2nd Rochester Anti-War Conference

The Second Regional Rochester Anti-war conference took place Saturday September 17th at the School Without Walls. The Event, was organized by R.A.W. (Rochester Against War), with the broad goal of "empowering us, ordinary people, to take a stand for justice and equality and effect the course of history, toward a more peaceful and equitable society."

The opening Panel ; "Strategies for Rebuilding the Anti-War Movement" consisted of a talk and discussion with Victor Parades, brother of Pablo Paredes a Navy War Resister and Brian Lenzo, member of "Rochester Against War" (RAW) and the International Socialist Organization (ISO)"

The participants of the conference then divided into four groups, each group addressing a different topic in a facilitated workshop. The workshop titles consited of ; "The War on Terror: Behind the Rhetoric", "Forgotten Voices: Veterans and GI Dissent", "Military Out of Our Schools" , "Troops Out Now: The Case for Withdrawal."

Víctor Paredes’ speech in the opening session was very practical in terms of mentioning specific strategies for the movement. His thesis was based on a cycle whose components are: resistance, public attention and education. In the resistance component individual activism is very important: you focus on a target that you can cause an impact and you strike with full force. An example Paredes gave was the actions of Cindy Sheean. Another participants brought up was the incident two weeks ago when ISO members confronted some recruiters at RIT ultimately making it impossible for the recruiters to continue their activities. Individual actions such as these are ones that lead to mass activities like the September 24th at DC. These rallies catch the public attention because the mass media covers them. In the Cindy Sheean example we have a clearer idea about what public attention means for the movement. This type of attention helps by educating people and attracting them to the movement. But education can’t end here. We need to organize forums in the communities, schools and universities. Conferences like this one are a start, this allows for education which informs resistance actions which capture public attention which should then be funneled into more education and analysis of the effectiveness of actions.