Students at University of California – Santa Barbara are planning for a student strike in protest of the war on February 15 (the 4th anniversary of the 2003 anti-war protests that brought out millions of people around the world). In the face of Bush’s escalation of the Iraq war and threats of attacking Iran, the campuses have been all too quiet. This student strike is exactly the kind of action needed if this war and this regime is going to be stoppped.
Below is a call from several students at UC – Santa Barbara for the student strike:
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.
We have chosen to strike on the 15th of February in order to commemorate the largest peace demonstrations in human history. Following our strike will be a week-long teach-in designed to educate ourselves and those around us on the atrocities perpetrated by the U.S. government in Iraq. We are calling on the youth of our nation to join us in demonstrating our resistance to the government’s disregard for human life. Join the strike!
Community Should Address Escalating Struggle in Iraq
Letter from Kelly Burns, a student at UC Santa Barbra, published in UC – Santa Barbara’s The Daily Nexus Monday, January 22, 2007
This war on Iraq is defining our generation. Our generation consists of
soldiers, people that will have to deal with the many effects of this
war and students who are letting it happen.
The president’s announcement of a significant escalation in Iraq flies in the face of the message voters gave in the November elections and also ignores public opinion as measured by numerous polls. This war prioritizes special interest of corporations abroad over healthcare and education at home. It creates a racist and ignorant spin on the Middle East and it is killing thousands of U.S. and Iraqi people for a reason no one really understands. This is not the world we want to see.
On Sunday at Anisq”Oyo” Park in Isla Vista, students and community members gathered from noon to sunset talking about how it is time for something to be done about this war on Iraq. Over the past few years, there has been a lot of antiwar discussion and action on many different, but separate levels. It is time to create a united movement at UCSB and in I.V. The University is a place to shape a better world, and it is our responsibility as members of this University and nation to not passively let this unjust war continue in full force, but to assert our power and take action to demand a change.
We need professors, students, student groups, faculty, family and community members to come together. Most of us are the privileged few who watch the war in the distance, but we need to be engaged in the world around us outside of the thin walls of our classrooms. Not doing anything about this war is just as active as pushing it forward. We need to create a joint peace movement.
KELLY BURNS