Where Have All the Protests Gone? US Students in Limbo
by Michael Mathes
“When student Hemnecher Amen joined a protest outside the White House recently, it was the latest visible opposition here to US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hardly anyone took notice.
“There’s a lot of apathy and a growing disconnectedness to what’s going on in world affairs,” the frustrated Howard University junior told AFP as some 200 people, including a handful of students, gathered for the march.
“Students are more interested in trying to get a job and make money. That’s essentially the bottom line.”
Where are all the student protesters? Well actually, where have they been for the last 2 years? Most of the anti-war action organizing I see online is started by older people. Am I looking in the wrong places? All of the protests I have gone to in the last 2 years have been organized and attended by older people. Students are MIA. The student protesters were around before that, at large protests, but they haven’t been protesting lately. The peace group I am a member of in my city has only one member younger than 30, (and I’m guessing at this person’s age).
The students and younger people in my city don’t protest, they don’t write letters to the editor, and from a standpoint of noticing what they do — they don’t do much of anything to protest war. They are busy with keeping in touch with each other, I guess, but not with the world as a whole. People really in touch with the world would be protesting these wars. Out in the streets, not on Facebook. Politicians don’t bother with Facebook, other than to use it to eavesdrop and spy on people.
About 95% of the peace activists I know of online and in person are women. Where are the men? Where are the students? I don’t mean bloggers, I mean the activists, the people who get outside and hold up signs and write letters and call Congress. I get calls from local organizers to attend health care rallies though. But no war protests of any size, and no global warming demonstrations.
This isolates us as Americans. It seems as though all we care about is ourselves, and not the rest of the world.
The audio clip of Mike Malloy below got me thinking: by what authority does President Obama get to decide how many troops we add to the war in Afghanistan, and by what authority does he get to decide how long to continue this war? The Constitution gives war-making authority to Congress and only to Congress. Congress should stop funding it, but of course if Obama presents a war plan and asks for money, he’ll get it. No one in Congress will stop this war because few in Congress have the courage to fight for their convictions. They will just do what Obama wants. So, it’s frustrating to many people. Listen to Mike Malloy from Friday November 13th while you read the article, if you can. The two subjects are related. Do we really want to continue to kill people in Afghanistan? I don’t know. Let’s put it to a vote.
The story Malloy is talking about at the beginning is here. A single mother soldier with a child and no child care was ordered to deploy to Afghanistan to kill people, or face court martial.
Mike Malloy audio clip here. Come on, listen to it. I dare you.
Just so you know, Mike Malloy is not young, he’s in his mid-60s. People in his generation and the one before it are the ones speaking most forcefully against Afghanistan, maybe because they can clearly remember the situation with Vietnam. He has a point of reference that students today completely lack. What war do they remember growing up with — the First Gulf War, that war misportrayed as such a glorious victory? No wonder they aren’t protesting Afganistan.
Is this apathy? Yes, I think people under 30 are mostly apathetic about politics and wars. But then, they were also apathetic when I was younger. We have to face that fact that we have a minority of people who give a shit about any of this. When Obama was elected, all of the peace activists in my city decided to stop their regular public peace demonstrations because they thought Obama would fix everything. Why bother? Well, now we know why. The people we need to hear from are the soldiers. They should be the ones leading the protests of these wars. The rest of us are just too far removed from what the media is still trying its best to gloss over.
Someone in this article blames student silence on tasers. Oh come on. Why do you think taser use is so prevalent? Because not enough people have protested their use. Cops will use what ever they can. Now teachers and other people are using tasers on children, on students.
Where Have All the Protests Gone? US Students in Limbo
by Michael Mathes
WASHINGTON – When student Hemnecher Amen joined a protest outside the White House recently, it was the latest visible opposition here to US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hardly anyone took notice.
“There’s a lot of apathy and a growing disconnectedness to what’s going on in world affairs,” the frustrated Howard University junior told AFP as some 200 people, including a handful of students, gathered for the march.
