365
Augus
t
2
nd
, 2002
The Alarm! Newspaper
7
War Notes
A bi-monthly column following the developments of our new
permanent war, the war on terrorism
By SASHA K
The Alarm! Newspaper Contributor
Bombs and cover-ups
A preliminary UN investigation has
uncovered more ugly details about the
US bombing in early July of a wedding
party in Afghanistan. A couple of days
after the incident, the Pentagon an-
nounced that it would take some time
to investigate and that they didn’t even
know if anyone had indeed died. But
according to the Times of London, the
UN investigation found that US soldiers
arrived on the scene within hours and
fi lmed damaged buildings and the bod-
ies of around fi fty dead Afghanis. The
soldiers went much further than that,
however. After the attack, they appar-
ently tied up the women of the village
and cleaned up shrapnel, bullets and
bloodstains. The UN investigation also
found “no corroboration” on the ground
that the US plane had been fi red upon.
The Pentagon denied there was a cover-
up and still claims it is too early to draw
any conclusions. The UN was to make
its full report public on Wednesday, but
after the US denial, the UN gave the re-
port to the US and Afghan governments
and did not make it public. The cover-
up is being covered up.
Bombing peace
The US, of course, isn’t the only one
with a “collateral damage” problem.
Israel bombed a tightly packed Gaza
neighborhood last week, killing a Hamas
leader and fi fteen civilians and wound-
ing around 150. The attack is sure to
set off many revenge bombings of Israeli
civilian and military targets. Even the
US weakly condemned the attack, say-
ing that “this heavy-handed action does
not contribute to peace.” But was that
really the goal of dropping a one-ton
bomb on a crowded residential neigh-
borhood? Ariel Sharon, Bush’s “man of
peace,” seems to have had other aims
for the attack, which he personally ap-
proved. On the days leading up to the
July 23 bombing, there were several
signifi cant moves towards peace. First,
Abdul Razek Yahyia, the Palestinians’
interior minister, announced a new
security plan to reduce violence. Shi-
mon Peres, Israel’s foreign minister, was
pleased with the plan.
At the same time, the EU, Egypt, Jor-
dan and Saudi Arabia were in the midst
of brokering another peace plan that, as
a fi rst step, would have groups linked to
Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement—such
as the al-Aqsa Brigades—end the use of
suicide bombing within Israel. Finally,
on July 22, Hamas’ spiritual leader,
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, said that Hamas
would stop killing Israeli civilians if Is-
rael pulled out of the Palestinian cities
it recently reoccupied, freed prisoners
and stopped the assassination of Pales-
tinian leaders. These moves towards
peace were troubling to Sharon, whose
continued hold on power is based on
an Israeli fear of terrorism. Addition-
ally, if peace began to break out, Sharon
would have no excuse for reoccupying
Palestinian controlled areas or for the
removal of Arafat. But the bombing
quickly took care of Sharon’s mount-
ing problems, and it looks as if peace is
again safely a long way off.
Suicide bombing and landmines
If terrorism is defi ned as the targeting
of civilians, is the use of landmines an
act of terrorism? Landmines are much
more likely to kill civilians than mili-
tary personnel. This fact has been the
driving force behind the Ottawa Con-
vention, the fi ve-year-old global treaty
banning the use of landmines. Hamid
Karzai, the president of Afghanistan,
announced Sunday that Afghanistan
would become the 126th country to
sign the treaty. Afghanistan has been
badly affected by landmines: according
to the International Committee of the
Red Cross, 200,000 Afghanis have been
killed or wounded by mines in the last
twenty-three years of war. But there
are still a few prominent nations sup-
porting the continued use of landmines;
the US, China and Russia have not
signed the treaty. It is also estimated
that around 2,000 of the bombs the US
dropped on Afghanistan in the recent
war lie unexploded around the country,
ready to randomly kill and wound.
A chorus of doubt
As US talk of a war on Iraq reaches
a high point, a chorus of statements
against the war by leaders vital to any
war coalition is weakening Bush’s op-
portunity for a prompt attack. Arab
League chief Amr Musa warned that
any attack on Iraq would threaten
regional security. French President
Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder made a joint state-
ment that they would not support an
attack on Iraq without a UN mandate.
