[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Student Protests Against War Gain Focus and Momentum

[Peter Miller]

>This article from The Chronicle of Higher Education
>(http://chronicle.com) was forwarded to you from: aap at shout.net
>
>   Friday, November 9, 2001
>
>   Student Protests Against War Gain Focus and Momentum
>
>   By DANA MULHAUSER
>
>
>
>   After six weeks of scattered activity, a nascent campus
>   antiwar movement is building momentum, as protesters
>   coordinated a fast on a dozen campuses on Wednesday and
>   Thursday, and planned to hold several regional conferences
>   this weekend.
>
>   The University of California at Berkeley becomes Protest
>   Central this weekend, when representatives from 40 West Coast
>   colleges plan to gather for a conference of California
>   Students Against the War. A similar conference of East Coast
>   institutions is being held at Boston University. Smaller
>   conferences are planned elsewhere.
>
>   Protesters believe that there is a growing national
>   frustration with a war that moves slowly and has muddled
>   objectives. At the conferences, "we're seeing how we can tap
>   into that growing antiwar sentiment that the country has shown
>   in the last few weeks," said Jessica Gould, a Harvard
>   University student who plans to attend the Boston conference,
>   called the Northeast Regional Conference Against War and
>   Racism.
>
>   The conferences offer protesters a chance to plan joint
>   events, and provide a forum for students who feel like
>   outcasts on their own campuses, because most students do
>   express support for the war effort. "People felt isolated, and
>   these regional conferences give you a feeling of solidarity,"
>   said Deepinder Mayell, a student at Boston College. "When you
>   are working on social-justice issues, you're deemed very
>   anti-American."
>
>   The Berkeley conference will include workshops on activist
>   organizing and Middle Eastern history, as well as a session
>   titled "Converting the Anti-Capitalist Movement Into the
>   Anti-War Movement." The Boston conference features a talk by
>   Ralph Nader.
>
>   Berkeley students also held a protest on Thursday in front of
>   the San Francisco offices of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a
>   California Democrat. The students oppose legislation proposed
>   by Senator Feinstein and Sen. Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican,
>   that would prevent the federal government from issuing student
>   visas to individuals from countries on the U.S. State
>   Department's list of terrorism sponsors.
>
>   "This incriminates whole national identities," said Hoang
>   Phan, a Berkeley doctoral student in English. "[Senator
>   Feinstein] is basically saying that if you're from one of
>   these countries, you are a terrorist."
>
>   Mr. Phan also pointed out that the proposed legislation would
>   still permit the issuing of visas to students from Saudi
>   Arabia and Egypt, the homelands of most of the September 11
>   hijackers.
>
>   Other protests this week included a 36-hour water-only fast
>   that began at 9 a.m. Wednesday. The event took place on more
>   than a dozen campuses, led by Occidental College. "A
>   student-organized national hunger fast will send a powerful
>   message to the international community that America's youth
>   oppose its country's violent military response to the complex
>   issue of terrorism," said Spencer D. Jackson. Mr. Jackson is a
>   student at Occidental and the organizer of the fast.
>
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>
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>
>http://chronicle.com/daily/2001/11/2001110902n.htm
>
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>  Copyright 2001 by The Chronicle of Higher Education