BY DANI BARLEY
CHICAGO — Under the slogan, "Books not bombs", students across the United States are gearing up for what may be one of the most important days of youth activism against the looming US war against Iraq. The March 5 national student strike has taken on a life of its own following the massive February 14-16 demonstrations across the US and the globe.
Called by the National Youth and Student Peace Coalition (NYSPC), the strike is garnering nationwide attention, including a feature story on the television channel MTV. As of February 14, more than 200 high school and college campuses across the country have indicated that they will be participating in the strike, with many more campuses registering every day. The list includes traditionally activist universities such as University of California, Berkeley and Oberlin to prestigious schools such as Duke, Cornell and Georgetown.
Students throughout the US are abuzz with activity, inspired by the momentum of the anti-war movement and ready to voice their opinions about a war that will be fought by their peers. "We refuse to allow our blood and the blood of our friends to be spilled in this unjustified war", US Student Association president Jo'ie Taylor said at a press conference in New York City's Union Square on February 14. The press conference was held to announce the March 5 strike.
The NYSPC was formed following the 9/11 attacks to reject the cries for war and revenge. NYSPC boasts an impressive list of 15 member organisations including the Student Peace Action Network, the Black Radical Congress Youth Caucus, the Movement for Democracy and Education and United Students Against Sweatshops. In the late 1990s, the anti-sweatshop campaign was the key focus of many US campus activists.
University students plan to hold mock elections on the day of the strike. Participants will be asked whether they support spending federal government money on the war on Iraq or to increase spending on education. As a NYSPC statement explained: "As students and youth, the future of this country, we are disturbed by the lack of attention paid to the real needs of Americans, especially education. Financial aid opportunities and family income are rapidly losing ground to the rising cost of higher education. Low-income families are facing decreasing access to education. Student debt is increasing. All while the US military budget steadily increases (by 12% from 2000 to 2002)."
High school students are taking to the streets as well. As Year 12 student and NYSPC spokesperson Ben Waxman said, "Many of my peers are opposed to the war. However, it is interesting to note that time and again the students who are adamantly opposed to this war are the ones entering the military. Often, these people are entering the armed forces simply to pay for the increasing cost of college, not to kill innocent civilians."
A student from Philadelphia's Springfield High School explained the repression he has faced on his campus. Threats from school administrators have hinted about the possibility of suspension for key strike organisers. Other students report that they are not allowed to promote the strike or even discuss the anti-war issue during school hours.
In Dearborn, Michigan, school officials ordered 16-year-old Bretton Barber to take off a T-shirt that was emblazoned with a picture President George Bush and the words, "International Terrorist". They claimed they were worried it would "inflame passions" at the school, which has a majority of students of Arab-American backgrounds.
Barber chose to go home. He said he wore the shirt to express his opposition to war and for a class assignment in which he wrote a "compare-contrast essay" on Bush and Iraq's President Saddam Hussein.
Students have already begun to take to the streets in strike-building actions around the country. On February 12, 2000 students at the University of Texas, Austin staged an anti-war walkout.
Sully Ross, a member of Campus Coalition for Peace and Justice, explained why: "The view of everyone involved is that war is a serious decision to make at any time and should be weighed heavily. We are facing a war that will have enormous costs in terms of money and in terms of human lives lost."
Shemon Salam, a key activist behind Wayne State University group Students Movement for Justice elaborated the lessons students have learned from the anti-Vietnam War generation: "We are organising the old-fashioned way. We are passing out flyers and building coalitions. We are talking to hundreds of people each day, telling them about the latest action college students are taking across the US — a student walkout on March 5."
From Green Left Weekly, February 26, 2003.
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