BY ERIC RUDER
& MELANIE WILKINSON
CHICAGO — Some 300 students from 100 US campuses gathered in Chicago on the February 22-23 weekend to hold the first national conference of the Campus Anti-war Network (CAN).
CAN decided on its points of unity, a structure and coming actions. While the bulk of the weekend was dedicated to hammering out these issues, the meeting also wedged in a great opening session, which featured Norman Solomon, author of the new book Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You; Tomomi Nakamura, a student from Kokugakuin University in Tokyo and a leader of the Japanese student anti-war movement; and Charlie Jenks and Sunny Miller of the Traprock Peace Centre.
There were also workshops, taking up everything from "The impact of Bush's war on the Middle East" to "Lessons from past anti-war movements" and "Israel and Palestine".
"Everyone was very encouraged by our accomplishments this weekend", said Kathleen Brown, a delegate from the University of Vermont, who was elected to CAN's national coordinating committee with 11 others. "Despite whatever frustrations people had with the process, which was new to many people, the overall attitude was great.
"People wanted to work through things constructively and get to the basics of organising actions. Last year, in building the movement against the war in Afghanistan, the movement was much more embattled. But now, there's a great upswing coming out of the huge national demonstrations in San Francisco, New York City and around the world."
CAN adopted four points of unity: no US war on Iraq, whether or not it is backed by the United Nations; end the UN sanctions on Iraq which have killed more than 1 million Iraqis; oppose the attacks on civil liberties and racist scapegoating at home; and money for jobs, education and health care, not for war. There were several debates about these points and others, but ultimately, these four points were supported by an overwhelming majority.
CAN decided to call for local actions, including student walkouts, when the US invasion of Iraq begins. It also endorsed the March 5 national student strike.
CAN is organising for an April 5 national mobilisation in a couple major cities that will follow the student-labour week of action already set for March 31 to April 4. Students hope this event will mark a contribution to the national anti-war movement by forging collaboration between existing national formations such as United for Peace and Justice, International ANSWER, Not in Our Name and US Labour Against War.
Meanwhile, on February 21 300 students, faculty and staff at the University of California at Santa Cruz walked out to protest the war on Iraq. The rally, which also commemorated the anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X, focused not only on saying no to war but opposing racism as well. Activists there are planning future actions against the war, including an emergency response when the bombs start falling.
[From Socialist Worker, newspaper of the US International Socialist Organization. Visit . Visit the US Campus Anti-war Network at .]
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, March 5, 2003.
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