The Kuwaiti government called on
Iraq to let in inspectors and avoid the
war. King Abdullah of Jordan, meeting
with British Prime Minister Tony Blair,
said that Britain should not go along
with the US drive towards war. King
Abdullah, who will meet with President
Bush this week, said, “in the light of the
failure to move the Israeli-Palestinian
process forward, military action against
Iraq would really open a Pandora’s box.”
The Egyptian and Saudi governments
have also made statements against the
war. Iraq’s neighbour, Turkey, a key
NATO ally, stated its concerns over the
war. But it also quietly asked the US
to write off $4 billion of debt if the US
does go to war. And even in Britain,
America’s strongest supporter, a series
of letters and op-eds in newspapers by
retired, high-ranking military personnel
have denounced the war plans.
War and human rights
Last Friday, Mary Robinson, the
UN human rights chief who is to lose
her job due to US pressure, said the
US “war on terror” was encouraging
countries to roll back human rights.
She said that countries have been using
the crackdowns in the US and Europe
as an excuse to step up repression in
their own territories. Robinson didn’t
name any nation, but this week Egypt
arrested sixteen members of the Mus-
lim Brotherhood (which has renounced
violence), along with a prominent
human rights activist and sociology
professor, Saadeddin Ibrahim. Ibrahim
is being prosecuted by the Egyptian
government for monitoring Egyptian
elections. In China, the government
is increasing its repression of ethnic
Uyghurs, a Turkish minority that lives
in the western province of Xinjiang.
The Chinese government—attempting
to present itself as a US partner in the
“war on terrorism”—now legitimates
the repression by claiming, without any
evidence, that Uyghur separatists are
supported by Osama bin Laden.
By H. G. LEVINE
Pacifi c News Service
EDITOR’S NOTE
:
Earlier this month,
Great Britain effe
c
tively de
c
riminalized
marijuana. Now Canada may follow—mu
c
h
to the
c
hagrin of Ameri
c
a’s fervent drug war-
riors. But Canada, whi
c
h helped lead the
United States out of the prohibition era 70
years ago, may again show Washington
the light. PNS
c
ontributor Harry G. Levine
(hglevine@
c
ompuserve.
c
om) is a professor of
so
c
iology at Queens College, City University of
New York, and author of “Cra
c
k in Ameri
c
a
:
Demon Drugs and So
c
ial Justi
c
e” (1997,
University of California Press).
A specter is haunting US drug
warriors —the specter of marijuana de-
criminalization…in Canada.
U.S. lawmakers discovered with alco-
hol in the 1920s that it’s diffi cult to run
a successful prohibitionist regime when
a neighboring country has more tolerant
policies. Now it’s the same neighbor and
a different drug.
Canada’s National Post has quoted
Asa Hutchinson, head of the US Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA),
saying that recent and proposed canna-
bis policy reforms in Canada and Britain
could undermine support for the “war
on drugs” within the United States.
“We (in the US) have great respect
for Canada and Britain,” Hutchinson
said, “and if they start shifting policies
with regards to marijuana, it simply
increases the rumblings in this country
that we ought to re-examine our policy.
It is a distraction from a fi rm policy on
drug use.”
With classic understatement, the
DEA chief noted that decriminalizing
marijuana possession in Canada would
“complicate things somewhat for the
US” It certainly would, as two striking
precedents show.
There is the case of the Netherlands,
which for more than two decades has
“complicated things” for drug warriors
in Europe. A generation of Europeans
has seen Holland’s regulated system of
cannabis cafes succeed as a workable,
reasonable alternative to punitive and
ineffective anti-drug policies. Many
tourists have visited Dutch border towns
and cities to use cannabis and sometimes
to bring it home.
The DEA chief used the Dutch
experience to evoke the specter of a
Netherlands-like Canada attracting
marijuana tourists: “If you have lax
marijuana policies right across the bor-
der, where possession of marijuana is
not considered criminal conduct, that
invites US citizens into Canada for
marijuana use, and that will increase
the likelihood that both US citizens and
Canadian citizens will bring back the
Canadian marijuana across the border
for distribution and sale.”
A second worrisome precedent dates
back to the 1920s, when Canada ended
its own failed alcohol prohibition before
the United States repealed the 18th
Amendment in 1933. At that time, Can-
ada was a major source for the banned
drug. Many US tourists also used their
cars, trucks or boats to smuggle small
quantities of alcohol.
