Boston Students Protest Defense Contractors At Career Fair

GJP Protests Defense Contractors At Career Fair

by Alexi Chi


BOSTON, Mass. - A group of 20 Boston College students stood out from the throng of suited undergrads who crowded Conte Forum during Tuesday's career fair. Those students, clad in "Who Would Jesus Bomb" T-shirts and kneeling silently, were protesting the presence of weapons manufacturers at the annual BC career fair.


Members of the Global Justice Project kneeled in front of the Raytheon table at the career fair. (Media Credit: Ian Thomas)

The protest was organized by the Global Justice Project (GJP), a non-hierarchical organization whose mission is to educate and advocate for justice and democracy at BC. Fifteen student demonstrators knelt at the recruitment tables of military contractors Raytheon and BAE Systems. To the side of the kneeling students, six others participated in a satirical theater demonstration, posing as recruiters from a fictitious competing weapons manufacturer, the Civil Liberties On-Line Weapons Network Services (CLOWNS). The protestors actively tried to recruit career fair attendees to work for their company, offering "frequent buyer airfare packages ... to defend and promote democracy abroad." Midway through the event, students unfurled a banner, reading "Do Jesuits support cluster bombs? Kick Raytheon and all war off campus!"

"I feel that by refusing to un-invite Raytheon, the BC administration is condoning the company's policies, which to me is clearly contradictory to the Jesuit philosophy of this institution," said Tim Dingman, a member of the GJP and A&S '11.

Student demonstrators elected not to apply for a University-issued demonstration permit, citing the administration's "frighteningly clear" pattern of censoring student groups and infringing on their right to dissent and free expression on campus. They instead issued a "student demonstration permit" to members of the University. The permit read, in part, "not only do we believe we have an obligation to peacefully demonstrate the presence of weapons manufacturers on our campus, but we believe that dialogue and free exchange of ideas are vital to the academic setting of any university that claims to espouse the values of scholarship and higher education." :thumbsup:

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/09/18

They're not the target for this recruiting.

kicking and screaming.

weapons manufacturers on their campus have to do with joining the military?

These kids give me hope for the future.

we went to Northeastern, also on loans.

i've worked for government contractors. one of the really evil ones even, tho the client for the project i worked on was okay - as okay as a gov't client can be, anyway. but i was on a project for a military client once too.

government contractors have a huge variety of jobs and projects going on. it's not like you get hired by a company like raytheon and are suddenly developing and deploying weapons of war.

i think it's alright for these companies to participate in job fairs at universities. i absolutely respect the right of anyone not to work for one of these companies - as a buddhist i did have to reconcile the "right livelihood" guideline...

so point is, while i admire the personally held beliefs of the protestors, i would not protest with them.

And I'm also fine with kids protesting them.