HCC
\nLast night the CAN chapters from Holyoke Community College and Pioneer
\nValley Performing Arts organized a protest at the armed forces
\nrecruiting center in South Hadley Massachusetts. We were joined by
\nactivists from other area groups, including: Arise for Social Justice,
\nRaging Grannies, International Socialist Organization, Socialist
\nParty, Umass Anti-War Coalition, Umass Graduate Employee Organization.<\/p>\n
At roughly five minutes to five, we began to chant and picket in front
\nof the recruiting station. We were then told by police who were
\npresent that we could continue to picket as long as we allowed for
\npedestrians to pass. He also told us we could go into the actual
\nrecruiting office, which we proceeded to do. We were quickly forced
\nout by the recruiters present; they then locked the doors and bunkered
\ndown until we left at 7.<\/p>\n
We were shortly thereafter confronted by an angry veteran who
\ndenounced us for disloyalty. He was immediately confronted by one of
\nour members, who is the sole caretaker of her paralyzed Iraq veteran
\nbrother. When he realized that there are these types of people in the
\nanti-war movement, he became more sympathetic. He then spent the rest
\nof the protest on our picket line, speaking with our members.<\/p>\n
We then confronted the 2 members of the HCC college republicans who
\nshowed up. We chanted at them for about five minutes before the cops
\nforced us away from them.<\/p>\n
We chanted until a little after 6, when we turned the mike over to
\nspeakers for most of the remaning time. The afore mentioned member
\ndescribed, in a moving display of oratory, how seeing the damage
\nwrought on her brother fron the Iraq war got her involved in the
\nanti-war movement. We then challenged the College Republicans to come
\nto the microphone to peddle their lies; we debated with, and each of
\ntheir arguments received a chorus of boos.<\/p>\n
All in all, it was a successful protest. We shut down the recruiting
\ncenter, we were able to meet a number of activists, and we got contact
\ninformation for students at 3 area schools; we are hoping to work with
\nthem to build CAN chapters over the break and into the Spring.<\/p>\n
San Francisco<\/p>\n
As FAIR v. Rumsfeild was being heard in Washington D.C., anti-war students
\nacross the nation were gathering at counter recruitment actions. In San
\nFrancisco the diverse crowd of local high school and college students,
\nteachers,
\ncommunity activists and the raging grannies gathered at the Ferry Plaza to
\nlisten to Aimmee Alison, Todd Criechen, and C.A.N. representatives speak out
\nabout how important counter recruitment is to the anti-war movement.<\/p>\n
“2,000 dead for an unjust war, recruiters we won’t let you kill one more!” was
\none of many chants that was enthusiastically hollered as the group of about 50
\nthen marched to the nearest military recruitment center. Energy
\nremained high as
\nthe picketing of the military recruitment centered continued.<\/p>\n
People are outraged that the withholding of federal funds is used as retaliation
\nagainst schools and students who oppose military recruiters and instead demand
\nvalid career choices and real education opportunities.<\/p>\n
As people in San Francisco were rallying, marching and picketing they felt
\nreassured knowing that these actions were being held at cities all over the
\ncountry.<\/p>\n
As the national anti-war movement picks up we must continue to fight on many
\nfronts including counter recruitment actions, confronting government and
\nmilitary officials about the lies they use to justify the continued occupation
\nof Iraq, and supporting soldiers who speak out and resist their orders or
\nservice. United in Action like anti-war activists were on December 6th, we C.AN.
\nEnd the war!!!<\/p>\n
NO TO THE SOLOMON AMENDMENT!
\nCOLLEGE NOT COMBAT!
\nTROOPS OUT NOW!<\/p>\n
Columbia University — Columbia Anti-War Coalition<\/p>\n
What did you do (brief description of events)? On December 6th,
\nstudents from several different campuses (by our count…CU, NYU,
\nRutgers, BMCC, City College, Hunter, Pace, FIT…any others?) convened
\nat the Chambers Street recruiting station at noon. We then set up a
\ntable with literature, including our new newspaper, College Not
\nCombat, and had posters with anti-war slogans and information. Once
\nwe had a mass of people and a bull horn, we began our rally with
\nchants, forming two rows on either side of the sidewalk in front of
\nthe station. After chanting for awhile, about 2\/3 of us marched to
\nBorough of Manhattan Community College, just a few blocks from the
\nrecruiting station. We stood in front of BMCC chanting for awhile,
\nwithout too much interference from campus police. At BMCC, we were
\nable to attract a good deal of attention and support from onlookers.
