November 18, Eugene Oregon-
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE DISRUPTS BUSINESS-AS-USUAL AT R.O.T.C. AND SECOND ECRUITMENT CENTER; ELEVEN ARRESTED ON "NATIONAL STAND DOWN DAY"
Police Sympathetic; Much Media Coverage
-by Peter Chabarek

In a dramatic demonstration of carefully planned and well executed Civil Disobedience, 30 civil resisters opposing the war in Iraq disrupted business-as-usual at the University of Oregon campus ROTC Center, as well as the Army recruitment center in West Eugene today.  Led by small "advance teams" who approached each site carrying small packets of literature which they presented to the recruiters after entering each site, these two groups then proceeded to stage a sit-in and refused to leave once the recruiters realized what their purpose was and asked the resisters to leave.  The second wave at each site
was a larger group bearing enlarged color photo placards of war casualties-severely injured Iraqi children and their grieving parents, American G.I.'s with missing limbs, flag draped coffins with grieving family members, and the like.  At the ROTC site we also physically blocked the entrances with our bodies and signs.  Seven arrests occurred at this site, including four for blocking the entrance and three for sitting in.  At the second site in west Eugene, four were arrested, all for sitting in.
The planning and preparation for the actions was extensive and thorough.  We capitalized on our previous experience of actions we staged before, including the March 18 action for the second anniversary of the Iraq invasion (where we did civil disobedience and shut down the north Eugene recruitment center without arrest).  We had two planning meetings, a civil disobedience training day, materials prep day, meetings with the Eugene Police and our attorney, arrangements for trained legal observers from the University of Oregon Law School, reconnaissance of the two sites, and coordination with the National
Stand Down Day organizers, who had coordinated over 1300 protest actions around the nation in March, and also organized the civil disobedience at the White House September 26 in which Cindy Sheehan and 374 others had been arrested. We discussed and planned for different scenarios we might be presented with, and had backup plans in place if our initial plan could not be carried out.
We gathered at 8 am near the center of the U of O campus.  We started leafletting students with our well-researched materials about the disparities between what recruiters told potential recruits and the facts (re: VA health benefits, money for college, combat risks, high rates of exposure to combat, PTSD, etc).  I gave a brief pep talk about how we were part of a long and proud American tradition of civil disobedience stretching from the Boston Tea Party to the labor movement, the civil rights struggle, the movement to end the Vietnam War, the anti-nuclear movement, the annual actions to close the
School of the Americas that was again happening this weekend, and the courage on Cindy Sheehan and the arrests of hundreds at the White House and Pentagon in September.   Invoking the spirits of Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Sojourner Truth, Daniel Berrigan and Dorothy Day, we stood in silence for the victims of this war.
We then determined our roles: carrying the placards, legal observers, wielding cameras, working the bullhorn.  The advance team of Fraeda, Ruth and Kyle took off at 8:30 with the intent of gaining entrance inside the ROTC office, and calling back to the main group via cell phone to notify us if they were successful, or if the building was locked down.  A press release had been sent 4 days previously to all local media outlets including the date and time of the first action, but not the location of either action.  A second press release followed at 5 pm the day before the action, giving the media the location of the first action to occur at 9 am on November 18, that there would be multiple actions, and that the second action location would be revealed after the media arrived at the first location.  I was called and gave two radio interviews and one television interview about the upcoming action, making it clear that we intended to non-violently break the law, including blocking entrances and occupying buildings, and that we had made this clear to the police.  Considering that we wanted both actions to be completed before the 1:00 deadline to get on the 5:00 news, we needed to get events started as early as practical for getting media to the scene.  This meant we had to take a chance in revealing the first location the night before,  and hope that the ROTC personnel would not get tipped off.  When KVAL-TV revealed on their 6:00 news that the first action would happen at the ROTC, we thought the cat was out of the bag.
 

The advance team at the ROTC happily discovered that the ROTC  had NOT been tipped off, and our folks walked in the door and immediately called back on the cell phone for reinforcements. As the news was announced to the main group, a great cheer went up, and suddenly the whole action became much more real.  We knew now that some of us would most assuredly be arrested..
The main group then marched through campus, chanting "Stop the War   Troops Home "  When we arrived in front of the building, we quickly set up the placards and established blockades at the three entrances.  Campus Security was already inside the building assessing the situation with the folks doing the sit-in, and they had called the Eugene Police.  We then began taping many of our flyers and some of our placards to the front of the building.  The media began to arrive on schedule.
 

Arrests began with the blockaders at the back door.  Karla and Doe were handcuffed and told to kneel by Campus Security while waiting for the city police to arrive.  When Eugene Police arrived they entered thru the back door and assessed the situation inside.  Lt. Kerns, who we had met with ten days previously, was among them, and was the officer in charge.  While discussions happened inside, the media was continuously filming the arrestees and interviewing other members of our group.  The questioning was cordial and our answers were accepted without argument or hostile questioning (some of which we had encountered at the March 18 action).  It was during this time that a very moving thing happened-one of our freelance videographers complimented one of the Eugene Police officers who was standing with the arrestees for being  professional, to which he responded, "We're glad you guys are here, what you're doing is really important, keep it up "  It was an astounding moment, revealing perhaps how far the popularity of the war had fallen.  We had heard reports from one of our members named Paul, a physician and Quaker, that a friend of his who was a Eugene Police officer told him that a clear majority of the Eugene Police now opposed the war.  Furthermore, Lt. Kerns showed a great willingness to work with us so we would "be able to accomplish what it was we wanted to do," as he put it at the pre-action meeting; and at the scene of the actions, he called me aside a number of times and asked if everyone was OK, were we getting what we needed,, etc.  If ever there was an indication that the tide is turning against this war, these interactions with the police spoke volumes.
 

