Press Release - March 12, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 12, 2007

Movement for March 20 Student Day of Action Grows

Like a wildfire, the response to the call for a national student and youth day of action against the Iraq War has spread dramatically across the United States. In the space of just three weeks, over sixty campuses have signed onto the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) call to action-from Tuscaloosa, Alabama to Grand Rapids, Michigan; from high schools in central North Carolina to the west coast campus of UC Santa Barbara; from urban centers of Chicago, Boston, New York, and Los Angeles to rural campuses of Tennessee and Iowa-and in dozens of places in between.

The call for the protest was originally created at an SDS meeting after the School of the Americas Watch demonstration last November in Columbus, Georgia. There, over 100 organizers from 20 different schools from around the country gathered and unanimously voted to make March 20, the fourth anniversary of the Iraq War, a national day of student resistance to the war.

Kati Ketz of the University of North Carolina-Asheville SDS, one of the lead organizers for the March 20 day of action, said, "What started out as four schools participating in a day of action snowballed into 18, 25, 34, and now over 60 schools from all over the country standing up and taking action against this illegal and unjust war and occupation of Iraq. It's incredibly inspiring to see students taking up this call to action and organizing on a local level. Students are becoming united and organized across the country against the war, and we're really going to see a new student movement emerge out of these actions."

"Rutgers is going to have its largest walkout since the 70's. Hundreds of students will be walking out as well as several teachers. We have such a critical mass that we even got the student governing association to endorse it," said Ian Chinich of Rutgers Against the War.

"There has been a very positive response from all of the high schools I have contacted. It seems like once one high school signed on, all of the others joined in much more readily. They saw that other kids were taking advantage of this amazing chance to create peace, and decided they should too!" said Moriah Arnold, from Green Hope High School in Cary, North Carolina.

As the U.S. enters its fifth year in Iraq, the Bush administration is further escalating U.S. military presence in the midst of vast unpopularity. What started as 27 schools on the west coast striking and demonstrating on February 15th is now growing into a national student movement against the war. On March 20, tens of thousands of students and young people across the U.S. will take part in a nationwide coordinated protest.

Contact for more information:

E-mail: march20antiwar@hotmail.com
Website: march20antiwar.blogspot.com

Kati Ketz, UNC-Asheville SDS - 614-439-3978
Ian Chinich, Rutgers Against the War - 908-872-4779
Moriah Arnold, Green Hope High School - 443-538-6255