“Students are more interested in trying to get a job and make money. That’s essentially the bottom line.”
With the US military several years into two faraway wars, American students like Amen are taking to the streets less often — and to less effect — than their Vietnam-era predecessors who were the vanguard of the anti-war movement in the 1960s and early 1970s.
Mounting economic and academic pressures on today’s youth, intimidation by authorities, online distractions and conflicted views about the “good” war in Afghanistan, not to mention other causes such as health care and slashed school budgets clawing for attention, have conspired to snuff out anti-war activism on campus, experts and students say.
They acknowledge, too, that US President Barack Obama has paradoxically hampered the movement because many of the largely leftist protest groups haven’t wanted to openly oppose him so early in his first term.
“There’s this trust that he’s going to fix it all,” said Shara Esbenshade, 19, a sophomore at Stanford University and member of Stanford Says No To War.
She says there are no anti-war marches on her campus, only vigils, educational events and occasional protests against Condoleezza Rice, who has returned to Stanford after serving as George W. Bush’s secretary of state.
“We’d really like to start doing more about Afghanistan,” she added. “But students here rising up? I really don’t see that happening.”
At Kent State University, where in 1970 four unarmed students were shot dead by the Ohio National Guard, Andrew Ruminas, 20, a member of the Kent State Anti-War Committee, said “we’re not even doing any demonstrations now.”
Perhaps, according to 1960s protest icon and political activist Tom Hayden, that’s because the single most important act to silence student dissent — the privatization of conflict — occurred a generation ago.
“Students were the bulwark of the anti-Vietnam war movement because students were being drafted, full stop,” Hayden, a founding member of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in 1962, told AFP.
“Ending forced conscription radically diminished the possibilities of future student anti-war protests.”
Hayden, one of the “Chicago Seven” charged with inciting to riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, said students have “rechanneled” their activism, notably into Internet campaigns including the one last year that helped sweep Obama into the White House.
Many of today’s students are marching with their fingers instead of their feet, signing online petitions, reading or writing blogs and planning anti-war agendas on the Web.
Stanley Aronowitz, a Vietnam anti-war organizer, insists online petitions do nothing but entrench users in the “anti-reality” of Internet activism.
“I don’t believe petitions do anything,” he said. “They are what middle-class people and intellectuals do to convince themselves they’re getting somewhere.”
Aronowitz, now a sociology professor at City University of New York, acknowledges that new social technologies on the Web — Facebook, Twitter, YouTube — have mass mobilization potential.
“But they also privatize people’s lives to much more of a degree than when people had to go to meetings and act collectively.”
As society has digitized, the American left has splintered, Aronowitz says, losing the confidence to mobilize people as it did in early 2003 when millions protested the looming Iraq invasion.
As a result, “many people have put their faith in electoral politics rather than direct action.”
Jonathan Williams, who runs Student Peace Action Network, says it’s not just a matter of apathy or a shift to campus issues like soaring student debt; there has been what he calls a “criminalization of dissent.”
Williams said he was arrested along with other activists and journalists at a demonstration at last year’s Republican National Convention and detained for four days.
In 2007, police used an electro-shock Taser on a student causing a disturbance during an address by Senator John Kerry. Videos of the event have been seen on YouTube more than seven million times.
“After seeing that, are you going to speak out?” Williams asked.
As US support for the Afghan mission retreats — a CNN poll on Wednesday suggested 58 percent of Americans are now against the war — Obama is mulling whether to approve a request to send up to 40,000 more troops.
Todd Gitlin, a former SDS president in the 1960s who now teaches at Columbia University, says a “critical mass” of youth against the war has not materialized to bring huge numbers out in protest.
Should Obama approve the Afghan troop request, Gitlin cautions, “that might be the trigger.”
Source: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/16-6
Internet campaigns will not end wars. Ever. The internet is best as an organizational tool, not a tool of actual protest. That is what your phone and your feet are for.
