Left Spot Student Movement Blog

Here is some excellent coverage of the March 20 student day of action against the war. It’s from Fight Back News Service.

SDS March 20 National Day of Action:
Thousands of students walk out, take to streets

By Josh Sykes

“Stop the war, yes we can! SDS is back again!” This was a popular chant heard around the country as students in high schools and colleges walked out of classes, held rallies, marches, teach-ins and other creative actions in response to the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) call for national coordinated student actions on March 20, the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq War. The call was put out by SDS groups that met at the School of the Americas protest last November, where 100 students from 20 campuses voted unanimously to make March 20 a national day of student action against the war. Those 20 schools quickly became 83, as colleges and high schools from the Northeast to the Midwest, from West Coast to the South, signed on to the call.

The call for action read, “We, students and young people here in the U.S., support the right of the Iraqi people to self-determination. We refuse to accept this new strategy to ‘expand the military,’ and reject any means the government may use to make these new troops materialize - whether through the implementation of a draft or the continued use of manipulative and deceptive recruitment techniques. We refuse to be subtle in our outcry against this war, we refuse to do nothing and be silent while people are killed in our name for profit for the rich and we refuse to be sent overseas in a war for oil.”

Kati Ketz of the University of North Carolina -Asheville SDS, one of the lead organizers for the national March 20 day of action, said, “It’s incredibly inspiring to see students taking up this call to action and organizing on a local level. Students are becoming united and organized across the country against the war, and we’re really going to see a new student movement emerge out of these actions.”

Veterans and Their Families Speak Out

SDS students at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa chanted, “What do we want? Troops Out! When do want it? Now!” as they rallied and marched. Corbin Martin, a veteran of the Iraq war who fought in the battle of An Nasiriyah said, “The American people, in 2006, made it clear that they want our troops out of Iraq, with their vote, yet President Bush will not listen. Instead President Bush has increased the number of troops and continues to do so. This is unacceptable. This is more than a failed policy; this is injustice.”

Martin said that his experiences in Iraq led him to oppose the war. People in the audience wept as Martin told them that, “After the battle of An Nasiriyah, my unit occupied a small farm community south of Baghdad. I learned to speak a little Arabic and had become relatively proficient with my translating book, so I was in charge of handling civilians that needed to come through our position. One day, an old Arabic woman drove up to our position. She was crying and walked right up to me speaking very fast. It took some time, but I finally realized what she was saying. She said that a helicopter had shot missiles at her town and her grandson was injured during the attack. I looked in the back of her car and saw the little boy sitting there. I walked over to the car with the boy’s grandmother. I still have nightmares about what I saw. One of the little boy’s arms and one of his legs were gone. All that remained were bloody stubs, wrapped in dirty rags. I ran over to my Staff Sergeant and told him about the boy and his grandmother. He told me to send them away, that the medical supplies were for us, not them. I am ashamed to say that I followed that order. I sent them away. I don’t know if that boy got help, but I pray every night that he did.”

In Rock Hill, South Carolina, students from the Winthrop University Socialist Student Union signed onto the call and led a rally of 100 students. Summer Lipford spoke about her son, Steven Sirko, who had been a medic in Iraq for exactly four months when he was killed in 2005 at the age of 20. Courtney Hunt, one of the organizers at Winthrop, said, “I underestimated the Winthrop student body. They aren’t as apathetic as I thought. It shows the students are looking for an outlet like this, and I want to provide it for them.”

In New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers Against the War led a walkout and rally of 400 students “My son was a Rutgers graduate,” said Sue Niederer, speaking of her son, Ceth Dvorin, who died in Iraq. “My son went here. My son paid the ultimate sacrifice. He was 24 years old and he had just been married. And the recruiters were on this campus and all the other campuses around and they got him by their lies, deceit and deception.” During the march, protesters blocked traffic on southbound Route 18.

High Schools Join the Walkout

Numerous high schools came out to oppose the war on this historic day of action. In South Jersey, Cherry Hill High School East students held a rally to oppose the war. “Why are we spending billons of dollars on a war that doesn’t matter?” asked Lai Wo, 17, a Cherry Hill student. Over 300 high school students at Maria Carrillo walked out of classes in Santa Rosa, California, in one of the largest of the high school walkouts.

