[O29] Arabs and Muslims, "Middle America, " and building our movement

[Tom Potter]

Hi,

Please excuse my coming in on this, but in reading and re-reading what 
Keith wrote, I fail to discover an inference such as you are alluding to in 
what Keith wrote (at least, as I read it).  I very much doubt if Keith is 
unaware of, or sanguine about, racism and beating on students!

I did not experience any sense of difficulty in following Keith's argument, 
myself, if the point you are making goes to its cogency.  If not, and you 
are not following his argument due to its substance, is there some 
dimension or consideration that you think he's left out, ignored, or 
distorted?  I don't find any evidence of such in what he wrote, but I am 
curious how you read it.  Do you have some other objection, that would shed 
more light on your response to Keith's email?

Thank you,

Tom

At 04:05 PM 10/5/2005 -0400, R Miller wrote:
>Keith,
>
>I could not follow your argument at all.
>
>I don't know what is meant by "hard hats" but if you think racism and 
>beating on students isn't happening, you are sadly mistaken.
>
>Witness the recent pouncing and pounding on of a peaceful Pakistani 
>student US VETERAN at George Mason University.
>
>>>Full Report: Student Brutalized by Cops, Right-Wing Students, for 
>>>Protesting Recruiters At George Mason U
>>>M. Junaid Alam
>>>
>>>- See Pictures of Arrest-
>
><http://lefthook.org/Ground/Alam100505pictures.html>http://lefthook.org/Ground/Alam100505pictures.html 
>
>
>>>A Pakistani-American who served four years in the United States Air 
>>>Force as munitions personnel was beaten and brutalized by right-wing 
>>>students and campus police last Thursday at George Mason University in 
>>>Fairfax, Virginia.
>>>
>>>Tariq Khan, now a junior majoring in sociology, said he was standing in 
>>>front of the recruitment table outside the school student center - as he 
>>>has often done before - during noontime with a paper sign reading, 
>>>"Recruiters lie, don't be deceived," taped to his shirt. A student 
>>>approached Khan and initiated a verbal argument, screaming in his face; 
>>>he then took the flyer and ripped it up in front of him, Khan says.
>>>
>>>The student then left and returned with another student claiming to be a 
>>>Marine having recently served in Iraq, and the three continued a verbal 
>>>argument that began to escalate, Khan claimed. "I asked the marine, 'So 
>>>how many people did you kill?'" Khan said. "And he answered, 'Not 
>>>enough.'" The marine student soon ripped Khan's sign off his shirt and 
>>>threw it in the trash.
>>>
>>>Shortly thereafter, two of Khan's friends came to his defense, and a 
>>>college staff member told Khan he had to leave because he had no permit 
>>>to table in the area. "I didn't even have a table to begin with, so I 
>>>didn't see why I needed a permit for one," Khan said. "Besides, to have 
>>>a table, you need to be a campus group, and we didn't have one," he 
>>>added, pointing out that the student council denied an anti-war group's 
>>>right to exist on campus earlier because it contained several anarchists.
>>>
>>>The staff member called campus security, at which point a police 
>>>officer, Lt. Reynolds, approached Khan and demanded to see his student 
>>>ID. Khan said he told the officer he was not carrying his ID and tried 
>>>to walk away when the policeman tried to arrest him and then became 
>>>violent. "He threw me into the stage," Khan claimed, referring to a 
>>>dance area in the student center left from an event earlier in the day, 
>>>"and I just sort of raised my hands to show I'm not violent and tried to 
>>>get as much attention by saying, 'I'm being non-violent and I'm being 
>>>brutalized.'"
>>>
>>>Fellow student and friend Amie Wells confirmed Khan's account, saying 
>>>the officer "grabbed him, put him in a half-nelson headlock," and then 
>>>"slammed him into a metal stage," propped three feet above the floor. 
>>>Wells added that the officer then slammed Khan into the ground hard, 
>>>resulting in his face hitting the surface.
>>>
>>>Describing the atmosphere, Wells said a number of right-wing students 
>>>were cheering on police officers who were attacking Khan, exclaiming, 
>>>"Kick him!" She claimed most of the crowd appeared to be on the side of 
>>>the police. "It was disgusting," she said. Another student who witnessed 
>>>events, David Curtis, said some students initially implored the police 
>>>to let Khan go, but others soon arrived to support the police, chanting 
>>>"Kick his ass!"
>>>
>>>According to Khan, Wells, and Curtis, one of the right-wing students who 
>>>had earlier harassed Khan joined the cops in forcing him on the ground. 
>>>Curtis asked the student what authority he was exercising, and the 
>>>student backed off.
>>>
>>>However, Curtis says, a university employee who stood about six feet 
>>>eight inches and weighed around 300 pounds began helping the cops to 
>>>further subdue Khan. "He performed jujitsu moves on me while the cops 
>>>held me down, and the cops let him do it," Khan said. "Frankly, the cops 
>>>were doing just fine without him, but this huge guy came and put 
>>>[Khan's] free arm in a Kamora," Curtis said, referring to a jujitsu 
>>>maneuver in which the arm is painfully bent backwards. "You could see on 
>>>his face that it was really hurting him," Curtis said of Khan.
>>>
>>>A police officer claimed the university employee was an "auxiliary 
>>>police officer," but Wells, who works with the man in the computer 
>>>store, said she had never seen him in that capacity.