Well, I can tell you, there are a lot of students protesting climate change. In the last month I was at an event at our state capitol that had over 250 students marching down the streets of our capital for climate action. A second event later in the month had about 200 students, with a total of 500 people for 350’s international day of action, so they are out there.
The difference is, they are using the internet, as my organization discovered, traditional ways of organizing are not as effective with the youth, so the internet based event building is what is needed. That’s why “the Wall” from Repower America is being so successful, and as I understand it, will likely make a pretty big impact. (www.repoweramerica.org/wall)
I believe every video testimonial on there is going to be hand delivered to every senator office in the country if they have constituents on there. It’s basically a hand written letter where you can see their faces, therefore, it cannot be forged.
As anyone who has been involved in organizing knows, face to face is much more powerful than a simple phone call.
Anyway, in my personal opinion, the protest of the war is not the priority issue for youth, climate change and clean energy jobs is. I don’t honestly even see them out for health care events. Of course, I’m not everywhere either. *shrug*
That’s good to hear. Climate change is the most important issue, IMO.
I’m aware of the Repower wall and the reason I didn’t add my own photo/video to it is that it’s just like a petition. Petitions have very limited impact. It feels good to sign them, with or without video and photos, and adding the photo or video is completely unproven as a way to be more effective. More effective would be 1 or 2 or 3 million people marching in Washington. People in the streets and campaign pressure get things done. The reason the “Repower” wall will be unsuccessful is already evident — action by Obama on climate change has been effectively cancelled for 2009. He doesn’t care about petitions. Copenhagen is mostly now a mere formality and it will not result in a pact. And the legislation the Repower campaign is behind is (I think) cap and trade, which will do nothing for climate change until 2026, which is way too late. If the Repower campaign is behind some other solution, I’d love to hear about it. Cap and trade is not a solution.
I think what might make an impact are the huge, in-person demonstrations that I’m hearing about planned for Copenhagen in December. There might even be civil disobedience, and arrests, which are actually methods that have an impact. I think we’re way past the point of politely signing petitions and doing things online. I’m aware of lots of campaigns online for climate change and it’s not nearly enough unless it’s planning for civil disobedience. That’s just my opinion, but it’s also what Greenpeace and some other groups are doing. People have to get out of the comfort of their homes and raise the volume in person. The reasons the Tea Partiers get noticed by us AND the media AND politicians is 1) they are out in force marching visibly in public and 2) they are loud and annoying. That’s effective. The Repower Wall will not be effective. Effective is what counts. all the good wishes and intentions in the world are no substitute for anger, in person, in the offices of Congress. They are intimidated by angry people, as they should be. (See, I’ve been reading some Derrick Jensen… I recommend everyone read him or listen to him on Youtube.)
Any in-person activity probably has 100X the impact of sending in petitions, signature, videos, etc. on ANY issue.
I’ve been intending to write a post like this for a while, but you beat me to it. It’s unfortunately too true, the younger generation doesn’t really care about Afghanistan/Iraq war. What is truly frightening, is that we have 8 year olds who never knew a world without war.
The problem now is that war is far too privatized. We have more contractors in Iraq than we have soldiers. As a society we don’t have to deal with rations or war bonds like America did in the 1940’s, and we don’t experience the full effects of war like we did with Vietnam, because media has less access and our casualties are lower. This is not good, because if American becomes apathetic about war.. that does not bode well.
This stalling by Obama should have been seized by anti-war movements. The longer Obama doesn’t decide, the more time there is to organize and protest the war, to put pressure on both him and the Congress to withdraw. Unfortunately, healthcare dominates.
- Golden Arple
I was thinking the same thing, that this long drawn-out decision making process about how many troops to send would have been the perfect opportunity for huge anti-war protests! Maybe Obama was even waiting for that? There were none at all in my state that I’m aware of…. so it’s not just young people, there is an apathy in everyone.
