World Can’t Wait ( Drive Out the Bush Regime, 305 W Broadway
#185, NY, NY 10013 ⢠866-973-4463
Available for interview: Sunsara Taylor of World Can’t Wait (
Drive Out the Bush Regime, Hampton U. Student organizers:
Aaron Ray, John Robinson, and Brandon King
For Immediate Release
Contact: Sunsara Taylor
at 212.760.1723, press@worldcantwait.org
7
Hampton University Students Face Possible Expulsion for
Political Protest — Hearing on
Hampton,
Virginia:
7 students at Hampton
University,
a historically black college in Virginia,
face possible expulsion at a hearing to be held this Friday, December 2.
On November 2nd, when dozens of students
gathered to distribute literature, read poetry, and give speeches in the
Student Union, Hampton Police shut down the event and took the ID’s of the
organizers. Later, one student was
followed by an undercover detective, and 7 were issued summons of possible
expulsion.
The Hampton Administration has cited their handbook
rules which ban the distribution of literature not approved by campus
authorities. However, student organizers
have pointed out that unapproved flyers for parties, often with scantily clad
women on them, are regularly distributed without penalty.
Howard
Zinn, Michael Eric Dyson, Katha Pollitt, Sunsara Taylor
and other academics and activists are rallying to their defense. They issued a statement which reads, in part,
‘We) demand that the Hampton
University
administration to drop all charges against) and to apologize to these
students. These students must not be
expelled! We also call on students
nation-wide to strengthen the movement to Drive
Out the Bush Regime because the
World Can’t Wait!’
John Robinson, one of the student organizers facing
possible expulsion is unapologetic, ‘We will not be intimidated) The actions of
the Hampton Administration and the increasingly frequent campus repression
happening national ultimately threaten us all.’
He and other organizers have been speaking to the media and reaching out
to academics to support their demand that Hampton
not suppress free speech and political protest.
The
World Can’t Wait ( Drive Out the Bush Regime has been
supported by Harold Pinter, Jane Fonda,
Ed Asner, Russell Banks, Cornel West, Studs Terkel, Gore Vidal and many
others. They held protests on November 2nd
in 70 cities with thousands of students walking out of more than 200
schools. Their Call states, ‘The Bush
regime is setting out to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist
way, and for generations to come. We must act now; the future is in the
balance.’
World
Can’t Wait ( Drive Out the Bush Regime spokesperson Sunsara
Taylor comments, ‘We see this attack on these students as part of the dramatic
escalation of repression and criminalization of protest that has taken place
under the Bush regime. These students
were acting on what millions of people today feel; that the direction the Bush
administration is taking the country and the world ( from the torture, to the
lies, to the remaking of the Supreme Court ( is intolerable, illegitimate, and
must be reversed. We aim to defeat the
attacks on these students and drive out the Bush regime!’
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