by Jason Fults and Keren Wheeler
Throughout the many months leading up to the invasion of Iraq, the Bush regime was met with a level of resistance unseen in this nation for quite some time. Much of that resistance came from the youth and student populace, who, under the auspices of the National Youth & Student Peace Coalition (www.nyspc.net), organized a “Student Strike for Books Not Bombs” on March 5th, 2003. This national mobilization included demonstrations on more than 450 campuses nationwide.
In the months after the occupation of Iraq began, much of the youth-driven anti-war movement started to crumble as the movement became divided over its demands and youth activists have either returned to the varying activist work they were previously engaged in or simply retreated back into private life. Throughout this period, the NYSPC has sought to transform the anti-war movement into an anti-militarism movement that recognizes and opposes the insidious consequences of militarism on people’s everyday lives. Through our lived experiences, and dialogue with young people across the U.S., we’ve recognized a developing trend towards what can only be referred to as the militarization of a generation. For under-privileged young people in this country, our society has allowed access to quality education to fall farther from reach, while at the same time throwing wide open the doors to prisons and boot camps. For those who are fortunate enough to gain access to our nation’s colleges and universities, students are finding “educational” environments that are increasingly anti-democratic and corporatized in nature, and institutions whose commitments to public service are being eroded by a growing correspondence with the militaristic and consumeristic interests of the elite. Students and youth throughout the socio-economic spectrum are being faced with an erosion of civil liberties and stifling of any form of dissent.
In response to these attacks, the NYSPC has developed the “Books not Bombs Agenda,” which embraces an anti-militarist set of demands that links the war abroad with “the war at home.” These demands include:
*Funding for Education, Not Empire
We demand the immediate restoration of all funds for public schools and universities cut from local and federal budgets over the last three years, and the reversal of all tuition hikes in the same period. We demand dramatic increases in assistance to low-income youth through Pell Grants, TRIO, and all programs for students in need. We demand the repeal of the No Child Left Behind Act's high stakes testing regime, and of the Higher Education Act's denial of federal aid to drug offenders. And we demand that Congress pass legislation (like the DREAM Act) to extend educational opportunities to all immigrant youth.
*No Military Recruitment in Our Schools
College administrations should support the ongoing legal challenge to the Solomon Amendment, and both colleges and high schools should make it campus policy to prominently advertise the rights of students and parents to opt out of having student information released to military recruiters.
*Respect our Civil Liberties
Provisions that violate youth and students rights in the USA PATRIOT Act must be revised, and school student unions and administrations should pass resolutions to oppose its implementation on campus.
*Campuses for Peace, Not War
Campus administrators must publicly disclose all military-related research and all financial relationships with weapons manufacturers. Campus administrators must pledge to work towards severing these relationships and agree to a freeze on any new military research or additional dealings with weapons manufacturers.
*Schools not Jails
College administrators must divulge all university business relations-- including contracts and investments—with companies that profit from or finance prison construction or operations. College administrations should set up recruitment and retention programs for communities adversely affected by incarceration, specifically low-income youth and youth of color. Lastly, state governments must invest more money in education and rehabilitation programs instead of prioritizing incarceration.
On March 4th, 2004, students and youth in dozens of communities across the country organized actions highlighting the Books not Bombs Agenda and linking the worsening situation in Iraq to the deteriorating opportunities for young people here at home. NYSPC also took advantage of the massive outpouring of protest at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions this summer to build further support for our Agenda.
On Aug. 28, over 500 young people gathered at St. Mark’s Church in New York City to kick off the Books Not Bombs Youth Convergence. The convergence was a major part of a week of massive protests against the Republican National Convention. The purpose of the Convergence was to build the youth movement for peace, justice, and education. Workshops focused on issues like the criminalization of youth, the situation on the ground in Iraq, youth in the labor movement, and the impact of the Patriot Act. Discussions took place on how young people at the convergence could go back to their schools, campuses and communities and use strategies like creating independent media, registering young voters, and building coalitions to advance the demand for “Books not Bombs.”
The Convergence started off with rallying cries from local youth activists who explained the “Books Not Bombs Agenda” to the 500-600 youth in attendance. Naomi Gordon-Loebl, of New York Youth Bloc, explained that young people in New York City feel the impact of the billions of dollars spent on the war in Iraq in their overcrowded classrooms and ancient textbooks. Luis Reyes told the story of how students mobilized to kick military recruiters out of Bushwick High School in Brooklyn — and won. And Fernando Suarez del Solar of Military Families Speak Out told the young people present how the war in Iraq cost him his son’s life, along with thousands of other Iraqi and American lives.
The speakers and workshops were accompanied by a full day of arts programming at a nearby theater, where Theaters Against War and Billionaires Against Bush put on interactive performances. Poetry and multi-media shows from Climbing Poetree and the Beehive Collective also demonstrated the “culture of resistance.”
The group went on to form the Books Not Bombs youth contingent in August 29th’s enormous “Say No to the Bush Agenda” protest march, organized by United for Peace and Justice (www.unitedforpeace.org). The marchers invigorated the march with their energy and chanting. As the group passed Madison Square Garden, where the Republican National Convention is being held, the youth contingent led the crowd in singing “Na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye.”
Regardless of who wins the election for President on Nov. 2nd, young people will be facing a gargantuan task of reclaiming our future from the merchants of death who have hijacked our nation’s foreign policy and their “law and order” surrogates who so readily sacrifice the needs of young people for their nefarious ends. In the coming months, the NYSPC will be continuing to build support for the Books not Bombs Agenda, and developing concrete campaigns which aim to transform our nation’s foreign and domestic policies. This diverse coalition, which includes SEAC, is bringing a level of unity to the youth and student movement unseen in recent years. If you would like to help SEAC to build this movement, and the Books not Bombs Agenda, please contact us.
Jason Fults is a National Organizer for SEAC and the coordinator of SEAC’s Militarism & the Environment Campaign. He can be reached at 215-222-4711 or antimilitarism@seac.org. For more information about the campaign, check out www.seac.org/militarism.
"Keren Wheeler is an activist in New York and the editor of "Dynamic," magazine
of the Young Communist League USA. Check it out at www.dynamicmag.org
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