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Teachers, students plan anti-war strategies

Published Mar 9, 2005 3:04 PM

When Educators Against the War planned a conference in New York, they thought that 400 to 500 people would show up. Instead, an overflow crowd of 770 packed into the auditorium and classrooms of Hunter High School here on March 5. One third of the participants were students, mostly from high schools.

Students and teachers from as far away as California, Vermont and Virginia came determined to organize anti-war activity in schools and colleges across the country.

Over and over, comments focused on the devastating effects that the war on Iraq has had on education here: increased class size, austerity budgets, elimination of after-school programs and a host of other indications of a federal and state offensive against education.

An "Anti-war Strategy" workshop participant said the $200 billion for the war coupled with severe education cutbacks seems engineered to induce poor youth to become cannon fodder for the U.S. war machine.

One of the best-attended workshops was on "How to build an anti-war movement in the high schools." It was led by high school students who are mobilizing for March 19 and working on anti-recruitment activities.

A high school student from Mineola, Long Island, who came alone was grateful to find other young people like herself organizing in their schools. Teachers who felt isolated among conservative colleagues were able to connect with people in similar circumstances, and to plan activities and campaigns to bring the anti-war movement into their schools.

The No Child Left Behind Act has forced high schools and colleges to mandate registration for the military. Recruiters are "swarming all over the schools in working-class areas," said a teacher from Harlem. Several workshops and union caucuses discussed campaigns against recruitment.

Conference organizers included anti-war activists from unions representing students and educators, from elementary through graduate schools. Barbara Bowen, president of the Professional Staff Con gress, said, "The struggle against the war has energized unions but at the same time [this] has drawn the wrath of management --and politicians like [Governor George] Pataki and [Mayor Michael] Bloomberg." The PSC faces a measly 1.5 percent wage increase.

In a workshop called, "Struggling for a contract in the context of struggling against the war in Iraq," Bowen said it was "personally difficult to negotiate a contract and organize the PSC against the war, but it is necessary to do both."

A proposal by a conference organizer to support a universal draft to "democratize" the economic draft received little support.

The overwhelming turnout for this conference indicates that the anti-war struggle is thriving and growing in the schools, and the link between the state, the war and the economy is becoming clear.