[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Campus Antiwar Network Meeting Minutes 8/25

[Karen Medina]

Below are the official meeting minutes from the Campus Antiwar Network
last evening.
But first my comments:
* About a dozen of us attended.
* We ended up meeting outside in a grassy area behind Foellinger
Auditorium (Greg Hall was overwhelmed with huge student groups
orienting their freshmen).
* We mostly brainstormed about things we would like to see happen
during the semester.
* Immediate things: CAN will start tabling on the Quad at least one
day a week. They did this almost every week last semester and it
worked well.
* Much was said about educating people about AfPak.
* There is significant interest in counter-recruitment, both on campus
and in the high schools. A flyer was proposed that would kind of pull
together some college funding ideas that did not include joining the
military.
* Much was said about the School of the Americas (now called “Western
Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation”)
* The boycott, divestment, and sanctions push (headed mostly by
Students for Justice in Palestine) has once again shifted. Originally
it was going to suggest that the U of I divest from all the companies
that send military supplies to Israel. Then, toward the end of the
spring semester, it had become a campaign to get the U of I to stop
contracts with any company that sent military-type supplies to
anywhere. Now, it sounds like the divestment campaign is targeting one
company at a time -- starting with the biggest.
* Other suggestion that was taken up immediately: discussing articles
publicly. CAN did three such events last semester and the turn out was
great.

So, now back to the official minutes sent out to CAN members. (the
above were just things that I found the most interesting).
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Campus Antiwar Network [U of I] <can.uiuc at gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 4:04 PM
Subject: Campus Antiwar Network Meeting Minutes 8/25
To:


Hello everyone.  For those of you who missed the meeting, here is an
idea about what we talked about.  Also, there is a link to an article
at the bottom that we are going to discuss at next week's meeting
(Tuesday, September 1 at 7pm in 111 Greg Hall).

As a group, we discussed what we want to do in C.A.N. this semester.
Mainly, our goal is to make sure we have a strong presence on this
campus.  Therefore, we want to have a protest/rally/vigil/ any sort of
event that will serve as a visual of our organization to the public at
least once a month.

A main theme of the talking last night was how the economy is
effecting students, and how we should connect that to the war.  One
idea is to do a counter-recruitment campaign, both here at the
university and in the neighboring high schools.  This is because the
ROTC and military target people who are going to school (or who want
to) by telling them that joining the military is the best way to fund
your education.  Therefore, we thought that we should make some
literature/pamphlets with information about financial aid,
scholarships, loans that will give those students other ideas of how
to afford school.  Another thing is that we want to show how spending
billions of dollars on the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan have
effected the economy of this country, and therefore the students on
this campus.

In the past, C.A.N. has held educationals (Iraq, Afghanistan,
Palestine, Pakistan, Torture, Surveillence, etc) in order to inform
our own members, and those who are interested in learning more about
these topics (and of course relating them to the antiwar movement).
We plan to continue these this semester.

Events on a national scale that we are thinking of getting involved
with are a trip to the SOA (School of Americas) in Fort Benning,
Georgia over Thanksgiving break.  This is where they train for the
military, and it is an ethical issue as well.  We are also thinking of
going to the G20 protest in Pittsburgh, but that is coming up really
soon, so we would have to get on it right away.

C.A.N. is connected with a lot of other leftist/human rights/political
organizations on campus.  Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) is
probably the one we have the stongest bond with.  They are planning to
have a Winter Soldier event, as they did last year, this semester.
Winter Soldier is an event where people from IVAW speak out against
the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and tell their own stories.
It is a way to show the human side and human cost of these
occupations.  They would need all of our help to put this on.

There are many more things we talked about, but this gives you a good
picture.  We hope that you will come out to the next meeting on
Tuesday, September 1 at 7pm in 111 Greg Hall, and be prepared to
discuss the article posted below (it is NOT mandatory, and you can
DEFINITELY come if you didn't read it, and feel comfortable discussing
ANYTHING you want).
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/aug2009/agos-a08.shtml
--
University of Illinois Campus Antiwar Network
http://www.campusantiwar.net/
http://uiuccan.blogspot.com/