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For Immediate Release: May 1, 2005
Contact UW-Madison Stop the War (member of Campus Antiwar Network, campusantiwar.net):
Chelsea Lauing (608) 264-0671,
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Paul Pryse (608) 264-2700,
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Student Protest Prevents Annual ROTC Information Day at UW-Madison
The
Air Force Reverse Officer Training Corps (ROTC) annual information day
on April 30 was cancelled. At the information day, students were “to
learn about Air Force scholarship opportunities and Air Force careers”
and receive free lunch, according to an e-mail sent out to the student
body. According to Air Force ROTC representatives on campus, the event
was cancelled due to the threat of a protest called by the University
of Wisconsin-Madison group Stop the War.
The protest was one
of a series of actions that Stop the War has been taking against
military recruitment and the ongoing occupation of Iraq. On April 14,
Stop the War helped organize a walk-out against the occupation of Iraq
and military recruiting on campus that drew around 200 students. The
protest ended with a sit-in outside the office of Chancellor Wiley,
resulting in a public forum with Wiley to discuss the removal of the
ROTC and military recruitment from campus. At the forum, concerned
students and Madison residents brought up the military’s “Don’t Ask,
Don’t Tell” policy. This policy discriminates against LGBT individuals
and is in direct violation of both state law concerning discrimination
in the UW system and UW’s anti-discrimination policy. Despite this
violation and the recent Third Circuit Court ruling declaring the
Solomon Amendment unconstitutional, Chancellor Wiley continues to
defend their presence on campus, saying “There’s not a chance” they
will be removed. Stop the War is currently circulating a petition to
remove ROTC and all military recruiters from campus, among other
activities.
These actions are part of a nationwide movement
against recruiting on high school and college campuses. From Seattle
Central Community College to New York University, students have
initiated actions that have forced recruiters off campus. This
movement is having some effect. Reuters reported on March 6 that, “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.”
Over 1500 U.S. soldiers have died as a result of the occupation of Iraq
and at least 100,000 Iraqis, according to a study conducted by Lancet,
a British medical journal. As the occupation continues and the death
toll increases, military recruiters are going to be intensifying their
recruiting efforts.
Just as the ROTC session in Madison was
billed as a chance to learn about “Air Force scholarship opportunities
and Air Force careers”, the military often uses the promise of
education and job training to lure potential recruits. In fact, the
military makes $70 million on the G.I. Bill. Only 6% of female and 12%
of male veterans in civilian jobs make use of the skills learned in the
military, according to a 1989 study by two Ohio State researchers.
Thousands who join the military for an education or job training are
returning from Iraq with injuries, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or
not returning at all.
On Saturday at Union South, the
building on campus where the event was scheduled to take place, about
20 protesters showed up to celebrate the cancellation of the recruiting
session and build on this success by developing a movement that can get
the military off UW’s campus for good.
"Troops out now, military off campus at UW"
Over 200 Students Rally Against the War, Sit-in at Chancellor's Office
UPDATE FROM UW-MADISON
We'll be sending more e-mails soon, but just wanted to give a brief
report on the walk-out against the occupation and military recruiting
in Madison. We had a rally of over 200 people today followed by a
march past a recruiting center and a sit-in near the chancellor's
office demanding to meet with him and kick the military off campus.
It was pitched as a "troops out walk out" and was built over a long
period of a month and a half. It demanded troops out now and
military off campus at UW.
A little bit into the rally, the cops shut down our sound system
because we were getting complaints of noise. They shut our sound
down when Jane Jensen a 60 year-old mother of a U.S. soldier in
Iraq was giving a speech demanding her son be brought home.
Ben Ratliffe, of CAN said on the megaphone, "Apparently we've got
complaints from around campus that we're being too loud. Well,
we've got some complaints of our own." We continued the speeches
with a megaphone and our planned hip-hop acts were shut down.
Following a round of speakers, we marched past an army recruiting
center (not officially on campus, but right near campus) where we
encountered about 40 counter-protesters organized by students
affiliated with Protest Warrior and the College Republicans. We
shouted them to a standoff and continued (after a hip-hop intermission)
up to Bascom Hill (where the chancellor's office is located). At this point
there were about 80 or so protesters left. The secretary immediately
locked the door. After much noise and chanting, we sat down right
outside the locked door of his office. We demanded a meeting with the
chancellor and we were told he wasn't around. We then announced we
wouldn't be leaving until we got a public forum about military on campus.
After a while, they granted it for next Wed at 3 pm. Most people wanted
to push for a forum at night that more people could attend but the
Chancellor's secretary insisted that he couldn't meet until May 9 otherwise!
We voted to take the 3 pm meeting and break up into groups.
There were lots of people there totally new to the movement who are
excited to get the military off campus. While sitting in, we broke into
working groups to publicize the forum and try to pack the meeting and
embarass the chancellor, who has been quoted as saying there's "no way"
he will disallow recruiters on campus, it's their first amendment right, etc.
Tomorrow, someone is coming to speak about recruiting opportunities
for foreign language speakers, joining intelligence agencies, etc. We
publicized a protest for 11 am tomorrow to build off of the momentum
of the walk-out.
Anyway, we'll probably be sending more about this exciting day, but I
wonder what people think about targeting administration more directly and
using direct action tactics like the sweatshop movement (to go along w/
confronting recruiters when they come).
This has been a huge boost for people in Stop the War who have been
struggling to grow and have had a few events fall through.
Solidarity,
Bill Linville UW-Madison Stop the War
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