Campus Antiwar Network

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The Campus Antiwar Network (CAN) describes itself as an "independent, democratic, grassroots network of students opposing the occupation of Iraq and military recruiters in our schools." It was founded prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and is the largest campus-based antiwar organization in the United States.^[1]

Contents 1 History 2 Structure 3 Politics 4 Actions 4.1 Past 4.2 Future 4.3 Repression 5 Criticism 6 References 7 External links 7.1 Media

[edit] History

The Campus Antiwar Network was created on January 17, 2003 by delegates from over 70 colleges and universities at twin conferences at George Washington University and San Francisco State University. Its purpose was opposition to the planned invasion of Iraq. Its first national conference occurred February 22- 23 February 2003, in Chicago.

Due to the decentralized nature of CAN, it is hard to measure its size and impact over time. However, it seemed to most members that the organization grew quickly with mass opposition to the war in early 2003, but lost momentum and membership with the twin blows of the failure of mass protests to prevent the invasion, and the exclusively electoral focus of many activists in the period leading up to the 2004 presidential election. Its second national conference, November 1-2, 2003, again in Chicago, had around 200 delegates, and the third national conference, November 2004 in New York City drew an enthusiastic crowd of 100. Then, with the rise to national prominence of Cindy Sheehan, falling approval ratings for President Bush and the war, and the rise of the counter-recruitment movement, CAN's growth accelerated again in mid-2005. Its fourth national conference, on October 22- 23 October 2005, at UC Berkeley, drew over 650 participants, with delegates from 37 schools present to vote on the second, organizational, day.^[2]

[edit] Structure

The Campus Antiwar Network is a network of largely independent affiliates which choose their own day-to-day goals and tactics. CAN brings them together, usually only by email and conference call, to share the lessons of experience, discuss and decide on a view of the present needs of the peace movement, assist each other in defending against threatened disciplinary action or prosecution, and plan occasional coordinated actions.

The organization also has a coordinating committee, elected each year at its national conference. The committee has one representative from each of five regions, five at-large representatives, and two high school representatives, who make decisions by majority vote. Individual CAN affiliates organize as they choose, although each is asked to select two members to give their contact information to the national coordinating committee. The coordinating committee is responsible for coordinating actions voted on at the national conference.^[3]

CAN also has various national working groups:

• A treasury, with an elected treasurer and two assistants responsible for keeping track of income and expenditure.

• A literature working group, staffed by volunteers and responsible for writing and updating political pamphlets as well as a book on the history and actions of the counter-recruitment movement.

• A website working group, staffed by volunteers and responsible for the maintenance of CAN's website.

• A newspaper working group, staffed by volunteers and responsible for writing and publishing a newsletter containing reports on CAN actions as well as strategic arguments, articles on events in Iraq, etc. The first issue was shipped in November, 2005.

• A repression working group, staffed by volunteers and responsible for responding to actions by police and campus security and administrations seen as repressive of antiwar activity or other dissent.

• An action working group, staffed by volunteers and responsible for coordinating national actions, ranging from student days of action and contingents in national marches, to a planned "Boots on the Backs of Brothers" speaking tour in spring 2006.^[4][5]

[edit] Politics

The Campus Antiwar Network is primarily a group opposed to the war in Iraq and the continuing occupation of that country by the United States and its allies. Since its last two national conferences, it has focused on counter-recruitment, opposition to US military recruitment, as a strategy to end the war. The most commonly heard CAN slogans, found on buttons and signs at protests, are "Troops Out Now!", "College Not Combat!", and "Relief Not War!" - the last a response to perceived failures of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, connected to the war, for CAN members, by the repressive military nature of the relief efforts as well as by the diversion of resources abroad.

