ZNet: A new battleground on campuses
By: Elizabeth Wrigley-Field
The increasingly polarized political climate on U.S. campuses was driven home to me in the last few weeks of the semester at my school, New York University (NYU) — which saw an outpouring of activity at both ends of the political spectrum. The remarkably diverse array of progressive activism included a serious anti-racism campaign; a protest that resulted in the cancellation of a CIA recruiting event; a campaign to kick Coca-Cola off campus for its complicity in the murder of union activists in Colombia; a teaching assistants’ union campaign; and protests against right-wing speakers, including a protest against Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia that received national attention when a law student asked Scalia (who supports anti-sodomy laws against homosexual sex), “Do you sodomize your wife?” At the same time, right-wing student groups and individuals tried to advance their agenda, targeting affirmative action, gay rights, and individual left-wing students, in a series of attacks I relay below. As classes wound down, the campus began to feel electrified by the political organizing on both sides. A similar dynamic is taking place on campuses across the country, with grassroots activism in resurgence — sharpened by the fact that conservatives are organizing as well.
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