Shutting Down the Army Experience Center: An Effective and Important Protest

By Debra Sweet

Saturday the Army Experience Center at Franklin Mills Mall in Philadelphia was closed to the public for at least 5 hours, ringed with dozens of police & mall security. Inside, and lurking around the parking lot on their motorcycles, were about 50 of the pro-war "Gathering of Eagles" waving flags, and chanting "USA! USA!"

On the edge of the mall, anti-war protesters gathered at a main intersection with banners and signs calling for the end of the Army's pilot project to use video games and "war simulations" to attract youth into the military. Chris Hedges, the former war correspondent and author or several books on war, addressed us with his powerful opposition to what the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq are doing to the people there, and to the occupiers. VIDEO of Chris.

By the time we marched into the mall, we were 150 people. On May 2, we had been joined by members of Veterans for Peace from all over the east coast. This time, not so many of them, but instead, we had many more people from Pennsylvania, including more students. We marched right into the door where the AEC is, to the applause of dozens of people waiting for us.

SHUT IT DOWN! SHUT IT DOWN! As if fearing we intended to storm the video arcade, all sorts of police ringed the entrance. Behind them, obviously through arrangement, were right-wing thuggish characters — the same ones who regularly try to shout us down at war protests in Washington — holding signs saying "Traitors!"

The crowd got larger as bystanders came to check out the commotion, and heard why we were protesting. Pat Elder of the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth told how the recruiters operate in schools, and I talked about the illegitimacy of occupation and torture being carried out in our names.

45 minutes later, 7 of us were arrested and taken out the back, where more of the Gathering of Eagles were waiting for us by the bus the police had prepared. After the spending the night, with great company, we were charged with criminal conspiracy and failure to disperse. Cheryl Biren-Wright, who was covering the protest for Op-Ed News, was arrested while taking photographs, walking away from the protest.

Our action Saturday got the attention of major news media, as the Associated Press did a story last week on the AEC, PBS Frontline was there filming, as well as local NBC and local print media. Many tens of thousands of people saw us refusing to accept the military presence in the mall, and refusing to let them set the terms. This is effective and important protest! Thanks to everyone who came out and wrote to ask about it.

On the other hand, the petition being delivered to Barack Obama by Tom Hayden & Medea Benjamin, asking him to stop the occupation of Afghanistan, which thousands of people are signing onto, will have no good effect. I believe these sorts of appeals do damage to our cause. Why?

1.Barack Obama does not care what you think. He told you that even before the election, in arguing that Afghanistan is "the good war" and promising to increase troops there. You are not his constituency. He is concerned with appeasing the war hawks, not pleasing you, and even then they will not give him one speck of breathing room no matter how much he tries to conciliate to them.

2. Though there are apparently sharp differences at the top of the administration about how to proceed on Afghanistan, there is no one there who's going to "listen to reason" when they all know that pulling back from the fight to control the Middle East will endanger the US position of being an unchallenged and unchallengeable dominant power. The occupation has nothing to do with 9/11, Osama bin Laden, much less the creation of "democracy." It's about domination of the Middle East, and keeping any other major world power out.

3. Directing our appeal to the powers that be, whether the President or the Congress, fosters the illusion that they are "supposed to represent us" or that they should be responsive to our lobbying. Powerful governments are sometimes forced to do things they didn't plan on as we've seen throughout history. But they only do this when there's an independent movement of the people, powerfully expressing our demands, not shaping them to the confines of what they will "accept" or think "realistic."

(Sweet's article in a slightly longer version was previously e-published at http://www.worldcantwait.net.)