A national campaign about “war profiteering” and the government’s military priorities is operating nationally.
There are currently 10 military agencies directly or indirectly providing money to 19 University research projects.
A graduate student is spending his final year in school camped on the lawn across from the administration building from noon to dusk, protesting the military’s presence in schools and businesses nationwide and how the federal government prioritizes military spending.
About 50 people attended the first day of peace studies graduate Brian Bogart’s “CampUS Strike for Peace Campaign” at noon Monday in the EMU Amphitheater.
Refusing to study in an institution that “sells itself to the war industry,” Bogart said he wants to inform Americans about the contracts and grants between military agencies and more than 350 universities and 310,000 U.S. companies.
He is protesting because he wants the University administration to stop applying for military-based funding and wants the national government to change its priorities away from what he calls “war profiteering.”
“The point of my strike is information outreach – to focus public attention on statistics that reveal America’s distorted priority, so we can change that priority by peaceful popular demand and restore the true vision of our founders,” Bogart said during his speech Monday. “This campaign will not end until America officially adopts a reasonable defense and declares an end to the age of war for profit and the beginning of an age of prosperity for all of its people.”
Rich Linton, vice president for Research and Graduate Studies, recently told the Emerald that the University’s military-funded projects are not building weapons. Much of the basic research also has non-military applications, he said.
As a peace studies graduate who has researched federal funding, Bogart said more than 50 percent of Americans’ taxes support the war industry. That does not include money for homeland security, education programs for defense, foreign policy and national security, the Army Corps of Engineers and NASA, Bogart said.
“The Pentagon’s plan for the next 20 years is an arms race when we’re already on top,” Bogart said in his speech. “We’re telling the rest of the world to build up for war because we’re the world’s Wal-Mart of weapons.”
Bogart delayed his speech about 20 minutes to coincide with the delivery of his “Petition for Peaceful Priorities” to the White House.
After his 15-minute speech, Bogart walked with students and supporters to deliver another copy of the petition to University President Dave Frohnmayer.
There are currently 1,800 schools ready to participate in the “CampUS Strike for Peace Campaign,” Bogart told the Emerald.
“During the academic year, I will seek signatures for this petition at schools and communities across America, and in June deliver them to the White House personally, and I invite you to join me here throughout the year and in Washington in June,” Bogart said in his speech.
Bogart said he is not advocating a campaign that targets the 56 Eugene companies who have contracts with the military or the University administrators themselves. Instead, he wants companies to stand against military contracts.
“Developing weapons in our institutions of enlightenment contradicts the inherent purpose of learning,” Bogart wrote in his petition. “How will we ever learn peace while making war in our schools?”
A College Republicans booth situated in front of the EMU Amphitheater throughout Bogart’s speech was not planned to be in conjunction with Bogart’s event, although College Republican Chairman Anthony Warren said it worked well for recruiting. He said he was against Bogart’s campaign and that the military provides great opportunities and resources for the University, as well as a great learning experience.
“(Bogart) needs to wake up and get a breath of fresh air,” Warren said before the speech. “I mean, come on. Military funds a lot of things, and if we didn’t have the military we wouldn’t have a free country.”
Former graduate student researcher Samantha Chirillo said she thinks Bogart’s year-long dedication is admirable.
“I thought it was a great speech, and his petition especially,” Chirillo said after the event. “It’s great that someone is taking the time … to educate people about this.”
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