Youths defy attacks, protest at recruiting station

Dozens of anti-war protesters returned to an Army Recruiting Station two blocks from the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee April 4 to deliver this message: The anti-war movement won’t be criminalized.

On March 19, during the course of a demonstration on the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, a window had been broken at this same recruiting station. Cops then issued municipal citations for “disorderly conduct” to 21 young people. A sensationalist media frenzy ensued in an attempt to violence-bait the youths, criminalize the anti-war movement and intimidate anyone who might be thinking of actively protesting U.S. actions.

The April 4 protest, sponsored by the Students for a Democratic Society at UW-Milwaukee and the Youth Action Coalition, took place for almost five hours beginning at 1 p.m., the same time the recruiting station shut its doors for the day. Unbeknownst to each organization they had each scheduled a protest on the same day. When they learned of each other’s actions they immediately decided to unite and join together.

Despite some police and counter-protester harassment, the anti-war forces held their own throughout the entire very cold windy afternoon. Throughout the protest progressive community members brought coffee, moral support and signs including one reading, “End the occupation of Iraq: Support our troops, bring them home!” Many at the action noted that this particular day was the 39th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.

Erika Wolf of SDS said the U.S. war on Iraq is “based on a lot of lies, manipulation and coercion. We think we belong here.”

Wolf said a main focus of the protest was to confront the sensationalist media regarding one broken window. She said that one window can’t be equated to over 700,000 Iraqis and 3,200 U.S. GIs who’ve died in Iraq and all the destruction wrought by the U.S. forces there. “One hundred windows are broken every day in Baghdad,” and over 100 die violent deaths daily in Iraq due to the U.S. war, said Wolf.

Melody Hoffman, a graduate student at UW-Milwaukee, a vice president of grievances for the Milwaukee Graduate Assistants Association and a member of SDS, said many of the corporations looting Iraq are the same ones exploiting workers in the United States. These corporations only care about “pure profit over people,” said Hoffman.

Elena Pires of the Youth Action Coalition said: “I don’t think it’s fair we were lied to. We were misled. Recruiters do mislead people.” Pires said some of her friends joining the military were idealistic when joining but are now dead, wounded or have post-traumatic stress disorder. She said her organization and others such as SDS will continue protesting the war and will be increasing the counter-recruitment activities.