With chants of “No blood for oil - U.S. off Iraqi soil!” students from the University of North Carolina-Asheville SDS walked out and marched downtown, where they were joined by dozens of high school students who had walked out of Asheville High. “We’re letting people know that we don’t believe in this,” said Carla Michelle Moore, an Asheville High senior. “I don’t want to watch people go home in body bags.” Charla Schlueter, one of the organizers of the UNCA SDS walkout said, “Any great change that this country has seen, whether it has been in the workplace or in ending unjust wars, it has been achieved by the people taking to the streets and demanding it, not by the government suddenly realizing its own benevolent nature. Student movements have often been at the core of these changes.”

Many Raleigh, North Carolina high schools came out for March 20 to join with demonstrating students from North Carolina State University, including Enloe, Southeast Raleigh, Cary, Green Hope and Raleigh Charter High Schools.

Struggle Builds on the University Campuses

Many major universities from around the country participated in the day of action as the wave of protests swept every corner of the country. SDSers from Brown University in Rhode Island staged a die-in in downtown Providence in front of Textron Inc., a corporation contracted to manufacture helicopters, armored vehicles and munitions. Harvard University students held a candlelight vigil and read the names of Iraqi and American casualties. 500 students marched at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

At New York University, students held a rally called ‘Red Tuesday’ where students dressed in red to symbolize the human cost of the war held up giant banners reading “658,000,” representing both the Iraqi and U.S. casualties of the war.

In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, UNC-Chapel Hill SDS organized hundreds of students to walk out of classes and march through the streets. SDS members marched alongside the Black Student Movement and Student Action with Workers as they chanted antiwar slogans such as “Walk out! Resist! Carolina, raise your fist!” and blocked traffic. “The dead are our age,” said Tara Ilsley. “They’re in their 20s. What are we doing now? The war isn’t accomplishing anything. In my opinion, it’s become another Vietnam.” One sign at the protest read, “ACC Champs against the occupation.”

At the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, over 300 people came out, including clerical workers from the campus, community members and students. One clerical worker voiced solidarity with the growing student movement, saying, “If workers and students work together the sky is the limit!” Other speakers talked about the importance of ‘surge’ in the student movement - a reference to Bush’s plan for a ‘surge’ of 21,500 more troops to Iraq - noting the importance of escalating the movement in response to the escalation of the war. Protesters took to the streets, occupying a busy intersection for 20 minutes. They then took their energy to the campus, marching through, chanting, “Money for schools, not for war! Hands off Iraq!” and “Who is the terrorist? Bush is the terrorist!”

In Chicago, Students for Social Justice at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) led hundreds of students in the largest protest on campus since the start of the war. Sussan Navabi, an organizer from UIC, reported on the new student movement. When she said, “Let’s hear it for the students that walked out of classes today to protest this war,” the crowd roared its support. At the rally, Bill Ayers, a leader of SDS in the 1960s spoke to the assembled crowd. Ayers encouraged the current generation of student activists to see the impact they are having, telling them, “Students today are inspired by what we did in the 1960s, but then feel they can’t compare. But the largest anti-war rally I ever attended in Chicago was in March 2003 when the invasion of Iraq occurred.” Nearby Wright College organized the first ever anti-war rally on their campus, with 30 students. Two Iraqi women students spoke, calling for troops out now. Students from both schools joined thousands of others marching in downtown Chicago.

Build the Student Movement - Build SDS!

A great deal of the momentum for the March 20 day of action was built by the 27 schools, mainly on the West Coast, who held student strikes and walkouts on Feb. 15. Momentum is building, and as the war drags on into its fifth year we are seeing a new wave of student activism emerge. A national student movement is a necessary weapon against Bush and the right wing. Building the newly emerging Students for a Democratic Society is a major component to building a strong anti-war movement.

