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NEWS & LETTERS, NOVEMBER 2003New Yorkers protest Bush's warNew York, NY--The student anti-war and anti-occupation movement drew 300-400 people, young and old, to a meeting here Oct. 14 called "Speaking Truth to Empire: End the Occupation." Held near Columbia University, it was part of a tour being conducted by the Campus Anti-War Network. The first three speakers were more interesting than the superstars. The first speaker, from the Columbia Anti-War Coalition, began by describing the 1968 Columbia campus occupation, engendered by the war in Vietnam and racism at home. He thought the difference between students now and the more activist ones then was "the clarity of connections between their lives and the military-industrial complex." He said this spring, after the anti-war movement failed to prevent war in Iraq, it was important that it began to discuss that the war isn't over for U.S soldiers and Iraqi civilians. The next speaker, from the Campus Anti-War Network, said that students’ opposition to the occupation of Iraq comes out of “a belief in self-determination, people's right to choose their own government.” She said, “Our demonstrations give strength to oppressed people all over the world, and to other protesters too. When you go out to a demonstration, you suddenly see that you're not crazy, or if you are, at least you're not the only one. We’re fighting for the future, for five or 50 years from now, for pre-emptive peace.” She ended, “We're called the Ritalin generation, but some of us are paying attention.” Another speaker was from Military Families Speak Out, a group of 800 families. She said that resistance to the occupation within the military includes dozens of covered-up suicides, and troops signing petitions to come home and petitions to remove Rumsfeld. A group of Hispanic mothers has threatened to go on hunger strike until their sons come home. She also warned that veterans’ benefits have been cut so much that troops coming home, often ill from poisoning agents, will have to wait even longer than the current six months to visit a hospital. She ended, “The families ask you to keep up the fight, bring the troops home!” Amy Goodman of Democracy Now on Pacifica radio, TV and internet, said people all over are asking, “what was this invasion for?” and are outraged. Thirty million people around the world demonstrated against the war on Feb. 15. Even conservatives are concerned about the onslaught against our civil liberties; “librarians have become freedom fighters” for refusing to cooperate with government snooping. The main speaker was Tariq Ali, author of THE CLASH OF FUNDAMENTALISMS and BUSH IN BABYLON. He praised ongoing resistance to the U.S. occupation within Iraq, but made no mention of the Islamist opposition that wants to impose a government like Iran’s. He also never mentioned what conditions are like for women in Iraq today due to these Islamists, who beat and rape women for going out of their houses. He claimed there are 44 resistance organizations, but he didn't describe them or even say whether they are secular or Islamist. I was appalled at these omissions, as well as some serious misrepresentations of history, and was glad I was distributing a flyer and article about an organization of Iraqi women who are struggling against both the occupation and the Islamists. Ali’s presentation reflects the thinking of a large part of the anti-war movement, the part that talks only about U.S. imperialism and not about the contradictory forces within each country. This failure to see beyond existing claimants to power to the possibility of real social transformation, this willingness to side with anyone who is “the enemy of my enemy,” no matter how barbaric, has been a straightjacket on the anti-war movement. Unfortunately, there was no opportunity to challenge this view at this meeting. --Former Columbia student |
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