The Hawai`i chapter of World Can’t Wait has organized three teach-ins at the University of Hawai`i-Manoa this spring, and will hold its 4th (“Impeach Bush for War Crimes”) on March 14th. Ann Wright will be our special guest speaker, and we expect a larger than usual crowd. The chapter has learned a lot and will be summing this up more fully, but we want to encourage everyone with college/university ties to organize teach-ins. It’s not too late! It’s not too hard!
Our last teach-in was on Wednesday, February 28th, and was on torture. About 80 attended — almost all students. We had two speakers, Jon Van Dyke and Laura Lyons. Jon Van Dyke is a professor of constitutional law at UH’s Richardson School of Law, and had an excellent power point presentation on the Military Commissions Act that included graphic slides on torture, excerpts from the Act itself, and a detailed but understandable explanation of recent changes legalizing torture.
Laura Lyons is a professor of English specializing in narratives of Irish prisoners during the resistance. She specifically addressed rendition (what it is, how it’s being used) and made a passionate appeal for action. The talks were followed by Q&A and then the showing of the Bush Crimes Commission video on torture.
Our plan was to show the DVD at the beginning of the teach-in. Unfortunately, because Dr. Van Dyke had another appointment, we switched the order. The teach-ins are better when they begin with the 27-minute DVD segment. We cannot emphasize enough how powerful these DVD segments are and how valuable they are to framing the teach-ins.
Our teach-ins have grown in numbers. Our first one this semester (on global reproductive rights/AIDS) was attended by only a few people and organizers were very discouraged. But they picked themselves up, and went forward with the second teach-in on science.
The teach-in on science wasn’t well-publicized, but about 35 people (mostly professors) showed up. The talks by two UH scientists were excellent, and feed-back we’ve received from this teach-in has been overwhelmingly postive. Word has spread about the teach-in. Faculty and students are curious as to why World Can’t Wait would do a teach-in on attacks on science (it seems addressing attacks on science and critical thinking isn’t part of the stereotype of what “activists” do!).
Now there’s already a buzz about the teach-in on the war on March 14th, and activists are talking of continuing the bi-weekly teach-ins at the University of Hawai`i until the end of the semester!
We haven’t heard much about teach-ins at other colleges and universities, and it appears from notices that activists are largely relying on national speakers and aiming for bigger, splashier
teach-ins. That’s great, and we wish we could too. But there’s a big ocean between us, air fares are high, and we’re largely stuck with what we have. That’s been challenging and, actually, a good experience. And there’s really something very positive to having speakers from our
own universities getting involved!
Last semester, immediately after the elections, we held 4 teach-ins at the UH-Manoa campus on Sunday afternoons. While each attracted about 40 people, the audience was largely from the anti-war community — and not university students/faculty. The spring series was held from
11:30-1:15 every other Wednesday, at the same auditorium. They’ve been harder to organize for. Student apathy is very discouraging. But by sticking with it we’re making some progress.
World Can’t Wait has been able to involve professors in our own university. The teach-ins have been well-organized and serious. Each one (even the first with only a few people) has provoked lots of
questions and the discussions have been excellent. We’re also learning that professors are increasingly forwarding our announcements to their classes by e-mail, reflecting increasing respect for what we’re doing.
We really want to urge people in other chapters to hold their own teach-ins. Most of the work is done for us so it really isn’t very hard. (The most difficult part is getting them adequately publicized.) The Bush Crimes Commission videos are really great! They’re very powerful and lay out a strong case for impeachment. They’re professionally done. The 27-minute segments are just the right
length.
One thing we’ve summed up is that we have immensely under-estimated the usefulness of the nationally produced DVDs. When they came out we announced them, but we really dragged our feet on getting them out broadly. The teach-ins have popularized the DVDs, and we’re now
hearing that professors are showing them in their classrooms, church groups are showing them in their meetings, and they have taken on a life of their own. As activists organize for actions on campuses on March 20th, and leading up to April 28th, we urge them to popularize and distribute the DVDs.