Opinion polls show that the Afghanistan war is unpopular. Large protests could have even turned Obama around on whether or not it was politically worth it, at least. I think people are still assuming Obama will be sensible and end the war soon, but that’s really not very likely.
I guess everyone has their reasons for non-involvement. I say without reservation the war/s are wrong, but none too many seem to care. Unlike in earlier times, today you have so many diversions on the TV as well as people on both sides of the political spectrum, such as drugbo/malloy, o’reilly/maddow, Glenn Vaporub Beck/Ed Schultz who’s audience can have their voice heard through such people. The people on either side or somewhere in-between of left or wrong can have someone shout their message to the world. This serves to diffuse a lot of anger. Plus, there is no ‘draft’. This serves to placate and salve the consciences of many who otherwise would be on the front to abolish conscription and end the war. The people comfort themselves that there is no draft and therefore, whatever bad thing happens to military service personnel is legitimate because they joined. The deaths of foreigners means absolutely nothing to these people. Is it selfishness? In many cases, a resounding ‘YES’. The selfish younger generation doesn’t care about anything like social justice. Young people are going Republikan and they don’t realize that it was Democratic principles that gave them a decent standard of living. The young people today are taught that the poor are there because they want to be there or because they are lazy. Plus, there are lots of neat toys and video games to keep their minds off of stuff like that. The rich will never allow a ‘draft’ again as it pertained to their lineage in earlier times. The rich are forming rules more to their own advantage more than ever. To think they will give up anything is folly. You can’t even get single-payer health-care. You’re not going to get a draft where the rich spawn go off to fight and die for the corporations. People are also clinging to their mini-McMansion if they still have a place to live. They’re afraid of losing their kingdom coccoon because of taking a stand for anything. Religion is playing it’s part in war as well. Instead of speaking out against death and destruction, people are praying for the leaders who choose to send people somewhere they have no business being to die, kill, be killed or be injured. Prayers for the troops might be nice for some, but let’s get real. Troops don’t need prayer. Troops need armor. Better yet, troops need removal and repatriation to their own nations where they serve and those who put them in harm’s way should not be allowed to send others to die.
@Bugga: Thanks for the great comment. And I caught the Beck Vaporub treatment video too. It’s probably the closest he’ll ever come to real human emotion.
You are totally right about the draft too. If we had one, people would demand the war end immediately. That’s why there will never be one again.
Thanks, ST. Glad you liked it. These people make mistakes and they learn from some of them, such as the Smedley Butler affair and the draft. I don’t know what they’re up to in every case, such as the elimination of US jobs or failure to maintain bridges in Minnesota, etc., but they’ve handled the war thing pretty well and put so many people into power who never should have been there like george, junior. I don’t know what it is with people like Beck. He’s seen to be doing that right on camera and you see him mugging pretending to be crying as if his best friend just died beside him (in a corporate-sponsored war?) yet people still take him seriously. What has happened to the people? It seems they get dumber and dumber. A fraud exposed used to be a fraud thereafter. ‘A Face in the Crowd’ is a movie you should check out if you can find it. That’s how things used to go and in a real world, still would go. Nowadays the people have their heads wrapped up in fiction like the ‘Left Behind’ series and that has-been child-actor Cameroon giving dumb logic about how his god exists because of man-domesticated bananas. People today rationalize ‘Well, gawd inspired the man to make the banana what it izz’. There are so many people today who say that the pollution and environmental degradation doesn’t matter, because they are convinced that because a chapter in 2nd Peter says that a new world is coming and God or Jesus (I forgot which one) is going to make a new universe, ad nauseum. Even if they believed it, I wonder if they would start smoking and putting their cigarettes out on their arms. ‘Wellll, gawd is gonna give me a new bodddy. duh’ They should take time to examine their beliefs. They can’t really believe these things and excuses to make pollution and war.