Just as important, regulated alcohol
policies in Canada (and England) also
served as easy-to-witness examples of
workable alternatives to the expensive,
punitive and impossible crusade for an
“alcohol-free society.” There is no doubt
Blame Canada
that Canada’s successful example was
extremely important in shifting opin-
ion about alcohol policy in the United
States.
Today, Canada, Britain and other
countries will likely play the same ex-
ample-setting role for the United States.
A growing number of mainstream
Canadian offi cials, politicians, organi-
zations and publications have already
proposed reducing or eliminating
criminal penalties for cannabis use.
A year ago, the Toronto Globe urged
the country to “decriminalize all—yes,
all—personal drug use, henceforth to
be regarded primarily as a health issue
rather than as a crime.”
Recently, Canadian Minister of
Justice Martin Cauchon said that his
country is seriously considering elimi-
nating criminal penalties for possessing
marijuana. Cauchon is waiting for the
recommendations of a legislative com-
mittee that is expected to recommend
relaxing current laws. “We’re not talk-
ing about making it legal,” Cauchon
said, “we’re talking about the possibility
of moving ahead with what we call ‘de-
criminalization.’”
Moving ahead on decriminaliza-
tion will take time. Canada will not
soon become the Netherlands of North
America, nor Vancouver its Amsterdam.
Marijuana production and sale is still il-
legal everywhere in the world, and even
in the Netherlands most cannabis use
is indoors, private and discrete. Finally,
the United States, which currently ar-
rests more than 700,000 people a year
for cannabis, shows no sign of letting
up.
But the United States is ever more
alone on its punitive drug-war path.
Many democratic countries have in-
formally or offi cially decriminalized
cannabis possession and use and oth-
ers are moving in that direction. Most
important, this is occurring in the
culturally linked, English-speaking
countries of Great Britain, Australia,
New Zealand and Canada.
Canada is already a cannabis-export-
ing nation and, as in Europe, indoor
cultivation is booming. Canada’s main
customer is the United States. As was
true for alcohol in the 1920s, this can-
not be stopped. There can never be
enough police to do the job.
By responsibly going ahead with
marijuana decriminalization—by do-
ing what is best for its own citizens
—Canada is again likely to lead the
way for the United States. As it did
seventy years ago, Canada can again
help the US see its own better drug
policy future.
© Copyright Pacifi c News Service
Northern neighbor’s
pot policy irks US drug
warriors
350
8
The Alarm! Newspaper
Augus
t
2
nd
, 2002
International/Internacional
Paramilitaries suspects in
killing of radio station owne
r
BOGOTÁ, July 1, 2002
(CPJ)—The owner of a radio
station, who recently had
alerted the public to the pres-
ence of paramilitary fi ghters in
the region, was shot and killed
in northeastern Colombia.
Efraín Varela Noriega, own-
er of Radio Meridiano-70, was
driving home from a university
graduation in Arauca Depart-
ment on the afternoon of June
28 when gunmen yanked him
from his car and shot him in
the face and chest, said Col.
Jorge Caro, acting commander
of Arauca’s police.
Varela hosted two polemical
news and opinion programs
for the station in the town of
Arauca and criticized all sides
fi ghting in Colombia’s 38-year
civil confl ict.
“He criticized everyone,”
said José Gutiérrez, who co-
hosted an afternoon program
called “Let’s Talk Politics” with
Varela. “No one was spared.”
Gutiérrez said that less than
a week before the killing,
Varela told listeners during
his morning news show that
fi ghters from the paramilitary
United Self-Defense Forces
of Colombia, or AUC, had
arrived in Arauca and were
patrolling the streets in the
town, which is on the border
with Venezuela.
Tension has been build-
ing in the oil-rich province
since early June when the
leftist Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, or FARC,
began threatening to kill civil
servants in the region who re-
fused to resign.
The rebels are battling the
paramilitary army for control
over lucrative territory not
only in Arauca but throughout
the country.
Three years ago, Varela’s
name appeared on a list of
people that the paramilitary
army had declared military
targets, said Caro, the acting
police commander, adding
that authorities were investi-
gating rumors that the AUC
was responsible for the killing.
A frequent listener of the sta-
tion, Caro said Varela seemed
to reserve his sharpest criti-
cism for the paramilitaries.
