Some of you may be familiar with Harass the Brass, others may not. It began during a brain-storming session between SDSers and other activists in the Michigan community. Many of us have been trying to develop a program to challenge the anti-war movement to move past protesting and towards a platform of radical action. Harass the Brass is what we came up with. I’ve been passing this campaign proposal around to SDSers all over the midwest for about a day or so, and I wanted to submit it to all chapters around the country for consideration and endorsement.
(download a PDF of the Harass the Brass proposal)
Spring/Summer of 06′, SDS Declares war on the war
Starting this summer, SDS chapters, standing in solidarity with other community groups, will be conducting a campaign of sit-ins and lock-downs on military recruitment centers, private military companies, military research facilities, congressional offices, and pro-war, corporate media outlets all across the nation.
For three years now, we’ve been carrying signs and attending peaceful rallies and marches, desperately trying to vocalize our discontent through whatever channels we may in an attempt to show the administration that they are fighting an unpopular war and that we want it to end. Three years later, we’re still here holding the same signs, shouting the same slogans, and raising the same demands. What we are left with after our pleading and symbolic opposition is another peace rally and the delusional notion that a few more signs might finally convince the Bush administration to change its mind about Iraq. We’ve been past due for a very serious reality check.
We are not going to end the war by politely asking the administration to stop. Our marches and discontent alone have been proven ineffective as it has become plainly obvious that the discontent raised by the American people is of no concern at all to the powers-that-be in Washington. President Bush has indicated that he plans to keep troops in Iraq throughout the remainder of his presidency and is working with both Democrats and Republicans to keep troops there through the administration that proceeds him. In doing so, he has made clear that their is no other way to end the war than for Americans to step in and end it themselves. Mario Savio once said, “There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part, you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies on the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop! And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.” Compañeros, that time is now.
We are standing at a cross-roads. The antiwar movement is caught under the weight of liberal tactics, fighting to end a war that can only be stopped through radical action. For three years, we have marched under the banner of UFPJ, International ANSWER, Troops Out Now, World Can’t Wait, and we have yet to see how any of our efforts have brought us closer to ending the war. Its time for a change. If the administration won’t end the war, we must end it for them.
SDS will be directly confronting those aspects of our communities that are allowing the war to continue:
- We will confront the military industry directly, by sticking a monkey wrench in the industries tied to the military apparatus (Private Military Companies and military research companies), through high-profile boycotts, sit-ins, and lock-downs.
- We will sit-in on the offices of congressional representatives that either support the war, or are doing nothing to stop it.
- We will initiate a counter-recruitment campaign that targets the most heavily recruited areas of our community for sit-ins, periodically locking down recruiting stations across the country.
- We will seek out dishonest military recruiters and recruitment operations by teaming up with teachers and community groups targeted by military recruiters and developing programs for phasing out recruitment in schools and homeless shelters.
- We recognise the role American Intelligence agencies play in wars of aggression and campus repression. Recruiters from the CIA, FBI, NSA and other agencies have no place on campus. Just as we resist military recruiters, we will resist all other arms of the American war machine.
- We will confront corporate media outfits that act as propaganda outlets for a pro-war agenda in a campaign of counter-propaganda, while simultaneously promoting free and independent media alternatives.
- We will actively support and encourage soldiers to leave the military by any means necessary. Soldier rebellion is crucial to stopping the American War Machine in its tracks. We will work to encourage soldiers to refuse to obey orders, refuse to redeploy, to resist the military, and to organise other soldiers to do the same. We stand in solidarity with all soldiers who are opposed to war and aggression.