\nWhile some of us were at BMCC, the rest of us stayed at the recruiting
\nstation with the table. We soon met with interference from the police
\nwho insisted that we would be arrested if we did not get rid of our
\ntable (this is despite the fact that we were not selling anything nor
\nwere we breaking any law). Unfortunately, we did end up getting rid
\nof the table. The rally then reconvened at the recruiting station
\nwhere the NYPD was waiting for us. We attempted to continue our
\nrally, but the cops first told us that we could only be on the far
\nedge of the sidewalk. In response, we were able to organize a moving
\npicket and continue our chants. We continued this for a bit, but our
\nanticipated speakers didn’t show up, so we marched back to BMCC where,
\ndespite people’s mixed feelings about encounters with the cops and the
\ndemonstration, we were able to hold down a high-energy, exciting rally
\nthat attracted students getting out of class. In front of BMCC, we
\nhad a student speak out during which several students spoke and during
\nwhich we called the administrators at University of Wisconsin–Madison
\nto demand that they drop ALL charges against the students currently
\nunder fire for a peaceful anti-recruitment rally. Same struggle, same
\nfight. After that, we chanted a bit more and had a small debate about
\nwhether to wrap up or not. We decided to wrap up after about a hour
\nand a half, although some stayed behind to hold up a sign in front of
\nthe recruiting station.<\/p>\n
At Columbia, we met up at 11AM in front of the school’s main gates to
\nhead downtown with anybody who wanted to join us.<\/p>\n
How many people were there? 5 people from Columbia came, and the total
\nseemed to be around 50 people.<\/p>\n
Did you meet folks from other schools\/groups? If so, who? At the
\ndemonstration, we met many students from BMCC and local high schools.<\/p>\n
What was the most exciting part of the event? Kristin thinks that the
\nmost exciting parts were the high level of energy early on in the
\ndemonstration, and calling the administrators at UW to demand that
\ncharges be dropped. Blair thinks the most exciting part was the
\nresponse of BMCC students coming out of class–students chanted with
\nus, got copies of College Not Combat, and asked how to get involved!<\/p>\n
What was the most frustrating\/ what could have gone better? The most
\nfrustrating thing about it was the cops and how we dealt with them.
\nIt didn’t feel like we had a plan of action for how high we wanted to
\nescalate things, how hard we wanted to fight the cops, or who would be
\nthe point person in dealing with the cops. Also, we had an unclear
\nrelationship with the man who came from the National Lawyers Guild.
\nAlso, Charles Barron, a City Council member and author of the recent
\nCollege Not Combat bill, didn’t show up, and that was a bummer. We
\nthink it sort of demoralized us and made us less sure of how to
\nrespond to police repression. The other most frustrating thing came
\nout of this, which is that it felt like there was a lack of
\norganization and lack of a plan. Also, the turnout was less than we
\nhad hoped. Although we publicized a lot on Columbia’s campus, we had
\nexpectations that we would get few if any people to come downtown with
\nus. Still, this event raised the profile of CAN on Columbia’s campus,
\nwhich is good.<\/p>\n
How can CAN nationally better assist local chapters in planning
\nevents? The things that went wrong were not things that the national
\ngroup could have helped much with. Here in NY\/NJ, we have a city-wide
\ncoordinating committee that we look to for things that may be
\ndelegated to national CAN otherwise. We haven’t yet been able to
\nassess the event as a district, although Kristin and Blair are very
\nmuch looking forward to being able to do this.<\/p>\n
What did you find helpful in planning for Dec 6? The city-wide
\ncoordinating committee was integral in this case, from stuff like
\ndeciding which chapters would be responsible for what to contacting
\nspeakers. Also, our network with each other (outside of
\nmeetings…using e-mail and phones) was important here in stuff from
\norganizing flyerings to throwing out ideas.<\/p>\n
Chicago:<\/p>\n
School\/Group Name:<\/p>\n
Our action was a combiation of several schools and groups. UIC No War,
\nCity College Antiwar, and NEIU antiwar.<\/p>\n
What did you do (brief description of events)?
\nWe met in the late afternoon near the Federal Courthouse in Chicago
\nand had several speakers. They included; Juan Torrres from Gold Star
\nFamilies for Peace, Eric Ahlberg who is a veteran from the Iraq and
\nAfghanistan wars, Erin Polley from AFSC and CCOMY (a Chicago
\ncounter-recruitment group), and Ray Parrish from VVAW. There were
\nplans to march to the database management firm BeNow, which is
\ncontracted by the Pentagon to collect information on students for
\nrecruiment purposes, but the single digit weather prevented that from
\ntaking place.<\/p>\n
How many people were there?
\nSixty people attended in total, which was respectable considering the weather.<\/p>\n
Did you meet folks from other schools\/groups? If so, who?<\/p>\n
Students who are part of antiwar groups at DePaul, Northwestern
\nUniversity and Columbia College attended and were interested in
\nworking together on future activities.<\/p>\n
What was the most exciting part of the event?<\/p>\n
Meeting new people who wanted to work together around future actions.<\/p>\n
What was the most frustrating\/ what could have gone better?<\/p>\n
We were hoping for a better turnout from some of the high schools that
\nwe had done outreach to.<\/p>\n
How can CAN nationally better assist local chapters in planning events?<\/p>\n
Nothing comes to mind immediately. We felt that we had quite a bit of
\nsupport with rescources and ideas from the national level.<\/p>\n
What did you find helpful in planning for Dec 6?
