STUDENTS DENOUNCE PENTAGON SURVEILLANCE OF COUNTER-RECRUITMENT ACTIVITIES
DoD ACTIONS PART OF A WAVE OF CAMPUS REPRESSION

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.

###

Sources:
12/13/05 - Is the Pentagon spying on Americans?
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10454316/

12/13/05 – Department of Defense database listing domestic ‘threats’
msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/DODAntiWarProtestDatabaseTracker.pdf

12/10/05—Hampton University Students Punished for Protesting War
www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_2318.shtml

12/03/05 - Students Not Expelled! …But Fight Not Over
www.campusantiwar.net/index.php

11/18/05 – POG Returns to Oakland Recruiting Station
pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2005/11/21658.php

11/18/05 - Rally, Queer Kiss-in Greet Military Recruiters at UCSC
santacruz.indymedia.org/feature/display/17213/index.php

04/05/05 - UCSC Students Kick Military Recruiters Off Campus
santacruz.indymedia.org/feature/display/17073/index.php