Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Teaching and preaching the words of peace

It’s just not like the ’70s. During the Vietnam War, protesters crowded college campuses, speaking out against perhaps the most unpopular conflict in American history.

These days, however, any opposition to President Bush’s proposed war on Iraq, remains largely quiet.

One Chicago group set out to change that Saturday with a Student Antiwar Teach-In at the University of Illinois at Chicago provided participants with information they could use to voice their dissent. Participants ranged from energetic high school students to graying senior citizens.

“We tried to have workshop sessions that would appeal to activists as well as people that were just beginning to question the war,” said Kirsten Roberts, a Harold Washington College sophomore and member of the UIC No War. No War coordinated the event with the Chicagoland Student Anti-War Network. “The antiwar movement is very, very broad. It’s reaching into all segments of society.”

About 300 participants crowded into classrooms in at the campus’s Lincoln Hall at the Chicago Circle Center for three sets of workshops. They were led by experts including journalists, representatives from international organizations, professors and war veterans.

UIC junior and NoWar member Jen Hadraba facilitated one of the workshops. She said she was pleased with the event turnout. “It’s good to see people of all ages here,” she said.

The Progressive magazine editor Matt Rothschild and Chicago Media Watch member Liane Casten led a workshop in the first session called “Media During Wartime.” Rothschild and Casten’s presentation claimed mainstream media is inaccurate and censored.

Seven corporations own all of Chicago’s media outlets, Casten said. “Truth is weeping,” she said. “We’re not allowed to see the blood, the guts, the pain.”

They suggested the public consult alternative news sources such as commondreams.org, and protest poor media coverage by contacting the responsible organizations. The New York Times and National Public Radio have responded to critical consumers, Casten said.

Rothschild warned that the media is being censored by corporations and reporters. If a reporter asks a question that seems unpatriotic, he will alienate the public and then his company will lose money, he explained.

Medill freshman Billy Welkowitz stopped by the teach-in. He said the presentation was a wake up call. “It gave me a lot of surprises as to how censored the press has become with the war,” he said.

Rothschild urged college students to join campus peace and justice groups or to start their own to protest publicly. “No matter how apathetic they may seem, students and faculty are very concerned about this impending war,” he said.

Between sessions, vendors from bookstores, political organizations and human rights organizations peddled books, signs, buttons and fliers in the cramped hallway.

A Vietnam War veteran and labor rights activists led another workshop on the military and war. Bill Davis, of United States Labor Against War, said the military discriminates against the poor and minorities.

“The military is a microcosm of our society, but unfortunately it reflects the worst of our society,” he said. ” It’s homophobic, racist. They use you and dispose of you.”

One-third of homeless men in Chicago are Vietnam veterans, Davis said. He spoke of the countless veterans who have poor or no medical coverage, the American government’s denial of Gulf War syndrome and other injustices he said the government delves out to its servicemen.

“Where the United States military goes, a lot of bad things follow,” Davis said. He criticized the government’s current use of toxic chemicals in the war against drugs. The United States is spraying cocoa crops in South and Central America with toxic chemicals deemed too dangerous for use in the United States, he said.

Drew Stahl, a junior at Whitney Young High School in Chicago, said the ROTC program perpetuates the military’s racist attitudes. In Chicago, 10 percent of students of color are in ROTC, but only 5 percent of whites, Stahl said. “They seem to say the only place African Americans are going to be able to succeed is in the military,” he said. “It’s a way to justify that it’s not our people fighting.”

UIC graduate student Kate Dougherty came to the teach-in as a member of the radical feminist dance group The Pink Bloque. She said feminism embraces the anti-war movement because feminism is about respecting the rights of everyone.

“This war is really destructive and could kill a lot of people,”Dougherty said

In the third session, Sita Balthazar, of Amnesty International, and Bridget Broderick, of the International Socialist Organization, led a discussion about the role of the United Nations in a possible war against Iraq. The session titled, “Can the United Nations Be a Force for Peace” Balthazar said, “The UN is as effective as the member states want it to be.”

Broderick criticized the U.N. structure and policies. “I think that sanctions are an act of war,” she said. “Citizens are affected, not rulers.” She also said that the Security Council is inherently unfair because unlike one-country one-vote setup of the General Assembly, five countries have veto power. “It reflects unequal partners in which the powerful dominate.”

She said U.N. weapons inspections in Iraq are futile. “Weapons inspections were set up as a bombed if you do, bombed if you don’t situation.” nyou

Medill freshman Ilene Rosenblum is a writer for nyou. She can be reached at [email protected].

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Teaching and preaching the words of peace