The following SDS chapters and individuals are standing in solidarity with the call to join radical communities around the country to link-up for a summer campaign of direct-action and civil disobedience against the war:
- Pennsylvania SDS/MDS
- Ohio SDS
- Chicago SDS
- Ann Arbor SDS
- Kansas City SDS
- Western Massachusetts SDS
- Missouri SDS
- Columbia SDS
- Connecticut College, CCLeft
- Staten Island MDS
- Utah SDS
- Pace University SDS
- Matt McLaughlin, Hartford SDS
- Pat Korte, Stonington SDS
- Brian Kelly, Pace University SDS
- Brad Spangler, MLL/MDS
- J. Freeman Smith, MLL/SDS
- Roderick T. Long, MLL/MDS
- Adem Kupi, MLL/MDS
- Wally Conger, MLL/MDS
- Kevin Carson, MLL/MDS
- Jeremy Weiland, MLL/MDS
- Diane Warth, MLL/MDS
- Jorge Codina, MLL
- David Reynolds, MLL/MDS
I’m for it. It might be a good idea to discuss it during the conference call scheduled for tuesday evening. If the campaign garners sufficient support, it might be a good idea to have a press conference or public statement to the media of some sort. In any event, this is definately the direction I have thought the movement should consider going, especially in light of Bush throwing down the gauntlet this week with the whole troop withdrawal “will be a decision left to future presidents,” statement this week. People are going to get fed up with this shit and hopefully SDS can present a compelling strategy for resistance. This sounds like a great start.
Also, it might be a good idea to focus on campus complicity as well, especially since the Pentagon has its tentacles so deep in the university system in terms of research.
I am glad to see what I fight for is upheld in freedom of speech. I don’t agree with your actions or speech but agree you have the right to voice your opinion although very misguided….
The Eugene chapter is going to participate in harassing the brass. We have a recommended target that relates directly to campuses across the country. Each year millions of dollars of funding from the Department of Defense goes towards science related research. This is not new news, the UofO has been funded in this way for forty years. However, this is a status quo that SDS cannot stand down to. In Oregon, the Oregon Nano and Microtechnology Institute (ONAMI) is in the process of building an $80 million project on campuses across the state. At the UofO, $8 million of our share is funded by the DoD. This cannot happen. As student intersted in peace and CHANGE, we must combat the status quo of military funding on Universities. Any groups in the Oregon area, we need your help to get this program stopped in our state, and the solidarity of the national group in general is equally needed. Perhaps we should begin discussion of what a national movement to stop military funding of public universities, sponsored by SDS, would look like. Thank you: war on the surplus reapers!
I glad that SDS is taking an aggressive anti-war stance early, as people are going to get fed up with both the administration and the the very moderate goals of both UFPJ and ANSWER (UFPJ is backing Murtha’s ‘pull-out’, which is really just redeployment and a disgusting reliance on air-bombing). Right now my local chapter of SDS, CCLeft, ,www.ccleft.org, is working with people from GlobalCall, www.globalcalliraq.org, who seem serious about stepping it up. We’re going to be ‘adopting’ the recruitment center in New London for the month April, hopefully it will go well.
Brilliant!
I would agree with Doug about including campus repression, compliance with federal/local authorities. We should be challening each and every college administration that says we do not have a right to organise.
After being interogated by SS agents, I know that universities are playing a huge role in just giving activists and their personal information (Pace gave my debit card information, letter to the president and other information over to police and Secret Service) to authorities and the military.
When universities repress their students, they effectively become an extension of the military industrial complex and the American imperial war machine. Universities are either with the students, professors and faculty or they are with the war machine and corporations.
-Brian Kelly
Pace University, New York City
kelly@leftist.ws
I’m glad to see such a discussion in this and other organizations. Some of us have been pushing the peace movement to “move” beyond symbolic protest for the last three years and to take up counter-recruitment work. We welcome SDS and others who are ready to focus on this level or work, which is materially interfering with the conduct of the war. However, I urge everyone to see this for its strategic value, not just as a tactic for ending the war. The problem is not a single U.S. invasion, it is the gradual resurgence of militarism in our schools, our media and our culture over the last 30 years, and if we don’t reverse this trend with a plan for long term action, in a few years we’ll be right back where we are now. We can start addressing this most effectively by demilitarizing schools. Colleges must be included, but the place where the military is doing its greatest long-term damage is at the k-12 level.
