I just got back from the antiwar protest at UC Santa Barbara, where 1,500 students took part in the rally coinciding with today’s strike against the war in Iraq (see my last diary for details). Forgive me if this diary seems rushed and nonsensical but my head is spinning right now I’m so happy!
The cops are currently blocking the freeway and 300 students are sitting there, waiting to be arrested (I left at 3:05 or so, so they might already be getting cuffed).
The rally started at 1 on the west side of campus by the Pardall bike tunnel, as planned, as speakers took turns decrying the war in iraq, congress’s total lack of SERIOUS action to stop the war, and the UC’s role in the military-industrial complex among other things. A crowd of 2000-3000 students blocked the bike tunnel.
After about an hour of speeches, including one by a US Marine who initially supported but has now turned against the war, the organizers decided we should go walk across campus to give the people who didn’t ditch a chance to change their minds and join us. The line stretched for a half a mile, at least, all along the bike path, almost all students, as we chanted slogans like PEACE NOW and AINT NO POWER LIKE THE POWER OF PEOPLE CAUSE THE POWER OF PEOPLE DON’T STOP (say whaaaat?) and ...well yeah, you’re Kossacks so you’ve been to protests, so you know the routine.
BUT THIS WASN’T ROUTINE. On the middle of our campus, in the middle of the day, disrupting everything, loud, angry, and passionate. I’ve been to protests before, but I’ve never felt so empowered as I did today.
As we marched across campus, rumors started spreading in the crowd that we were going to shut down the freeway, and sure enough, at 2:34 pm (by this point, I was taking notes because I knew I had to blog this), we crossed the street and shut down the turnabout on the east side of campus. We then paused and regrouped and considered our options before deciding to walk down the freeway.
I must have driven down that freeway a thousand times, but here I was walking on the double yellow lines! In the middle of the day! I watched as cars made u-turns up ahead to avoid being enveloped by the crowd, still around a thousand strong.
We chanted.
"Whose streets?
"OUR STREETS!"
We walked down for about half a mile before we were halted by a hastily assembled police line (20 cops, CHP) in front of a Caltrans roadblock redirecting traffic. One guy crossed it, Jesse, and he was the first one to be arrested. A group of 300 students sat down in a big circle (like a filled circle, not a donut), with other students standing on the outside, like a halo. Students were giving speeches about why we oppose the war and why we need to withdraw and the parallels between Iraq and Vietnam and why we need to stay out of Iran and PeaceOut University (our follow up event, scheduled for next week...hopefully the organizers aren’t all in jail!) and the UC’s links to nuclear weapons labs like Los Alamos, and other topics. Will Parrish, from NAPF, gave students instructions on how to be arrested peacefully because, as he put it, "We’re not just the antiwar movement. We’re the peace movement."
At 3:00, students started singing "Give Peace a Chance" by John Lennon, but stopped so we could hear more speeches. As I walked back along the freeway (along the double yellow lines, hehe!), I saw peace signs written in chalk on the asphalt. Yeah...that made me grin ear to ear.
We’ve never seen anything like this! We’ve never DONE anything like this!
I’ve never been so proud of my university and my generation. We are against the war in Iraq and we’re not willing to go by silently as men, women and children are killed in our name. END THIS WAR NOW. And no, NOT a pansy-ass resolution. Resolutions don’t stop casualties and suicide bombings. CUT THE FUCKING FUNDING.
UPDATE 1: Ok, I just talked to my friend Bart who left 25 minutes ago and the protesters have left the freeway and marched the Chancellor's office on campus. Apparently the cops were making people nervous. But I'm glad they went there, because a BIG part of the message of the protest was that UC needs to cut its ties with the military industrial complex, so the Chancellor is the one to lobby about that, and they can't do that if they're in jail. Btw, I'm going to try to find some links about this stuff, so if you're leaving comments, I'll get to them as soon as I can. Thanks!
Update 2: Here's a link to SBAntiwar where there's more info about today and also a link to UCNuclearFree with more info about the UC's ties to the military. Lots of universities have similar ties, which is why strikes are a good tool for student activists trying to stop the war.
Update 3: From the comments, Gaucho alum and newshound HeatherB said that the 2 students who were arrested have been released. Also, here's a link to KCSB, the campus radio station (and the best source of info around these parts). Professor Dick Flacks is on the air right now doing his weekly show "Culture of Protest," and I bet he'll have updates as they come up.
Update 4: A great link from Josh Sonnenfeld, an organizer from UC Santa Cruz that has some info on other actions that went down today, including a very successful one at Lowell High School up in NorCal:
http://february15.wordpress.com
Also, straightened out my east-west mistake that pigpaste caught.
Update 5 (2.18.07 -- for posterity):
I changed the number 3,000 to 1,500. But it felt like 10,000. This one meant something special.
One more thing, if anyone is interested in coordinating future actions with us at their schools, please send an email to info@sbantiwar.org or contact me and I'll pass word along to the main organizers.