Anti-War Action

from the Macalester Public Knowledge Base

[edit] MPJC-SDS

On November 18, 2007, the Mac Peace and Justice Committee- Students for a Democratic Society engaged the campus in a general strike to end the Iraq War. The event included workshops by professors, students, and community members to educate about the war, a mass meeting that had participants organize to build the anti-war movement on campus, and ended in a protest on Grand and Snelling avenue. Traffic was stopped for some time in the theme of the general strike- "stop business to stop the war". SDS and the projects made at the mass meeting are continuing to play their role in Mac's anti-war movement.

[edit] Zombie Army (Macalester, 2005)

The Zombie Army was formed in October 2005 in response to the Macalester College Administration's refusal to respond to student demands to ban military recruiters from campus. It came in the wake of a Spring 2005 MCSG resolution to write a letter to the administration asking them to ban recruiters because the military's "Don't ask-don't tell policy" violates Macalester's commitment to anti-discrimination. The administration has not yet answered the letter, much less done anything about the problem of recruiting. The Zombie Army therefore finds it necessary to take action against the American imperialist aggressor iself.

The Zombie Army is a non-hierarchical network of undead people who are devoted to confronting militarism and imperialism in our community.

The Zombie Army has deployed to Bateman Plaza for counter-recruitment actions, and plans on going into action in the following campaigns:

Oct. 24- Direct Action at AlliantTech in Edina, MN

Oct. 27- Direct Action at Macalester College againt the United States Army

Nov. 2- City-wide Student Walkout

Stay tuned.

[edit] Peace Camp (Macalester, 2003)

"Peace Camp" was started in response to the declaration of war on Iraq by President George Bush in April 2003. It was a collaboration of Mac Peace and Justice, SLAC, and other unaffiliated students. Because the war was started during Macalester Spring Break, there was a student walk out on the following monday. During the rally on campus, students pitched tents and set up tarps. Macalester students began sleeping there that night. Peace Camp consisted of probably four to seven or eight tents, most of which were at least partially occupied most nights. Students slept out there in Minnesota's harsh "spring", during rain and sometimes even snow.

In the first couple weeks following the start of Peace Camp, there were often meetings at 5 for students to talk about the day's news, organizing and other issues. There was one meeting specifically about dealing with racism and how peace camp could be specifically anti-racist. This meeting was dominated by the concerns of white students who were uneducated about race issues.

Peace Camp has also hoped to have information available for students and community members and a calender of events. The weather often hurt these plans. Wind and rain also damaged various attempts to set up a sheltered meeting space.

For the first month (maybe first two months) of Peace Camp, the surrounding community was incredibly supportive. The Merriam Park Neighbors for Peace and the that church right by Mac (what's it called) gave daily donations of food, donated tarps and invited Peace Campers to potlucks and meetings.

Peace Camp made "camp" a campus buzzword. Peace Camp was set up between the chapel and the Campus Center. On the other half of the lawn, signs appeared on trees about fictional camps, including "Camp Cheeba", "Chad Kampe" and others. The most controverisal one was a sign put up as a joke by a peace camper which read "Liberation Camp". This was inspired by threats of other student groups to start a liberation camp. Such a camp was set up one afternoon by Mac Republicans who set up a tent and barbaqued hot dogs for a few hours. This sparked a counter protest from peace camp as well as a "protest" from the self named "Space Camp", students with silly outfits and signs about aliens.

Peace Camp dwindled down in the end of the semester and was finally removed during the last days of finals by only three or four people.