Check out National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth, www.youthandthemilitary.org, Project YANO, www.projectyano.org, and links from those sites to other counter-recruitment groups.
I’m with you…I am the Southeast National Contact for VVAW, and a member of Veterans For Peace.I will try and get VVAW and VFP to adopt a more aggressive startegy to stop these fascists-in-charge, that are nothing more than murderers, rapists, and thieves.
Military veterans have a voice that is indisputable when it comes to speaking out against unjust war. We have credibility as having “been there”, and our service to this nation gives great strength to any actions taken.
At some point we have to be willing to do more than protest passively, and we must be willing to take more direct action when it becomes apparent, as it has, that most or ALL of the federal politicians are “in bed” with one other, with no real opposition party, as there was intended to be when this nation was formed.
We just finished the 140 mile “Veterans-Survivors March from Mobile to New Orleans”, and the Gulf-South is ready for more than just words and peaceful protests.This action was organized by veterans, and the response we got in each community we marched through was overwhelmingly positive. We cant export “democracy” when we aren’t practicing it here at home.It’s time to re-capture the flag!
Hope to see you in Crawford ,Texas for Easter, as we take the fight to the neocons doorstep.
Lets do it…
Peace from Ward Reilly in Baton Rouge
[…] As a followup to my post on the upcoming SDS Harass the Brass direct action campaign [PDF version here], I’m specifically asking self-identified MLL members to endorse this SDS proposal in direct accordance with agorist teachings. […]
It’s really about time that an organization is stepping up to end the war. I’m sick of all the bullshit from the other anti-war groups that don’t do anything besides 2 or 3 marches a year. We can not afford to be passive when such an agressive war is raging on.
The Vietnam war stopped when the troops rebelled against it. Omitted from this action list is any mention of reaching out to National Guard, Reserves, or active duty troops at military bases all over the USA, including every city those who signed this call come from.
It seems odd to avoid reaching out and establishing friendly contact with the people capable of stopping this war, as they did the last one. Perhaps there is insufficient knowledge of the recent Zogby poll that found 72% of troops in Iraq want out no later than 1.1.07, and 29% are for immediate withdrawal, meaning now.
Perhaps there is a class barrier seperating anti-war intellectuals and troops that “activists” would prefer not to cross?
Thomas F Barton
GI Special newsletter
Thomas,
There are a lot of different things SDS could do to stop the war. This is just one action. I do like the idea of reaching out directly to troops. There are groups out there, like Iraq Veterans Against the War, who do exactly what you propose we should do. I would encourage other SDSers to work with IVAW towards that end.
Concerning the argument: “There are groups out there, like Iraq Veterans Against the War, who do exactly what you propose we should do.”
Having regular weekly contact with various members of Iraq Veterans Against The War,
who know nothing of the activity you ascribe to the organization, perhaps you have confused the good work the organization does with the specific action described: going to meetings of the National Guard, armed forces reserves, and/or approaching active duty troops at the gates of their bases, and making contact with anti-war soldiers.
That is most certainly not a current project of IVAW. If you know of “other groups out there” doing this work, please specify.
There is one exception to the general tendency of people who proclaim themselves anti-war war activists to shun the troops:
In New York City, activists are reaching out to a National Guard unit, which includes many Iraq veterans, as they come to their regular monthly meeting. We are finding a friendly reception. Individual members of Veterans For Peace, one member of Iraq Veterans Against The War, and members of the Military Project are doing this work.
This fact is indisputable: refusing to make contact with troops on the basis that their are already many others doing so is an argument without foundation in fact. There are only a tiny handful doing so. How unfortunate, since the troops have the power to stop the war.
Perhaps there is a class barrier seperating anti-war intellectuals and troops that “activists” would prefer not to cross?
Thomas Barton
GI Special newsletter
Thomas,
You should join up and start a new campaign. It would get you further than complaining about what we are doing.
