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Hidden with code "Submitted as Feature" |
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News :: Protest Activity |
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3/20 - Campustown Erupts In Protest |
Current rating: 2 |
by Matt Reichel
Email: reichel (nospam) uiuc.edu (unverified!)
Phone: (217) 766-9393 |
25 Mar 2003
Modified: 03:17:41 PM |
On the day after War on Iraq began, students, faculty, and residents of Champaign-Urbana took part in the biggest local Anti-War demonstration since the Vietnam War era.
I think that Thursday, March 20th will go down as an important day in the history of C-U peace activism!
The noon rally was fantastic: a superb speaker list that was topped off by a surprise visit by the legendary Jello Biafra. You simply can't beat that.
Then, the peace community successfully heeded the call for civil disobedience throughout the country.
All Photos Copyright 2003/John Fettig |
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While 15,000 protestors in Chicago shut down traffic on Lake Shore Drive and the Kennedy Expressway, 20,000 protestors closed down the Financial district in San Francisco, Berkeley students occupied administrative offices, and UT-Austin students caused all campus classes to be cancelled for the remainder of the week, at the University of Illinois Urbana/Champaign campustown traffic was ground to a halt for the better part of four hours. Peaceful protestors occupied several intersections in the immediate campustown area, while also marching through and disrupting normal operations in severalcampustown buildings. The spirit of these protestors was pristine, caring, and uniting. Never did anyone act in a way that hindered the overall effort, and, amazingly, there were zero arrests.
My personal favorite moments:
Photo#1 above
1) Seeing one of the large accordian MTD buses unsuccessfully attempt a U-turn on Green street. An MTD tow truck had to be called in.
2) Marching through the Union despite the doomed attempt of Union Administration to stop the 400 person march. It turns out that the reason for wanting to stop us is that a Corporate media job fair was being held in the main ballroom. We ended up marching through the job fair, which caused several of the outfits to pack up and leave. The pro-war Chicago Tribune left in a heartbeat.
Photo#2 above
3) The return to the alma-mater. After about 2.5 hours of marching, the protest returned to the alma mater where several students jumped on the statue. One fellow jumped on the shoulders of the alma mater and waved his upside-down American flag. I held an "Impeach Bush" sign and
led the crowd in a brief "Impeach Bush" chant.
4) The March through Beckman Hall, where 5 floors of supporters came out to cheer on the effort.
Photo#3 above
5) Suffocating the front of WCIA with protestors who were demanding to know why the Corporate media wasn't out to viedotape the shutting down of Green Street traffic.
In all, the whole thing was beyond words. I talked to a professor who said that he's been here for 13 years and never seen anything like it. I've been here for 4 years, and certainly seen nothing like it.
Hopefully we can keep this immense peace movement we got going on over here alive and strong and that we can end this war SOON and importantly leave a legacy that says "The American people will NOT put up with violent and undiplomatic foreign policy from its leadership. We are a
people that want principled leadership that sees human dignity as a central goal." |
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See also:
http://www.uiuc.edu/ro/peaceaction
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