Several Syracuse University student groups came together as part of a youth anti-war forum on Sunday to discuss world conflicts and their causes.

The Syracuse Peace Council, the Interfaith Alliance and the ANSWER Coalition all took part in the first meeting of a new discussion forum, titled Youth Resisting Imperialism and Oppression Together.

“We wanted to create a space for young people to discuss these issues of war and get to know about one another a little bit, about how we all get to caring so much about war,” said Ursula Rozum, an organizer from the Syracuse Peace Council.

The discussion during Youth RIOT was titled “War & Its Intersections,” and student representatives talked about factors that were related to war, including religion, economic situations, imperialism and nationalism.

Five representatives from the Interfaith Alliance started off the forum, defining religion’s role in warfare.

“It’s a very complex issue. Of course religion has caused wars, but it gets a lot more complex than that,” said Dave Wolken, a member of the Interfaith Alliance panel that was speaking at the forum.

He said although religion causes conflicts between countries, it also contributes a great deal to society. Wolken used the crusades during the Middle Ages as an example of a war caused by religion, but then cited civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. as a man of religion who had made the world a better place.

Wolken, a Syracuse University graduate education student, talked about the definition of religion being a complicated issue, and explained the different interpretations of religion that can cause wars. He added that religion can resolve war through a shared identification of justice and compassion between religious groups.

“We wanted to have a presence here to help promote a positive dialogue and continue it around the positive aspects of religion,” he said in an interview after the discussion.

The forum then went onto the second topic on the agenda, with two representatives from the ANSWER Coalition discussing war’s intersections with imperialism and revolution, including capitalism’s role in warfare.

Michael Kowalchuk, a representative from the group and a fifth-year architecture student, provided his definition of imperialism, describing it as “the stage in global power sparked by a concentration of finance capital in rich capitalist countries.” He provided the Vietnam War as an act of imperialism, with the U.S. attempting to re-establish dominance over a colonial country.

He said he agreed religion was a factor in causing wars, but only in a few conflicts, while issues of economics and social groups have affected all conflicts.

Derek Ford, a graduate student majoring in education and an organizer from the ANSWER Coalition, discussed how nationalism and patriotism promoted imperialism, even among anti-war protesters.

He said that while protesters take positions to change the reasons the U.S. military takes action, the most effective anti-war effort is to take a neutral stance.

“The most important thing that we can do is have nothing to do with a positive demand for our government to intervene,” he said. “But we have to actually restrain our own government.”

He ended the discussion with three proposals for anti-war success: prevent military intervention, respect another country’s sovereignty and better educate against war propaganda.

The three groups said they ended up learning a lot from the other groups’ perspectives.

“I don’t know that much about politics, so just to hear that side of it. It can really only help and augment my own approach to this,” said Wolken, of the Interfaith Alliance.

Published on September 29, 2013 at 11:28 pm

Contact Alfred: alng@syr.edu

@alfredwkng