And don’t troll. You have no idea what the class background of SDS/MDS members is, so stop inferring that we are all just “anti-war intellectuals.” I’m a poor-as-dirt, working class nursing student… raised by a single, working-class mother. I have friends serving over there — victims of the poverty draft. There is no “barrier” that I’m afraid to cross and inferring that I’m just an “anti-war intellectual” because I think direct-action against the state will get us closer to ending the war than handing out flyers to some troops is ridiculous.
The question is not about this or that particular individual, an issue of no consequence.
The question is why so few of the so many who so loudly proclaim their opposition to the war refuse to take effective action to reach out to those who can stop it.
Perhaps there is a class barrier seperating anti-war intellectuals and troops that “activists” would prefer not to cross?
Here is what one soldier in the 1st ID wrote to GI Special on behalf of a group of anti-war soldiers in Baquaba Iraq:
“We choose our battles and continue to speak out in our underground action.
“There has to be a point when we reach a high enough number of troops in our peace effort that a unified boycott of all military action will have a desired effect.”
“A unified boycott of all military action will have a desired effect.”
Your point that SDS, as is, is a middle class organization, is an astute, though uncontested one. I’ve never met a person who’s not uncomfortable about stepping out of their safety zone. It takes a concerted effort by people who realize its importance to make people do what’s uncomfortable.
I really don’t see how all these people are making class arguments about an organisation that hasn’t even been decided how its going to be structured. No one certainly knows the entire composition of the group and they certainly can’t speak about the class status of any member of the group. I am very offended by that. Stop making judgements about people you don’t know.
Hi Kyle,
I think Thomas had a good point in his FIRST post. I agree with you about the very uncalled for statement about class in the last sentence of his second post.
I was talking about this with a few members of my chapter (Pace University) today. I think any direct action campaign should include a troop aspect. I agree flyering alone would be highly ineffective in creating any change.
I was thinking more along the lines of supporting war resisters, encouraging soldiers to rebel and turn against the military.
Counter-recruitment gets them before then start, supporting war resisters and actively encouraging them takes the ones who are turning against the war and using it against the war machine from within. Thomas had a good point about the Vietnam rebellions.
I would add this to the proposal:
“We will actively support and encourage soldiers to leave the military by any means necessary. Soldier rebellion is crucial to stopping the American War Machine in its tracks. We will work to encourage soldiers to refuse to obey orders, refuse to redeploy, to resist the military, and to organise other soldiers to do the same. We stand in solidarity with all soldiers who are opposed to war and aggression.”
Also: besides military recruiters there are CIA, FBI, DHS and NSA recruiters on campus. These intelligence agencies help to protect the war machine and aid in prosecution of anti-war activists. I think these should be included in our counter-recruitment.
I personally support all the counter-recruiters, the war resisters, deserters, the draft dodgers, etc etc. I support them most because they are using direct action to resist the death grip of the American-led, corporately funded war machine.
I don’t mean to critique the proposal. I think it’s a totally awesome idea. Well written and well thought out. Great work! I sent this to Pat K and he liked it. Tell me what you think.
In Struggle,
-Brian Kelly
Pace University SDS, NYC
kelly@leftist.ws
Brian,
Sounds awesome. I’ve already updated the call. B.T.W, your account was set to mod, so you can edit-in the article freely if you see other adjustments you want to make.
Could we get the PDF version updated to reflect the change also? I’ve linked to both this blog post and the PDF on my own blog post.
Brad,
Yep. I’ll continue to update the PDF at that same location periodically as more feedback comes in… starting now.
Awesome Kyle. Intelligence agencies also recruit on a shitload of american campuses. What about something like this: “We recognise the role American Intelligence agencies play in wars of aggression and campus repression. Recruiters from the CIA, FBI, NSA and other agencies have no place on campus. Just as we resist military recruiters, we will resist all other arms of the American war machine.”
Could be in the same paragraph as this: “We will seek out dishonest military recruiters and recruitment operations by teaming up with teachers and community groups targeted by military recruiters and developing programs for phasing out recruitment in schools and homeless shelters. ” Or right after it.