The following press release was received from New York Students for a Democratic Society (SDS):

SDS Occupies Recruiting Station in Manhattan

At noon, Monday, March 12, 2007, nearly 100 students from area universities marched to the armed forces recruiting station on 157 Chambers Street. Twenty-three members of Students for a Democratic Society entered and occupied the recruiting station shutting down recruitment activity for nearly two hours. Outside dozens more protesters supported those being arrested with chants including, “Troops out now,” “No justice, no peace. U.S. out of the Middle East,” and “Stop the war. Yes we can. SDS is back again.” Member of Pace University SDS, Uruj Sheikh said, “The fourth anniversary of the occupation of Iraq is in one week. Billions of dollars are being spent and hundreds of thousands have been murdered. Military recruitment has been systematically deceptive and we as students, as targets of recruitment, say something must be done to stop the war aboard and at home.” Protester Rakshan Kateeb, sophomore at Pace University said, “The action was successful in that we are building up to the big mobilizing actions at the end of this week and the continued actions that will end this war.” Visiting on Spring break from the University in Central Florida, SDS member, Matt De Vlieger said, “This demonstration was empowering and necessary. We need to step up our resistance to the war against Iraq and U.S. imperialism. As the war escalates, so does our resistance.” Jessica Rapchik, member from Antioch College SDS in Ohio said, “It was really encouraging to be there locking arms with our brothers and sisters who used civil disobedience for something they believe in.” Jail solidarity is being held across from New York State court on 100 Centre Street.

Contact:
Matt De Vlieger: 954.536.7461
Uruj Sheikh: 201.407.8670

This interview with Kati Ketz of UNC-Asheville SDS is reprinted from Monthly Review Zine website. It focuses on the March 20 student day of action against the war, as well as SDS’s and the student anti-war movement’s past and future.

The Students Are Stirring:
A Campus Antiwar Movement Begins to Make Its Mark
by Ron Jacobs

Folks often ask, rather cynically, where are the students protesting the war? Well, the answer is that they are there — on their campuses and in the dorms — organizing speakers, rallies, and teach-ins. The fact that folks off campus do not hear about these events does not mean that they aren’t happening. What it does mean is that the media is choosing not to cover them. Here in Asheville, NC, the local SDS-linked group at University of North Carolina-Asheville (UNCA) organized a counter-recruitment protest in January 2006 and a walkout and march against the war last October and is now actively involved in getting students to go to the March 17th March on the Pentagon. At UNC’s Chapel Hill campus, six students were arrested on February 17, 2007 after refusing to leave Congressman David Price’s office in a protest demanding that he vote against further war funding. Meanwhile, on February 15th, students at campuses around the country held rallies and teach-ins against the war. While the movement has not reached the proportions organizers want to see, it is growing. The next student day of protest is scheduled for March 20th — three days after the March on the Pentagon. I recently connected with UNCA SDS member Kati Ketz over email. Besides her activities here in Asheville, Kati is also a spokesperson for the SDS call for the March 20th Day of Action against the War. The exchange with Kati was an opportunity for me to learn what antiwar students have been up to and how they see the future. I share the transcript below.

Ron: First, what is the March 20th Day of Action? How did the idea originate?

Kati: March 20th is an SDS national day of student and youth action against the war in Iraq. The idea came out of an SDS-sponsored meeting of activists at the School of the Americas demonstration in Ft. Benning, GA. Over 100 students from 20 different campuses were at this meeting, and at the end we voted to make March 20th a national day of action, in order to take all of the local organizing we have been doing on our campuses and attempting to connect those struggles to make a larger impact on a national scale.

Ron: What do the organizers hope to accomplish? What would connote a successful day, here in Asheville and nationally?

Kati: We hope that this day of action will be a catalyst for students to rise up and get organized against the war in Iraq. Four years is four years too many, and it’s time that students in this country get organized against this war. In Asheville, we hope that our actions will draw in more people who want to get more involved in organizing against the war. We also hope that our actions contribute to building a grassroots student anti-war movement. Nationally, we hope that this will help build ties with other campuses and connect different movements together in order to work towards ending this war.

Ron: I notice that the majority of the campuses that have signed on to the March 20th action are from the southern part of the United States. Why do you think this is? In my mind it’s significant in that it goes against the idea so many US residents have about the south — you know, reactionary and pro-war.

