Antiwar Protest

At the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, 450 students attended an antiwar rally at noon and 300 marched through campus and into the community, occupying the main intersection in town before ending with a closing rally on the steps of the administration building. SDS, thirteen other student organizations, members of the newly-founded UNC Coalition Against the War, six community organizations and members of Iraq Veterans Against the War led the demonstration. "I'm inspired by the hundreds of students who were willing to leave class and march against this unjust war," said Abby Crownshaw, a first-year student and an organizer of the protest. "We brought our message of peace and justice to thousands of students, faculty and staff."

Many classes were unable to continue because of the noise of the protest. As the march wound through campus, students came up to the windows to watch, with many waving or displaying peace signs to the demonstrators. At the closing rally, the protesters renewed their commitment to struggle against the war and continue to build the mass movement across North Carolina in the coming year.

See also: UNC Chapel Hill SDS flyer distributed at the rally, The Movement Against War: 5 years of struggle (pdf)

Press round-up:

03/24/08 - Public outcry can influence policy on the war in Iraq [DTH]
03/24/08 - War protest was useful in promoting conversation [DTH]

Dear friends and allies at UNC,

This March will mark a grim milestone: the U.S. occupation of Iraq will enter its fifth year. After five years of war and occupation, over 1.2 million Iraqis and 4,000 U.S. troops have lost their lives, and more that $500 billion has been poured into the failing occupation, money that should have been spent making education more accessible to millions of young people in this country who cannot afford it, to provide healthcare, housing and jobs to all Americans, and to rebuild the Gulf Coast, which is still suffering from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina more than two and a half years later.

UNC-Chapel Hill Students for a Democratic Society is organizing a demonstration against the continued U.S. war on Iraq and military recruitment on November 15, 2007.

Since the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, more than 1.2 million Iraqi civilians and nearly 4,000 U.S. troops have died. More than $465 billion has already been wasted on this war and the Bush administration has just requested an additional $190 billion to continue the war. Meanwhile, the Democrat-controlled Congress refuses to offer any real challenge to the war and fulfill the mandate to end the war that brought them to power back in November 2006. We are sick and tired of these games. While the people of Iraq continue to suffer under U.S. occupation, people here at home are suffering too. The Gulf Coast still isn't rebuilt, the cost of education continues to rise and become less accessible for millions of this country's young people, and many people don't have access to healthcare. This war has got to stop.

Last November, the Army opened a new recruiting station in Chapel Hill. This station, the first of its kind to open in town, gives recruiters easy access to the area's youth, high schools, and colleges. It is clear why this facility was built: in the face of the failing war on Iraq, the military is desperate for more young people to continue the occupation and be able to wage new wars on people throughout the Middle East and around the world. Military recruiters use deceptive practices, ranging from promises about money enlistees will receive to the length of enlistment, and specifically target youth of color and working class youth. If we refuse to enlist, the war cannot continue.

On the first anniversary of this station's opening, join us a we renew our call for military recruiters out of our schools and communities, and U.S. troops out of Iraq NOW!

We refuse to kill and be killed--No to military recruitment!
Iraq for Iraqis--U.S. Troops Out Now!
Shut the War Down!