Following a long tradition of Oberlin activism, two Oberlin students, seniors Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin and Bill Lascher, were arrested Sunday, Nov. 18 in Fort Benning, Georgia. Along with about 30 other Obies, Wawrin and Lascher were protesting the School of the Americas (SOA), an organization that many claim is a US run training ground for Latin-American Dictators. Schromen-Wawrin and Lascher participated in a direct action, a deliberate act of civil disobedience used to make a statement and raise awareness of a cause. Their group chose to sit in the middle of a road leading into the base, and after refusing to leave, they were forcibly removed.
“Finally, the police gave our support people their final warning to leave the street and with their departure our circle of 33 activists became quiet and lonely. We began to sing again, as a prison bus pulled up to the street and riot cops assembled for the arrest. Behind the fence, backlit by headlights, military people waited for our removal before opening the gates. They were knocking the white crosses out of the fence,” Schromen-Wawrin recalled.
After their arrest, the group performed jail solidarity, refusing to cooperate in any way with their arrest. By not giving their names, having their photographs taken or even eating, the entire group put pressure on the legal system. In addition, they were backed by massive support outside the jail, including a legal team, protestors and a deluge of faxes. Two days later, on Nov. 20, a plea bargain was reached, and the entire group was released with time served. “A very important point about what Bill and I did was jail solidarity, without which we would be spending 9 months in jail,” Schromen-Wawrin said.
This year the action drew between five and ten thousand protestors. Many gathered for a legally sanctioned rally a few miles from the base. These Demonstrators placed white crosses on the base’s chain link fence. This was a symbolic commemoration of those that the SOA is allegedly responsible for killing.
Most protestors chose this sort of peaceful protest over riskier direct action. “I would probably only do a federal action, i.e. an action on the base, and to do so would mean to go to prison for 6 months because I already have a ban and bar from the base for a previous action,” senior and Oberlin peace Activist League (OPAL) member Jacqueline Downing said. Downing has protested at Fort Bennings 8 times.
Other students supported the protest but wondered at the effectiveness of the direct action technique. “If it was a mass group of people I would have done direct action, but I think it’s moralistic and unnecessary to do direct action with just a few people,” senior Kyle Gilbertson said.
In the wake of the events of Sept. 11, some have objected to demonstrations against the government, but Lascher and Schromen-Wawrin remain adamant about the need to take action. “Ever since the events of Sept. 11, I’ve been feeling very much a need to stand up against what the U.S. government was doing; this was a very small part of that,” Lascher said.
While the SOA this year changed its name to the Western Hemisphere Institute For Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), its aims remain the same. The institute’s formal mission includes efforts to “promote democratic values, respect for human rights and knowledge and understanding of U.S. customs and traditions.” However, opponents point out, however, that its graduates include such dictators as Manuel Noriega of Panama and Juan Velasco Alvarado of Peru and that it contributed to such atrocities as the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero. “Every government has its own rhetoric about how it is fighting this war for the sake of freedom and democracy, but that is rhetoric and we have to look for what the real motives are,” Gilbertson said.
Even after two days in jail and a criminal record, Lascher and Wawrin stand by their actions “I think this was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life,” Lascher said..