Kati: I think it is very significant that a lot of schools from the south are organizing against the war. It goes against the stigma that the south is normally faced with — that all anti-war organizing happens in the north and that the southern US is largely ignorant of and not involved in any progressive movements. There is some exciting organizing going on in the south — for example, UNC SDS took part in organizing a demonstration against John Ashcroft, who came to speak at their campus. Members of both Alabama and Asheville SDS groups also have participated in a lot of events (MLK day marches, a 4th of July march in New Orleans) concerning race and national oppression, since that is something that is especially relevant to us in the south.

It’s amazing to see that, for March 20th, the schools signing on to the call are from all over the United States — from North Carolina and Alabama in the south to Los Angeles and Santa Barbara in the West to New York City and Boston in the northeast to Minneapolis, Chicago, and Ohio in the Midwest, to name a few.

Ron: What is your impression of the new SDS? Is it growing in numbers and influence?

Kati: I think that we as students finally have an opportunity to build an independent student anti-war movement through SDS. I talk with students on a regular basis that are either considering or have just affiliated with SDS, and the number of SDS chapters grows weekly. SDS groups are having regional conferences and connecting with each other through forum, conferences, and actions. Now, we are connecting with one another as SDS through this national day of action. There is a felt need in the student movement for a national student anti-war organization, and SDS is it.

Ron: What are your hopes for its future?

Kati: My hope for the future of SDS is that we continue to grow both in influence and in numbers across the nation, and that we are able to get organized on a national level in order to have even more nationally coordinated actions against the war in Iraq. There is a new wave of student activism in this country, and I hope to see SDS play a leading role in this movement. The student movement against the war in Vietnam took awhile to take off, but once it did it took off in a big way. We hope to see the same develop with SDS against this war in Iraq.

Ron: What are some of the other campaigns SDS is involved in — nationally and locally?

Kati: The main campaign that SDS is involved with is working against the war in Iraq, but SDS is a multi-issue progressive organization. In Asheville, we had a week of action around Palestine, where we built a 45-foot long, 8-foot tall mock apartheid wall on our campus and hosted teach-ins and showed a documentary about the situation in Palestine. There have been student strikes and marches for immigrants’ rights in conjunction with the May 1st demonstrations. UCLA SDS worked with UCLA’s Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana y Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) to organize a demonstration against a speaker from the Minutemen that ended up canceling his speech at the university as a result of the protest. University of Central Florida SDS recently issued a statement calling for release of former Black Panther political prisoners. SDS is a vehicle for taking actions around any and all progressive issues.

Ron: Back to the war. What do you personally think it’s going to take to end this war?

Kati: The Iraqi resistance are the ones fighting against this war every day, and — similar to what we saw with the national liberation front in Vietnam — they are the ones who have the power to end it. The United States and their allies are losing the war in Iraq, and it is only a matter of time before they are forced to withdraw their troops. Here in the United States, we need to work on getting Bush and the Republicans out of the White House — for example, there is going to be a large demonstration at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis in 2008. We in the anti-war movement also need to put pressure on the Democrats to actually adopt concrete measures against the war and to stop funding the war.

Ron: What do you think the role of students and other young people is in the movement to end it?

Kati: The role of youth and students in the movement to end the war is to build the anti-war movement. We need to take to the streets in a major way and resist the ongoing war and occupation of Iraq, and this is exactly what is happening. On February 15th, thousands of students in Santa Barbara occupied a highway for hours, bringing the war and the anti-war movement back into the front pages of the media. We need to continue with this momentum and continue to organize!

Ron: When you’re organizing on campus and elsewhere, do you run into a lot of cynicism and apathy from other young people? What at do you say to those youth who dismiss the antiwar movement?

Kati: There is always going to be a certain amount of apathy and cynicism from young people on any major issue — it’s easy to feel that your voice in a movement does not matter and will do nothing to change things. What these students need to remember, however, is that the masses are the makers of history. It has historically been social movements — not great leaders — that have changed the course of history. It is our role in this present day as students and youth to make those movements and be a part of them. As far as apathy is concerned, what is more important right here and right now than the fact that the United States government is continuing an unjust and illegal war and occupation in Iraq that is causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people? I think more and more students are recognizing this — at UNCA we are going door-to-door in the dorms trying to get people to pledge to walkout of their classes, and almost everybody we talk to is very receptive and wanting to do something to end the war, and just need an organization or action to plug that energy into.