CAN formerly chose a broad list of "points of unity," selected by majority vote at its 2004 national conference. These include not only opposition to the war in Iraq and to military recruitment in schools, but also opposition to the war in Afghanistan, opposition to Israel's occupation of Palestine, and other less-popular views. Individual CAN affiliates are involved in actions around these issues to varying degrees, and members may or may not agree with all points; the 2005 conference chose to organize national work around the themes of immediate withdrawal from Iraq and challenging military recruitment in order to build the broadest possible national movement. CAN chapters are welcome to choose their own political positions and affiliations beyond those broad themes.^{[citation needed]}

CAN issued a statement on the Danish cartoons controversy, condemning "racism in any form, as recently displayed in the publication of a series of anti-Islamic cartoons," which it argues "are helping to promulgate state violence against Muslims and Arabs -- including the occupation of Iraq." The statement also attacked the Dubai Ports World controversy, describing widespread bipartisan opposition to allowing a company from the United Arab Emirates to take ownership of some U.S. port operations as "blatantly racist."^[6]

[edit] Actions

[edit] Past

The Campus Antiwar Network historically has used a variety of tactics:

• Demonstrations: CAN helped to mobilize students for the national [[February 15, 2003 anti-war protest|February 15, 2003 demonstrations]] prior to the invasion of Iraq, and more recently marched with a contingent estimated by organizers at two thousand people at the September 24, 2005 anti-war protest in Washington, DC. It has also participated in numerous other local and national demonstrations.^[2] For example, CAN called for and organized a day of action on December 6, 2005, the date that the Supreme Court heard FAIR v. Rumsfeld, a case deciding the constitutionality of the Solomon Amendment's provision denying federal funding to colleges that ban military recruiters. The action consisted of protests at recruiting stations across the country.^[7]

• Referendums: CAN helped write and campaign for the "College Not Combat" ballot measure passed by residents of San Francisco on November 2, 2005, described by proponents as a statement that voters "want it to be city policy to oppose military recruiters’ access to public schools and to consider funding scholarships for education and training that could provide an alternative to military service."^[8]

• Direct aid: CAN sent caravans to New Orleans from places such as New York and Chicago, after Hurricane Katrina. These brought supplies and volunteers to work with local Louisiana activists, such as Malik Rahim, towards hurricane relief. The New York students kept a journal of their activities called "This is solidarity, not charity"

• Petitions, letters, and phone calls to school and government officials.

• Debates, both in person and through the mediums of paper publications and the internet.

• Creative performances of various kinds, involving, for example, spoken word poetry and hip hop artists.

• International collaboration. CAN sent delegates to the London International Peace Conference on December 10, 2005. CAN also put on a panel discussion called "Fighting the Empire From Within," featuring CAN activists involved in military "counter-recruitment," war resister Pablo Paredes, and others, at the 2006 World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela.^[9]

[edit] Future

This article or section contains information about scheduled or expected future events. It may contain information of a tentative nature and the content may change dramatically as the event approaches and more information becomes available.

The Campus Antiwar Network's October 2005 national conference decided on several nationally-coordinated events for the upcoming year. One occurred on December 6 of that year, but others are still to come:

• A week of action marking the anniversary of the war in Iraq, with student actions planned on campuses and general, off-campus actions on the weekend of March 18-19, 2006. CAN's call for the student week of action has been endorsed by many individuals and organizations including Cindy Sheehan, Howard Zinn, Progressive Democrats of America, and many others.

• A day of action on May 4, 2006, the anniversary of the killing of four students at Kent State by National Guardsmen during a protest against the Vietnam War. The action is also intended to commemorate the shooting of two students at Jackson State on May 14, but the earlier date was chosen because it is better known and so will get more media attention.^[3]

[edit] Repression

A number of people involved with the Campus Antiwar Network have faced legal or disciplinary consequences of various kinds for their antiwar activism. These people have been the centers of nationwide defense campaigns on the part of CAN, which argues that their cases prove the threat counter-recruitment poses to the powers that be.

