Nationwide Student Strike being called for Sept. 26

[sarahlee]

This just came through the crawfordpeacehouse YahooGroup - all I know is what is in this message.


-----Original Message-----
From: [e-mail] On Behalf Of Debbie Russell
Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2005 7:00 PM
To: [e-mail]; [e-mail]
Cc: [e-mail]; [e-mail]
Subject: Nationwide STUDENT STRIKE!! Sept. 26

START SPREADING THE WORD!!!!!

Backed by Noam Chomsky and more than 100 other professors so far...a call has been put out by a fabulous guy in OR for a student strike on Sept. 26 - a damn fine birthday present to me, I might add! ;) And nicely coordinated with the D.C. action so students can have more leeway to go to DC that weekend.

The brainchild of this effort puts this in line with Cindy's efforts, but seeks to begin to transfer the focus "from Texas to the nation's 300-plus Pentagon-dependent universities." (see bottom--and I'm sure he isn't trying to "transfer the focus" away from the military families so much as start to give all these new people coming 'out' into the movement a target to focus their loss and anger on, besides Bush)


------------------------------
September 26, 2005

President George W. Bush, The White House
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, Department of Defense, The Pentagon
President Nils Hasselmo, Association of American Universities
Governor Ted Kulongoski, State of Oregon
President Dave Frohnmayer, University of Oregon

Dear Public Servants,

As University of Oregon’s first graduate student in the field of Peace Studies, it is my responsibility to explore the role of the military in society and those conditions that most promote peace and human welfare. In so doing, I have come to understand the nature of America’s war industry, and how that industry has flourished in the wake of the Cold War. I have come to find that more than 300 of our universities are developing weapons for the Department of Defense, and that these schools are increasingly reliant on the industry of war to sustain their education programs. Indeed, the Association of American Universities appears to be little more than a lobby for such funding.

As a person of good conscience, I have learned too much about the business of war to remain silent about its overwhelming encroachment in our schools, communities, and global life systems. In promoting this encroachment, I do not believe that you serve in the interest of prosperity and security for the common people. By your consistent actions, in fact, it is abundantly clear that you believe America’s top priority is profit from the business of war, not the general welfare of its people.

When America was born a people-first country, the concept of freedom spread rapidly throughout the world without military force. The vision of our Founders was to advance the notion of people living in peace using the freedom that nature provides upon birth. You may feel at peace with yourselves, but I believe you are acting as businessmen instead of servants. And in honoring our Founding principles, I must proclaim that to exploit the fears and prejudices of the common people to maintain the flow of profits from conflict—to perpetuate a state of war for personal gain—is treasonous to our creed.

You say this is a peace-loving nation when you know it is not; America is by far history’s greatest peddler of arms, and your business is making war everyone else’s business. The people, under this set of priorities, are an expendable resource, and on behalf of those who founded this country and those whose lives stand in peril today—thus, on behalf of all Americans—I reject the notion of our servants serving only themselves and war profiteers.

Therefore, I feel compelled to strike in peaceful but vociferous opposition to your priorities until our national policies reflect our priorities and serve the rights and needs of the common people.

I am a dedicated scholar and University of Oregon alumnus. But I refuse to study inside the classroom of any school that sells itself to the war industry, and I will stand outside and speak my heart as strongly as possible to highlight the obvious hypocrisy that you promote. For I fear that if I do not, America and other countries are very likely to suffer and fall as a result of your cold determination to saturate with weapons a world that stands on the verge of resource depletion.

Developing weapons at our institutions of enlightenment contradicts the inherent purpose of learning. How will we ever learn peace while making war in our schools?

I hereby submit to you this petition for peaceful priorities.

Dutifully, Brian D. Bogart [e-mail] Multicultural Studies Certificate, US-Japan Relations, Lewis and Clark College, Portland 1995 International Studies Certificate, Waseda University, Tokyo 1996 B.A. Japanese History, University of Oregon 1997 M.A. Candidate, Peace Studies, University of Oregon

Sponsors of this action include:

Noam Chomsky
Institute Professor Emeritus of Linguistics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Franklin W. Stahl
Professor Emeritus of Biology
University of Oregon

Peter Phillips Ph.D.
Sociology Department/Project Censored
Sonoma State University

(names removed for space)

Strike A Match for Cindy Sheehan America Programmed for War: Cause and Solution

"What one generation perceives as repression, the next accepts as a necessary part of a complex daily life."
By Brian Bogart

A single policy decision made in secluded chambers of the White House shortly after World War II explains why our financial and intellectual creativity focuses on lethal technologies, why 51% of our taxes go to defense and less than 5% to education, why there are 6000 military bases in the United States and 1000 US bases overseas, why comprehensive agendas support war fighting and weak agendas address human services and the environment, and why our top industry since 1950 remains the manufacture and sale of weapons. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9831.htm

[eleny]

1. I hope there are teach-ins all over the country

When we went on strike during the Vietnam War, the teach-ins that accompanied the strikes were so good. At my university we had Abbie Hoffman and some others in the Chicago Seven come and particpate.

[sarahlee]

3. Teach-Ins

Yep - remember them. The good ones resulted in some really good activists. But some didn't have a clue about what they were trying to do.

[marmar]

2. I love it...

Classic Zinn-style activism. The college kids need to get involved, 'cause whether or not they realize it, this mess is going to affect them more than anyone else.

[sarahlee]

4. Agree about the students getting involved

I hope this is on the up and up. Maybe someone in Oregon can contact the Prof. and confirm for us.

[sarahlee]

5. Kicking for the Friday crowd

:kick: