Nonviolent Anti-War Protests Close Recruitment Office

On May 15^th, the close of business in Downtown Oakland was accompanied by a rally, march and nonviolent direct action, bringing a vibrant and diverse crowd of at least 100 from Oakland City Center to the Military Recruiting Station at 21^st and Broadway.

Marchers included members of Code Pink, Not in Our Name, Not Your Soldier, Grandmothers Against War, Act Against Torture, the Bateria Lucha drummers, the International Capoeira Angola Foundation as well as youth and families from the surrounding community.

The groups came together to commemorate International Conscientious Objector's Day by shutting down the local Recruitment Office as similar actions were undertaken in New York and Washington D.C.

The protesters, escorted by several armed police officers, stopped Northbound traffic on Broadway for 9 blocks during their march to the station, where several participants wheatpasted antiwar banners over windows already filled with recruitment propaganda.

Oakland has a history of fighting militarism, from the draft of the 60's to recruitment efforts today. This is part of the reason Oakland's Aimee Alison, community organizer and candidate for City Council, chose to attend the demonstration. She says she is also concerned with the methods used to attract young people to the armed forces.

Alison, an Army veteran turned conscientious objector, says she was recruited at this same Oakland recruitment office with "soft promises" from recruiters. She says she objects to the war partially because she disagrees with tactics used to recruit young people. "The military is willing to lie" she says, in order to attract young people. "Resources are shrinking", she adds, and many youth look at the military as the only way to escape poverty.
In an effort to teach his child a different way of living as early as possible, Oakland resident Gopal came to voice his opposition to "war and empire" with 22 month-old daughter, Ila. The rally's youngest participant posed and smiled in front of a sign posted on the Recruitment Office stating opposition to all wars.

This was an opportunity for their family to create historic record of their opposition to the war and to commemorate the struggle to end it.

As in a previous direct action at the same Recruitment Office in September 2005, the police were unwilling to arrest any of the activists engaged in nonviolent civil disobedience. Attendees attributed this to the broad coalition of public support for the actions.

Ryan Harvey, a member of the anarchist folk collective RiotFolk, observed that such actions can only happen safely during the day as a group action with public support. "Any one person here alone at night would be arrested." he says.

Jeff Paterson linked the success of the event to the inclusion of people from many different backgrounds and ages, from youth to grandmothers. Paterson is a staff member with the national office of Not In Our Name, whose mission is "to build, strengthen and expand resistance to stop the U.S. government's entire course of war and repression being waged in the name of 'fighting terrorism.'"

For more information folow these links:

www.objector.org

www.couragetoresist.org

http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/05/1821082.php 

https://www.aimeeallison.org/

http://www.notinourname.net/about.html

http://rwor.org/a/v22/1080-89/1087/jeff_paterson.htm

http://www.speakoutnow.org/People/headRush.html