Four US anti-war activists threatened with the sack

Carol Lang, an employee of the City University of New York (CUNY) and for many years a militant trade unionist, was arrested on Tuesday 11th March at her workplace by four plain-clothes policeman.

She had demonstrated the previous Wednesday against the presence of a group of recruiters from the American army (1) who came to propagandise on the campus. Carol, along with several other people, had been faced an aggressive response from the campus security.

On the 11th March, cops placed Lang in handcuffs before leading her away from her post. She spent 36 hours in police custody along with 15 other women in humiliating conditions: 3 mattresses amongst all 15 of them and revolting toilet facilities. The university has suspended Carol without pay along with three other employees (2) in the department for one month. They cannot enter the campus while their trials have not taken place, because they are "threats to the security of the campus."

Carol and her colleagues risk a prison sentence or at least a heavy fine, and furthermore they seriously risk being sacked. You can protest and demonstrate your solidarity with Carol Lang and her colleagues by writing to the President of the University:

CUNY President Gregory Williams
gwilliams@ccny.cuny.edu

Carol recently discovered that the American army paid considerable sums to CUNY where she works, which perhaps explains the aggressiveness of the administration towards her. In fact her management did not hesitate to tell CarolÅfs lawyer that she did not want to be represented, since she had to remain in prison on the grounds that she had refused to give fingerprints.

To cap everything off, the beefy security guard who lodged the complaint against Carol claims that she hit him violently on the back and wounded him in the hand, even though it has been shown that he suffers from serious blood pressure problems. We can see that the lies of the police are the same everywhere.

(1) It's important to know that the American army is currently experiencing serious recruitment problems. The number of women and black people who want to serve under the flag is in free fall. Young people from the poorest areas (inner-city or rural) who enlist in order to benefit from the university grants offered are now hesitant to sign up.

After having thrown in the reserves of the National Guard, the army no longer knows where to find recruits willing to soak up bullets in Iraq or elsewhere. Faced with protests from students on several different campuses against the presence of recruiters, shows of nervousness from the police and judiciary are undoubtedly increasing.

(2) Carol is close to the League for a Revolutionary Party (LRP) and her three colleagues are members of the International Socialist Organisation (ISO), both of which are American Trotskyist groups.