As the United States continues to prepare for war with Iraq, anti-war groups around the country are making their voices heard. Among them are various student groups at Portland State University.
Students for Unity (SFU), an organization that fights for racial, social and economic justice, has been participating in the anti-war movement on campus.
Lauren McCartney, SFU campus coordinator, explained the organization is against the war because they are anti-oppression.
“Pro-peace is pro-equality and pro-humanity,” she said. “When we choose our campaigns, we look at who we’re building power for. We build power for traditionally oppressed groups.”
The organization also views war as a racist practice and at their last meeting on Feb. 3 voted to focus almost exclusively on the war issue.
“SFU is a majority white, middle-class organization,” Laura Close, SFU member, said. “We recognize that war targets low-income communities and communities of color. As an ally organization, we are committed to building power for all efforts to resist the war.”
To help raise awareness, Students for Unity is planning a day of events called the Urban Action Series, which will take place Saturday. A day of workshops, training and forums, the event is an opportunity for students and community members to gain knowledge about how to make their voices heard.
“We’re creating forums where anti-war activists can network, train and grow,” Close said.
She explained that one of the goals of the organization is to create active participants within the anti-war movement.
“It’s beautiful to have people marching in the streets,” Close said. “But building power, that is, taking the movement to the next level, means building skills, confidence and analysis with each anti-war protester. The role of the SFU is to wage campaigns and hold events that provide a forum for students as well as community members to kick themselves up to that next level.”
Students for Unity will also participate in a student walkout scheduled for the day the United States officially starts bombing Iraq.
Organized by the Northwest Campus Peace Coalition (NCPC), the walkout calls for students to walk out of their classes at 2 p.m., meet in the Park Blocks and march to the Federal Building to join the community protest that is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. If the bombing is announced after 2 p.m., the walkout will take place the following day.
Although the NCPC was originally created by students and faculty from PSU and Portland Community College-Sylvania, students from a number of other schools are now participating. Those schools include other PCC campuses, Lewis and Clark, Reed College, Southern Oregon University, University of Oregon and Oregon Health Sciences University, as well as high school students with the Student Activist Alliance and a number of students in Seattle.
Planners of the event stress that the walkout is a protest against the war, not against the schools.
“We are not walking out on our schools,” the NCPC said in an informational flier. “As students, we value our education. But, also as students, we recognize our responsibility as privileged individuals to resist injustice when we see it present.”
Another group involved in the walkout is the PSU Progressive Student Union. Lew Church, the union’s campus coordinator, said that the organization is anti-globalization and anti-war. He feels that the walkout will make a significant statement.
“It’s really important for students to demonstrate to Bush and his supporters that people will not cooperate with the war,” Church said.
In addition to its involvement with the planned walkout, the union has also tried to raise awareness on campus by inviting speakers, participating in boycotts and distributing copies of the cross-school anti-war zine The Agitator.
Consisting of news from within the local anti-war movement, student writings, past news stories pertaining to the possible war in Iraq, as well as poetry, pictures and political cartoons, The Agitator is the first-ever cross-school zine in Portland.
PSU student paper the Rearguard has been taking advantage of the power of the press, as well. Dimitris Desyllas, Rearguard editor and student senator, explains that the student paper is making an effort to publish information rarely featured in the mass media in order to make it more readily available to students.
“The war is not just against Iraq,” he said. “There are a lot of things behind it. Oil is a big factor. We try to put the information out there.”
The most important thing that people can do is to educate themselves, Desyllas said.
“The step people need to take is to get educated from various viewpoints, then allow themselves to make educated decisions,” he said. “Really, everything we do in our lives is part of a bigger picture.”
Students on campus are also largely concerned about their friends and colleagues being sent to war. Desyllas explained that one reason PSU’s student senate passed an anti-war measure was out of concern for one of the student senators who participates in ROTC.
“This country hasn’t had a war (on U.S. soil) since the Civil War,” he said. “People are detached and don’t realize the effects. They see war on TV and think that it looks like a Nintendo game.”
Though the details haven’t yet been finalized, an upcoming protest has been scheduled for Feb. 15, and student groups involved in the anti-war movement are hopeful that more demonstrators will join their ranks.
“I hope students realize the position that they’re in,” Desyllas said. “They are citizens and have voting rights, they have power to get together, organize and educate their peers. They need to understand that they are our future and hope for a brighter tomorrow. Our adult society has failed to create a peaceful world.”
SFU can be reached at unity@mail.pdx.edu. You can send mail to the Rearguard at therearguard@pdx.edu. The PSU Progressive Student Union can be contacted at lc@pdx.edu.