More From the Youth Anti-War Front

The Week of Campus Resistance is now upon us. Several major actions, described in this space ten days ago, have already taken place on campuses in protest against the war in Iraq. Below are two more ground reports, with accompanying press articles, about important actions which took place just four days ago. Left Hook will keep its readers updated on developments for this crucial week of planned actions as diligently as possible.

On March 9th, Students Against War (SAW) at San Francisco State University-a chapter of the Campus Antiwar Network (CAN)- cooperated with other campus student groups to organize a protest against the presence of military recruiters on SFSU's campus.At 11am, over 200 students rallied outside the student center expressing their outrage at the presence of military recruiters in the nearby job fair. People spoke out against the war in Iraq, the budget cuts, the bigoted anti-gay, racist and sexist policies of the military, and the fact that while money for college is increasingly hard to find the Military is getting more funding for recruitment.

SAW members proceeded to lead the crowd into the student center where military recruiters-- The Army Corps of Engineers and the Air Force-- were tabling at a job fair. Over 100 people poured in holding signs and chanting "US Military Out of Our Schools" Surrounding the tables we proceeded to chant them down for about 90 minutes before we sat down around their tables. The Army Corps almost immediately abandoned their tabling commenting to some activists that they were also against the war. One recruiter said "this war is stupid". Then, protesters lined up to take turns speaking on the bullhorn. We held a peaceful anti-war teach in until they decided to pack it up at 2pm-one hour before the job fair was supposed to end and without any new recruits. As they left we sang "Sha na-na-na hey hey hey goood Bye" It was fantastic!

The press was all over this with leading stories on CBS, Fox, ABC, NBC, Telemundo, the World Journal (a Chinese language paper)...the list went on. According to these reports the SFSU Administration will be sanctioning groups who sponsored this event, as well as suspending individual students who helped with the action. Today when activists entered the second day of the Job fair and began passing out pamphlets with facts about the military, eight police officers muscled them out the door, twisted their arms, and detained them and took down their information.

We are organizing a campaign to force the administration at SFSU to stop these outrageous attacks on political activists--please keep your eyes peeled for our email/fax campaign. We stand in solidarity with the CAN activists from the City College of New York (CCNY) who were arrested, assaulted by cops, and charged with felony-assault for protesting recruiters on the same day that we did.

Activists protest military on campus

Group opposes recruiters at S.F. State University career fair

http://www.insidebayarea.com/localnews/ci_2603424

By Erin Pursell - CORRESPONDENT

SAN FRANCISCO - A student protest almost shut down a career fair at San Francisco State University on Wednesday as students rallied as part of a national movement to permanently ban military recruiters from all school levels.

The protest began about 11 a.m. as students filled the campus's Malcolm X Plaza, and were warmed to the cause through chants and rants on megaphones and a PA system. The plaza is at the center of the sprawling campus and is adorned with a mural of the late civil rights leader.

As the energy simmered and began to boil, students yelled anti-war messages, and the crowd grew to more than 200. "Our goal is to kick recruiters off campus permanently and to raise awareness about the issue," said Kristen Anderson, a member of the steering committee for Students Against War.

The student group is part of the Campus Antiwar Network, a national campaign to keep military recruiters off school campuses that has grown in recent months

as recruiters have increasingly targeted students to counter declining military enlistment.

After students voiced their concerns for about 30 minutes on the plaza, the crowd burst into the career fair being held at Jack Adams Hall in the campus student center next to the plaza.

The demonstration quickly swarmed around the two booths of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Air Force.

The four recruiters were frustrated by the angry protesters but remained understanding of the students' rights to voice their concerns.

"People have a right to demonstrate, but I think there's a misunderstanding of the roles of the Army Corps of Engineers," said Richard Gallegos, a regional recruitment manager who wore plain clothes to the event.

Gallegos noted the corps is 98 percent civilian. Its main focus is disaster response and environmental restoration projects.

Anderson said she hopes S.F. State will become an anti-war role model because of its efforts to ban recruiters.

"We want to help give other schools the confidence to follow suit," she said.

Because the event was publicized in advance, many other campus political groups participated.

Talking to recruiters "is a voluntary act, and some people are interested in that information," said Candice Candelaria, a political science major who was there to observe the rally.

The Campus Republicans, a minority group on campus, demonstrated in support of the recruiters.

"Basically, if you don't want to join (the Army), don't join," said Victor Traycey, a Campus Republican member, pointing out the group was there to provide a different perspective on the issue.

CITY COLLEGE STUDENT COUNTER-RECRUITERS CHARGED WITH FELONY ASSAULT

WHAT: Press Conference

WHO: City College Counter-Recruiters: Hadas Thier, Nicholas Bergreen, Justino Rodriguez (pending their release) and their supporters: representatives from civil liberties organizations, national anti-war organizations, student anti-war organizations, veterans and military family members, and the legal community

WHERE: Thursday March 10th

4pm

100 Centre Street

CONTACTS

Activist: Meredith Kolodner (917) 881-3896

Lawyers: Sean Maher, Darlene Jorif (212) 876-5500

STORY: COUNTER-RECRUITERS CHARGED WITH FELONY ASSAULT

Three undergraduate students at the City College of New York (CCNY) were arrested Wednesday in the course of a peaceful protest against military recruiters. Hadas Thier, Nick Bergreen, and Justino Rodriguez, along with approximately a dozen other protesters attended a job fair organized by the college, and stood up in front of a National Guard recruitment table chanting anti-war slogans. Private security and campus peace officers immediately surrounded the protesters, pushed them into an empty hallway outside of the job fair, closed the hall door and assaulted two protesters and arrested a third who was taking pictures. The two students who were assaulted are now being charged with felony assault, and the third with obstruction of a government administrator.

MILITARY RESPONDING TO COUNTER-RECRUITER'S SUCCESS

"Counter-recruitment" has become a national issue (USATODAY "Counter- recruiters shadowing the military" 3/7/5), and it's working. Between these efforts, and general disagreement about the war, recruitment is down - according to a 3/6/5 Reuters report, "The regular Army is 6 percent behind its year-to-date recruiting target, the Reserve is 10 percent behind, and the Guard is 26 percent short."

After similar counter-recruitment efforts have taken off from New York to Seattle, the military has clearly become concerned. At William Patterson University in New Jersey an activist was arrested for simply handing out counter-recruitment leaflets. Twice last semester, CCNY student protesters drove military recruiters off the campus with peaceful protests. This time campus security was ready. "We didn't even get through one round of chanting," according to Tiffany Paul, a junior at CCNY and a member of the Campus Anti-War Network, who was one of the protesters. "We were completely peaceful, it was the officers who were violent."

UNNECESSARY BRUTALITY

When Mr. Rodriguez was being arrested, his head was slammed into the wall. He called out "look what they're doing to me!" According to Ms. Paul, to silence him one of the guards pulled Mr. Rodriguez's hood over his head and slammed his head into the wall again.

"He just stood on the guy," remembers Mark Turner, a staff member at CCNY, recalling the manner in which Mr. Bergreen was subdued by a private security guard, Mr. Robertson. "His foot was on his back, after he had tackled him. Private security are not supposed to touch us."

Ms. Thier was arrested simply for taking pictures. Several witnesses recall that the guards were pulling on her hair. Juan Alduey remembers that the guards pushed Ms. Thier when she tried to give a statement to students who began filming the event. "I'm being arrested for exercising my right to free speech" Mr. Alduey recalled.