At last!!
SAN FRANCISCO
Students protest against the war
Organizers say idea is to teach the value of political action
Rick DelVecchio, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, February 16, 2007
Hundreds of students staged peaceful anti-war protests yesterday at four college campuses in the region, as organizers sought to ignite widespread student action on the approaching fourth anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war.
Rallies at UC Berkeley and Sonoma State University each drew 200 to 300 people, according to organizers who attended the events.
Protesters at Sonoma State demonstrated in front of academic buildings, dramatizing their message with foam tombstones.
At San Francisco State University, 30 students marched from the campus to a nearby military recruiting station, where they met with a group of about 65 Lowell High School students, said Alex Mejia, a third-year San Francisco State student. At Mills College in Oakland, about 40 people attended a rally.
Organizers said there were no clashes with police and stressed that their goal was to inform students about the value of political action.
"We really tried hard not to focus on Bush-bashing and how war is bad," said Camelia Patiño , a senior at Sonoma State. "We wanted to be more creative and more useful in focusing on what we want to change and how we're going to change it."
At the Sonoma State event, 30 to 50 students held a workshop "to talk about what kind of a world we want to live in," she said.
The rallies were in a response to a call by the protest group World Can't Wait to Drive Out the Bush Regime for a national student strike Feb. 15.
R.J. Schinner, a World Can't Wait organizer in New York, said more than 20 campuses across the country participated, including UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz.
At Columbia University in New York, more than 400 people participated and several professors held teach-ins, said Connie Julian, a spokeswoman for the national office of World Can't Wait.
E-mail Rick DelVecchio at rdelvecchio@sfchronicle.com.
sfgate.com.
Previous article on the planned demos...
BAY AREA
Students joining national protest against Iraq war
Variety of strikes, rallies planned on campuses Thursday
sfgate.com.
My day is coming :>) It's time for some good old fashioned civil disobedience. |
