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right-wingers witch hunt universities
In response to the growing antiwar sentiment on college campuses, the right-wing think tank "Defense of Civilization Fund," headed by the notorious conservative hack Lynne Chaney (the vice president's wife), published a report attacking the rights of students and college faculty to oppose the imperialist war in Afghanistan.
The report, titled, "Defending Civilization: How Our Universities Are Failing America and What Can be Done About It," criticized both students and faculty for making even the slightest critique of American foreign policy.
It called on college administrations to impose courses that teach pro-American and pro-imperialist perspectives of U.S. and Western history.
The report states, "We call upon all colleges and universities to adopt strong core curricula that include rigorous courses on ... America's continuing struggle to extend the principles on which it was founded." It continues, "We need to know, in a time of war, exactly what is at stake."
The report goes on-in a way reminiscent of the anti-communist McCarthy hysteria of the 1950s-to list the names and positions of 117 students and faculty and the "un-patriotic" statements that they have made. Many of the quotes the report takes to be anti-American are extremely mild, indicating that the authors oppose any dissent whatsoever.
The following statements are among those the report cites as dangerous to national security: "Break the cycle of violence." "We have to learn to use courage for peace instead of war." "Ignorance breeds hate." "We need to hear more then one perspective on how we can make the world a safer place."
Many of the statements are not even against the war, but still make the list.
For example, the report cites Jesse Jackson, a pro-war liberal Democrat, as saying, "We should build bridges and relationships, not simply bombs and walls." This is similar to the McCarthy period, when the slightest dissent, even from pro-capitalist politicians, could incite a hysterical reaction.
The ruling class and its servants in the U.S. government and think tanks are concerned that the developing antiwar movement, particularly among students, could give rise to a mass antiwar mobilization, like the one against the war in Vietnam, that would undermine their imperialist interests in the Third World.
This report indicates that they are doing everything possible to isolate the movement by trying to whip up a pro-war hysteria and to institutionalize a blindly patriotic academic curriculum.
Antiwar activists must stand up to such threats, and expose the hypocrisy of its authors, who sing praises of American "freedom and democracy," while they participate in crimes against the people of the world in the name of profit for the ruling rich.
The article above was written by Chicago YSAer Dave Bernt.
