On Tuesday, Oct. 18, Hunter College, a liberal arts college in
Manhattan, was buzzing with the question of torture. Five youth from
the NYC chapter of The World Can’t Wait and the NYC Revolutionary
Communist Youth Brigade–wearing orange jump suits and with black hoods
over their heads–knelt in a cluster in the hallway outside the
cafeteria. A crowd of 200 to 300 students quickly gathered.
PLAY VIDEO
from Revolution #020, October 30, 2005, posted at revcom.us
On Tuesday, Oct. 18, Hunter College, a liberal arts college in
Manhattan, was buzzing with the question of torture. Five youth from
the NYC chapter of The World Can’t Wait and the NYC Revolutionary
Communist Youth Brigade–wearing orange jump suits and with black hoods
over their heads–knelt in a cluster in the hallway outside the
cafeteria. A crowd of 200 to 300 students quickly gathered.
For two years people have seen photos and videos (at least the few
images that have seen the light of day) of anonymous, faceless men in
prison suits and hoods, imprisoned at Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, and
elsewhere. Now these victims of U.S. torture and brutality were right
in front of the students at Hunter.
One torture victim told people to grab the leash around his neck and asked,
‘George Bush says I’m a bad guy–do you believe him?
Do you feel better that I’m in Guantánamo? Do you want to be holding
the leash? Because, as long as you do nothing, you’re holding the
leash. They’re raping me and torturing me! What are you going to do?!’
World Can’t Wait organizers challenged the onlooking crowd: “You are
complicit with torture, you are saying you are okay with Abu Ghraib,
unless you are resisting and mobilizing others to drive this regime out
of power. What will you be doing Nov. 2nd?”
The question of ‘what are you going to do?’ became even more
immediate when campus police attacked and arrested the protesters. One
security guard grabbed the leashes of three youths in orange jump suits
and hoods and pulled them together. The guards picked the youths up by
the arms and dragged them away, and threatened to break the arms of one
protester. One youth was punched in the groin while he was handcuffed
behind his back.
World Can’t Wait organizers challenged the students, “Would you
stand by as they rounded up the Jews in Nazi Germany? They are rounding
up people right in front of your face–why are you not opposing this?!”
The room was sharply divided. Some complained that the protest was
interrupting their day. Many others were stunned and challenged. Some
were crying because they were so upset. And some spoke out against the
arrest. Chants went up: ‘Let them go!’ and ‘Torturers!’
The arrested youths were charged with misdemeanors. The Associated
Press story on the action was picked up by Newsday, 1010 WINS (the
largest NYC radio station), CBS, NBC, and the Metro.
That very same night PBS TV aired the documentary ‘The Torture
Question,’ which clearly reveals how the torture at Abu Ghraib was not
the work of a ‘few bad apples’ but the result of systematic government
policy directed from the highest levels of the Bush regime. (Watch the
film online at pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/torture/)
A message posted on the Youth and Student page at worldcantwait.org said:
‘To those who stood by while torture protesters were hauled away by police at Hunter College:
‘People
go to Holocaust museums and ask ‘how did this happen?’ It becomes all
too clear ‘how it happened’ when students walk by or stand there and
allow the police to arrest people for dramatically illustrating the
torture that is going on daily and legally at the hands of the Bush
regime. That which you will not resist and mobilize to stop, you will learn(or be forced(to accept.‘While
what happened at Hunter College was an enactment by World Can’t Wait
organizers, the reality is that YOUR GOVERNMENT is torturing people in
Guantánamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, and who knows where else. And when you walk
by, when you decide that your career or your grades are more important
than stopping this, you are complicit by your silence. It is
unconscionable to go about our daily lives while such atrocities are
committed in our names.‘To those who voiced opposition)
‘) ‘There
is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes
you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; you can’t even
passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears
and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and
you’ve got to make it stop.’ (Mario Savio’