[R-G] Why A National Student Strike?

[DavidMcR at aol.com]

<< 
 Why a National Student Strike?
 National Youth and Student Peace Coalition
 www.nyspc.net
 1-23-03
 
 This essay attempts to cover some of the strategic reasons why American
 Students should strike on March 5th for Education funding and in
 opposition to the War on Iraq.
 
 1. The Power of a National Strike and Strategy
 For obvious reasons, local actions which address the Bush-war-on-Iraq
 issue operating individually, while important, do not have the power to
 access the attention of national media or the federal government. A
 nationally-coordinated student strike will have much more impact than a
 strike any one school does on its own.  There are plans for several
 local student strikes. However, none of these will be able to reach the
 scale that the NYSPC is planning and with the reach it has. NYSPC is
 made up of 15 national youth and campus organizations with literally
 millions of members. Our organizations' e-mail and postal mail networks
 are indeed massive. Many campus organizers look to our organizations for
 guidance and advice for creating and disseminating national strategies
 of various kinds for various issues we work on. A combined, national
 strategy put forth by each organization towards the execution of a
 massive show of resistance to the US war plan will give us a fighting
 chance of sparking something much bigger than any of us imagined.
 
 2. The Power of Anticipation
 A walkout on the day after the war is a more transient action that will
 come and go quickly and be merely a blip on the radar screen. The power
 of the March 5th date is that there is time to build for it.  At the
 local level, it creates a buzz because organizers and participating
 students on campuses have to go through a campaign and debate process:
 writing letters in the school paper, having debates in student
 government, etc., discussing in their classes whether folks should
 strike. And nationally, NYSPC media team will have ample time to build
 for it in the national corporate media, thereby increasing its reach and
 significance. It makes it a bigger deal to a larger amount of people
 because of the anticipation that it creates and the decision it forces
 the mainstream of campus people to make.
 
 Conversely, a seemingly spontaneous reaction (walkout, protests,
 sit-ins, etc.) on the day of a US bombing or invasion of Iraq is of
 little significance to Bush, Inc. because frankly, 1) its going to be
 small, and 2) its what we always do. The typical situation is that when
 the US bombs start dropping, 30-50 of the same activists are out in the
 street because, being in the activist circle of information we're the
 only ones who knew about it. A concrete date gives organizers the chance
 to access the non-activist mainstream, many of whom are against the war,
 but normally wouldn't pay attention to an event that wasn't part of an
 organized, prepared campaign (posters, tabling, door-knocking, e-mail
 blitzes, phone-banking, etc). A specific date gives local/national
 organizers the ability to do preparatory events such as a press
 conference or week of lead-up actions, which also builds anticipation
 and shows the national corporate media how significant this action is.
 A strategy of building awareness and educating through anticipation will
 give us a much more widespread-and-thoroughly-reaching voice with which
 to pursue the movement's goals.
 
 3. The Significance of the Date
 It is generally assumed that some kind of US military activity will
 start in February, although nothing is certain.  Especially so, given
 the semi-successful opposition that France, Germany, and Russia have put
 forth to the Bush war plans and knowing that the US, in order to seem
 internationalist, has to go back to the UN in order to receive blessing
 for a military.  While there is little doubt that a war will happen,
 there is a possibility that these countries will muster enough
 resistance to at least delay the US' plans. Furthermore, if the
 bombing/invasion does begin in February date there is also speculation
 that the US may simply bomb for a while, before attacking with ground
 troops, possibly even waiting until this Fall to advance onto Baghdad
 (see: <http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1212/p02s02-wogi.html>).
 For all of these possible US military plans, March will be a crucial
 time. The necessity, then, of a massive demonstration of US opposition
 to whatever the then current US activity is will still be clear and
 present at the point of March 5th - the strike date.  It is necessary
 and predictable that the US citizen resistance to a war will continue to
 have political relevance on March 5th and on, and it is clear that we do
 have the capacity, energy, networking potential, and strategic/political
 relevance to pull off this nationally-coordinated, "hard-dated" strike
 if we plan well enough and organize hard enough .  A massive rate of
 participation in the strike will show that the initial furor of protest
 around when the war starts was not a fluke.
 
