The people and the messages at the Peace, Justice and Globalization Conference this weekend at the University ran the gamut of liberal thought, but the overall message of the conference was clear: The United States should stop bombing Afghanistan, and citizens should organize to stop the attacks.
The conference’s main coordinator, Dave Zupan of Eugene PeaceWorks, said the event went well and attendance was “amazingly good,” despite low student turnout, which he attributed to homecoming weekend and upcoming midterms.
“We feel very good about the diversity we saw here,” he said. “We had a great turnout of women, church groups, labor and artists, especially.”
Zupan said the event, which was held mainly in Grayson Hall and the EMU, had two primary goals: to educate and to help organize a grass-roots peace movement. One of Zupan’s main concerns was “preaching to the converted.”
“It isn’t always a bad idea for us to be preaching to the choir, though, because there are a lot of people who had been active who were no longer as involved as they used to be,” Zupan said. “Some of them have taken an indefinite leave of absence (from activism), and that’s not good.”
Originally scheduled as a smaller event focused on economic and cultural globalization, the conference was changed to focus on the attacks of Sept. 11 and subsequent U.S. response.
Keynote speaker Stephen Zunes, chairman of the Peace and Justice Studies Program at San Francisco State University, was added to address U.S. foreign policy. Zunes brought the audience of nearly 600 to its feet several times Friday night at the McDonald Theatre with his critical speech. He drew wild applause when he slammed his fist on the podium and shouted, “These policies won’t change until people go down to the Congressional offices, sit down and refuse to leave until we’re carried off by the police.”
Other conference events included an art show, performances by political bands and a few independent films. A concert by Spearhead immediately followed Zunes’ speech.
“I’m here to tell people that you can bomb the world into pieces, but you can’t bomb it into peace,” lead singer Michael Franti said.
Perhaps the strongest charge leveled against the government at the conference came from Ann Fagan Ginger, the executive director of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute. She said that because the Constitution requires honoring of all treaties, and the United Nations Charter is a treaty, the government is obligated under constitutional law to obey the charter.
The charter prohibits the use of force in retaliation without United Nations approval. Therefore the United States is not only in violation of international law, but also its own law, according to Ginger.
She also said that the United States response “is disturbing,” and “this new McCarthyism is not amusing.”
Several community members said they attended the conference to learn about issues not being discussed in mainstream society.
“I’m here to find out about the other side of things, stuff I just haven’t heard about yet,” said Alex Lowe, a sophomore physics major at the University.
Cottage Grove resident Alice Baker said the conference was “very informative” and that “it really shows how much I didn’t know before.
“I think the government fucked up, and I’d like to know what alternatives are available, so it’s a good thing I’m here,” Baker said.
Some felt the conference was not liberal enough, though. At a roundtable discussion Saturday night, an audience member was critical that a panel at a peace conference could endorse “violence and assassination.”
Zunes and Tammam Adi, the head of Eugene’s Islamic Cultural Center, refuted the notion that they support assassinations, but defended their support for limited military action.
“We have to stop bin Laden and bring him to justice,” Adi said, “and it’s nobody’s right to tell someone that ‘I don’t believe in self defense, so you shouldn’t either.’”