Stop the War(s)! - Stop the Spying!
“And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air…”
When you hear that song, do you tend to think not of pumpkin pie but of the 655,000 Iraqis who have lost their lives as a direct result of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation? How about the 4.5 million Iraqis who have fled their homes? While we’re at it: how about the Nuclear Holocausts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the genocide in Vietnam, the 1953 U.S. overthrow of Iran’s democratically elected President Mohammed Mossadegh on behalf of British Petroleum (Cal’s new best friend)?
Ahhh… if you think of these things… you might want to look up the Berkeley Stop the War Coalition (BSTW)! Psssttt…. if you need another reason: the U.S. is currently planning to occupy Iraq for “decades” to come.
(And if you don’t think about these things, check out Frank Dorrel’s film “What I’ve Learned About U.S. Foreign Policy.” You will.)
No to War!
Legend has it that prescient students founded BSTW on September 12th, 2001. BSTW’s three points of unity: 1) Stop the war; 2) Defend all targeted communities; 3) Defend civil liberties.
BSTW opposed the War of Terror’s first chapter in Afghanistan, and then moved on to protest Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL). On March 20th, 2003 - the morning after the bombs started falling - BSTW gathered thousands of students for a massive rally that packed Sproul Plaza, then conducted a sit-in protest and occupation of Sproul Hall, where reportedly 119 were arrested. UC administration chose to target three students (Snehal Shingavi, Rachel Odes, and Michael Smith) for academic sanctions, but social justice luminaries such as Green Party Gubernatorial candidate Peter Camejo spoke up in defense of the “The Berkeley Three.”
On the same day as the Sproul Hall occupation, a significant number of Cal's student activists, especially co-opers, were on the other side of the bay engaged in an early-morning direct action takeover of San Francisco's downtown financial district. Operating on an Affinity Group model, activists surrounded and barricaded the federal building with their bodies, surrounded the headquarters of war profiteers such as Bechtel, shut down numerous traffic intersections, and even attempted (with limited success) to shut down the Bay Bridge. Over 1,400 people were reportedly arrested, many Cal students among them.
No to Military Recruiters!
BSTW moved on to organize a number of counter-recruitment activities. In March 2005, BSTW worked with the ASUC Senate to pass a bill banning all military recruiters from ASUC facilities and calling on Chancellor Birgeneau and the Regents to ban recruiters from Cal and the UC system. However, due to the threat of losing federal funding, UC administration decided to ignore the will of the ASUC and allowed military recruiters into career fairs, including those held at the MLK Student Union (an ASUC facility, theoretically speaking).
In response, BSTW organized a rally outside MLK Student Union on April 21, 2005, and then flooded the military recruiter table with nonviolent protesters in an attempt to stop them from being able to recruit. It worked for a few hours: the Marines were so busy talking to BSTW members who stood in line waiting their chance to challenge the military's homophobic policies and destructive wars that the recruiters were unable to conduct business as usual.
No to Spying!
On December 14th, 2005, MSNBC revealed that the U.S. Department of Offense (DoO) had been monitoring and spying on hundreds of anti-war groups through its TALON program, including BSTW. A copy of the DoO database obtained by MSNBC listed BSTW's April 21, 2005 nonviolent counter-recruitment protest as a "threat."
BSTW members contacted the American Civil Liberties Union to ask for help. Acting on behalf of BSTW as well as Students Against War (SAW) of UCSC and SF State, ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act Request (FOIA) in an attempt to obtain documents related to the spying.
When the federal government declined to process the FOIA request on an expedited basis, ACLU filed a lawsuit. ACLU's arguments carried the day in court. Eventually, the DoO delivered a stack of documents the size of a phone book, with vast tracts of black lines (redactions) running through them. The DoO’s spying program turned out to be quite extensive, involved undercover surveillance of BSTW and many other groups, and was part of a larger push by Big Brother the Bush Administration to spy on millions.
Resources…
To get involved, visit http://bstw.blogspot.com or email: berkeleystopthewaratgmaildotcom.
To join the March 20th 2008 Direct Action Against War Collective email: takedirectactionatriseupdotnet.
If you need help with a civil liberties issue, visit www.aclunc.org or call 415/621-2488.
Also, check out Berkeley Teach-in Against America’s Wars at www.btiaw.org for some great videos.