Denton TX - Members of the University of North Texas YCL and other peace activists challenged four resolutions introduced by members of the College Republicans to bolster patriotism on the campus of the University of North Texas. The resolutions, consisting of a yellow ribbon initiative for trees on campus, buying an American and Texas flag, making the Pledge of Allegience a part of every student government meeting, and making a statement of full support for the troops fighting in Iraq, were confronted head on by members of the Books Not Bombs Coalition.
The activists introduced an amendment that included black ribbons with the yellow ribbons, resulting in the group who introduced the legislation to vote against the amended resolution, but the resolution passed anyway.
The following week students were encouraged to tie yellow and black ribbons on trees around campus to show support for troops away from home, and support for the civilians casualties.
The purchase of the flags to have at the meetings was halted on two more premises, the fact that the student government was able to conduct business for years without having flags present, and the fact that not all of the students are American.
The last resolution, also the shortest, was rushed through before we had a chance to submit our amendments, but one small change was made from supporting our troops fighting in Iraq to supporting our troops wherever they are in the world. We were upset at losing ground on the last one, but it was an overall great victory in the struggle for peace.
by M. Clagg
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University of Marymount - In the previous issue of Dynamic my comrade wrote about the struggles to save special programs in Marymount. During that time the YCL was only starting out and yet was already having an impact on the campus. Since then a lot has happened and the YCL club has been gaining influence because of our strong stance and commitment to peace and opposing an unjust war in Iraq. The YCL has started a coalition on campus called the Student Activist Network (SAN) and has gotten the whole campus involved in the anti-war movement.
The idea of creating the SAN came about a week prior to the February 15 demonstration in NYC. The club had a few different ideas on how to do it. At first we thought about making the SAN a club on its own. We decided that we should make it a coalition and a movement and not just another club. The fact was that many Marymount students were planning on going to the demonstration and the YCL club wanted to find a way to organize all the independent activists on campus.
We decided to call a YCL meeting at which we discussed the idea of having Marymount students and progressive faculty meet in front of the college and go to the demonstration together. The plan worked and the SAN kicked off. After February 15th the movement for peace in Marymount grew and more people began to recognize SAN because it was able to bring together all the different clubs in a united campus coalition. The college did not have many other activists clubs except for the campus Greens but the important thing is that the regular clubs like the Drama Club and the English Club also got involved and recognized the SAN as a legitimate coalition on campus.
The president of the student government joined SAN and strongly opposed the war. He cooperated with us completely in terms of sending out our emails about events during the student strike on March 5th. At first the faculty did not respond to the flyers we hung up about the strike or the meetings we had but when they saw that the student government was supporting us and was part of it they began to take us more seriously. Even the conservative faculty members had to acknowledge that there was a real anti-war sentiment on campus.
We had the final strike meeting on March 1st at which we planned out the details of the activities. In the morning we chalked the block that our school is on.
The faculty reserved the main lounge in the college for the whole day just for the purpose of the strike and to talk about why war on Iraq is immoral.
At 2:30 p.m. SAN marched to Hunter College only a few blocks away. There were 15 of us who attended a citywide student rally in front of Hunter College. We had a lot of fun and I feel that this is only the beginning of a much greater movement for peace and socialism.
by Roman Schusler
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