From the Campus Antiwar Network:
SANTA CRUZ, CA – According to a document obtained by
NBC News, the Pentagon has been spying on 1,500
“suspicious incidents,” including anti-war and
counter-recruitment meetings and actions throughout
the nation over the past 10-month period. Among the
first pages of more than 400 released, 10 college
anti-war protests were listed, including UC Santa Cruz
Students Against War (SAW)’s counter-recruitment
protest of April 5, 2005, which was the only one to be
labeled both credible and a “threat.”
Despite having dealt with both undercover police and
university agents involved in the acts of surveillance
and repression, the news came as a little shock to
many SAW members, reaffirming long-held beliefs about
the nature of the U.S. military. 3rd year student Jen
Low noted the hypocrisy of the government’s messaging,
reminding us that, "the notion of the Pentagon spying
on peaceful protesters is a major threat to the
freedoms that they claim to protect."
While the Department of Defense has not commented on
the allegations, student activists assert that the
rising unpopularity of the Iraq War and the inability
of military recruiters to meet their quotas make the
counter-recruitment movement a strong candidate for
repression by a “homeland security” apparatus run
amok.
This repression does not end with the surveillance
from the Federal government. In fact, local officials
and college campuses have also been monitoring and
repressing anti-war and counter-recruitment
activities. In August, community members of the
Pennsylvania Organizing Group (POG) peacefully
protesting at a military recruiting center near the
University of Pittsburg were violently attacked by
police. Most recently, at Hampton University in
Virginia, students disseminating information against
military recruiters on campus were threatened with
expulsion. Other schools that have witnessed incidents
of extreme repression against student activists
include the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Kent
State, Harold Washington College, Holyoke Community
College, George Mason University, San Francisco State
University, City College of New York, and Seattle
Central Community College.
UC Santa Cruz is widely known to have one of the
largest antiwar and counter-recruitment movements in
the country. On April 5, 2005 over 300 students
marched into a campus job fair, occupying the building
and holding a teach-in until all military recruiters
left. On October 18, 2005, over 200 students rallied
outside of another job fair, while two dozen UCSC
students blocked recruiters on the inside by engaging
in a ‘Queer Kiss-In’ to protest discriminatory
military recruitment.
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