Offi cials from Arauca’s Pros-
ecutor’s Offi ce investigating
the case could not be reached
for comment on July 1, which
was a holiday in Colombia.
Varela, who was in his early
50s, was also the secretary of
a provincial peace commission
as well as its former president,
said Evelyn Varela, his 28-
year-old daughter, and the
manager of the station.
In recent months, Varela
had begun warning his only
child that his life could be in
danger. “He had us prepared
for the worst,” his daughter
said.
BOGOTÁ, 1 d
e
julio d
e
2002 (CPJ)—El propietario
de una radioemisora, quien
recientemente alertó al pú-
blico acerca de la presencia de
paramilitares en la región, fue
asesinado a balazos al noreste
de Colombia.
Efraín Varela Noriega,
propietario de Radio Meridi-
ano-70, conducía de regreso a
casa luego de asistir a un acto
de graduación en una uni-
versidad del departamento
de Arauca, la tarde del 28 de
junio, cuando unos pistoleros
lo bajaron de su auto y le dis-
pararon a la cara y el pecho,
según el coronel Jorge Caro,
comandante interino de la
policía de Arauca.
Varela era locutor de dos
polémicos programas de
noticias y opinión de la ra-
dioemisora en la ciudad de
Arauca, y criticaba a todas las
partes beligerantes del con-
fl icto civil colombiano, que ya
dura 38 años.
“Criticaba a todos,” co-
mentó José Gutiérrez, quien
preventaba junto a Varela un
programa vespertino llamado
“Hablemos de política.” “Na-
Sospechan de paramilitares
en asesinato de propietario
de radio emisoara
die se salvaba.”
Gutiérrez declaró que
menos de una semana an-
tes del asesinato, Varela les
dijo a los oyentes durante su
noticiero matutino que los
paramilitares de las Autode-
fensas Unidas de Colombia
(AUC) habían llegado a Ar-
auca y estaban patrullando las
calles de la ciudad, localizada
en la frontera con Venezuela.
La tensión se ha venido
acumulando en este depar-
tamento, rico en petróleo,
desde principios de junio cu-
ando las izquierdistas Fuerzas
Armadas Revolucionarias de
Colombia (FARC) comen-
zaron a amenazar de muerte
a los funcionarios públicos de
la región que se negaran a re-
nunciar a sus cargos.
Los rebeldes se disputan
con el ejército paramilitar el
control sobre territorios lucra-
tivos, no sólo en Arauca, sino
también en todo el país.
Hace tres años, el nom-
bre de Varela fi guró en una
lista de personas a quienes el
ejército paramilitar había de-
clarado ser objetivos militares,
precisó Caro, el comandante
This pie
c
e was produ
c
ed by the
Committee for the Prote
c
tion of
Journalists. For more infomation
:
http
:
//www.
c
pj.org.
Go see INDIA on Page 12
COLOMBIA:
interino de la policía, quien
añadió que las autoridades
estaban investigando rumores
de que las AUC habían sido
responsables del asesinato.
Caro, asiduo oyente de la
radioemisora, señaló que
Varela parecía guardar las
críticas m
á
s fuertes para los
paramilitares.
Los intentos por obtener
declaraciones de parte de los
funcionarios de la Fiscalía de
Arauca encargados de investi-
gar el caso el 1 de julio fueron
infructuosos, por haber sido
día feriado en Colombia.
Varela, quien tenía alred-
edor de 50 años, también era
secretario y ex-presidente de
una comisión de paz departa-
mental, indicó Evelyn Varela,
su hija de 28 años y gerente
de la emisora.
En los últimos meses,
Varela había comenzado a
advertirle a su hija única que
su vida podía estar en riesgo.
“Nos preparó para lo peor.”
declaró su hija.
Esta nota fue produ
c
ida por El
Comité para la Prote
cc
ión de Pe-
riodistas. Para más informa
c
ión
:
http
:
//www.
c
pj.org.
India’s new Muslim president
heads into storm
By SANDIP ROY
Pacifi c News Service
Nuclear scientist by profes-
sion, Muslim by faith, India’s
new president faces a country
still reeling from Hindu-Mus-
lim riots. The question is
whether Dr. Abdul Kalam
can heal these wounds.
For the thousands of Mus-
lims still huddled in refugee
camps in Gujarat, Kalam’s as-
cension to the highest offi ce
in the land is small consola-
tion.
