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Read our report from Syracuse! 

C.A.N. Report:  “Soldiers and Civilians Speak Out: BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!”

9/29/07 in Syracuse, NY

Some 2,500 – 3,000 New Yorkers came out to demonstrate in Syracuse yesterday. Antiwar groups and people from Buffalo, Rochester, Watertown, Syracuse, Ithaca, Utica, Albany; several dozen towns in the Hudson Valley and North Country; New York City, Long Island and people also came out from New England and even New Jersey. Afterwards regional networking meetings took place at the Syracuse University campus chapel for veterans, students and city antiwar coalitions. At the first rally Ken Love from RIT C.A.N. delivered the “Post-Patraeus Report.”

How we were able to provide leadership among students

Students were in the hundreds at this demonstration and C.A.N. activists canvassed the crowd looking to talk to them about the benefits of being part of the network and getting organized regionally after the demonstration. Some 200 students participated in the C.A.N. contingent.

Marching through the city and residential areas of Syracuse the contingent energetically chanted “What do we want? Troops Out! When do we want it? NOW!” and “Rise up, Get down, there’s an antiwar movement in this town!” When the contingent chanted “No Justice No Peace, U.S. Out of the Middle East!” younger residents of the city, many on skateboards came into the continent and skated by its side after seeing how confident, energetic and loud we were students. Students at the rally came up in the droves to the C.A.N. table stocked full of literature and signed up. Initial estimates look like well over 30 schools in the area mobilized groups or students just came individually.

  C.A.N. hosted the post-march student networking meeting and roughly 60 students – new and old – attended. The discussion was around what their experiences have been organizing on campus, what next steps can be taken to link the schools together to coordinate and collaborate democratically to build a student movement in the region. Out of this meeting more than half a dozen schools affiliated to the network with plans to create and distribute a regional newsletter to report and share experiences organizing on campuses.

However, many common concerns were raised in the discussion: intimidation from wanting to organize in isolation and the need to be in greater communication with schools locally. Overall the sense we got was that students want to organize they just aren’t sure how to get things started. We are putting together a regional list for communication and will be looking at circulating a regional newsletter to share experiences organizing and to report activities. Many of these groups affiliated and many individual students will be working with the RIT and Cornell chapters to make a game plan for their school, as well as officially affiliate and send delegates to the national conference and convention.

Background and significance of the NY Regional Demonstration in Syracuse

Since the summer organizers from Iraq Veterans Against the War – Ft. Drum (IVAW), Campus Antiwar Network at RIT and Cornell, Rochester Against War (RAW), Syracuse Peace Council, Service Employees International Union 1199 (SEIU 1199) had been working vigorously with more than 50 other Antiwar and peace groups in the state of NY to plan this demonstration. In late August, organizers met face to face at the Antiwar Storefront in Rochester, NY.

This demonstration was the largest and first of its kind in New York since the Vietnam War. It was completely organized from the bottom up! It was the initiative of the Fort Drum chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War with the purpose of giving confidence to soldiers who are against the war to come out, be heard and get involved. IVAW specifically wanted to work with the Campus Antiwar Network because of its organic connection with soldiers who are coming home and attending colleges.

Definitively a grassroots mobilization like this happens when multiple local Antiwar and social justice groups participate, collaborate and coordinate. Groups at the local level essentially do all of the organizing with the expressed purpose of building their groups up locally to meet more of the antiwar majority. A grassroots mobilization gives confidence to activists new and old, it energizes people and most importantly it shows people who may feel isolated that they aren’t alone. This is different than just going to a national protest called by well funded groups like United for Peace and Justice or A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition. Most groups and people go to their protests and register their anger, which is important nonetheless, but don’t actually take the experience back with the purpose of getting more organized locally to plant roots more deeply so that when we lock target onto opportunities (e.g. anniversary of the war, war escalation) we can showcase our movement as a well organized force nationally. The dynamic here is to pressure the minority in control with an organized majority from below and each constituency counts: soldiers, students, labor, city coalitions and all the communities they come from.

This statewide protest sets a precedent in New York and for the country. It provides an example of how grassroots organizing can be the starting point to reach the thousands of New York students who don’t know that organizations like C.A.N. exist and they are just as opposed to the war as we are. It also indicates that the political demand of Immediate Withdrawal will be the cornerstone of grassroots organizing. With this demand we can build for mass protest. We urge chapters to hold public discussions on Immediate Withdrawal. The need to educate ourselves for the purpose of being able to confidently win the argument among our fellow students and supporters will be vital for the coming months ahead. Nothing less off the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. forces can be a pressure point for organizing mass opposition on and off campus to the war.

It's clear now more than ever that we have the opportunity to rebuild a student antiwar movement. By laying a foundation at the grassroots level on our campuses, by building our bases there and then networking them together at the local and regional level. If your chapter has the resources, reach out to your neighboring antiwar groups on and off campus to see if they can spread the word about C.A.N. Be confident in explaining that this is a long term undertaking and it requires a great deal of organization but we are the group that is committed to organizing to bring us further along the way and when the time is right: to end the war.

 In upstate NY chapters of Campus Antiwar Network are in a very exciting place right now and will continue to work towards the possibility of launching a broader student antiwar movement in the region. Let your fellow students know that this is how we can take over the wheel and accelerate towards ending the war.

End the Occupation: Troops Out Now!

Campus Antiwar Network @ RIT, Cornell