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students against war
The bombings of September 11 sent the entire population of this
country into shock, both young and old. On high school and college
campuses across the country there has been a mass outpouring of
sympathy and mourning for the victims of the World Trade Center
attack.
If you were to watch only the mainstream media, you'd also think that
all of these young people were bursting into the military recruiting
offices to sign up and march off to war. The reality, fortunately,
is quite different.
Just as with the country at large, the reaction of students has been
quite varied. While indeed there has been a slight increase in
enrollment in the military, and a certain section of the national
student body has responded to the reactionary militarism and anti-
Arabism that is being whipped up, many students have openly come out
against the war.
In fact, since the very day of the attack thousands of students have
been coming together to discuss this tradegy, and to question the
media and the government's assertion that these horrible attacks are
the result of foaming at the mouth lunatics who deserve only to be
hunted down and killed. Common themes in these discussions
include: "I don't want more innocent people killed," "war is not the
answer," and "not in my name".
In Berkely over 4,000 students attended a peace vigil, where the vast
majority spoke out against a military response to the bombings, and
denouncing the racist attacks that are occurring against Arabs,
Muslims and people of Middle Eastern descent across the country.
5,000 young people marched in San Francisco at an anti-hate rally
organized by spoken word artist Michael Franti, and responded with
great enthusiasm when they were asked if they wanted peace.
The Canadian Federation of Students, an organization representing
400,000 students, has issued a statement calling for peace and
solidarity, calling specifically for the organizing of anti-racism
forums to combat anti-Arab prejudice.
In the United States rallies and speak-outs have been held against
anti-Arab prejudice and racist attacks from New York to Minneapolis,
with young people making up the bulk of those in attendance at all
these events.
Additional thousands are even forming campus anti-war committees and
discussion groups in an attempt to counter-act that war frenzy that
is being put forth by the media, and that some student groups,
college administrations and faculty are trying to bring into the
student body. Teach-ins are being planned at schools such as UCLA
and DePaul University in Chicago to get out alternative views on the
Middle East, and why militarism is not the answer.
On some campuses students are discussing ways in which fellow
students of Arab or Middle Eastern background can be protected from
the cowardly attacks that are disgracing so many campuses. Escort
services and diversity teach-ins are among the responses being
planned.
An example of the campus anti-war organizing, and the range of areas
in which this organizing is taking place, is the recent forming of
Students Against War (SAW) by high school & college students in the
Lake Superior area. Made up of students from Duluth, MN, Superior,
WI and Ashland, WI, SAW meetings are attracting dozens of students
from several schools, and already plans are under way for a teach-in,
an anti-war concert and a campus peace rally.
Youth for Socialist Action is committed to doing everything that it
can to help build and strengthen this budding student anti-war
movement. We call on readers of Socialist Action to do what they can
to connect with these efforts and to participate in them. While we
don't have resources at our disposal like national television
networks and daily newspapers, we do have the sentiment of a large
number of concerned young people and workers who recognize that more
bloodshed is not the answer.