Nishrin Hussain has been
to some of those camps.
Though she now lives in
the United States, her fam-
ily resides in Gujarat. “I got
a call from my brother to say
our family home had been
burned in the riots,” Hussain
said. “Then he paused and
said our father was inside at
the time.”
So were 150 other Mus-
lims—mostly women and
children—who had sought
safety by sheltering with
Hussain’s 74-year-old father,
Dr. Ahsan Jafri, a former
member of parliament.
Dr. Jafri spent three hours
calling everyone he knew for
help, from political bigwigs to
police commissioners. But the
mob outside chopped down
the phone lines and threw
kerosene bombs into the
house. Jafri came out with
folded hands and pleaded
for the lives of those trapped
inside. He was cut down with
a sword and burned, and the
house was set on fi re.
“They identifi ed 98 bod-
ies,” says Nishrin, her voice
shaking. “I knew every single
one of them by name. They
were my friends, classmates,
neighbors.”
The riots in Gujarat started
when a train of Hindu pil-
grims coming from a disputed
temple site clashed with local
Muslims in Godhra. Muslims
allegedly set the train on fi re,
burning alive 58 Hindus. In
the carnage that followed,
some 2,000 people, mostly
Muslims, are believed to
have been killed. Around
100,000 still languish in refu-
gee camps.
In a new book, “Ethnic
Confl ict and Civic Life: Hin-
dus and Muslims in India,”
writer Asutosh Varshney
compares different cities in
India with similar communal
makeup—such as Aligarh
and Kozhikode, and Ahmed-
abad and Surat—to fi nd out
why one is prone to Hindu-
Muslim violence while the
other is not. Varshney thinks
the reason is that in places
like Surat and Kozhikode,
Hindus and Muslims have
strong business connections.
In Ahmedabad and Aligarh—
scenes of deadly riots in the
past—Muslims tend to be
ghettoized.
A fact-fi nding mission
from an Indian non-govern-
mental group known as the
Citizens Initiative found that
ghettoization is spreading to
the villages.
The group also found
that rape is being used as
a weapon of war. Women
were burned alive to destroy
evidence of their sexual as-
sault. Pregnant women had
fetuses ripped out of their
bodies. Women arrived at
refugee camps naked, some
with pieces of wood inserted
in their vaginas.
After the Godhra killings,
where many of the victims
were women, a Gujarati daily,
Sandesh, had published front
page stories of mobs dragging
away Hindu women from the
trains, and of Hindu women
who had their breasts cut
off. The stories were false.
Published retractions were
buried in inside pages.
When the mobs descend-
ed on a Muslim area of the
city of Ahmedabad, they
276
Augus
t
2
nd
, 2002
The Alarm! Newspaper
9
To “grind” is
to work your
hustle, whether
it be drugs,
stocks or real
estate. In these
tough times,
everybody is
grindin’
”
“
Commentary
Grindin’—when hip hop goes retro, it’s woe in
the ghetto
By KEVIN WESTON
Pacifi c News Service
EDITOR’S NOTE
:
The thump and
c
ra
c
k of early 1980s hard
c
ore beats are
ba
c
k on the streets of urban Ameri
c
a,
writes PNS
c
ontributor Kevin Weston.
That means desperation and violen
c
e
are ba
c
k, too, as a
c
utthroat drive for
survival energizes hip hop even as
c
on-
ditions in the ‘hood deteriorate. Weston
(kweston@pa
c
ifi
c
news.org) is editor of
Youth Outlook (YO!), a magazine by and
about Bay Area youth that
c
an be found
at www.youthoutlook.org.
OAKLAND,
California—That
earthquake-like beat in the distance
is the sound of hip hop returning to
underground roots put down in the
‘80s. Hip hop was hardcore back then,
because hard times were spreading
like the fl u—just like now.
Tik crack
Thump
/
thump
Thump
/
thump
Boom
/
Boom
/
Boom
It’s the sound that only hip hop
can make. It’s different from the usu-
al West Coast
/
Southern “funk” hop
(Lil Wayne, Dre, DJ Quik, Snoop),
NY superstar rap (Nas, Jay Z) and
fl avor-of-the-month hip pop
/
R&B
(Ashanti
/
Ja Rule, Usher) that booms
from car stereos.