Just an idea…
Solidarity,
Brian Kelly
Pace SDS, NYC
kelly@leftist.ws
@Kyle
Thanks!
As an aside, one customization we might want to make to the blog is to make the time/date stamp on individual comments a link to an HTML anchor tag corresponding to that particular comment. That’s done in several other Wordpress themes and it facilitates discussion by making it easier to cite a specific comment (particularly useful when a discussion may involve posts on several different blogs and their respective comment sections).
[…] Some of you may be familiar with Harass the Brass, others may not. It began during a brain-storming session between SDSers and other activists in the Michigan community. Many of us have been trying to develop a program to challenge the anti-war movement to move past protesting and towards a platform of radical action. Harass the Brass is what we came up with. I’ve been passing this campaign proposal around to SDSers all over the midwest for about a day or so, and I wanted to submit it to all chapters around the country for consideration and endorsement. (download a PDF of the Harass the Brass proposal) (click here to visit the SDS organiser blog with Kyle’s “Harass the Brass” proposal) SDS, The “Harass the Brass” Campaign Spring/Summer of 06′, SDS Declares war on the war […]
I would also suggest that resisting the war can become a free speech issue in high schools by supporting the coordinated wearing of resistance themed clothing/armbands, as well as supporting public statements of refusal to register for selective service to send a powerful message that if the government wants to continue the occupation indefinately, then masses of youth will resist. The armband wearing issue went to the Supreme Court in the Tinker vs. Des Moines case in 1969 (the armband campaign was timed to be coordinated with the Nationwide Moratorium against the war).
On the campuses I think we should be focused on building a level of mobilization and organized resistance (on many fronts) that the Bush regime will be forced to occupy the nation’s campuses if this unjust war continues.
One solution to working with servicemembers might be some form of take on the GI coffeehouse movement in the early 70s. The key focus might be simply to provide information about the illegitimacy of this war to troops. The downing street memo, the new white house memo, etc… It would obviously also involve pooling our efforts with the various vets military family groups doing good work.
Direct action and popular education go hand in hand, in my opinion.
Otherwise, judging by the comments made here and during the conference call tuesday evening, that this campaign has alot of potential to really motivate resistance and capture people’s imaginations.
haha. they aren’t gonna know what hit them.
Solidarity,
Brian
Pace SDS, NYC
CCLeft, Connecticut College SDS has voted to sign onto this campaign.
Thank you for adding us.
Solidarity!
Alright, CCLeft was added to the list.
FYI, Hartford doesn’t have an SDS chapter just yet. I’m and SDS member and I live in Hartford. that’s about it.
We have been flyering for this and people have been reacting really positively. It seems like this is an idea a lot of people are interested in. It really takes on the war machine by tackling how it operates.
-Brian
Pace U, SDS - NYC
kelly@leftist.ws
I’m mass printing some flyers for distribution here too. If anyone is interested in getting the word out about the campaign, here’s the flyer I submitted to the SDS agitProp archive:
http://tinyurl.com/nztmo
Here are the MLL endorsements I collected. Where the MLL member is also an SDS or MDS member is noted.
Brad Spangler, MLL/MDS
J. Freeman Smith, MLL/SDS
Roderick T. Long, MLL/MDS
Adem Kupi, MLL/MDS
Wally Conger, MLL/MDS
Kevin Carson, MLL/MDS
Jeremy Weiland, MLL/MDS
Diane Warth, MLL/MDS
Jorge Codina, MLL
David Reynolds, MLL/MDS
We need to get this out to the west coast chapters and get their feedback.
I live up in Tacoma, our chapter of SDS isn’t listed on there, is there some way I could get involved with this?
Absolutely. We’re working on organizing chapters regionally to work together on campaigns. I think we should have a workshop this summer at the national SDS convention to discuss coordinating actions between chapters nation-wide. We’ll all be there at the convention, it just makes sense. Hell, we might even work with the local chapter that is hosting the convention and do an action while we are in town.