\nHaving a poster was very helpful. Forwarding emails from people who
\ncontacted the national group to us is also helpful. Hearing what other
\nschools were doing also gave us insight on how we planned the Chicago
\naction.<\/p>\n
Cornell University<\/p>\n
What did you do (brief description of events)?<\/p>\n
Students from three local schools (Cornell University, Ithaca
\nCollege, and Wells
\nCollege) and a number of Ithaca community members gathered in front of the local
\nrecruiting station, where we had speakers (including a Vietnam Vet and a
\nConscientious Objector formally stationed in Afghanistan) and led a
\nmarch through
\nthe outdoor shopping area.<\/p>\n
How many people were there?<\/p>\n
approximately 40<\/p>\n
Did you meet folks from other schools\/groups? If so, who?<\/p>\n
We had organized with students from Ithaca College and Wells College, there were
\nalso many members of the local community.<\/p>\n
What was the most exciting part of the event?<\/p>\n
Hearing a veteran who had been stationed in Afghanistan until he was
\nable to receive
\nCO status, and is now a vocally anti-war student at Cornell.<\/p>\n
What was the most frustrating\/ what could have gone better?
\nWe would have liked to have appealed to more students at Cornell (and
\nthus have more
\nnumbers). We also regretted not doing enough outreach to local schools and high
\nschools.<\/p>\n
How can CAN nationally better assist local chapters in planning
\nevents? What did
\nyou find helpful in planning for Dec 6?
\nThe sample posters were very useful, we used them as a template in
\nmaking our own
\nposters. Also, the sharing of action ideas was good.<\/p>\n
UNCG CAN (University of North Carolina @ Greensboro)<\/p>\n
What did you do (brief description of events)?<\/p>\n
Canvassed on campus with our ‘CNC’ petition for less than an hour but
\ngot a good amount of signatures for such as small amount of time.<\/p>\n
How many people were there?
\nOnly 2.<\/p>\n
Did you meet folks from other schools\/groups? If so, who?<\/p>\n
No.<\/p>\n
What was the most exciting part of the event?
\nMeeting a black male worker in our caf who signed our petition and
\ntold us he was a vet of the first Gulf war!<\/p>\n
What was the most frustrating\/ what could have gone better?<\/p>\n
Dec. 6th was our ‘reading day’, a prep day for exams so there was
\nlittle traffic on campus.<\/p>\n
How can CAN nationally better assist local chapters in planning
\nevents? What did you find helpful in planning for Dec 6?
\nThe most inspiring and useful things are reports from other campuses
\non tactics, strategy, the string of events, etc…<\/p>\n
University of Vermont Students Against War<\/p>\n
To preface the appraisal of our day, it must be said that there were a
\nnumber of obstacles to actually organizing our chapter’s the event; it
\nwas our first outward action of the year; students have just returned
\nfrom thanksgiving break; and the timing of the rally placed us in
\ncompetition with the college end-of-semester crunch. Yet despite all
\nof this we turned out between 20 and 25 active participants, with a
\ngreat number more lending passive support as they scuttled past en
\nroute to class. Plus we succeeded in mobilizing a number of campus
\nallies. To me the fact that we succeeded in surmounting these
\nimpediments at all demonstrates how large the opening for struggle
\nreally is. That anyone would even consider walking out of their class
\nright before exams is fairly impressive; and it is rendered
\nextraordinary in light of the fact that many of the particapants had
\nnot even heard of our anti-war group until 48 hours prior to the
\nscheduled time of the rally. If we had been unfettered by
\ncircumstances the action would undoubtedly have been larger.<\/p>\n
After rallying for a time, the group that remained with us marched
\ninto our main academic building, passing through each floor, before
\nheading down to our President’s office to deliver a statement
\nregarding the University’s hypocrisy in making exceptions to their
\nanti-discrimination policy for military recruiters. When this brief
\nstop was completed the group marched down to the Federal Building in
\nBurlington, where we concluded our day’s activities.<\/p>\n
Probably the most helpful element in planning for Dec. 6th was the
\nlaundry list of endorsements received for the national call to action.<\/p>\n
##<\/p>\n
This is an intial list of reports from several campuses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HCC Last night the CAN chapters from Holyoke Community College and Pioneer Valley Performing Arts organized a protest at the armed forces recruiting center in South Hadley Massachusetts. We were joined by activists from other area groups, including: Arise for Social Justice, Raging Grannies, International Socialist Organization, Socialist Party, Umass Anti-War Coalition, Umass Graduate Employee… Continue reading Initial Reports on Dec 6th actions<\/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-91","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\/91","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=91"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/campus_antiwar_network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/campus_antiwar_network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/campus_antiwar_network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/campus_antiwar_network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}