Below: Students from U of Ariziona
occupy ROTC Building
Bush Step Down! Bush Step Down! When King George stepped up
to the podium (10 minutes late due to the arrest of Cindy Sheehan for wearing
an anti-War t shirt), thousands of people stepped into the streets to fight for
a different future and politically drown out Bush’s lies. Students in college towns, cities and suburbs
across the country took to the streets and represented, ‘the beginning
core of a whole different dynamic in society, standing in firm and committed
opposition to what Bush represents and taking responsibility to activate
millions more in a movement that won’t quit until he and his regime are driven
from office.’ Get on the Bus to DC for
this Saturday, February 4th.
Click below for highlights from the State of Emergency protests:
New
York/ New Jersey
50 High School
students and students from Columbia University and NYU converged in Times
Square to drown out Bush’s lies and demand Bush Step Down. That afternoon President of Center for
Constitutional Rights, Michael Ratner, took part in a teach-in organized by the
NYU World Can’t Wait Chapter.
In New Jersey high school organizers head up mobilizing a
demonstration in the conservative town of Ridgewood that drew a crowd of all
different ages from around the area.
An organizer in New Jersey who is in the ROTC at his High School,
but opposed to the war in Iraq, emailed information about the State of the
Union protests to his friends serving in the US military in Iraq. In an act of protest several soldiers in Iraq
took it upon themselves to shoot off rounds of their guns in the air as part of
symbolically drowning out Bush’s State of the Union speech.
Washington D.C
A group of the Georgetown Law School
students that turned their back in protest during Attorney General Gonzales’
speech last week were among those holding the banner from the stage and joined
by a dozen Howard University Students.
Greensboro, NC
At UNC Greensboro
The crowd took over the streets of downtown, eventually
passing by the famous Woolworths Lunch Counter- where a stand was also taken
for the cause of true freedom decades ago. The drums, pots, pans, kazoos,
tambourines, and other noisemakers created a cacophony of noise which attracted
new people to the march.
Also, a local high school girl was maced by
a police officer for what everyone around her stated was an innocent movement
by the girl. She was transported to the local hospital.
Atlanta, GA
40 students from Georgia State
University and students from Spellman
and Morehouse joined a crowd of 400 in Atlanta
the CNN center.
From Atlanta Indymedia post-‘When one of the MCs asked the
crowd “what would you be willing to give to get rid of Bush” and one
woman ran up to the microphone and declared “My Life! That is what, My
Life.” As Bush began to speak, the outrage of the people erupted
into a roar and people staying at the hotel across the street gathered along
the windows of the conference rooms looking out at what was going on. The
roar could easily be heard for blocks as the atmosphere crackled with the
electricity of the moment. This would not be a silent unmarked moment in history’.
Chicago,
Ill
100 Columbia College
students marched through downtown Chicago. Students
saturated the campus with 10,000
flyers and dozens of professors made announcements in the brief 4 DAYS
that the
campus had been back in session. Students from Northwestern, including
Northwestern College Feminists, and high schools took to the streets to
protest the night of the State of the Union.
University of Arizona
300 -400 people,
including 50 high school students from two different high schools, gathered at
the University of
Arizona. At the end, a few dozen students, both HS and
college, decided to occupy the ROTC building. So they marched across campus to
it, went right in, sat in the middle of it and started chanting.
Berkeley, California
50 students at
UC Berkeley held a speak out on campus and a teach-in featuring Daniel Ellsberg
and UC Berkeley
biology Professor Kevin Padian for a teach-in before marching to a crowd of
4,000 people in San Francisco. That
afternoon Berkeley
High School students
spent the day mobilizing for the night’s protests.
Los Angeles, California
L.A had several
walk-outs and over 27 schools in the house.
About 7 or 8 colleges mobilized, including: students with the Cerritos
College MEChA chapter. Occidental
College students from ‘Oxi Conscious’ who have been holding ‘Bloody Mondays’ on
their campus against the nomination of Alito and sounding the alarm about the
attack on women’s reproductive rights – and who bought their tickets to
Washington, D.C. as soon as they heard about it.
