ROCHESTER, NY

When members of RIT Anti War, the student antiwar group and Campus Antiwar Network chapter at the Rochester Institute of Technology found out that six Marine Corps recruiters had set up a table in front of the Student Alumni Union, RIT Anti War knew this could not be left unchallenged. Within a half hour of first encountering the recruiters, a group of 5 activists had come together and using the Counter Recruitment Rapid Response kit, was fully armed with CR literature, RIT Anti War sign up sheets, meeting flyers and signs.

The recruiters had setup their table against a wall in the small plaza area in front of the Student Alumni Union. They came with tons of trinkets to give away, and were challenging students to do certain amounts of push ups or pull ups to get a free t-shirt. In addition the Marine Corps was offering free helicopter rides for students, which according to one student who was interested in the free ride, but not joining the Marines, was just a place to be a captive audience for a high pressure sales pitch.

The activists from RIT Anti War setup a table in the middle of the plaza and formed a semi circle screen around the Marines. Equipped with a 5-foot tall picket sign reading "Occupation is a crime from Iraq to Palestine! Troops Out Now!" on one side and "No to War, No to Racism!" on the other, a good many students passing by were interested enough to stop and see what was going on. At one point the counter-recruiters strength had grown to 12 people, one of them who just joined in, having never been involved in any actions before.

Members of RIT Anti War approached people in conversation with the recruiters and handed them counter recruitment literature to counter the lies the recruiters were spewing. Within a half hour RIT Anti War was so effective that no one approached their table anymore, because the recruiters were entirely blocked from the view of passing students. Another 20 minutes later the recruiters decided to pack it in and head out when they realized that the counter-recruiters were staying even through the next class change.

This was the first successful counter-recruitment effort at RIT and represented a major step forward on this ROTC and CIA dominated campus. This action represents the new opportunities of the antiwar movement, when people can be attracted randomly off the street to join in a counter recruitment action.

For more information about RIT Anti War or the Campus Antiwar Network, check out www.RITAntiWar.org and www.CampusAntiwar.Net