DEFEND FREE SPEECH RIGHTS AT SAN FRANCISCO STATE

UNIVERSITY (SFSU)!

 

On Wednesday, March 9th, students from New York to San

Francisco rallied to protest military recruiters on

their campuses. The students were expressing their

outrage at the military's anti-gay "don't ask, don't

tell" policy, the diversion of federal funding away

from education into military spending, and the war in

Iraq.  University administrations in both cities

responded with disciplinary threats and police action.

 

At SFSU over 150 students joined Students Against War

-- the school's Campus Antiwar Network chapter -- and

other groups to protest Air Force recruiters and Army

Corps of Engineers attending a school sponsored career

fair. The crowd flooded the fair, surrounding their

tables and chanting. When Air Force recruiters tried

to wait out the protest, students staged a peaceful

anti-war sit-in and teach-in.

 

POLICE INTIMIDATION AND UNIVERSITY THREATS

The following day, recruiters returned to the SFSU

career fair. As soon as two activists entered the

career fair, eight police officers forcibly removed

them from their own student center, pushing them and

twisting one activist's arm. When the other activist

asked why she was being forced to leave, she was

pushed into a doorway, told she was causing a fire

hazard by standing there, and then kicked out of the

building.

 

An SFSU spokesperson informed reporters that student

groups involved in the protest will be suspended, and

that some of the individual students who participated

will also face disciplinary action. Such actions would

be blatant violations of students' right to free

speech and assembly.

 

Sean O'Neill, a veteran who returned from Iraq last

year after serving with the Marines, spoke out in

defense of the students who helped organize the

counter-recruitment protest, saying, "Do students have

the right to protest?  Of course they do! Are you

saying that people can't protest anything now?  Anyone

who's taken even a cursory glance at the Constitution

will tell you that we have the right to protest

whatever we want...As a vet, I don't take any offense!

Anyone who doesn't want me over there is a friend in

my book."

 

WHAT YOU CAN DO

We ask the public to speak-out against the

administration's plans to limit free speech rights,

and demand that no sanctions be placed on students or

organizations that helped to plan the March 9th

protest. Please contact:

 

Robert A. Corrigan, SFSU President

Phone: (415) 338-1381, Fax: (415) 338-6210

Email: corrigan@sfsu.edu

please CC your email to: cansfsu@hotmail.com

 

Penny Saffold, SFSU Vice President/Dean of Students

Phone: (415) 338-2032, Fax: (415) 338-0900

Email: psaffold@sfsu.edu

please CC your email to: cansfsu@hotmail.com

 

For more information please contact:

wcaudy@stars.sfsu.edu

 

 

Campus Antiwar Network

http://www.campusantiwar.net

 

Week of Campus Resistance

http://www.campusresistance.org