U of C United-Front Rally Demands:

Drop Charges Against Anti-Military Recruitment Protesters!

(Young Spartacus pages)

CHICAGO, March 21—Over 70 students and faculty at the University of Chicago came out to a March 8 rally to demand: “Drop all charges against the anti-military recruitment protesters now! Administration hands off! No disciplinary actions!” The Spartacus Youth Club initiated this united-front demonstration in defense of four protesters arrested by campus cops at the U of C’s Reynolds Club on February 21 during a protest against Marine recruiters. Jeremy Cohan and Ben Fink were arrested for rightfully standing their ground in the face of the campus administration’s demands that they end their protest against the Marines, while SYC supporters Tom Discepola and Brian Stapleton were arrested for leading chants of “Administration hands off!” and “Recruiters off campus!” in Cohan and Fink’s defense. All four face prosecution on bogus charges of disorderly conduct.

As part of our defense campaign, the SYC issued a statement on February 27 calling on students to protest these arrests and stating: “We urge students to protest military recruiters as part of the struggle against the brutal occupation of Iraq and the entire imperialist system. Military recruiters off campus now!” (“Drop Charges Against U of C Protesters!” WV No. 865, 3 March). In addition to building widely on campus for the defense rally, the SYC has also circulated a petition demanding that the charges be dropped and has written to the campus newspaper, the Chicago Maroon.

More than 40 individuals and organizations endorsed the March 8 united-front rally, including faculty, students and student groups, such as the Environmental Concerns Organization (ECO). Speakers at the rally included three of the arrested protesters, Jeremy Cohan and the two SYC supporters, as well as Professor Robert J. Richards, who gave voice to widespread faculty outrage over the arrests. Not surprisingly, some organizations that hate the SYC’s Marxist politics, such as the fake-socialist outfit Spark and the anti-communist liberals of the campus ACLU and Amnesty International, refused to endorse.

March Separately, Strike Together

For a communist organization, the united front is a tactic:

“The dual nature of the UF [united front] is captured in the CI [Communist International] slogan, ‘March separately, strike together.’ Each participant in the UF retains its organizational identity; agreement in the UF need pertain only to the details of the specific action to be carried out and can only be reached through unanimous agreement. Another slogan which captures the dual nature of the UF is ‘freedom of criticism, unity in action’.”

—“On the United Front,” printed in On the United Front (1976), a Spartacus Youth League pamphlet

Within this framework, the SYC sought the endorsements of all who understood that the right to free speech on campus was under serious attack at the U of C. As Joe Feinberg, a member of the 49th Street Underground (a self-described “anti-capitalist group”), said at the rally: “There used to be a slogan in the labor movement that a lot of people have forgotten these days that went ‘an injury to one is an injury to all.’ So to me it’s not an issue of whether I agree with the people who are endorsing this. I don’t agree with everything the Spartacus Youth Club says, or anyone else, but that’s why we come together to debate things, discuss things.”

For the SYC, building the biggest and broadest united-front defense goes hand in hand with seeking to win youth to our revolutionary Marxist perspective. At the rally, arrested protester and SYC supporter Brian Stapleton spoke to the connection between our fight against the military on campus and our broader program:

“We were out protesting the military recruiters because as communists, we are opposed to bourgeois militarism on principle, including the imperialist armed forces recruiting on high school and college campuses for their murderous wars and occupations abroad. We recognize that war is essential to the capitalist system, where imperialist nation-states compete for control of resources and spheres of influence. It is only through international socialist revolution that the material and political roots of bourgeois militarism can be destroyed, and the foundation laid for the construction of an economy based upon human need rather than profit.

“The same goes for military recruiters on campus. While it’s a great thing that student protests may succeed in temporarily kicking recruiters off campus, they will keep coming back so long as the imperialist army exists. The fact that the Supreme Court just unanimously upheld the Solomon Amendment shows that the bourgeoisie is intent on keeping schools open to its military recruiters.”

Defend Free Speech on Campus! No Reliance on the Administration!

The administration and its mouthpiece, the Chicago Maroon, have attempted to justify the outrageous arrests by slandering the four protesters. We have successfully fought against the attempts to malign Jeremy Cohan and Ben Fink for their obvious satirical political theater in carrying a swastika-marked sign that read “Don’t join the Marines—join the American Nazi Youth Corps” during their protest against the Marines.

We have also fought the many slanders aimed particularly at the SYC. According to the Maroon (24 February), the director of the Office of the Reynolds Club and Student Activities, Sharlene Holly, “said they [supporters of the SYC] escalated the protest and created a dangerous environment.” This was exposed by Leah Olm who spoke for ECO at the defense rally: “As somebody who was there when the protesters were arrested in the Reynolds Club last week, the charges by the administration that the Spartacus Youth were creating an unsafe environment are erroneous and ridiculous.”

In response to the support our vigorous defense campaign has gained on campus, the Maroon published its own smear-job in a March 3 editorial slandering the SYC as “disrupters” whose ideas “have no content except shock-values.” The Maroon was compelled to print an SYC letter in response on March 7, which stated: “In reality, what the Maroon calls ‘disruption’ is Marxist student activists fighting for the program that only socialist revolution can end the exploitation and oppression endemic to capitalism. The Maroon editors find this idea ‘shocking’.”

For the U of C administration, the “life of the mind” is acceptable as long as opponents of U.S. imperialism don’t speak their mind. If they do, they’re shut up through cop repression. We warn students that these arrests and administration actions are not aberrant, for either universities in general or the U of C in particular. As an SYC speaker stated at the rally:

“The Spartacus Youth Club does not rely on the administration to protect free speech on campus. We understand that the administration’s role is to maintain this university as a pillar of capitalist society. The U of C is complicit in the crimes of U.S. imperialism and were the brains behind Nagasaki and Hiroshima, which killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people. The U of C is also the leading landlord in Chicago’s largely black South Side. Its private army of campus cops have been terrorizing black residents of the surrounding neighborhoods for decades. It is no surprise that the outrageous racist ‘ghetto party’ happened at this campus. This is also the campus where black student Clemmie Carthens was beat up by the UCPD after they saw him hugging a white girlfriend at night, and the charges pressed against the cops have been dismissed. We want cops off the campus!”

The administration stated in a February 28 letter to an SYC supporter that it “has decided to ask the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office to dismiss the criminal charges against you.” However, the protesters are still facing charges. In addition, in a meeting with the administration, we were told there would be no university discipline. Still, the administration made its attitude clear in its letter: “The University believes that your conduct was disruptive and that your arrest on the charges was appropriate under these circumstances.” So far the administration’s hand has been stayed, but defenders of the student protesters need to hold them to their word. An April 5 court date has been set for the protesters. We urge all students to mobilize to fill the courtroom in support of the anti-military recruitment protesters.