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| U.S. Students Protest Against Iraq War |
| A 'teach-in' was held at Columbia University in New York on Feb. 15 |
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Jay Hauben (jhauben)  |
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Published 2007-02-21 15:13 (KST) |
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Four years ago on Feb. 15, 2003 the largest coordinated antiwar
demonstration in human history saw 10 million to 20 million people in
about 800 cities around the world opposing the plans of the United
States government to go to war against Iraq.(1)
Four years later to the day, on Feb. 15, 2007 a coalition of students
at Columbia University in New York City sponsored a day of student
protest against the continuing war and occupation in Iraq. A similar
day of protest was organized by other student coalitions at a reported
26 other schools and universities across the U.S. (2)
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FROM THE SECTION |
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Columbia Coalition Against the War (CCAW) was formed just after the
January 27, 2007 anti-war pro-impeachment demonstrations in Washington,
D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities. As its first act,
CCAW made a call for "the people of this country -- especially our
generation -- to shoulder the responsibility of bringing an immediate
end to this war." (3) The day of protest that the CCAW planned included
a student strike, a rally, a march and a teach-in. All took place
successfully without violence or confrontation.(4)
A previous teach-in at Columbia in 2003 was organized by faculty
members. The February 15, 2007 teach-in was the first concerning the
Iraq war called by students. The two hour event featured nine speakers.
The first two speakers were from the organization, Iraq Veterans
Against the War (IVAW).(5) Former Sergeant Mark LaChance outlined
IVAW's three main demands: 1) immediate withdrawal of all occupying
forces in Iraq, 2) full benefits, adequate healthcare (including mental
health), and other supports for returning servicemen and women, and 3)
reparations to Iraqi victims for the destruction and corporate
pillaging of Iraq.
LaChance had spoken at many schools but, he said, the 150 students here
was his largest audience yet. He was optimistic that the military and
civilian anti-war movements could form a strong alliance. He introduced
Jose Vasquez of the NYC chapter of IVAW.
Vasquez recounted that he has been a career U.S. Army reservist for 15
years but is now seeking conscientious objector status. His reason he
said was his belief that the war in Iraq is amoral and he could not
kill in it. Vasquez praised Lt. Ehren Watada, an American of Japanese
ancestry, from Hawaii who is the first commissioned officer to refuse
orders to deploy to Iraq. Lt. Watada has defended his action based on
the principles established by the Nuremberg war crimes trial that a
soldier is obliged to disobey illegal or immoral orders. Lt. Watada's
trial recently ended in a mistrial. Vasquez observed that U.S. soldiers
in Iraq patrol among people whose language they do not understand. In
tense situations, without a means of communication, the soldiers often
use their weapons. He said the IVAW calls for support of Iraq war
resisters.
The next speaker was Fahd Ahmed from DRUM (Desis Rising Up and
Moving)(6) which organizes in South Asian communities. Desi is a term
referring to a person of South Asian origin. Ahmed described a war that
is complementary to the war in Iraq. That is the war the U.S.
government is waging especially in Arab, Muslim, and South Asian
communities in the U.S. This war at home Ahmed said is to suppress
dissent in these communities while creating hysteria toward them in
other communities.
Ahmed told horror stories of roundups and the holding of people without
rights and of police informers rewarded for provoking people so they
can then be arrested as terrorists. He gave as an example, Matin Siraj,
who was recently sentenced to 30 years in prison. Matin Siraj, was
convicted, Ahmed said, on charges that arose out of such an entrapment
situation and, he said, Siraj's family is still being harassed and
targeted by the U.S. government. He hoped the student anti-war movement
would include opposition to this war at home.
Columbia University history professor Richard Bulliet, who specializes
in the study of the Middle East, was the next speaker. Professor
Bulliet predicted that soon there would be a military coup by Iraqi
generals friendly to the U.S. in order to set up a military
dictatorship that the U.S. government can call stable, so as to move
its attention to a war against Iran. According to Professor Bulliet,
the current surge is to put in place U.S. troops to back the coup. He
warned: "'Bring the troops home,' that's a good slogan. 'Send the
troops somewhere else,' that's not a good slogan." He feared that the
U.S. was manipulating ethnic rivalries with the objective of starting a
war against Iran and that such a war would be "obscene" and precipitate
a tragedy even greater than the one it created in Iraq.
Next to speak was Michael Letwin representing New York City Labor
Against the War. Letwin said as one who was, 40 years ago, a student
activist against the war in Viet Nam, he welcomed the renewed student
involvement the current protests signaled.
Letwin analyzed the Iraq war as imperialist, seeking U.S. dominance of
the Middle East. He warned that the war was bi-partisan, with the
"Democratic Party in it every step of the way." He said the American
and Iraqi people have nothing to gain from the war. Civil wars, he
asserted, are promoted by the U.S. government to diffuse nationalistic
opposition to occupation.
Despite overwhelming popular opposition in the U.S. to the war in Iraq,
and 52 percent opposition to the war in Afghanistan, Letwin argued
there is an escalation and a pledge by the Democrats not to cut off
funding. To Letwin, that proved the need to apply the lessons of the
war in Vietnam that a persistent resistance, a revolt in the military
and a revolt at home especially of students and working class people
can end a war.