That “tik crack” drum track “Grin-
din’‚“ by Virginia-based rap duo The
Clipse comes through my East Oak-
land three-way intersection four or
fi ve times a night, toppling The Big
Tymers’ “Hood Rich” from fi rst place
on my own unoffi cial street-bump
chart.
To “grind” is to work your hustle,
whether it be drugs, stocks or real es-
tate. In these tough times, everybody
is grindin’, with the same cutthroat
“earn by all means necessary” atti-
tude of a CEO or gangster.
Listen to Malice, who, with Pusha
T, writes The Clipse’s raps:
“My grind’s ‘bout family, never been
about fame,
From days I wasn’t ‘Abel
/
able,’ there
was always ‘Cain
/
caine,’
Four and a half will get you in the
game,
Anything less is just a goddamn
shame,
Guess the weight, my watch got blue
chips in the face,
Glock with two tips, whoever gets in
the way,
Not to mention the hideaway that
rests by the lake,
Consider my raw demeanor the icing
on the cake,
I’m grinding.”
Sound familiar? Reaganomics,
excessive materialism, high crime,
crack, the fi rst round of welfare
reform, the scourge of AIDS, high
unemployment, urban decay, poor
schools, the rise of gangs and rampant
police brutality defi ned the nation’s
urban landscape in the 1980s.
Now, more than just the attitude in
Malice’s lyrics or the song’s infectious
beats recall the ‘80s. Nationwide,
the overall crime rate is up for the
fi rst time in a decade. In Oakland,
the number of murders threatens to
double from last year’s total of forty-
eight.
Preachers and community leaders
held a “peace march” in response to
the recent rash of mostly Black-on-
Black violence. A similar march was
held in 1986, when Oakland was
literally “crackin’.” At the height of
the crack-inspired turf wars in 1992,
more than 200 people were mur-
dered here. Most of the killings were
drug related, with Black victims and
perpetrators.
The bloodletting of the mid-’80s
through the early ‘90s set the stage
for the L.A. riots in 1992, the mas-
sive jailing program known as the
Clinton Crime
Bill in 1994 and
the
redemp-
tive vibes of the
Million
Man
March in 1995.
Eventually, rap
music smoothed
out and became
mainstream.
But
“Grin-
din’” has the
aural aesthetic
of hip hop born
in early ‘80s
hardcore beats.
The
single—
produced
by
the Asian and
Black hit-making duo known as The
Neptunes—is all beat and boom, com-
pletely stripped down to the naked
soul of ghetto-bred rhythm.
There have been similar sounds in
the history of rap. Run DMC’s “Suck-
er M.C.s,” Mantronics “Fresh Is the
Word,” Audio Two’s “Top Billin’,” Ice
T’s “6 in Da Mornin’,” UTFO’s “Rox-
anne Roxanne” and Easy E’s (RIP)
“Boyz in Da Hood”—all were made in
the mid–to late 1980s, when hip hop
wasn’t on commercial radio.
Dr. Dre’s classic “The Chronic,”
released in 1992, and its melodic
hit single “Nuthin But a G Thang”
was more like an R&B tune, a sing-
songy departure from the hardcore.
“Nuthin” was one of the fi rst gangsta
rap singles to get mainstream radio
play. The sound was reconciling and
laid back, like an L.A. sunset. The
video featured a barbecue and house
party—two activities that were al-
most impossible to do in the roaring
‘80s of drive-bys and crack kingpins
like Oakland’s Felix Mitchell, L.A.’s
Rick “Freeway” Ross and New York’s
Nicky Barnes.
That smooth formula has ruled
from
the
mid-’90s until
now.
The “raw
demeanor”
that Malice
raps about is
the attitude
of desperation
and greedy
ambition that
drove Felix
Mitchell and
many others
to
contrib-
ute to the
destruction
of the com-
munity while
feeding their families—a bitter irony
made possible only in America. I ex-
pect the music to get better as times
threaten to get worse.
“Grindin’” reaffi rms hip hop’s
musical power. If hip hop becomes
a revolutionary cultural force for
change again, know that conditions
in the ‘hoods where the sounds are
born are getting more desperate and
hectic. That’s good for the music, bad
for the ‘hood.
© Copyright Pacifi c News Service
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This space is set aside each
week for a youth voice and
perspective. We welcome and
encourage you to write on a wide
range of topics.