If you are interested in joining in, just send out an announcement that your local chapter is standing in solidarity with the campaign and send some feedback on what your local wants changed or added to the call. We’ll put recommendations up for vote to other chapters that have endorsed.
Oh, and show up to the national convention to talk with everyone about the campaign, too.
It’s both a strategic error and and error of fact to speak of the U.S. military as “the American War Machine”. The United States is not America; the state is not the nation. By confusing the two you play into the hands of the warmongers, who use this linguistic confusion to denounce every criticism of U.S. military action as “anti-American” or a case of “blame America first”. (Myself, I consider the U.S. to be the most anti-American organization on the planet.)
I don’t see a difference between “the state” and “the nation”. They both reflect the same thing. Consult a dictionary, such as “American Heritage” :
na·tion, n. - The government of a sovereign state.
state, n. - A body politic, especially one constituting a nation.
Below the surface, it sounds like your suggesting their is some ethic or moral that is “American”, that its not the state that is American, its the people and their values that are American. I disagree with that on the premise that its tantamount to nationalism. Their is no cultural norm or value that is uniquely american (not one that I’d like to celebrate, anyway), and those values that I do identify with I don’t recognize as specifically “American”.
A nation is nothing but a flag waving in the wind and some invisible lines drawn in the sand.
The American Heritage dictionary (and other dictionaries) give the definition of the word, but not the concept.
In terms of politics, “the state” and a “nation” are two seperate concepts.
A nation is a group of people sharing a common identity in a common geographic region. ie: “The Arab Nation” was divided by the French and British into the mandates (and later states minus Palestine) of Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Transjordan.
The two-cents of a Sociology-Political Science kid
This weekend, Kent County SDS (RI) voted unanimously to support the Harass the Brass campaign this summer.
yes i think the harrass the brass campaign is and amazing thing but i am in northeastern pennsylvania and we have no SdS/MdS chapters and honestly i really think i am one of a handfull of people who know about this org and i would like a way to inform people so if any one has an info pamplet or text that sums up the SdS/MdS and their campaigns and goals i would like to get it so i can hand it out… also direct action is better done in a weathermen style or even in the methods of ELF/ALF
personally me i do not have enough comrades in my region to carry out the suggested methods so maybe you could just say in the harrass the brass campaign flyer “by any means necissary to bring down the machine” since well in my opinon certain actions are way more affective then others but hey this is all just my thinking thoughts on the campaign and i am no armchair activist ….my email is greenblackcolt@yahoo.com if any one wants it..
The Glenbrook SDS would like to officially endorse the Harass the Brass campaign, but we do not have the resources to participate at this point in time.
Denny Vaccaro
-Organized Glenbrook SDS
I was in the SDS in the early 70’s. Wondered if anyone was still out there trying to make changes and came upon your site. Great work and keep it up but please get out there and sit in and harass the brass
Wow…I’ve never seen so many spam comments on a blog. That is lame.
Anyways, I want to introduce you to some of the work that the National Lawyers Guild is doing and how it can benefit the Harass the Brass campaign. nlg.org
(1)The NLG Mass defense committee. If you are going to a protest and are likely to get arrested then you should first contact the NLG Mass Defense committee. If you have gone to any major protest you are probably familiar with the work of the mass defense committee. They are the organizers of the legal observers at protests - the ones who are video tape police activity and take down the names and numbers of those arrested in order to put them in contact with pro bono legal assistance from progressive lawyers.
http://www.nlg.org/programs/mass_defense.htm
(2) It regards to the earlier discussion on reaching out to active military. If you are interested in this, you may want to talk to the NLG Military Law task force. The military law task force represents conscientious objectors and moral deserters. They also set up several “know your rights” hotlines for military personal who are considering disserting on moral grounds. It is an amazing project and I encourage you to contact the NLG if you would like more info on it.
http://www.nlg.org/mltf/