Annabelle de St. MauriceThe Washington University Campus Green Party sponsored Peace Week from Monday to Thursday this week, holding events in conjunction with the College Libertarians.
The week kicked off with a Green Party-sponsored speech by Rebekah Hassler, a nurse practitioner and self-described “extremely strong pacifist.”
Hassler spoke about her experiences in Afghanistan as a member of a Global Exchange delegation, and she showed a slide show focusing on the poverty and damage in Afghanistan. She further addressed the injuries the country faced under the rule of the Taliban and spoke against the American bombings, which were implemented late last year to overthrow the regime.
Other events in the week included a wartime religious forum among Rabbi Hyim Shafner of the St. Louis Hillel, Imam Muhamed Hasic, Reverend Mary Hellwig, and Don Johnson of the Ethical Society of St. Louis on Tuesday, as well as a speech by Justin Raimondo, editor of antiwar.com on Wednesday and a film about civil liberties on Thursday night.
The Campus Green Party is a new organization which was started earlier this year. History graduate student Shaun Redden said several of the founding members of the organization were part of the September 11 Coalition for Justice and Peace. However, they wanted to create a group to discuss all of the resulting events from September 11.
Though the group is not affiliated with the national Green Party, it espouses many of the same political beliefs and is issue-driven, rather than candidate-driven, said Redden. The party hopes to direct more attention to liberal causes and is “currently focusing on peace worldwide,” said junior Holly Donovan, a founding member of the organization.
According to the Campus Greens, there are severe flaws in U.S. policymaking. The group is dedicated to the proposition that war is unnecessary.
Redden referred to American policy as “reckless,” “terrifying,” and “endangering our futures.” He said the Green Party “will be active in an anti-war/peace movement” should the situation in Iraq degrade into war.
In fact, Peace Week was designed to show the correlation between the erosion of civil liberties, the bombing in Afghanistan, and the impending war in Iraq, said Redden.
Despite the variety of events planned for Peace Week, Iraq was certainly on the minds of many of those who attended. Nearly an hour before Hassler spoke, President George W. Bush addressed the nation, making his case for a war against Iraq.
Raimondo’s speech was also directed at this topic. He spoke against the war, in a talk entitled “Iraq: America’s First Stop on the Road to Empire.”
Junior Karen Ruff attended the Hassler’s speech because she was “not sure about her stance on Iraq.” She wanted to know more about the benefits of overthrowing a regime and the damage caused by such actions.
However, Peace Week has met with a certain degree of skepticism across campus. Some students feel that it is neither purposeful nor productive. Peace Week events have not had large audiences-the Monday speech was attended by fewer than 30 members of the WU community. Furthermore, the pacifistic views of the Green Party draw some fire as idealistic and impractical. Indeed, some students question the motives of the Green Party.
Freshman Dan Kaplan said, “Peace Week is a superficial protest. It is merely a vehicle used by some members of the community to cleanse their guilty consciences.”
Redden said in the future, the Green Party wants to educate WU students, then encourage them to “bring issues to the forefront” by holding protests and engaging in dialogues. The group also wants to sponsor more anti-war activities.