>>>
>>>Khan said he was then dragged off by two officers toward a police car 
>>>but was reluctant to get in. He says one cop was preparing to spray him 
>>>with mace. "He held the can straight at my eyes, about five inches away 
>>>from my face," Khan said. "So I started yelling, 'Hey, this cop is 
>>>trying to mace me, someone take a picture if you have a camera!"
>>>
>>>Wells quickly took out her cell-phone camera and began snapping 
>>>pictures. "After I did that, the cop put away his mace can and said, 
>>>'Okay, no one's going to get maced today.' I mean, clearly, he knew he 
>>>was doing something wrong," she said.
>>>
>>>Khan says Officer Reynolds told him he had to arrest him because, "What 
>>>with 9/11 and everything else, we didn't know what you would do." Khan 
>>>also says another policeman told him that "You people are the most 
>>>violent people in the world." Before being hauled off to the Fairfax 
>>>County Jail, Khan was warned by the police who were questioning him that 
>>>"If you even look at [cops] the wrong way, they'll hang you up by your feet."
>>>
>>>Officer Reynolds asked the handcuffed student if he needed medical 
>>>attention or desired an attorney, Khan claims, but says he was granted 
>>>neither medical attention nor an attorney after expressly asking for both.
>>>
>>>Released after two hours, Khan was charged with disorderly conduct and 
>>>trespassing on campus - even though Khan is a student and police found 
>>>his ID when they searched him.
>>>
>>>The student protester says he is planning to sue the school, the police, 
>>>and the right-wing students who attacked him. "I went with my wife and 
>>>my mother-in law to file a complaint at the police office right 
>>>afterwards, and had pictures taken of all my cuts and bruises," he says.
>>>
>>>In response to the incident, the university issued a statement to Khan 
>>>recognizing that he was staging a peaceful protest and insisting it was 
>>>committed to students' rights to free speech on campus; it also said it 
>>>will conduct an internal investigation into the conduct of the police 
>>>officers and the other students who were involved in Thursday's events.
>>>
>>>Khan, however, is not impressed. "They haven't even contacted me yet," 
>>>he said. "I'll believe them when I see results."
>>>
>>>Asked what motivated him to begin his protest against military 
>>>recruiters on a campus where there is no organized anti-war movement, 
>>>the former Air Force enlistee said, "For four years, I was making bombs. 
>>>Then I started wondering where those bombs were actually going." After 
>>>reading and learning about the bombing of Kosovo and ongoing destruction 
>>>of civilian facilities in Iraq, he came to his conclusion: "I asked the 
>>>questions and I wasn't happy with the answers We were bombing civilian 
>>>plants."
>>>
>>>Speaking at a rally held on October 3 that was attended by 150 to 200 
>>>supporters at the university, Khan sounded a defiant note: "I will not 
>>>be bullied or intimidated into silence
The university authority's 
>>>actions against me last Thursday were their way of telling me to shut 
>>>up. And my answer to them is, no, I will not shut up...The power-mongers 
>>>in this country are using 9/11 and terrorism as an excuse to trample all 
>>>over our individual rights. A friend of mine recently said, 'When we've 
>>>traded in all our freedom for security, we'll find that the only thing 
>>>we've secured is our own incarceration.'"
>>>
>>>M. Junaid Alam, 22, is co-editor of Left Hook and a Journalism student 
>>>at Northeastern University. He may be reached at 
>>>alam at lefthook.org.Yahoo! for Good
>
>>O29 at massglobalaction.org
>><http://massglobalaction.org/mailman/listinfo/o29_massglobalaction.org>http://massglobalaction.org/mailman/listinfo/o29_massglobalaction.org 
>>
>
>
>
>
>On Oct 5, 2005, at 3:36 PM, Keith Rosenthal wrote:
>
>>Hey All,
>>
>>    I just wanted to throw a couple of thoughts out there regarding the 
>> vote and discussion at Monday's O29 meeting concerning demands for this 
>> protest -- specifically the demand: "Stop the racist scapegoating of 
>> Arabs and Muslims"  also, since the political discussion around the 
>> demand was short and choppy in the meeting, i wanted to respond to 
>> several things here.
>>    I think it was a mistake that this demand was voted down in a tie 
>> vote (9-9), and some of the justifications presented for why it should 
>> be voted down have the potential to set a bad precedent for our 
>> movement.  it was stated that we "don't want a radical protest, which 
>> will only draw 1,000 people," "that we have to reach out to middle 
>> America," and that we should learn the lesson of the Vietnam antiwar 
>> movement which, "got the hard-hats to stop beating up the students, but 
>> instead join the students."  i think this perspective is erroneous and 
>> somewhat mythical.
>>    First of all, i don't think we should have a laundry list of demands 
>> on the flyer, nor do i think we should talk about everything under the 
>> sun on the flyer.  but i don't think a demand around arabs and muslims 
>> is "beyond the pale," too radical, or will bring less people out to the 
>> march.  in fact, i think it can draw in more people pissed about the 
>> Patriot Act, Guantanamo mistreatment, and, of course, will draw in Arabs 
>> and Muslims, who just recently have been making pleas to Romney to stop 
>> the plan to wiretap local Mosques!  where is the antiwar movement on 
>> this question of the supposedly imminent and overwhelming threat that 
