Students Protest “War Machine”

By Gene Williams
Staff Writer

March 18 -- A young woman crouched near the ground to put the finishing touches on the picket signs that lay scattered around her, while a half-dozen student activists stood nearby, talking, smoking cigarettes and hoping that their weeks of planning would pay off.

A plethora of reasons were given for Thursday's student walkout at Santa Monica College, a laundry list that included everything from racism and attacks on women's rights to state budget cuts and the newly installed parking meters near campus.

But the overriding concern of the protesters was the war in Iraq now entering its third year, an issue over which their school -- and the rest of the country -- remains bitterly divided.

The protestors chanted anti-war slogans and made speeches in front of the empty recruitment center before leaving. Most of the recruiters had moved out two months earlier. (Photos by Gene Williams)

By eleven o'clock, a diverse crowd of some 60 demonstrators had gathered in front of the college library before beginning their march to the military recruitment center a mile away up 20th Street at Santa Monica Boulevard.

"Are you joining the protest?" asked a kid with curly hair and bright eyes as he handed out a list of ant-war slogans from behind a table covered with stacks of leftist literature that included illustrations of clenched fists and a tract by Emma Goldman.

Behind him, Josh Saxe, an earnest looking young man with wire rimmed glasses, was being questioned by a pair of cops eager to know if any acts of civil disobedience had been planned. Saxe told them there weren't.

"They just wanted to know if we were going to break any laws," said Saxe, a student from Cal State Los Angeles, who like many of the organizers is a member of the Progressive Alliance, a reincarnation of an earlier campus socialist club.

"It's not that we're against being disruptive in principle," he said, "especially when it comes to the war; we just wanted this march to be peaceful."

Like many others who participated in the march, Saxe said that primary goal of the demonstration was to get the military recruiters off campus.

A Santa Monica Police officer talks with protest organizer Josh Saxe before the march.

"We're going to let the recruiters know what we think," he said. "They go to the elite universities for officers and they go to the working class communities to get grunts to die in their war. Their biggest push is in the poorest high schools.

"We're trying to up the ante in the anti-war movement beyond symbolic action like candle-light vigils to actually affecting something," he said. "We're putting ourselves in the way of the war machine."

A group of campus Republicans looked over disapprovingly from where they had set up shop about fifty feet away. "They're making a big stink over there," remarked one of them.

"I think they're being disrespectful to the U.S. and to society itself," a young Republican said. "They're protesting against the soldiers who are man enough to step up to the plate and do what needs to be done."

A woman faculty member walking by quipped, "I think you're on the wrong campus," noticing that no one was stopping at the Republican Club table.

"It's so nice of her to let us set up our table in her school," one of them remarked sarcastically.

Julia Wallace, a nineteen year old black student with long braids, picked up a bullhorn, aimed it at the Republican club and broadcast, "Support our troops. Bring them home!"

"Did your teacher give you extra credit to march?" came the retort which was greeted with a mixture of boos and cheers.

Another speaker picked up the bullhorn and announced that recruiters "are like telemarketers. Nobody likes them. They call you up and pretend to be your friend but they don't care."

Then the demonstrators picked up their signs and banners and formed a colorful parade.

The 60 some protestors cross Pico Boulevard as they march up 20th Street to the recruitment center.

It almost looked like Mardi Gras. The processors chanted anti-war slogans to a hip-hop beat of an African drum as they snaked their way through campus, inadvertently disrupting a career opportunity fair in the quad to the bewilderment of corporate recruiters and a young man playing a synthesizer.

When the demonstration hit the streets, passing motorists honked their approval, while a police escort that included cops on bikes and motorcycles stopped traffic as the marchers crossed the busy intersections. A big cheer came up from the crowd when a passing cement truck horn sent out a long, deep blast.

"Getting the military recruiters off campus is part of a larger movement to end the back-door draft,” said Jennifer Caldwell, a marcher wearing a black Che Guevara tee-shirt.

"Recruiters are targeting economically disadvantaged students," said Caldwell who is a member of Act Now To Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER.)

But students weren't the only ones marching. They were joined by parents, faculty and others old enough to remember the Vietnam era protests.

"The war machine goes on and it doesn't seem to end," said Fred Durlesser, a sixty-two-year-old retired school teacher whose son is a student at SMC. "The economy is geared toward it."

'We've got a generation of kids who are smart in high school,” Durlesser said. “They're smart enough to see where the money is going and how corrupt some of the politicians are. Test scores aside, we've got a very educated population (of youth), and I'm proud to be with them here today."

When the marchers finally got to the recruitment center, they immediately turned their bullhorns toward the recruiters' offices for a verbal barrage that lasted some fifteen minutes.

Few seemed to notice or care that the recruiters weren't there, but one protester in a long black trench coat berated the recruitment officers for their "lack of testicular fortitude" when they failed to make an appearance.

In fact, most of the military had moved their offices two months ago.

"The Army and Navy offices are on Federal now," said Randy Michaels, who wasn't part of the demonstration but whose friend is an Air Force recruiter. "Only the Air Force still has an office here."

"My buddy works here," said Michaels, who has a career in marketing. "He's the ultimate. He's a marketing genius."

Michaels said that he gets ideas from his friend and applies them to his work, adding "He's gotten me a raise."

Michaels doesn't see why the recruiters should be banned from campus. "They give people information, that's all. They (the students) can decide what they want to do with it.

"If they (the recruiters) worked for IBM, they'd be allowed on campus. What's the difference between what they do?" he asked.

Looking at the demonstrators, Michael said, "They say they support the troops, but I don't see a lot of that here."

Tired and hoarse after returning to the college, the organizers called the demonstration a success and said they hope to spread the movement to other campuses. Their next meeting will be Monday night at 6:30 at the Velocity Café, 2127 Lincoln Boulevard, Santa Monica.

Mr. Greg Becker, a public relations specialist for the Army, said the military is "doing an SIR (Serious Incident Report)" and "the officer that's collecting the information has to finish before we can talk smartly, when we have all the pieces to the puzzle."

Other spokespersons for the military said they knew little about the day's protest but responded, "Every American enjoys the right to free speech," adding that the military "supports the Constitution."

Ann Williams contributed to this report