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News :: Lawrence |
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Lawrence launches counter-recruitment campaign |
Current rating: 0 |
by Scritch
Email: Scritch (nospam) riseup.net (unverified!) |
27 Aug 2005
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On Thursday the 25th a group called Lawrence Counter-Recruitment, a University and Lawrence area organization of concerned students, professors, and citizens held a rally outside of Wescoe Hall on the KU Campus |
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On Thursday the 25th a group called Lawrence Counter-Recruitment, a University and Lawrence area organization of concerned students, professors, and citizens held a rally outside of Wescoe Hall on the KU Campus to launch a campaign aimed at abolishing military recruitment on the University of Kansas campus. The crowd of about fifteen to twenty people quickly swelled to over one-hundred as speakers voiced their opinions on everything from the abhorrent discrimination involved in military recruiting techniques to the absolute importance of not feeding a growing war machine bent on the imperialistic domination of others.
Flanked by two different banners one reading “Military Recruiters Off Campus”, and the other stating “We Will Not Fight Your Wars” former 70's radicals and KU alumni spoke of the need to rise against the lies recruiters will feed you in order to entice you to join the armed services. Students mingling in the between classes crowd cheered as their classmates spoke of the need to rise against this current unjust war, and the need to take a real stand against a culture of domination that this militaristic government is breeding. All the while people floated in and out of the crowd getting signatures on the petition that will be presented to the KU chancellor in one of the efforts that will be used to apply pressure to the administration.
When all the speakers had finished the floor was opened to any and all that wished to voice their opinions. While respectful of the anti-recruitment views, the two who did speak questioned the goal of the protestors. After a remark made by one speaker on the rise of occurrences of rape in places occupied by a foreign army, one student who identified himself as a former service member, assured the crowd that neither he nor any of his friends had ever raped anyone. His comments were quickly retorted by the speaker who stated that his membership in an institution that allows, and in some cases encourages the physical subjugation of women and children dirtied his hands just as it does the ones in power in the military.
The message was clear, all attempts made by the US Armed Forces to recruit new enlistees on the KU Campus must be stopped. Not only because it violates KU's own anti-discrimination policy; which states "it is also the policy of the university to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, marital status, andn parental status", but also because of the obviously imperialistic actions and objectives of the US military. Lawrence Counter Recruitment is working against the atrocity that is all war, it is working against the continued murder of more then 25,000 Iraqi Civilians, and more then 1,800 US soldiers. We are fighting against all the evil acts being cloaked in the guises of "fighting for freedom" or "fighting terror". All methods must be employed to stand against the US and it's atrocious foreign policies.
There will be a large meeting on campus to formulate the next steps in this campaign. It will be held on the KU campus on Wednesday the 31st at 7:00 pm in the Kansas Union (JayHawk Room). |
See also:
http://alliedresistance.org/kma
http://lawrencesolidarity.net
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This work is in the public domain |
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Re: Lawrence launches counter-recruitment campaign |
by Lindsey Walker
linzwalker (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
29 Aug 2005
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This is fantastic! |
