About SSAW
School Students Against War brings together young people from across the country in a grassroots campaign against war and destruction. Affiliated to the Stop the War Coalition, which has brought millions onto the streets in demonstrations, we aim to give school students a voice. Join us. Join the Facebook Group. Get involved today.
School Students are so often vilified by the media, their concerns ignored and their behaviour demonized. For almost ten years, School Students Against War has been proving just how wrong those negative perceptions of young people are. We exist because we are not willing to stand silently by as our television screens fill with images of children younger than us, lying dead and forgotten, killed as a punishment for having been born Afghan or Iraqi. We know that but for an accident of birth those children could have been us, and so we, young children to young adults from towns and cities across the UK, have built a powerful protest movement against the 'War on Terror'.
In schools up and down the country we have mobilized and radicalized young people to stand up for what they believe in and to fight injustice. Below, you can find details of the campaigns we are currently involved in. The more supporters we have the stronger we are, and the more chance we have of spreading the non-violent message of hope and peace that we strive for. We hope you will join the Facebook Group and spread the word in your school or college.
Current Campaigns
Troops Out of Our Schools
Britain is the only country in the European Union in which it is legal for the armed forces to recruit people under the age of 18. In every other EU nation, school is seen as a place for education not politicization, but in the UK school students are viewed as legitimate targets for the Army's well-oiled propaganda machine. Military recruiters typically target deprived areas where students know the army may well be the best chance they have of securing a job when they leave school. With a desperate shortfall in recruiting, it is clearly not in the Military's interest to offer anything but a one-sided picture of life in the Army, Navy or Airforce. 'Armed Forces Days' create the impression that life in the Military is fun and exciting, while the real facts about casualty rates (one in four British Soldiers sent to Afghanistan returns wounded) and other less endearing realities, are not presented to school students. The activities are often compulsory, students are given little or no warning about the arrival of a recuiter, and nobody has the right to speak up and offer an alternative vision of life in the Army. Students who are not particularly political leave these recruitment sessions with an image planted in their minds which is far from true, while those who try to speak out against such tactics have in the past been victimized for taking a stand.
School Students Against War is against Military indoctrination. We think everyone should have the right to go to school without becoming targets for propaganda. We campaign to persuade our schools to resist such political attempts from government that target students to make up for a recruiting shortfall. If you are a teacher, parent or student, please sign the petition here.
Sign the Troops Out Of Our Schools online petition. Click Here
Groups in schools
Schools are the best places to spread our message. If you're already interested in getting involved, try to build up interest among your friends and others at school, to help SSAW grow. Drop any of the Administrators of the Facebook group a line, and we will happily send you posters and leaflets to put up in your school. You never know who might be interested!
Stop the War Coalition
The Stop the War Coalition is Britain's Anti-War campaign, and one of the biggest mass movements in British history, bringing together groups as diverse as the British Muslim Initiative and Jews for Justice for Palestinians as well as MP's and political figures from the Labour Party, the LIberal Democrats and the Green Party. SSAW is an affiliate of Stop the War and joins StW on all the demonstrations it calls and helps build for these. More information can be found at www.stopwar.org.uk
All upcoming events can be found in the News section of the website.
Previous Work
Over the past year, SSAW has been engaged in the anti-war movement on a number of levels. Die-ins have been held in London, Liverpool and Cardiff to highlight the plight of the people's in the countires occupied by the US and UK.
SSAW was involved in the G8 protests in 2005 where they sent 50 school students to demonstrate against Bush and Blair's foreign policy.
We have held benefit gigs across the UK which, not only to raise money for the organisation they also attract school students to the anti-war movement.
We have been central to mobilising young people for the Stop the War demonstrations throughout the year. Of particular note is the demonstration on March 18th against the occupation of Iraq and the threat of an attack on Iran where SSAW was represented on the platform during the rally in Trafalgar Square on one of the youngest demonstrations the country has seen.
For the Time to Go demonstration at the Labour Party Conference in Manchetser, SSAW London sent a coach providing free transport for 50 school students. Many other school students from across the country also came to this demo.
The 'Troops Out, No To Trident' demonstration early in 2007 was also a great success, with up to 100 SSAW members at the front of the London demonstration and a strong coningency in Edinburgh as well as an SSAW speaker at the rally there.
Members of Edinburgh SSAW have been involved in the Faslane 365 campaign which is a year long blockade of the nuclear base which houses Britain's nuclear weapons. Edinburgh SSAW has also held a number of successful ceildhs which have helped build the group there.
Film showings, speakers, meetings and assemblies in schools have also been held and if you want to put an event on in school, get in touch and we will help you.
