WorldCantWait.org – Youth & Students
Feb 15, 2007
On the 4th anniversary of the largest anti-war protests in human history, students at over 20 campuses organized strikes and protests.
In the face of Bush’s escalation of the Iraq war, which has already claimed the lives of 655,000 Iraqis, there is a growing sentiment on college campuses and society generally that enough is enough. While the majority of people in the US are against the war, thus far this opposition has been all too quiet or put its hopes in Congress to do something (when Congress has failed as of yet to even pass a non-binding resolution against the escalation). The actions at campuses on Feb. 15th were a welcome breach in this passivity, as students put a clear challenge to their whole generation: are you going to stay silent in the face of war crimes, or will you resist and mobilize to stop this war?
As the students at UC ““ Santa Barbara who initiated the strike said in their statement:
We, the students and staff of UC Santa Barbara, want to challenge our generation to put an end to the U.S. conquest of Iraq. Right now most opposition to the war is only symbolic. Congress is being sheepish and choosing not to end the war because we, the people, are not forcing them to act.
Thus, if we really want to affect policies we need to withdraw our compliance and stop business as usual. Shutting down the university is the most immediate and powerful thing students can do on this front. Striking sends the message to our university’s administration and the world that we will not tolerate our institution’s grossly disproportionate ties to corporations and federal agencies that do nothing other than profit off war and prepare nuclear weapons. It also sends a message to the government that we will not be complicit in any illegal or immoral war.
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