Ron: Is SDS encouraging young people to attend the March on the Pentagon on March 17th? On a side note, what is your take on the ongoing squabble between the two national antiwar coalitions — UFPJ and ANSWER?

Kati: SDS is mobilizing for the March on the Pentagon on the 17th — there is an SDS organizing team and a planned SDS contingent for this march. There was also an SDS-led student contingent at the January 27th UFPJ demo in DC. As far as the fighting between UFPJ and ANSWER — I cannot speak for all of SDS, but ANSWER tends to have more anti-imperialist politics like that of SDS. There was an open letter to UFPJ written recently that was critical of the call that they put out for a protest in NYC on March 18th — the day after the ANSWER March on the Pentagon and during the planned encampment in DC. Some SDS activists signed on to that letter and I agree with it. I oppose any kind of efforts to divide the anti-war movement.

Ron: How can people interested in organizing or attending a March 20th action find out more?

Kati: People interested in organizing an event for March 20th, or even if schools are on spring break but still support the call to action, should contact march20antiwar@hotmail.com. There is also a blog about the March 20th actions — march20antiwar.blogspot.com — where people can see what schools are participating, reports about organizing methods from schools, and press roundups.

Ron: Anything else?

Kati: The call to action for March 20th grew out of an initiative from an SDS meeting with 20 campuses, started out as having four schools signed on to action, and now has over 50 schools participating. The momentum for this is tremendous, and shows that we are truly in a new period in the student anti-war movement. It’s so inspiring to see actions being planned all across the country, with different student groups working and connecting with each other. The groups participating range from large well-known universities to small-town high schools with a couple of students taking up the initiative. I hope that we can continue with this energy past March 20th and really make history with the work that we are doing, everyday, to end the war.

Ron Jacobs is author of The Way the Wind Blew: A History of the Weather Underground, just republished by Verso. Jacobs’ essay on Big Bill Broonzy is featured in CounterPunch’s new collection on music, art and sex: Serpents in the Garden. He can be reached at .

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 1, 2007

STUDENTS FOR A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY

Nationwide Coordinated Protests on March 20, 2007
To Demand an Immediate End to the Iraq War

On March 20, 2007, thousands of students and young people from across the United States will demonstrate against the unjust war in Iraq. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) has called for a national day of action on the fourth anniversary of the war.

The national call for March 20 reads: “We, students and young people here in the U.S., support the right of the Iraqi people to self-determination. We refuse to accept this new strategy to ‘expand the military,’ and reject any means the government may use to make these new troops materialize - whether through the implementation of a draft or the continued use of manipulative and deceptive recruitment techniques.”

Thus far, 35 different campuses and groups have signed on to the call, including 18 SDS chapters, and the number continues to grow.

“It is time in this country that we as students get organized against this unjust war and occupation in Iraq. Four years at war is four years too long, and Iraqis are dying everyday because of it. We need to get organized and get out into the streets! The U.S. needs to end the war in Iraq and bring all the troops home now,” says Kati Ketz of the University of North Carolina-Asheville SDS.

“The majority of the student body at the University of Alabama believes the war in Iraq is wrong, but until SDS formed, there was no way for them to voice their opposition. It’s exciting that the South is getting organized against the war, that more and more students are taking a stand against injustices,” says Chapin Gray, of SDS-Tuscaloosa. “Not only that, as part of a national student organization, our group feels like we are speaking and acting in unison with SDS chapters across the country, that we are part of something really powerful, that we are making history.”

As the U.S. enters its fifth year in Iraq, there seems to be no end in sight. Bush has called for 21,500 more troops in the midst of vast unpopularity. This also includes a military recruitment benchmark of over 90,000 – with the majority of these recruits coming from the working class and youth. It is necessary to act now in our campuses and communities to bring this to an end.

Contact for more information:

E-mail: march20antiwar@hotmail.com

Kati Ketz, UNC-Asheville SDS – 614-439-3978

Chapin Gray, SDS at Tuscaloosa – 251-605-7780

http://march20antiwar.blogspot.com