Carlito Rovira, representing the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition (7) compared
the Iraq war and the colonization of Puerto Rico starting in 1898. His
analysis was that occupation leads to abuses and torture like at the
Abu Graib prison but also to resistance. He asserted that there are
people in Black and Latino communities in the U.S. who also feel
occupied and resist. Rovira warned that there is no "lesser of two
evils" in U.S. politics; there are no "good guys" in the camp of the
despots. The slogan he proposed was, "U.S. Out of Iraq, U.S. Out of the
World.”
Rovira asked the organizers of the teach-in why no woman had spoken? He was followed by two woman speakers.
The first was Rebecca Young, a professor in the Woman's Studies
Department of Barnard College, Columbia's sister school. Professor
Young stated how physically and emotionally sick the war has made her,
feeling there was little she could do about it. She said the war in
Iraq is being fought at the expense of the social services in the U.S.
The U.S. leaders, Professor Young explained, think the government
should be only for military purposes and everything else is secondary.
Professor Young told of respect in her family for the military. She
reported that the 30 people in her immediate family now in the military
services all oppose the war so she can understand that there is
resistance and a revolt in the U.S. military. She urged students to
find ways to be active in their opposition, for example by wearing the
black T-shirts available from the Critical Voice affinity group of
Artists Against the War(8) with the slogan, "WE WILL NOT BE SILENT" in
many languages. That was the slogan, she reminded the audience, of the
White Rose student resistance movement in Nazi Germany.(9)
Professor Young was followed by Noha Radwan, Professor of Arab
Literature at Columbia University. Professor Radwan said she was a
teacher not a political scientist, so she would look at the Bush regime
from that angle. Since students get four years to graduate, and the
Bush regime is taking more than four years to get out of Iraq, it gets
a failing grade for that. Since its thesis on Iraq keeps changing,
there is no way it can graduate and so gets a failing grade for that as
well. Considering all the death and expenditure of money, the Bush
regime does not deserve another scholarship to fund the continuation of
the war.
Professor Radwan quoted from "Rain Song" by Iraqi poet Badr Shakir
al-Sayyab(10). The poem is about how there can be rain and green and
still hunger like in the time of Biblical tyrants and still there can
be hope.
At this point in the teach-in three audience members were given two
minutes each to speak. The first reported that he had gotten word the
Columbia students were not alone because students at many other schools
had also responded to the call for a day of protest and that their
strikes and actions were ongoing. The second, warned against coalitions
with the Democratic Party and urged people to remember that the war
making system is administered by the Congress. He said the struggle
must be against capitalism. The third audience member asked the panel
of speakers for its advice about how to avoid sectarianism in the
emerging movement and how to unite people with the goal of building a
mass movement.
One panelist answered that activists should seek class solidarity. Then
Professor Young told of the success of the divestiture movement in the
1980s which helped isolate the Apartheid regime in South Africa.
Activists in that movement offered support to community groups and in
that way helped to glue those groups together. Without aiming for these
groups to join their movement the activists saw many community groups
join in the divestiture movement. She offered that as a model for
today's activists to consider.
The teach-in ended with a speech by Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said
Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University. Professor Khalidi was
concerned with the negative impact of the war on the lives of the Iraqi
people including bringing sectarian violence to Iraq. He said that
there is no "innate savage passion" of the Iraqi people and no history
of sectarian violence. He said he saw the U.S. government using the El
Salvador Option (11): when counter insurgency is failing, turn to death
squads. No matter what the U.S. does it has already unleashed in the
Middle East a sectarianism that will have evil consequences for a very
long time.
Professor Khalidi said the U.S. government plan from the beginning was
to see the Iraq war as only the first step. The neo-con advisers always
foresaw, he said, Syria or Iran as next.
The last point made by Professor Khalidi was that ending the Iraq war
was not enough. The $600 billion defense budget he argued is a pressure
for new wars. Unless U.S. government policy priority can be changed
away from the defense industry and military bases in 117 countries,
Professor Khalidi, saw only new wars and further deterioration of
housing, the medical system and education in the U.S. He urged students
to "continue to speak truth to power."
Professor Khalidi's talk was met with energetic applause as were the
talks of the other faculty members. In a sense it seemed the students
felt their protest was legitimized by the willingness of faculty
members to heed the call of students to come to speak. There was also a
sense, expressed by the chairperson, graduate student Deena Guzder,
that the teach-in was a success and a hopeful sign of the beginning of
more activity and organizing on the part of the current generation of
students. |
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Notes:
1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_15,_2003_anti-war_protest
2.http://february15.wordpress.org
3.http://www.counterpunch.org/ccaw02132007.html
4.Anti-war rally draws over 300
5.http://www.ivaw.org/
6.http://www.drumnation.org/
7.http://answer.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ANS_about_us
8.http://www.thecriticalvoice.org http://www.artistsagainstthewar.org.uk/. http://www.thecriticalvoice.org/Ricardo.jpg
9.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rose
10.http://www.epic-usa.org/Default.aspx?tabid=274
11.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6802629/site/newsweek/ |
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©2007 OhmyNews
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