Separate Activist Groups Strive for Solidarity One Important Tool: The Internet

30 April 2002

by D.D. Delaney, Port Folio Weekly

For the first time locally, on April 24 at Old Dominion University, a mixed group of ODU Greens and off-campus activists joined in solidarity with the Muslim Students Association to call attention to the magnitude of destruction the Israelis have wrecked in their invasion of the Palestinian territories.

Dozens of graphic photos of death and devastation hung on a central kiosk on the sidewalk outside the Webb Student Center. On a literature table nearby copies of eye-witness accounts described savage Jewish aggression. Documented commentaries detailed why no one but the Americans and the Israelis think the peace Yassar Arafat rejected in the summer of 2000 was "a generous offer."

"The picture the media has given does not tell the other side of the story," says Ahmed Taha, a past president of the MSA and an organizer of the presentation. The materials the Muslim students had assembled came from independent and foreign journalists posting on the internet.

Only about 30 participated in the teach-in, with MSA students grouped around their display while the slightly smaller solidarity group stood to one side, leading chants to "stop the war" and "free Palestine." But few passersby lingered to learn more.

Sinan Husrevoglu of the ODU Greens -- an environmental concerns group not affiliated with the Green Party -- says he came out to support the Muslim students' pro-Palestinian position. Glenn Fiscella of the Tidewater School of the Americas Watch [SOAWTVA] came for the same reason. So did Mary Franke from Tidewater Women in Black [WIB]

Later, at 5 p.m., Fiscella joined half a dozen members of the SOA Watch at a vigil outside the offices of the Virginian Pilot. They held up posters of anti-SOA slogans and handed out leaflets detailing human rights abuses SOA graduates, trained at Ft. Benning, have committed in their native Latin American countries.

Among the SOA Watch demonstrators was Ken Kennon, a retired pastor from Tucson, AR, visiting here for two days as part of a speaking and book-signing tour. Prisoner of Conscience: A Memoir concerns the six months he spent in a Texas federal prison for trespassing at Ft. Benning in defiance of a bar and ban order during the annual SOA Watch of 1997.

He confirms reports that the generals behind the recent failed coup in Venezuela are SOA graduates.

The uneventful vigil broke up at 6 p.m., when about a dozen gathered at the Norfolk Catholic Worker for pot-luck supper. Kennon drew the attention of the table with accounts of his long fasts -- up to 40 days -- in demonstrations of support for peace and justice. He has been part of the SOA Watch movement since 1992.

But the conversation also included a group debriefing on the Washington demonstrations of April 19-22, which many there had attended. On April 22 the Catholic Worker's Steve Baggarly, with 37 other, non-local demonstrators, was arrested for blocking access to traffic entering Capitol grounds. He faces arraignment next month on the misdemeanor charge, carrying a maximum six months in jail and a $500 fine.

Patrick Baggott asked group members to join him on April 26 at William and Mary College in a demonstration supporting a living wage for janitorial and service workers. Several indicated they would be there. Several others expressed interest in a vigil against racism at the Yorktown Library, where a meeting of the white supremacist World Church of the Creator is scheduled for early May.

At 8 p.m. the group adjourned to Fairgrounds News and Coffee on Colley Avenue, where Kennon was due for a book-signing. But only three customers bought his book, all SOA Watchers. Others seemed unaware of the lively discussion filling an entire section of the shop -- politics, government secrets, the abuse of power, and the experiences of the Washington weekend.

From this discussion, over several hours, two distinct themes emerged, both operational in local events that day.

First, the disparate and, at times, competing social action groups converging 100,000 strong on the Capital April 19-22 find they are all committed to a common, unifying cause. They want American wealth and power to go to work for the common good of all, not just for the narrow interests of the privileged few.

Second, the dominant U.S. news media -- broadcast and print -- fail to report fully what government and big business are up to. A vital mission of social action groups is to provide the missing information, especially through the internet.

The next official SOA Watch demonstration will target the Oceanfront on Memorial Day, May 27. All progressive-leaning dissidents are invited to participate.