We accept entries written in
English or Spanish, whichever
language you are most com-
fortable with. Entries should be
approximately 750 words. Please
contact us in advance if you’re
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ering.
Youth
Anti-what? movement:
Berkeley protesters
struggle for points of un
n
By RUSSELL MORSE
YO! Youth Outlook
OCTOBER 28, 2001—Dominique, a
22-year-old Cal student, stands in a blue
work jumpsuit with a purple bandanna
on her head, what she calls her “Rosie
the Riveter outfi t.” She’s holding an
American fl ag with rainbow colored
stripes at an anti-war rally, trying to get
passers-bys to sign a petition to “protect
our civil liberties.”
“I was never politically active before
this. Never in my entire life. A couple
weeks ago, though, I was walking out
of class and I heard somebody tell this
guy, ‘Stop looking at me, you barbaric
Arab.’ I was shocked. Then I came out
here and heard these people cheering
‘stop the violence, stop the hate.’ From
there I started marching and going to
their meetings.”
There’s a new anti-war movement
brewing on the Berkeley campus, but it’s
not your parents’ protest. Young people
are not chanting “Hell no, we won’t go.”
They’re crying out for racial justice. It’s
a movement that’s brought the diverse
campus together to some extent, but
also has driven it apart. A lot of differ-
ent groups with different agendas have
gotten involved, which has caused con-
fusion and turned some away from the
movement altogether.
After two weeks of involvement in
the organizing effort, Dominique has
noticed some areas she feels could be
fi ne tuned.
“There is a laundry list of issues. A
lot of people want to talk about a lot of
different things. We have people with all
different reasons why they don’t want
war or why they want their civil liberties
protected, so it’s kind of hard. It would
help if we could be joined for one thing
like ‘stop the war.’”
Dominique got involved because she
wanted to stop racial profi ling at her
school. She was angered by the hate
crimes that had been committed against
Muslims and Arab Americans and want-
ed to see what she could do to ease the
tension. Two weeks later, she’s trying to
get people to sign a petition on Civil Lib-
erties. She understands it as part of the
effort, but wants to be more involved in
the campaign for racial justice.
“The main issue is racism in general.
The thing is, when you go against people
who look Middle Eastern, that can be
anybody. Somebody said to me ‘bring all
your friends, we’re going to bomb your
ass.’ I said ‘I’m from Puerto Rico—you’ve
been bombing Vieques for the last twen-
ty-fi ve years.’ If that’s happening here in
Berkeley, imagine what’s happening in
New York. That’s where my family lives.
My father’s calling me and telling me
they’re calling him towel head. We can’t
support terrorism but how are we going
to fi ght terrorism with terrorism?”
Eric is an 18-year-old freshman at Cal
and a member of USA United Students
of America. They’re a group of young
people at Berkeley who have come to-
gether to show their support for America
in the face of attacks and particularly the
anti-war movement.
“We are kind of disgusted in a way
by these protests, so we decided to rise
up and show the world that there are
people in Berkeley that do support
America.”
Eric stands there, with a large Ameri-
can fl ag over his shoulder, the only fl ag
at the rally that is not in some way de-
faced, altered or displayed upside-down.
He is surrounded by a group of people
who don’t share his views and he calmly
addresses all of their questions and ac-
cusations.
USA and its members have, expected-
ly, encountered a lot of opposition since
the group was formed. Eric tells the story
of an anti-war organizer who followed a
USA co-founder to his dorm, yelling at
him and shaking his fi st.
“He was saying how peace was the
way and ‘you’re completely wrong’
and I honestly didn’t catch much of it
because of all the yelling and screaming.
That’s the thing, we at USA like to keep
things calm and rational. A lot of people
scream and shout and they yell and they
are very emotional about this. But we at
USA are rational, we understand that
there will be violence, we understand
that there will be deaths and it’s an un-
fortunate thing that has to happen.”
Eric and his fellow organizers at
USA don’t want to shut the protesters
up, though. He stressed the importance
of ensuring that the anti-war people
have a voice and an arena in which to
voice their dissenting opinions, but has
a hard time understanding why they’re
attempting to address so many differ-
ent issues in the context of an anti-war
dialogue.
