also endorsed by the
\nWestern and Mid-Western conferences, was to support the May 1
\nimmigration protests and boycott. The need to make the connections
\nbetween xenophobia and war, and immigrant oppression and military
\nrecruitment, was also emphasized within this item. The third proposal
\nwe passed was an endorsement of Camp Casey in August, which would
\ninclude our commitment to sending CAN members there this summer. A CAN
\nmember from Texas, who raised this proposal, is helping to organize
\nstudent participation in Camp Casey.<\/p>\n

Students from about 20 schools as far away as Texas participated in
\nthe organizational and discussion components of the conference, with
\nmany more marching with CAN but unable to stay due to prior travel
\narrangements. Many dozens of students from around the Northeast signed
\nup to get involved with CAN — some already organized into peace and
\njustice groups at their schools, others hoping for help in getting
\nsomething started. Coming out of a year where CAN has experienced real
\ngrowth, with new chapters and many new activists leading our
\norganization, this conference showed us that our active core can
\ncontinue to grow — and that the organizing we’re doing on every
\nschool today, whether big or small, is contributing to the growth of
\nthe grassroots movement that will ultimately be what stops the war.<\/p>\n

Steve, Heather, Elizabeth and Wes are members of CAN’s national
\ncoordinating committeee. Steve and Heather are the two newest members,
\nvoted on at the East Coast CAN conference.<\/p>\n

Campus Antiwar Network
\nhttp:\/\/www.campusantiwar.net\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Traprock Homepage Campus Antiwar Network Report from CAN’s EAST COAST STUDENT ANTIWAR CONFERENCE Held in New York City, April 29-30 by Steve Jackson (UMD), Heather Squire (Brooklyn College), and Elizabeth Wrigley-Field (NYU), with help from Wes Hannah (Cornell) See photos and video coming soon at http:\/\/www.campusantiwar.net\/ The theme of the conference was FROM PROTEST TO… Continue reading From Protest to Resistance: CAN’s East Coast Conference Report<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/campus_antiwar_network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/campus_antiwar_network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/campus_antiwar_network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/campus_antiwar_network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/campus_antiwar_network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/campus_antiwar_network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/campus_antiwar_network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/campus_antiwar_network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/campus_antiwar_network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}