US & UK students in anti-war protest

IN PROTEST at the British government's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a recent meeting of the University College of London students union passed a motion banning military recruiters from freshers fairs and severing all links with the Officer Training Corps. Similar resolutions were passed by student bodies at Goldsmiths and LSE colleges.

In the USA, last April, over 800 students walked out of schools throughout Seattle to demand an immediate end to the Iraq war. The walkout, organised by Youth Against War and Racism (YAWR), culminated in a protest at a meeting of the school board which called for military recruiters to be kicked out of our schools. YAWR was initiated by members of Socialist Alternative, the Socialist Party's sister organisation in the US.

On 16 November 2007, over 1,000 students in Washington State staged a similar protest. In response to this walkout the authorities threatened students at Foster High School with suspension. But their main targets were teachers, some of whom encouraged or walked out with the students. Disciplinary investigations threatened the firing of six teachers and one of them, Brett Rogers, was placed on administrative leave.

Students, community activists, and Socialist Alternative organised a fightback. Brett Rogers was reinstated, almost all investigations against the remaining teachers were dropped and the disgraced principal of Foster HS was forced to resign.