“I differ on their viewpoints but I
believe in free speech. I think that some
of the rhetoric that they’re using isn’t
good, though. They’re tying in a lot of
different cards—the race factor, the sex
factor—and I don’t think that neces-
sarily applies to the situation. This is a
war on terrorism. This isn’t a war on a
specifi c ethnicity or religion or group or
people.”
Even within the group of American
loyalists, there is some tension and
war-hawkish people in our organiza-
iza-
-
tion that support ground troops. They
support going in there with a lot of mili-
tary force, but there are some people in
our group that don’t feel that way, but
still want to show their support. What
brings us all together, though, is that
we’re pro-American.”
After the rally had ended and people
broke off into groups for further dis-
cussion and organizational meetings,
a curious division of people became
obvious. In the post racial-justice-rally
shuffl e, people had broken up along
color lines—most obviously and notably,
black and white.
The white students (mostly male)
congregated at the foot of the steps
of Sproul Hall and the black students
around the fountain across the plaza.
It turned out that most of the black
students had been in class (where one
might expect a college student to be at
1:00 on a Wednesday) and weren’t plan-
ning on attending anyway.
Troy, a 19-year-old Oakland native,
was taking a test during the rally. “I care
about the anti-war movement to an
extent, but I don’t see how that’s gonna
stop crazy George Bush from going to
war. He wouldn’t even help us out with
the energy crisis, so why would he give a
damn about a few sons and daughters of
hippies and Black Panthers protesting?”
Troy acknowledged that some past
movements had been effective in bring-
ing about social change, but said that he
feels those days are over.
“The thing about the 1960s is that was
the fi rst time in a long time people really
started taking a stand, but now people
look at Berkeley like, ‘okay, they’re
gonna be protesting about something, so
who cares?’”
Nile, also 19, is a political science
major and works for a local assembly-
woman trying to extend political power
to Bay Area youth. She was taking a
midterm during the rally and supports
aspects of the movement, but like oth-
ers, is confused by the agenda.
“It takes a drop of water to fi ll a
bucket, you know—you have to start
somewhere, but it seems like the stop-
the-war movement would be more
successful if they just focused on one
thing.”
Matt Smauss is a student and principal
organizer for the Stop the War Coalition.
He was excited that the rally had been
successful, but was a little disappointed
by the low turnout, which he said was
“really small, like 100 or 200 people.” A
lot of those were passing students who
would stop for a little bit and then move
on. He did note, however, that it had
only been put together the night before.
He spoke about a group of people on
campus who were not happy with the
direction the movement was taking.
“The student Jewish organizations
have interpreted some of our message
as anti-Semitic, but it’s not meant that
way. It’s criticism of Israel’s policy, not
of Israel. There are some people in the
movement, though, who do criticize Is-
rael and they say Zionism is imperialism
or apartheid or colonialism or whatever,
so we’re gonna try and address that is-
sue.”
But just as he fi nished talking about
some of the opposition they’ve encoun-
tered from one group, he was in the
process of building a bridge with anoth-
er: the United Students of America.
“It’s a coming together between the
two opposing groups of the rally under
the second two points of unity: End Rac-
ism and Defend Civil Liberties. So what
we do is agree to disagree on the fi rst
one (Stop the War) and come together
on the second and third to try and get
our message out.”
So for what must be the fi rst time in
the history of protest, members of an
anti-war movement will be pro-war.
Russell, 20, is a senior writer for YO!
YO! Youth Outlook is an award-winning
literary monthly journal of youth life in the
Bay Area.
YO!
c
hroni
c
les the world through the eyes
and voi
c
e of young people—between the ages
of 15 and 25—in the San Fran
c
is
c
o Bay Area.
From reporting pie
c
es on Palestinian Ameri-
c
an youth in the Bay Area to interviews with
gospel hip hop bands, from photo essays by
homeless youth to journal entries from temp
workers in Sili
c
on Valley, YO! offers a unique
window into California’s youth sub
c
ultures.
YO! has a high profi le, with a daily
c
olumn
in the San Fran
c
is
c
o Examiner, a national
distribution of 40,000 and an annual expo of
youth
c
ommuni
c
ators—from graffi ti artists to
fi lmmakers to in
c
ar
c
erated youth. YO! stories
also run nationally and internationally over
the Pa
c
ifi
c
News Servi
c
e wire.
Visit www.youthoutlook.org for more.
Documents you may be interested
Documents you may be interested
