.::Conference Report Back::.
On April 7-9, Pittsburgh Organizing Group (POG) in conjunction with the Progressive Student Alliance hosted a Regional Counter Recruitment conference at Carnegie Mellon University. 120 people attended the weekends events representing 23 cities. The weekend kicked off with a presentation and slideshow on POG's campaign on Friday night. Saturday was filled with workshops, beginning with understanding the overall framework and marketing strategies of military recruitment, and the militarization of high schools, which examined the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test and the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps. It was presented by Janine Schwab of American Friends Services Committee Youth and Militarism Program and Steve Theberge of the War Resister's League Youth and Counter-Militarism Program.
Next, the conference went mobile, marching from CMU to the Oakland recruiting center for a "hands-on workshop." Equipped with signs, drums, pickets and bullhorns, conference participants joined local activists in entering a unlocked station and surprised recruiters. (This was the first time since POG started publicly protesting the station that its doors were open to the public.) Recruiters quickly locked the inner doors and a stand off of sorts ensued with the stairwell remaining blocked. Pittsburgh police responded to the recruiters calls for help and eventually around 2 dozen showed up, some forming a line between protesters and the station. Click here to see photos from the event.
Building upon the morning's foundation and lunch, during which people took the opportunity to meet and get to know activists from other cities, we moved to workshops focusing on counter-recruitment strategies. There was a variety of workshops to choose from, depending on specific area of focus. Some were broader, looking at the military industrial-academic complex at CMU, presented by Daniel Papasian, Lillian Bertram, and David Meieran, all former or current CMU students; advanced strategies in counter recruitment, presented by POG; and others looking at how we can more effectively use the media in our efforts, put on by POG members Marie Skoczylas and Jeremy Shenk, and win the "Battle of the Story", using art, images, subvertizing, spoken word and culture to organize, counter recruiting PR and overthrow the empire, facilitated by David Solnit.. Ed Bortz and Limiel Hodge of Conscience hosted a workshop on conscientious objection, and Jon Webb, also of Conscience, presented a workshop on No Child Left Behind and the Opt-Out form. Angela Kelly, Organizing Associate for the Student Peace Action Network, and Saif Rahman, Peace and Student Movements Coordinator at the Institute for Policy Studies, as well as other members of the National Youth & Student Peace Coalition facilitated a workshop on "Books not Bombs." After dinner, conference-goers attended a sneak preview screening of "Sir, No Sir!" and later listened to Ryan Harvey and Evan Greer of Riotfolk play in nearby Bloomfield.
Sunday's panel discussions moved the collective conversations further. The first was a look at counter-recruitment strategies from a national perspective, with panelists from counter recruitment groups in Cleveland, DC, San Francisco, New York, and Pittsburgh, and included an engaging and fruitful discussion on tactics.
The second looked specifically at the state's crackdown on dissent, and the various tactics used in repression; legal, political, information warfare, physical. Panelists included Tariq Khan, Air Force veteran and George Mason University student, David Meieran of POG and Save Our Civil Liberties, and Mike Healey of the National Lawyers Guild. It was framed within a historical context, addressing tactics the state used in disrupting labor struggles, the Black Panthers, and many others, emphasizing that anytime social movements are effective, they are a threat to those in power and will be repressed. The point of this panel was to better understand the ways the state attempts to break social movements, and offer suggestions on ways to shield ourselves from repression.
On Sunday afternoon, Steve Theberge of the War Resisters League and NotYour Soldier led a workshop on how to host a "Not Your Soldier Action Camp"- a counter recruitment gathering geared specifically toward young people. It covered practical tips for logistics and where to get resources, tips on outreach, and suggestions on how to create appropriate topics for participants.
There was also a planning session for the UPRISE Counter Recruitment Tour that is scheduled to tour 22 cities in the Rustbelt starting September 15. The tour is aimed at advancing CR efforts and linking together the issues that drive war, the economic depression of the Rustbelt, and military recruitment.
The conference was far more than the workshops it was filled with, it was a space and time for people to build ties with each other, to provide opportunity for informal discussions, sharing experiences, and strategizing, to provide a place of self-reflection to those already active in the CR movement, and to help provide the tools to begin efforts in this direction to those not already active, and it succeeded in accomplishing these goals. Folks from Pittsburgh came, as well as those from as far away as Houston and San Francisco, and there were many new faces ready to engage in CR work. We hope that Counter Recruitment, both within Pittsburgh, and between cities, will grow stronger as a result of the conference, and we hope for greater solidarity and success in the CR movement nationally as a result. The conference also included a plethora of take home CR materials that dozens of individuals brought from their local efforts.
It took lots of people to make this conference the success that it was, and POG would like to thank Conscience, the Thomas Merton Center, the TMC Anti-War Committee, Progressive Student Alliance, Voices for Animals, Student Peace Action Network, and AFSC Youth and Militarism Program for sponsoring the event, DC folks for the tasty drinks, Allegro Hearth Bakery for donating so many yummy loaves of bread and other goodies, everyone who helped out leading up to or during the weekend, and all those who participated in the conference. All excess food was donated to Food Not Bombs.
Pittsburgh Organizing Group (POG), the organizers of the conference, is an activist group working towards systemic change. We are non-hierarchical, consensus based, and concerned about a wide range of interconnected issues in society. Since our founding in the spring of 2002 we have organized a variety of campaigns and actions dealing with issues of war, militarism, labor rights, environmental issues, and global financial institutions. In April 2005, we launched a local counter-recruitment campaign that captured the attention of the Pentagon and has included more than 25 pickets at our local recruiting hub station, direct actions that have shut the station down, CR presentations and skill shares in other cities, visits and other educational outreach at local high schools, a petition to restrict access of military recruiters at area schools, and actions that confronted recruiters on campuses and in the streets.
>>> Read about our counter-recruitment campaign.
For the purpose of this conference, POG partnered with Carnegie Mellon University's Progressive Student Alliance, the host for the conference, and Conscience, a Pittsburgh-area group for conscientious objectors and supporters, who served as the Fiscal Sponsor.