BY KYLIE MOON
"Stop school to stop the war!" This was a call put out by Books Not Bombs (BNB) following US President George Bush's March 17 48-hour ultimatum to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. It was met on March 20 by thousands of students putting down their pens and walking out of schools, TAFE colleges and universities across Australia, when they heard the news that war on Iraq had started.
The student anti-war mobilisations proved once again that young people, especially high school students, are among the most prepared to act on their consciences and organise to stop this war.
In Adelaide, for example, 200 students from eight schools converged on the state Parliament House at 2pm, after which 70 students spread throughout the Rundle Mall to campaign in opposition to the Iraq war. Once word spread that the bombs had started dropping whole year-levels and even whole schools walked out, including 400 from Paralowie School.
Around the country, many high-school students have taken personal risks to join the anti-war protests. One student from Sydney Grammar is facing suspension for his actions. Outraged about the war he walked out of school, went home and painted "No war" on the back of his surfboard and carried it throughout Sydney demonstration. Fifty students from Salisbury College in Adelaide are to be suspended for walking out.
The rapid growth of the BNB movement in each state has helped to provide the networks to quickly organise and build these emergency demonstrations.
BNB was formed out of the successful March 5 strike of 30,000 students. It is now a large and powerful network of anti-war activists across the country.
"We have phone and email lists that connect activists on 60 different schools across the city, as well as the three universities, which allows us to quickly spread the word on the next actions", said Leigh Hughes, a BNB activist and Resistance member in Adelaide.
In Sydney, the BNB email discussion list includes some 900 students from 197 schools, TAFE colleges and universities.
"New activists are using the discussion list to share ideas on how to do anti-war campaigning on their school, deal with school repression and take the next steps for the anti-war campaign", said BNB activist and Sydney Resistance organiser Simon Butler. "The BNB movement is helping to give a lot of new activists the skills and confidence to lead this movement."
The BNB web site (<http://www.booksnotbombs.org.au>) is providing new activists with loads of information, including how to set up an anti-war group, how to organise a protest, as well as details of upcoming protests in their cities. This has helped to link together the very large and growing number of anti-war student activists in rural towns throughout Australia, many of whom are organising anti-war protests where there have never been any political protests before. In the first month of its operation, the web site had received some 83,000 hits!
BNB is helping to facilitate the growth of anti-war groups forming on high schools. Through the framework of organising students to strike on March 5 and on March 26, anti-war groups which meet weekly have been set up on about 50 schools across Australia. On top of this, there are high school activists organising other students on another 350 schools.
The past week has also seen a revival of student activism on university campuses. Within two hours, university anti-war activists were able to pull together spirited demonstrations on March 20, ranging in size from 100 at Wollongong University to 400 at the University of Queensland.
Student anti-war activists went into emergency mode, running through lectures announcing the emergency demonstration details, and doing massive chalk ups and leaflet drops.
At the University of Sydney, activists drove through the university in a car while yelling out the protest details from a megaphone. An emergency rally was held on campus at 3pm, and the student protesters were joined at 4pm by academics who had walked off the job — and who had brought their classes with them! The protesters then marched to the central action at the Sydney Town Hall.
"The challenge now is to turn this burst of anti-war campaigning back onto the campuses and high schools, to turn them into centres for anti-war activity and agitation, and build a mass, sustained student anti-war movement", said Butler.
The next big project planned by BNB is actions to turn universities and high schools into anti-war zones on April 2. High school activists are organising to begin protests on school ovals or quadrangles at lunchtime, which declare their school an anti-war zone, and then carry out an on-school strike by refusing to go back to classes. Plans for the actions also include the formation of massive human peace signs, painting huge banners, and holding speak-outs.
On the same day, many anti-war university academics and teachers are planning to turn their lectures and classes into sites to discuss the causes and repercussions of war.
[Kylie Moon is the national co-ordinator of the socialist youth organisation Resistance.]
From Green Left Weekly, March 26, 2003.
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