• In March 2004, at City College of New York, four people were arrested at a counter-recruitment protest (after twice, at earlier protests, forcing recruiters off campus) for allegedly assaulting campus security, though they claim that the reverse was the case. One, Hadas Thier, was banned from campus and suspended. Charges have since been dropped.^[10]

• Charles Peterson at Holyoke Community College was pepper sprayed, banned from campus, and threatened with expulsion after allegedly assaulting a campus security officer while protesting military recruiters; he claims that he merely grabbed back a sign the officer took from a fellow protester. Charges have since been dropped.^[11]

• Tariq Khan, a student at George Mason University and Air Force veteran, was arrested for standing near recruiters with a sign saying "Recruiters Tell Lies" taped to his shirt on the charge of trespassing and disorderly conduct. Khan is a Pakistani-American; he reported that one arresting officer told him, "You people are the most violent people in the world." Charges have since been dropped.^[11]

• Dave Airhart, a student at Kent State and a Marine veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, was fined by city police and threatened with expulsion after hanging a banner with an antiwar message on a climbing wall set up on campus by military recruiters. Charges have since been dropped.^[12]

• Seven students at Hampton University were punished for participating in an unauthorized protest and "proselytizing" during a walkout on November 2, 2005. The students were initially summoned for an administrative hearing on November 21 to present a case against their expulsion, with three days notice, but it was then postponed to December 2, and finally the school decided only to impose community service.^[13]

• Lauren Giaccone and Brian Kelly, students at Pace University, yelled "war criminal" during a speech by Bill Clinton at their school on March 5, 2006. They were briefly detained by the secret service, and threatened with expulsion for failure to register the protest and their organizations. Charges have since been dropped, though the students have been threatened with punishment should they continue to organize protests.^[14]

[edit] Criticism

The Campus Antiwar Network's tactics have been criticized by other people who consider themselves part of the antiwar movement.

Some argue that CAN is excessively radical, often using slogans and posters focusing unnecessarily on controversial issues like the racism of the Iraq war, the bad faith of its Bush administration advocates, or the right of Iraqis to self-determination. This, they say, alienates many of those who should be part of the antiwar movement's audience but may disagree on a particular issue.

CAN has also been criticized, by a smaller number of people, for a reformist focus, and a disinclination to engage in illegal, if nonviolent, direct action. This, it is argued, deprives CAN's politics of content by making its advocacy compatible with the existing system.

CAN activists respond, in turn, that they are striking an appropriate balance, which maximizes the number of people involved in the antiwar movement while preserving its core political principles, and makes connections that can involve new groups of people while keeping CAN's founding antiwar goals unchanged.

Additional criticism focuses on the accusation that CAN is controlled by the International Socialist Organization (ISO) -- an accusation both groups would deny. Some non-ISO members have left CAN, claiming the group's agenda and that of the ISO have became unacceptably intertwined. CAN defenders reply that CAN's open and democratic decision-making is incompatible with it being a front group. Moreover, they say that the two organizations share the goal of stopping the war but are organizationally and politically independent, and that while a number of CAN's prominent members are also ISO members, there are many others (including a majority of CAN's coordinating committee) ranging from Democrats to anarchists. Some also argue that there is a long tradition in the United States of attempting to discredit activist groups by associating them with communists or socialists, and that such charges are often a cover for political disagreement.

[edit] References

All photos are from the Traprock Peace Center website.

[edit] External links

• Campus Antiwar Network: the official webpage.
• Afroamerica: a brief profile of CAN.
• Traprock Peace Center: an extensive photohistory of CAN
• Military Out of Our Schools: a San Francisco Bay Area-based organization with which CAN has cooperated in several campaigns.

[edit] Media

• Law Schools, Military Battle Over Recruiting: a Wall Street Journal article on December 6 protests.
• Protest college antiwar hippies!: Free Republic's reaction to the December 6 protests.
• Mavericks, Renegades, and Troublemakers 2005: CAN and Iraq war veteran/Kent State student Dave Airhart in Rolling Stone magazine.
• Protest and Pushback on Campus: The Nation article on counter-recruitment and repression, October 31, 2005.
• Counter-Recruitment is Gaining Strength: CounterPunch on repression against CAN students in spring 2005.
• Student Protest Prevents CIA Recruiting Event at NYU: Z Magazine article on protest organized by a CAN-affiliate at NYU that led to a CIA recruiting event's cancellation.
• A New Battleground on Campuses: a CAN member's article on campus polarization that summarizes some of CAN's counter-recruitment organizing in spring 2005.
• What happened to the antiwar movement?: MSNBC article on CAN and other anti-occupation activism a year after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
• Campus Resistence: early report on CAN's counter-recruitment, including the repression at City College New York, from left-wing radio show Democracy Now!