Video of Jeremy Scahill Speaking at CTSAW Mass Meeting November 1st 2009

On November 1st, students and youth from around CT, along with our movement allies, met for the CTSAW 2009 Fall Mass meeting. We listened to reports from fall demonstrations in Pittsburgh against the G20, from LGBT Allies on their march on Washington for National Equality, and from Boston on October 17th anti-war protests. We welcomed Jeremy Scahill - author, independent journalist, and researcher of private military contractors and mercenary groups such as Blackwater – as our keynote speaker. 

Scahill spoke of the state of American politics today from Washington to the streets. He talked about how Obama was never an anti-war president, despite the perception that he was. “[Obama] is extending, continuing, and in some cases worsening the policies that all of us were forced to live under during the 8 years of the Bush Administration,” he said. 

Scahill went on to discuss the role private military contractors continue to play in the Middle East – especially in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Stating that Blackwater (which has changed its name to Xe) recently had its contract extended indefinitely to provide security services in Iraq, Scahill wanted to make it clear that when we look at present political realities, we are seeing a continuation of the same policies taken on during the last administration. 

Speaking on the much awaited troop surge in Afghanistan, Scahill went on to say:  “I do not believe for one second that there is a conflict between General McChrystal and Barack Obama.” Scahill stated that Obama is using McChrystal as an extreme measure to which Obama's troops surge will be measured to make it look like he is listening to the people.   

To further his point on the current administration continuing, and in some cases worsening the policies of the Bush administration, Scahill went on to show how the administration has not just extended the policies of the previous administration, but that they have also defended the criminal actions of Bush and his cronies. Scahill quoted Asst. Attorney General West, who, speaking in defense of Donald Rumsfeld, stated: “Genocide, torture, forced relocations, and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment by individual defendants employed by the department of defense and the state department were within the scope of their employment.” Scahill argued that this shows intent to make torture and genocide the norm for the US and called for these criminals to be held accountable. 

Scahill called on those present to, “regroup, look at where we’ve been, and look at where we are going, because this is going to be a battle that is going to be waged throughout the duration of our lifetime as it has for generations that came before us.” The full video of Scahill’s talk can be viewed online by clicking here.

Inspired by his words, 40 students and youth from groups around CT went on to discuss at length what we are to do to rebuild the anti-war movement and to decide on what our goals should be for the next year. The coalition re-affirmed its previous goals and made significant commitments to supporting the growth of mainstream anti-war forces on campuses around the state.  In addition, the group also declared support of the Gaza Freedom March, the Hampshire BDS Conference on November 20th – 22nd, and committed to building for the March 20th March on Washington. 

Everyone present in the room agreed that we also have to do even more than this to rebuild the movement. To that end, the coalition has committed to building grassroots connections by moving its meetings around the state and building the coalition committee. We also made a strong commitment to building an organizer training and education day or weekend in the spring to identify new people, bring in new energies, and help students pull things together to build student power on campuses. This new initiative will begin on December 6th at UCONN at the next CTSAW meeting. Those interested are welcome to come up the previous day and stay the night. There will be an event on the 5th featuring an Israeli student who refused to join the Israeli Army as part of the Shiministim Letter group. Details will be released soon. 

To read complete details on all of the motions heard and the adopted proposals online click on the following link:
http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B0R3fOiB5wWCODgyYTBmYjctODU2Yy00NWM3LWJhMWUtOGNkOGY3MTJlOTcw&hl=en

Jeremy Scahill at CTSAW Mass Meeting November 1st 2009 from Wesley Strong on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill is an award-winning investigative journalist and frequent contributor to The Nation. His first book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army is a New York Times bestseller. Scahill has appeared as a commentator on many news programs and networks, including CBS Evening News, ABC World News Tonight, NBC Nightly News, CNN, MSNBC, Bill Moyers Journal, The Daily Show, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, NPR's "Fresh Air" and the BBC World News.

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