Aimee Allison, Gulf War Conscientious Objector

Arlene Inouye, Coalition Against Militarization of our Schools

Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, Campus Antiwar Network, NYU

Zeina Zaatari, National Council of Arab Americans

Peter Camejo, Green Party Candidate

After a whole day of workshops, speakers, and a concert during lunch, the conference was winding down a long day of activities with a final afternoon plenary that strectched into the evening. It was a great way to end the day with powerful speakers detailing their experiences with counter-recruitment organizing on college campuses, their own struggles to resist militarism in their own lives and in their occupations in schools, and a historical perspective of antiwar organizing in the Bay area from the Vietnam War to today.

The first speaker at the Afternoon Plenary was Aimee Allison who gave a very energetic talk about how she came to the decision to enlist in the military and ultimately her fight to get out as a conscientious objector . You can view a video clip of part of her address to the Afternoon Plenary here.

The next speaker was Arlene Inouye who spoke about her experiences doing counter-recruitment education in the Los Angeles Schools. She also spoke about her experiences as an Asian American woman dealing with the politics of identity and how she struggled to view herself as a leader. Arlene has no qualms about being a leader today as her words and message were very well received by the members of the audience, and her work with CAMS in the LA area is serving as a model for other school districts across the nation.

The next to address the audience was CAN organzier and NYU student Elizabeth Wrigley-Field. She spoke about campus reppression of student antiwar organizing and protest at various campuses around the nation. Her full address can be heard by downloading the mp3 file here.

The third speaker was Zeina Zaatari who spoke about the many issues that affect the Arab American community in the United States as a result of the war of terrorism. She spoke about the increasing anti-Arab sentiment in the US and on college campuses and as an example she spoke about ahn incident involving a bumper sticker on her car that supported palestine. She also spoke about the importance of people in the Middle East to see that Americans are organizing against the war.

The final speaker was Peter Camejo who spoke about his experiences organizing against the war in Vietnam and compared the situation with the war in Iraq. He pointed out a lot of similarities between the build up to the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, and drew similarities with the way the war is being waged, and the way the media is reporting on it. It was a great way to end the Afternoon Plenary with Peter Camejo as he added a historical perspective to the struggles today and gave everyone a reason to continue to fight even harder to end the war in Iraq- so that maybe our country can really learn from past mistakes and to never let our government bully us into a needless war.