Portfolio at NYU

Posted 03.31.03
NYU Students Protest for Peace

By Mike Woodsworth

Last week, as Congress signed off on the Bush Administration's plans for pre-emptive strikes in Iraq and the networks trumpeted the coming "Showdown with Saddam," four NYU students barged their way onto TV screens nationwide with a bold — if brief — call for peace.

The students had secured tickets to MTV's Total Request Live on October 9 and posed as normal audience members for the top-rated show. While Eminem's new video, "Cleanin' Out My Closet," was being introduced, the students leapt up and stormed the stage. They ripped off their street clothes to reveal matching white t-shirts painted with the words "No War On Iraq." Grabbing microphones, the students hastily delivered their message.

"Can we have your attention, we have an urgent announcement," said Jason Rowe, a sophomore who organized the protest.

"We have to tell Congress to stop the war," continued Corey Eastwood of the Campus Greens.

"We're standing with people around the world against the war," Luis Manriquez said.

For a moment, the MTV security guards hesitated, wondering what to do next. Guest host Fred Durst, himself a well-marketed symbol of youth rebellion in his incarnation as lead singer for the heavy metal band Limp Bizkit, shot the students dirty looks.

Seconds later, the group of four was ushered off the stage, but sophomore Agatha Koprowski managed a final statement. "Not in our name will you kill more people in an unjust war," she shouted.

Though their televised protest brief, the NYU students hoped it would help mobilize anti-war sentiment and challenge American youth to ponder the media's scarce representation of dissenting views.

"This is such a critical time and we wanted to do some direct action," Rowe explained afterward. "There isn't really space for dissent among the major media and we went and created space as best we could."

The students were especially angry that leading Democrats in Congress put aside their criticisms of the Bush Administration's Iraq strategy and voted for the resolution that gave him permission to carry out a pre-emptive strike against Iraq. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and New York Senator Hillary Clinton had criticized the President's policy, yet they eventually bowed to election-year political pressures and authorized the use of force. By avoiding a debate on the wider implications of the Administration's doctrine of pre-emption, Congressional Democrats gave their support to a major shift in American foreign policy.

The administration articulated its radical new foreign policy in the recently-released National Security Strategy paper. The paper argues that America must maintain its overwhelming military superiority against any real or potential threat, wielding military force if necessary. Dismantling Iraq's military force and toppling its government is the first test-case for the administration's brave new world order.

Since President Bush stepped up his rhetorical attacks on Saddam Hussein this summer, activist groups that have traditionally focused on globalization and environmental issues have taken up the anti-war banner. Their message — that corporate corruption, environmental degradation, global income disparities and American imperialism are interconnected — is suddenly striking a chord. 25,000 protested under the "No Blood For Oil" banner last weekend in Central Park and veteran activists are noticing a steady influx of new faces at their meetings.

"NYU has seen a real upsurge in anti-war politics all across the spectrum," said Max Uhlenbeck, 22, who participated in the sit-in. "Whether it's 80 people coming out to a talk on a Friday evening or whether its the 40-plus students who have been attending our Peace Coalition meetings, there has been a real energy among students to get informed and organize around this ridiculous preemptive pro-war administration that we have right now."

Where that energy leads is uncertain. The most vocal and well-organized groups in the peace movement are adept at mobilizing large numbers of protestors, yet they are ideologically suspect. The Not In Our Name Project that organized the Central Park rally is closely tied to the Revolutionary Communist Party, which supports the Shining Path guerillas of Peru; International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), which is organizing a massive rally in Washington on October 26, is a front for the Workers' World party, which lionizes the North Korean regime.

These coalitions serve an important purpose in that they bring dissent out into the open with boisterous shows of solidarity in action. But with their dogmatic old leftist ideas, they refuse to analyze current realities, instead sticking to what Sixties radical Todd Gitlin has called the "US out-of-everywhere" approach.

Susie Linfield, who teaches in the Cultural Reporting and Criticism program, is planning a forum on November 22 titled "Ambiguities of Intervention." Scheduled speakers include Gitlin, Iraqi dissident Kannan Makiya, and former UN Under-Secretary General Sir Brian Urquhart. The participants hold a wide range of pro- and anti-war viewpoints, Linfield says.

"We hope to deepen the discussion of the issues surrounding the crisis, which has been woefully shallow," says Linfield. "We need to investigate all the questions of American power raised since 9/11, but not in a knee-jerk anti-American manner that has become increasingly vacuous. To be against American power is an impotent view at this point. The real question is how to use it. How do we build a humane foreign policy?"

Last week, members of the NYU Peace Coalition took some baby steps in that direction, collecting almost 1000 signatures on a petition urging Senator Clinton to vote against the Iraq resolution. On October 10, four students delivered the petition to Clinton's midtown Manhattan office. While Clinton voted on the Senate floor in Washington, the students held a sit-in for the next eight hours.

"I think this helped build a good balance between raising awareness on campus and outreach to the broader community," Jason Rowe said after the sit-in.

"Even people who aren't so active are starting to ask a lot of questions about this war. There's a lot of outrage beneath the surface, "said Candice Amich, a graduate student in creative writing and a member of the International Socialists at NYU.

Perhaps ferment is brewing below the surface, but NYU's campus is relatively free of typical signs of campus radicalism such as posters, pamphlets, and soapbox speechmakers. Occasional information tables set up on sidewalks by the International Socialists are often the only hint of political activity. The silence about the Iraq crisis — and about politics in general — is all the more stunning given the university's size. There are 40,000 students at NYU.

"Right now, most campus activism is still among a small group that intermingles," Devon Carberry, a member of an environmental group called Earth Matters, concurs. "But the level of intensity could rise once the war starts."

The most active protest coalitions in recent years, those that have disrupted meetings of world leaders in Seattle, Quebec and Genoa, have used the internet as their prime organizational tool. Protestors around the country — and indeed from around the world — can gather in virtual communities and no longer need to gather on campuses.

In the past, peace activists have frequently gathered in Washington Square, which sits at the heart of NYU's campus. In the weeks after 9/11, the square attracted mourners, activists and regular New Yorkers for whom the square's energetic jam sessions provided some much needed therapy and togetherness. As candle wax flowed and flower petals carpeted the pavement beneath the square's famous Napoleonic archway, people also discussed how to create a measured response to terrorism.

Most recently, a variety of pacifist groups held an all-night candlelight peace vigil to mark the 9/11 anniversary. A newly militant tone prevailed, as speakers emphatically denounced the Bush Administration and questioned America's wider role in the world. Many students on campus said they had felt moved by the event and wanted to find out more about the issues surrounding the a possible war in Iraq.

But they seem not to have learned much in their classes, especially at the undergraduate level, where classes are large and discussion is rare.

"The sad thing is that the war doesn't get debated in any of my classes," said Carberry, who studies Social Activism in the Gallatin School of Individualized Study.

"None of my classes have any discussion about 9/11 or the war," said Marina Levtov, a Freshman in the Stern School of Business. "We're all silent."