 4. "Strike" or "Walkout"?
 An important question for sure. It begs the question: "what's the
 difference?"
 
 Student Walkout: A walkout is the simple act of getting students to all
 get up out of their seats and walk out of class at the same time. This
 has connotations of being mainly a high school tactic, though not
 entirely. Since high school students are not allowed to leave class
 without permission, high school walkouts make the point that the
 students are not as easily controlled as the administration thinks or
 wants. Unlike a workers' action, which is usually preceded by a mass
 meeting at the which the decision to down tools is made together, high
 school students at their present level of political organization are
 unable to do this. A high school or college/university strike relies on
 individual students deciding to get up and walk out of class on their
 own. Many will succumb to the pressure of parents and school authorities
 and stay in class/school.
 
 Student Strike: In a strike, students refuse to attend classes and thus
 bring the campus to a halt. Faculty and staff can also strike. A student
 strike is difficult to organize, as it requires that a majority of
 students participate. This is typically considered a collegiate
 activity, though as mentioned, high schools sometimes "strike." A strike
 raises the ante in a few ways: It is perceived as being a long-term
 action, whereas a walkout can be seen as a one time deal. While students
 may "walkout" to begin a strike, a strike means they are staying out for
 a while.  Since the demand is aimed more at the federal government than
 at campus administrators, NYSPC is assuming that most students will be
 back in school the next day and not continue striking until military
 action ends.  That is why we are calling for a one-day strike.
 
 Another powerful component of a strike is the way it is perceived
 psychologically. It conjures up images of labor solidarity, picket
 lines, and mass meetings.  In many places, it is considered uncouth and
 even unhealthy to break strike.  If the proper ground is laid for a
 strike, the power of inertia is on the side of the organizers, not the
 administration.  During a well-timed and well-organized strike, its
 difficult to get people go back to school.  A "strike" is noted for
 shutting down an institution with sheer mass non-participation.  A
 walkout is usually a smaller band of people who are causing a stir by
 getting up and leaving class at a certain time, similar to wearing
 armbands in solidarity.
 
 Regarding the March 5th date, there is power in calling a "strike" as
 opposed to a "walkout." If our goal is stopping a war, and if our target
 is Bush and Co., then a national "strike" is much more powerful.  The
 word itself signals an escalation of tactics from the various activist
 pledges, demonstrations in Washington, New York, and San Francisco, and
 "walkouts" of November.  Internationally, the news that 200-300 campuses
 are "on strike," will cripple Bush's credibility and the assumption he
 has the support of the American people. In the weeks and days before the
 March 5th date, NPR, the BBC and other news networks should pick it up
 and run with it, which will give us more publicity and increase
 participation.
 
 Using the term "strike" is more pushy and may be considered unrealistic
 and undoable by some, especially in some more conservative areas. NYSPC
 is therefore making it clear to local organizers that it wants maximum
 participation. On some campuses it may be possible to actually get most
 of the students to miss class. However, it may be that we are only able
 to persuade 10-30% to actually participate. Nonetheless, this is a huge
 number of students compared to most student actions in the past decade,
 and we should consider it a success. We should be realistic about our
 possibilities for moving the apathetic hordes that inhabit our campuses.
 If we only want to call the action a "Walkout" locally then, the NYSPC
 strike task force will still consider the local event a part of the
 national action and do publicity for it as such. The national NYSPC has
 voted to refer to the action in all its materials as a student "strike."
 
 We as a movement have more of an opportunity to call for such an action
 that ever. It is almost a given that the military will have invaded or
 at least bombed by that point.  To many people, including students, this
 invasion is the most egregious foreign policy action the US government
 has ever taken.  It will surely involve many American casualties, and
 countless Iraqi ones, not to mention a lengthy and costly occupation all
 unprovoked and likely without the sanction of the United Nations.  It is
 likely to bring on echo of the 1960's era in terms of the angst around
 it. Once the military combat has died down and the occupation regime is
 installed and functional, protest potential will have dissipated. We
 should not pass up our chance to not only signal massive non-support,
 but also make our campus-based movement stronger for the long-haul. 
 
 
 
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