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DEFEND FREE Three students and one staff member have been arrested at CCNY after participating in a peaceful protest against military recruitment, Click HERE for more information and to find out how you can support them |
AFL-CIO Calls for
Chicago, July 27, 2005: In a major change of course, the AFL-CIO Convention delegates voted this afternoon in favor of a resolution calling for a "rapid" return of all U.S. troops from Iraq. Click here for details as reported by U.S. Labor Against War.
Rapid Return of U.S. Troops
March 10, 2005Dear Participant in the Educators to Stop the War conference
We are writing to ask how Educators to Stop the War can help you do your work to build the anti-war movement in your school, college, union, or education organization. We would like to hear from you in time to bring your ideas and needs to the Educators to Stop the War Steering Committee meeting on March 20.
We were thrilled that over 750 people attended the daylong Educators to Stop the War conference at Hunter High School in New York City on March 5, including 260 college and high school students. While most people were from the New York City area, groups of people came from Massachusetts, Philadelphia, Maryland/DC, Iowa, and points in between. From the standing-room-only morning opening plenary session to the standing-room-only close, the energy was high in what participants called a “dynamic,” “engaging,” and “hopeful” gathering focused on building a strong anti-war movement in education. Everyone was impressed by the presence of a functioning student-teacher alliance, which needs to be more firmly cemented through future cooperation.
Now it is time to take the energy of the day into the work required to make the anti-war movement in education an everyday reality. The numbers, diversity, energy, and focus of the people who came convince us that we have struck a chord that will resonate widely in the months to come. We want to work with you to build Educators to Stop the War into a powerful presence in our schools, our unions, our pedagogy and curriculum, and the larger anti-war movement.
At the March 6 continuations meeting many ideas for future activities emerged, from having a speaker bureau to using the Website for discussion threads and exchanging ideas on curriculum to organizing local and regional forums and conferences to confronting recruiters to participating in demonstrations. In particular, there will be a number of demonstrations on March 19, the second anniversary of the outbreak of the Iraq war – at Ft. Bragg in Fayetteville, NC, in New York City, and many other cities on the east coast and across the country. We expect that Educators to Stop the War will have a presence at all of these; we will post information about them on this web site. Some conference participants are planning a day of action on April 20 in New York City. As those plans develop we will keep you posted. As plans for the day develop at your school or campus please keep us posted as well. Please check our web site regularly for updates on these and other actions, as well as for new curricula and other information.
In the meantime, please consider making a report of the conference to your union or school organization, verbally or through list-serves, e-groups, and newsletters to which you have access. Through such reports and other conversations we have with our colleagues we will develop the language we need to communicate effectively our understandings of the war and the urgency of the need to stop it.
Educators to Stop the War is a project of U.S. Labor Against the War, a national coalition of unions and other labor organizations. We urge you to work to get your union to affiliate with USLAW, and hope that you will join USLAW as an individual whether or not you are a union member. Get more information at www.uslaboragainstwar.org.
Educators to Stop the War brings together people with different understandings of the war and its causes and different views and priorities in building opposition to it. But all of us agree on the basic points that unite us: STOP THE WAR – BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW – MONEY FOR EDUCATION AND SOCIAL NEEDS, NOT FOR WAR.
Please send us your ideas for the work Educators to Stop the War should do, notice of plans you have for educational events or actions in opposition to the war and military recruiters, and information about ways we can help you do your work in this movement. Contact us at feedback@educatorstostopthewar
.org . We will be back in touch after the March 20 Steering Committee meeting.In solidarity
Nancy Romer
Michael ZweigCo-conveners
