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

Press Release - March 1, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 1, 2007

Nationwide Coordinated Protests on March 20, 2007
To Demand an Immediate End to the Iraq War

On March 20, 2007, thousands of students and young people from across the United States will demonstrate against the unjust war in Iraq. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) has called for a national day of action on the fourth anniversary of the war.

The national call for March 20 reads: “We, students and young people here in the U.S., support the right of the Iraqi people to self-determination. We refuse to accept this new strategy to ‘expand the military,’ and reject any means the government may use to make these new troops materialize - whether through the implementation of a draft or the continued use of manipulative and deceptive recruitment techniques.”

Thus far, 35 different campuses and groups have signed on to the call, including 18 SDS chapters, and the number continues to grow.

“It is time in this country that we as students get organized against this unjust war and occupation in Iraq. Four years at war is four years too long, and Iraqis are dying everyday because of it. We need to get organized and get out into the streets! The U.S. needs to end the war in Iraq and bring all the troops home now,” says Kati Ketz of the University of North Carolina-Asheville SDS.

“The majority of the student body at the University of Alabama believes the war in Iraq is wrong, but until SDS formed, there was no way for them to voice their opposition. It’s exciting that the South is getting organized against the war, that more and more students are taking a stand against injustices,” says Chapin Gray, of SDS-Tuscaloosa. “Not only that, as part of a national student organization, our group feels like we are speaking and acting in unison with SDS chapters across the country, that we are part of something really powerful, that we are making history.”

As the U.S. enters its fifth year in Iraq, there seems to be no end in sight. Bush has called for 21,500 more troops in the midst of vast unpopularity. This also includes a military recruitment benchmark of over 90,000 – with the majority of these recruits coming from the working class and youth. It is necessary to act now in our campuses and communities to bring this to an end.

Contact for more information:

E-mail: march20antiwar@hotmail.com

Kati Ketz, UNC-Asheville SDS – 614-439-3978

Chapin Gray, SDS at Tuscaloosa – 251-605-7780

http://march20antiwar.blogspot.com

Call for March 20 Student / Youth Action Against the War

The war in Iraq is entering its fifth year. Despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of citizens want the war to end, despite the fact that U.S. forces are being defeated by the Iraqi resistance, Bush recently announced plans to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq. These troops are being committed to fight and die in an unjust war based on lies and greed. Four years is four years too many. The Iraqi people want the foreign occupiers out. They know the U.S. government is not a "liberator," but whose presence means only continued violence, death, and destruction.

We, students and young people here in the U.S., support the right of the Iraqi people to self-determination. We refuse to accept this new strategy to "expand the military," and reject any means the government may use to make these new troops materialize - whether through the implementation of a draft or the continued use of manipulative and deceptive recruitment techniques. We refuse to be subtle in our outcry against this war, we refuse to do nothing and be silent while people are killed in our name for profit for the rich and we refuse to be sent overseas in a war for oil.

This past November, 100 students from twenty different college campuses came together at a Students for a Democratic Society meeting in Ft.Benning, GA and unanimously decided that March 20th be declared a national day of student and youth resistance against the war! SDS is calling on all students and youth to get out in the streets, get involved and get organized against this war! We, the students and youth of this country, are taking an active stand against US imperialism and fighting for a better world. We reject this war of greed and profit, and are walking out of our classes and taking to the streets in protest!

FIGHT THE WAR MACHINE - GET ORGANIZED, GET INVOLVED, AND GET IN THE STREETS!

SDS National Flyer for M20