From a World Can’t Wait organizer:
“I want you all to lie down and try and imagine what it
is like to be in Iraq
right now. Think about what it’s like to
have your family members and friends killed,” the grey-haired women from
the stage says. I look at the girl next
to me who just told me she’s never been to a protest before and say “I
guess we’re lying down now.” She
stops taking pictures and we lay down and I tell her about World Can’t Wait and
what we’re trying to do here. We block
the sun with World Can’t Wait Call flyers while we talk about the point of the millions
who are outraged with the government but see no vehicle for change. Finally, we and the other students and
community members sit up and listen to the rest of the speakers while we sit on
the ground like they were teachers reading us a book.
There were many interactions like this at UCB’s rally on
Thursday. The 400 people, mostly
students, who came to participate in the rally on Sproul Plaza
seemed deeply engaged by the message that the speakers were so urgently
expressing. The speakers were mostly
students representing the groups in the Berkeley Stop the War coalition who had
put on the event and included students from Fremont High in Oakland, Berkeley
High, and Willard Middle School who had skipped school to come to the event and
support the message, that the war needs to end now and the program of the Bush
regime needs to be reversed. Most said
they had heard about the event from their roommates or some one in their
class. The word was definitely getting
around amongst concerned individuals and groups. The many thousands more who passed by
received copies of the World Can’t Wait Call and information about the student strikes
around the country.
One older Latino gentleman who identified himself as an
electrician at the university was visibly affected by the seriousness of the
event. He said he was very against the
war and, although he had done nothing yet to stop it, he felt that he couldn’t
look away anymore. He got materials on
impeachment and signed up to help organize.
He and a few of the students were concerned that they wouldn’t have time
in their schedules to organize and we tried to express that there were a lot of
levels and things that need to be done and, as the middle schooler who walked
out said, “The kids in Iraq don’t get to go to school. That would be really selfish if all these
kids were dying and all I was concerned about was going to school and learning
from a textbook.”
A World Can’t Wait student activist spoke passionately from
the stage about the need for action now and how UCB could be a catalyst and a
leader in the anti-war movement and the movement to drive out the Bush
regime. A speaker from ANSWER spoke to
the contradictions the US
faces in the Middle East saying that the US
has already lost the war in Iraq
and in Afghanistan,
but we could be losing the war for 10 more years. We need to complete the equation that ended
the war in Vietnam. After the day’s events, organizers felt that
the student movement was at a turning point and was going in a positive
direction. People were excited to begin
engaging with all the people we met and bring them into the planning for a
possible week of actions around the 4th anniversary of the war,
which was inspired by what the students at Sonoma State
did this week. Throughout the building
for this day of “No Business as Usual” and following the interaction
with other Colleges and Universities has been an energizing factor and gave
power and context to the action held on this campus.
[click
here to return to main report on Feb. 15 student strikes and protests against
the war]