COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: War Protests: General
Creating Momentum: Youth and the Anti-War Movement
Matt Dineen, TowardFreedom.com
September 29, 2005
For
the generation of activists politically shaped by the Vietnam War the
similarities between then and now are striking; the nation is deeply
divided and US soldiers fresh out of high school are dying by the
hundreds each year. From heading national peace organizations to
demonstrating weekly in their communities, these older activists are at
the forefront of the movement. This was seen recently with Cindy
Sheehan’s catalyzing actions outside of Bush’s ranch which
evolved into a nation-wide tour with other military families. Sheehan
has become the unofficial spokesperson for the peace movement. Given
all of this, what role have youth in the United States played in the
anti-war struggle? What challenges do they face within the movement and
within the larger political culture? A closer look at some current
student-led campaigns will show how, despite widespread youth apathy,
young activists are creating the essential urgency needed to end the
occupation of Iraq and move toward forging a sustainable peace. This
will also help address a crucial dilemma for the wider anti-war
movement: How can activists, young and old, inspire committed action?
The challenges that are most visible to students and youth in the
anti-war movement are those that affect everyday organizing on campuses
and in their communities. These concerns are interconnected with larger
political and cultural forces that affect youth in the United States.
This focus on the immediate issues that directly shape the lives of
youth was seen at the September 24, 2005 peace march in Washington DC.
Several activists from the Campus Antiwar Network (CAN) and other
organizations pointed to the apathy and complacency at schools as the
biggest challenge facing students in the anti-war movement.
David, a New York University (NYU) student, was surprised that his
school wasn’t more politically active: "There’s a lot more
apathy than you’d expect—just a settled comfort in the
student body. What we really need to do is try to get the students
riled up which is not an easy task because they are very deeply settled
in their own lives and in their studies and they’re not concerned
about going out and doing something." What other factors contribute to
this apathy among students? David believes it has to do in part with
the way this generation has been conditioned to be spectators in
American culture: "It seems like in the past few decades the youth of
this nation have become a lot more passive. People are forced-fed
television and video games throughout their youth and they’re
always told what to do. Kids have to learn the tools of the trade and
blaze their own trail."
Jasmine, another NYU student activist pointed to a general
"disenfranchisement" on a national level in which citizens in the US do
not feel empowered to create change: "If you go out and talk to people
everyone is like, ‘You can’t make a difference. What makes
you think you can change anything?’ It’s about convincing
people that there actually is a chance to do something new." Isolation
is another challenge expressed by a number of students protesting the
war. "Part of the challenge is to make this a movement that is more
cohesive than just [disparate] things happening at different schools,"
explained Elizabeth, a CAN organizer. She further described the
isolation of the national student peace movement: "For the most part,
students have carried out antiwar campaigns on their campuses with no
connection to each other and so even while these amazing actions are
taking place, it can feel very isolating." CAN is addressing that by
building a network of connected groups across the country working to
end the occupation of Iraq. Their "College Not Combat" contingent at
the 9/24 march was meant to strengthen connections and build solidarity
between different schools.
Rob, an 18 year old student activist with the Student Peace Project
from Port Townsend, WA, talked about the challenge of isolation in
terms of a larger progressive movement and how that is manifested on a
local level: "There’s not enough outreach between different
groups…And everybody thinks that their issue is the most
important thing and try to get everyone else to work for their cause.
People work together, but not enough."
Another challenge is the military’s presence at high schools and
college campuses and its insidious targeting of young people,
particularly in poorer regions and in communities of color. The
recruitment of young men and women to enlist has become a main priority
of the Pentagon as troops are spread thin in the attempt to quell the
Iraqi insurgency. Young people are being bombarded with the
military’s propaganda promising careers and money for education
as thousands of dollars are spent on each potential recruit. But this
challenge has unwittingly proven to be an important catalyst of the
student antiwar struggle as the counter-recruitment movement grows and
begins to gain substantial victories toward kicking the military out of
schools. *
History has shown us that the most successful progressive movements
have been intergenerational. However, ageist social and political
structures still present vast challenges. Beyond the fact that our
democracy does not represent the interests of young people - especially
youth of color and those from the working class and poor families - we
live in a consumer culture that enforces the passivity that David
described. Mass consumerism discourages political participation and
empowerment. It is a culture that falsely suggests that consumption
will provide youth with power
The pervasive commercialization of culture has also shaped the notions
of resistance in our society. The cooptation of youth counter-culture
and activism has been an ongoing corporate project since the end of the
Vietnam War. "The rebellion is difficult now," explains a character in
the new German film, The Edukators which tells a story of radical youth
who employ creative methods in fighting the ruling class. "Before, all
it took was long hair and dope," he says, going on to describe how
today you can buy that image in a store just like any other fashion
trend, as the original sentiment behind it is now meaningless. He adds,
however, that "the best ideas survived." Students and youth in the
current anti-war movement have the weight of the Vietnam War on their
backs as they are constantly compared to the movement of that
generation. The challenge is to creatively resist the consumerist
definition of rebellion and to work toward serious political change.
Finally, youth anti-war activists face serious obstacles within the
broader peace movement and political left in the United States. As
student activist Sharon Smith articulated after the 2004 presidential
election in an article in CounterPunch, "There is a student rebellion
in the making, coalescing around opposition to the war and its military
recruiters, with students by the hundreds defying threats of
disciplinary action. Despite their potential to transform the political
landscape, however, the significance of these militant student actions
has so far escaped the leaders of the nation's established anti-war
organizations." The same ageism that infects the political structures
in this country is also manifested in the organizations attempting to
create alternative to these structures.
At least from the corporate media viewpoint, the leadership of the
anti-war movement recently has been Cindy Sheehan of Military Families
Speak Out, Code Pink and United for Peace and Justice. These are all
older activists defining the movement through the media and through
mass demonstrations. How can young people achieve agency in such a
movement when the leadership is predominately from a different
generation?
In an essay about ageism on the left for ZNet, Brian Dominick addressed
this challenge: "It remains true, as ever, that adults have plenty of
experience to offer their younger activist counterparts. It's all the
more unfortunate, then, that what is usually offered is dogma,
traditional methodology, unilateral conversation, tokenizing, and
worse. When we think of social change, we should reflect on the
subjective meaning of that term—that is, we should acknowledge
that we and our organizations and movements must themselves change, not
just the world around us." He concludes, "Change requires new
influences on a regular basis, and that requires young people. Kids
aren't going to get involved in activism with adults on any wide scale
until those adults make some radical changes in how they treat young
people."
In spite of the challenges posed by apathy, isolation, ageism and
corporate cooptation of rebellion, it is essential for young anti-war
activists to create and sustain momentum and a sense of urgency as they
work for peace. The future of the planet may very well depend on it.
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