The media spent quite a bit of time interviewing Hank, our 79 year old WWII veteran who railed against the lies of the Bush Administration and the tragedy of young people being lured into an unjust and unwinnable war. The process of arresting the folks inside the ROTC proceeded slowly, but the media patiently hung around, covering both the front and back doors while waiting for the photo op of the arrestees being taken out to the police van.  They finally got their shots, and just in the nick of time for us.  Our four person advance team at the west Eugene recruitment center had succeeded in
gaining entrance at 10:30, including 16 year old Peter and his father Paul.  We immediately notified the press standing around at the ROTC, and the chase was on across town.  Timing was critical-we needed the media to get set up before the police could move in and make arrests, or their arrests might be wasted for media purposes.
One Eugene policeman was on the scene first, and nervously we waited for the media to arrive.  I started pacing and getting calls out to the media that the action was happening, where were they?  I agonized over the planning and strategy, blaming myself if my fellow brave comrades would put their bodies and freedom on the line with no media  there to record it.     I wasn't sure what the police were waiting for, but so far our luck was holding.  Then a van with 6 more police arrived and marched into the recruitment center.  While they were discussing things with our people inside and preparing to make the
arrests, the media finally showed up, barely in time to film our people being led out to the police wagon.  A photo taken at that time was the one that was published in the Eugene Register Guard next morning, a beautiful study in the look of conscience and determination on Jacqui's face as she was led away in handcuffs.
A reporter asked Paul's daughter, 12 year old Rose, if her dad was inside.  "Yes," she replied, "he's going to be arrested."  "How do you feel about your dad being arrested?" asked the reporter.
"I'm really proud of him."So were all of us.  Paul, a physician who had worked in VA hospitals before, asked the recruiters if they knew what conditions were like there, if they knew that many vets lacked proper medical care despite the assurances of our government.  One of the beautiful things about this kind of direct action is that it gets people in opposing camps talking to each other, who might otherwise never do so.  The recruiter expressed genuine surprise at what Paul was telling him.
Our eleven disobedient heroes were taken to City Hall police station, booked, and released on their own recognizance within a few hours.
Media coverage was overall pretty favorable in picturing our efforts in a positive light.  We were the top story on the three local TV affiliates of ABC, NBC, and CBS, as well as Air America Radio.  The two college radio stations also were on the scene and did stories, and the Eugene Register-Guard had us on the front page of the City/Region section. The University of Oregon student newspaper, The Daily Emerald, showed great interest in the story, and we will see how they portray the action with Monday's edition (they do not publish on weekends).
I believe this is "cost-effective activism."  If we had purchased advertising space in the Register-Guard and  TV and radio airtime, we would have spent tens of thousands of dollars for the kind of coverage we received, and because it required personal sacrifice it moved people's hearts much more than any paid advertising ever could.
 

What did we learn from this experience?  What did we do that worked?  What do we need to do better?

With calm dignity and adamant determination we carried out our plan almost flawlessly.  We stayed on message, we demonstrated courage in a big way, we established very good relations with the police and the media, and we made an honest attempt to communicate our concerns to the staff at ROTC and the recruitment center.  We received much good media coverage, and took the anti-war movement in this town to a whole other level.
We saw with our own eyes the power of Civil Disobedience in its effects on other people and ourselves;  we were empowered by determining the terms of engagement, where and when to strike, and the criteria for success;  we showed that by setting the terms of engagement, the police and the media will follow our lead; we forced the government to show their hand and repress peaceful dissent by force of arrest; we gained much public sympathy for the cause; we ignited excitement in the movement.  We saw the value of careful planning, having backup plans, and how to work the media to our advantage. We learned we had the people power and the logistical smarts to conduct two actions on the same day, and complete both in time to make the 5:00 news!
We learned that entering into the struggle and putting our bodies on the line builds community and deep trust between people very quickly.  We learned that sometimes in the excitement and rush to pull an action together, potentially important details can be missed-we should have made sure that our graphic photo placards were ALL facing AWAY FROM the childcare center next to the recruitment center (an irate mother's comments to KMTR-TV that the children may have been exposed to such images became that station's entire story, the only clearly negative press we received).  Some miscommunication among members of our media team resulted in the media getting some information about locations earlier than we wanted them to know.  Furthermore, it seems that we need to come up with different approaches to engage the college students in town on the issue of the war-despite the leak of information about our first location the night before on TV, and despite some leafletting on campus the morning of the event, we were not able to attract students into this action in substantial numbers, though student attitudes may change with favorable articles from the student newspaper.
If the strength of Empire depends upon the belief system of mainstream institutions such as the police and the media remaining intact, we most certainly struck a blow against the Empire this day.  If the maintenance of conformity with the institutions of war depend on people's fear of sanctions from the government, then by many of us overcoming our fear of being arrested, we most certainly struck a blow against the institutions of the war machine.
Each of our disobedient heroes has publicly declared a much deeper commitment to the cause of ending the war.  By challenging ourselves and doing something that required courage and personal sacrifice, each one became more capable, more powerful, and with that power comes greater responsibility.
We look forward to the challenge.

Peter Chabarek
Civil Resisters
Eugene, Oregon
 

Post Publicity Tremors & Squadron13 Commentary:

First of all, concerning coverage from the major TV networks, WHO CARES???
Now, on to more serious issues...

Good quality coverage from the univerity newspaper (Daily Emeral)

Uninformed commentary, very critical of our action, also from the Daily Emerald

Sleasy story from our local newspaper misses the whole point. Online original seems to have been withdrawn, but here is our response anyway.

We made Michael Moore!!!

Response to "Uninformed" from Dr. Jack Dresser