>> "Muslim and Arab extremists" pose to "our freedoms"?  the demand around 
>> Palestine at the September 24th protest certainly did not make that 
>> historic march any smaller, so why would a demand to stop anti-Arab 
>> racist scapegoating make our march any smaller?
>>    Second, we ought to be less afraid right now of being "too 
>> radical."  the single-most important figure in revitalizing mass antiwar 
>> activity recently has been none other than that "raving radical" Cindy 
>> Sheehan, who supports Palestine, the Iraq resistance to occupation, 
>> refuses to vote for pro-war Democrats, and calls the current war 
>> "imperialist."  she is resonating with people because the reality is 
>> that right now, in the aftermath of the sinking occupation of Iraq and 
>> the Hurricane Katrina disaster, most regular people are growing 
>> increasingly fed up with this war and with everything having to do with 
>> the current government.  right now, people are increasingly fed up with 
>> even the Democratic Party for not taking a firm enough stand against 
>> Bush and the war because of their concern to not alienate "swing-voters 
>> in middle America."
>>    Finally, who is this mythical "middle America," and how do we win 
>> them?  the reality is that right now, a majority of people are against 
>> the war and against Bush.  according to polls, 1 out of 3 people 
>> consider themselves part of the antiwar movement -- that's 100 million 
>> people nationwide.  in boston, that's roughly 200,000 people.  once we 
>> get these people organized, it will be easy from there to win the other 
>> antiwar 1/3 to our side.  also, who are we trying to win to this 
>> movement?  soccer moms (like cindy sheehan)?  sure!  arabs, muslims, 
>> blacks, gays, women, students, latinos, workers, etc., (i.e., the 
>> majority of people)?  we must!
>>    And if i may ask, which hard-hats are beating up antiwar students 
>> today?  it's my understanding that the AFL-CIO is against the war in 
>> Iraq (this includes organized construction workers, i 
>> believe).  remember, we are the majority!  soldiers and military 
>> families are increasingly on our side.  now is not the time for 
>> conservative, cautious moderation, but rather for bold, confident, and 
>> aggressive steps forward.
>>    During the vietnam war, these so-called "hard hats" (do you mean 
>> workers, soldiers, what?), were not won over to the side of the 
>> "students" because the "students" moderated their message.  rather, they 
>> were won over to the antiwar movement because they simply grew more and 
>> more disgusted with the war and the government and felt they simply had 
>> to do something about it.  in other words, people were going through a 
>> process where they were beginning to think much more critically about 
>> the government, if for no other reason than because of the increasing 
>> reality of what the government was doing to the Vietnamese people and to 
>> the US soldiers.  this is precisely what is happening right now.  the 
>> way we are going to win these people is not by moderating our message, 
>> but by taking every opportunity to expose every lie, smokescreen, and 
>> brutality that this government is carrying out in the name of this war . 
>> . . and in all of our names.  in so doing, we will give expression to 
>> growing millions of people disgusted by the government and simply 
>> waiting for someone to confidently address the government's barbarity, 
>> blow-for-blow (e.g., Cindy Sheehan).
>>
>>    In conclusion, i warn against the broader framework, justification, 
>> and implications used to defeat the demand on anti-arab racism at 
>> monday's meeting.  it sounds dangerously similar to the logic employed 
>> by Kerry supporters in the last election that we have to moderate our 
>> message to appeal to "swing-voters in middle-America" in order to 
>> win.  not only did that strategy, in fact, lead to a defeat for our 
>> side, but it also taught movement activists how to hold their tongues 
>> instead of raising their voices.  as the 2006 congressional elections 
>> begin to be talked about, we would do well to remember this lesson, and 
>> refuse this time around to repeat our mistakes.  the way to grow is to 
>> confidently fight for our principles and to win more people to them -- 
>> in tandem with their own developing criticisms of the war and the 
>> government -- and not by "moderating ourselves," "politically 
>> disciplining ourselves," or "holding our noses."
>>    Again, this is not to say that we should have a laundry-list of every 
>> possible demand on the flyer.  but this is to say that we have little to 
>> lose and much to gain by adding clearly relevant demands and letting our 
>> movement take an increasingly critical posture towards the government's 
>> various policies and ideological buttresses.  and we ought to be wary of 
>> making arguments that would set a precedent for our movement to balk and 
>> moderate itself in order to appeal to some mythical "middle-America" at 
>> the expense of standing up for our beliefs and for those who are most 
>> oppressed and victimized by this war and this government.
>>
>>
>>Solidarity,
>>Keith Rosenthal
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>Yahoo! for Good
>>Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief 
>>effort._______________________________________________
>>O29 mailing list
>>O29 at massglobalaction.org
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>>
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