Week of Action and Vets

So our chapter is going to have a busy week next week. For the 5th anniversary of the war in Iraq (over a decade longer if you include sanctions and air strikes throughout the 90's) UIUC is on Spring Break. Therefore we decided to move our Week of Action forward a week. We have so many great events going on and so many dedicated members to help with it; our CAN chapter has come a long way from only a year ago.



Monday:
"Winter Soldier Film screening with Iraq Veterans Against the War"
Location - Illinois Disciples Foundation (IDF)
610 E Springfield
7:00 pm

Tuesday:
Counter-Recruitment protest at the new recruiting stations in Champaign
507 Town Center Blvd
4:00pm - 6:00pm
http://uillinois.facebook.com/event.php?eid=22160478088

Wed:
Lunch Lecture and Discussion on the Antiwar Movement at Hopkins Dorm
12:00-1:00

Thurs:
Walk-out, March, Rally, and Die-in on the Quad hosted with the Campus Greens.
11:00am - 1:00pm
Quad side of the Union
http://uillinois.facebook.com/event.php?eid=10419805759

Friday:
Live streaming of "Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan" with Iraq Veterans Against the War
Time - 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Place - TBA

Saturday:
Continuation of the live streaming of "Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan" with Iraq Veterans Against the War
Time: 3:00pm - 5:00pm
Location: TBA


I think my favorite events will be the ones on Winter Soldier! In 1971 the first Winter Soldier was held as a way for Vietnam veterans to stand up against the racist, illegal, and genocidal war of Vietnam. It ended up boosting the antiwar movement into the main stream and which in turn helped bring Vietnam to an end. Now there is a modern day Winter Soldier being put on by IVAW Iraq Veterans Against the War. It's happening the whole weekend of March 14-16! Our CAN chapter has a few people attending as invited guests because we work very closely with IVAW. A few of us who are staying behind are inviting the public and any remaining students to watch a live online video feed of the modern Winter Soldier. I encourage everyone who reads this to do the same.

All you have to do is go to www.ivaw.org and poke around some until you find it. You can watch a trailer for it right now on their front page! Here are the first few minutes of it.

I think it's just so inspiring that this is going on and has the potential to boost both IVAW and CAN into the national view of the antiwar movement. IVAW is bigger than VVAW when they held the first Winter Soldier. And CAN is bigger than SDS (the main grassroots antiwar organization from Vietnam) was in their earlier stages.

This just really gives me hope for the kind of movement we are trying to make. A movement that:
1) Calls for an end to the racism of arabs and muslims
2) Believes the Iraqi people have the right to self-determination free from American intervention
3) Calls for IMMEDIATE WITHDRAWAL of all troops from Iraq
4) Calls for the expulsion of private contractors in Iraq and calls for these jobs to be given to the Iraqis
5) Demands that veterans receive the full health benefits, education, and compensation they deserve
6) Demands that compensation be given to the Iraqi people for the invasion, years of sanctions and air strikes, and for years of supporting the dictatorship of Saddam.
7) Is grassroots and does not think that just by electing someone to office that this war is going to end. Afterall, the antiwar movement used to say "half the way with LBJ" to end the war but when he got elected he expanded the war into Cambodia. I think it's important that we do not have disillusions about ANY political candidate, meaning that we realize no matter who gets elected, we are still going to have a war to protest for many years to come.
8) Is opening trying to outreach to other organizations to create a unified left antiwar movement. That means connecting the issues between sexism, islamophobia, the economy, immigrant rights, health care, racism, homophobia, Palestine, Afghanistan, the pending war with Iran, and trying to get people to see how all of these issues are connected to each other through the war.
9) Probably most importantly, recognized the key role veterans play in the antiwar movement. Not as the "token veteran" but as an actual activist and organizer of the movement. Because it won't be possible to end this war unless we get the military on our side.

I'm ready to end this war, and I'm ready for CAN and IVAW to take off the ground and push itself into the national perspective of the antiwar movement. Now who's with me!