The UNC chapter of Students for Democratic Society* is calling for a campus-wide walkout today to protest the ongoing disaster in Iraq. If I was a student (or just on campus) I would be there!
TUESDAY, MARCH 20TH -- NOON -- WALKOUT --THE PIT
On March 20th, students at UNC-Chapel Hill will join thousands of other students on 69 college campuses in walking out of class in order to mark the 4th anniversary of the war on Iraq. At noon, students will leave their classes and come together in the Pit for a short rally and march. This event will feature spoken word performances by members of the Black Student Movement as well as the musical stylings of samba group Cackalack Thunder.
WHO: SDS, SPEAC, SAW, BSM, others
WHAT: Walkout, rally, march!
WHERE: The Pit, next to the Student Union
WHEN: Gather at noon
WHY: There's a war going on!
- Walkout Against the War! | UNC Chapel Hill SDS, 3/19/07
Seriously, if you are on campus it will be worth going to this just to enjoy Cackalack Thunder - their drum corps has been the highlight of most of the protests I have attended in the past couple of years.
* For the youngsters, SDS was a radical progressive organization that gave a national voice to massive student discontent with the Vietnam War in the 1960's.
Issues:
Comments
It was awesome! I think
It was awesome! I think there were about 200 people marching. We went through campus, up Columbia, then set up camp in the intersection of Franklin and Columbia. Does anybody have pics?
That was fun. I would say
That was fun. I would say closer to 300 people. It seemed like a good turnout to me. The best part for me was when the "win the war" hipster geek wearing an Iron Maiden shirt (ironically, of course) was chewed out by an elderly veteran in the Pit while the speakers were going. He sheepishly replied "thanks for your service".
SDS is more than just the
SDS is more than just the students who helped get us out of Vietnam. Originally SDSers spent their summers organizing citizen led community unions in the inner cities. These groups supported the civil rights movement and raised awareness of economic injustice, as well as winning countless neighborhood improvements (like sidewalks, streetlights, and parks).
Sadly SDS was destroyed by internal struggles. The basic divide was between those that wanted to strategically challege the government to become more progressive, and those that believed that strategic engagement with the political parties would result in a loss of integrity.
I can't vouch for it's accuracy, but here is the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Students_for_a_Democratic_Society