Action-packed month for peace

>Archive - PWW Print Edition Archive - 2006 Editions - Nov. 4, 2006


 

The National Youth and Student Peace Coalition (NYSPC) made October an action-packed pre-election month. Congress has the power to end this war, and we say: get out of Iraq or get out of office. Here are some highlights:

At movie screenings of “Iraq For Sale,” in Pittsburgh, Nashville, Brooklyn, Phoenix, Tucson, Orlando and other cities, about corporations making billions off the war, youth came together to discuss the impact of war profiteering and the connections to cuts in education funding. People were able to call in and talk with the film’s director.

Iraq Veterans Against the War hooked up with student group Uprise in a counter-recruitment Midwest tour, stopping in Cleveland, Ann Arbor, Toledo and Chicago. They spoke about the lies recruiters use to get young people to sign up, and told what it is like for servicemen and women in Iraq.

At the University of Maryland, students helped organize teach-ins on prospects for peace in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In Boston, Iraqi- and Iranian-American activists talked about a just foreign policy and the recent war in Lebanon. At George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., a discussion on the “Costs of War” took place.

In New York, NYSPC, Dynamic Magazine and World-Up co-sponsored a “War and Peace” art show. On Nov. 3, Uptown Youth For Peace and Justice, War Resisters League and the Young Communist League hosted “Politics, Poetry, Peace,” an open mike, where youth and local artists performed and members of Iraq Veterans Against the War spoke about their experiences in Iraq.

Get-out-the-vote actions included a march and rally in Fayetteville Ark., set for Nov. 5, and events in Princeton, N.J., New York City and elsewhere.

See www.nyspc.org or www.myspace.com/nyspc for more information!

Randy Wilson is an organizer with the Student Peace Action Network. Adam Tenney is education coordinator of the Young Communist League. Both groups are members of NYSPC.