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Indybay Feature

Far-Right Threats Fail to Distract from Santa Cruz Protest Successes

by students against war (ucsc_saw_web [at] lists.riseup.net)
Students Insist Counter-Recruitment Actions are Key to Ending the War

SANTA CRUZ, CA - Students Against War’s April 11th counter-recruitment protest at UC Santa Cruz was a small but concrete step towards ending the illegal and immoral occupation of Iraq. It also demonstrated that violent and discriminatory employers are not welcome on our campus. Last Tuesday’s victory, which saw Army and National Guard recruiters flee in the face of a determined but peaceful protest of 150 students, faculty and staff, means that UCSC has been recruitment-free for more than eighteen months.
The genuine successes of the counter-recruitment movement at UCSC and campuses around the nation help to explain the repression and hysteria that have followed the April 11th protest. Faced with mounting public opposition to the occupation, growing discontent amongst the troops, and an immigrant rights movement that has shaken the domestic status quo, the right-wing elite is terrified that it is losing its grip on the American people.

This desperation has had a number of implications for Students Against War. Due to the continued irresponsible actions of some bloggers, members of the group have received numerous death-threats and anti-Semitic comments through phone calls and emails. One threat urged “patriots” to “come down to your little shithole with some axe handles and bust your fucking heads.”

In the face of these attacks, SAW decries the repression of student activism and reaffirms its commitment to the struggle against the occupation of Iraq and the militarization of education. We stand in solidarity with campus activists at San Francisco State University, and in the immigrants’ rights movement across the nation who have faced similar attacks in recent days and weeks. We call on school and college administrators across the country to end their assault on student activists and guarantee the right of peaceful protest, and we ask Chancellor Denton in particular to speak out against the attacks on SAW and enter into a genuine dialogue with the antiwar movement at UC Santa Cruz. Students won’t be silenced! The occupation of Iraq must end!

Students Against War will be participating in UCSC Faculty Against War’s teach-in “The War on Terror: A Credible Threat” on April 24. See http://www.thewaronterror.org for more info.
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Students Against War are organized...good for you. Good job last week. You had legal support ready to roll and you were committed to your goal. Now...step it up. If you REALLY want to utilize your privlege...go to ALisal High School in Salinas and kink the recruiters out over there. They have an entire JROTC program. Go for it...
by Anonymous coward
I agree that it would be a much better target. The problem is that you are asking UCSC students to invade a high school that they have no affiliation with to make demands to remove the recruiters and ROTC program.

Isn't that a bit like invading Iraq to help the Iraqi people get rid of Saddam Hussain?

Politically it is not viable. UCSC students should offer as much support and encouragement and anything else local students might want, but they can't be the ones to initiate it. It has to be the high school's own students.

The sad fact is that the military offers a good career path when pretty much every other entity in this society is closed off to the inhabitants of Salinas. You can't just take that away without offering alternatives, and if you are making such demands as members of one of the wealthiest student bodies in California, it simply won't fly.
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