March 5th Strike at SF State

Is it a student strike or a rally? They're is a huge difference. A student strike would take mass organization and participation with an aim of disrupting "business as usual." If it's not actually a strike, then calling it one is misleading. I'm not saying that a strike isn't a good thing. I'm just saying that people need to have an honest assessment of where people are at (mass sentiment) in order to know what kind of an event they can organize effectively and whether or not it's even possible to organize it. I doubt thousands of students are ready to strike yet.

The idea is that it is a National "Strike."
The event at SF State is in effect a rally but is part of a bigger day across the nation with thousands and thousands of students speaking out against the war and its effects on our education.

how about after the rally there be some sort of direct action? take to the streets or taking over a building.

Study some of the tactics used by the SF State strikers back in 1968.We had a tactic back then called "War of the Flea"where groups of students would creatively disrupt classroom business and then flee to another part of the campus when the police came.Direct conflict with police was discouraged-tho it did obviously happen with rather bloody results-.The idea is maximum disruption with minimal injuries and arrests.
Don't know if that is where student's heads are at right now.Each generation must recreate its own style and tactics.Just wanted to pass on some History lesson!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 4th 2003; 2:00 p.m. EST
Contact: Karim Lopez (NYC): 347-203-6157
Sara Ahmed (DC): 301-537-7440
Ben Waxman (Philadelphia): 215-266-4598
Amanda Flott (Kansas): 785-760-4723
Youssef Sawan (Wisconsin): 608-215-7653
Amanda Crater (Bay Area): 510-666-1228

National Student Strike tomorrow!
300 US schools expected to organize walkouts

See the updated list of campuses at: http://www.nyspc.net/strikelist.html

The “National Student Strike for Books Not Bombs,” will take place tomorrow, March 5th on campuses across the US and the world. Tens of thousands thousands of US students will stop participating in business as usual for some part of the day to demonstrate to the world that the campuses do not accept the Bush vision of endless war decreased opportunity.

“We’re not going to sit around while we watch ourselves get priced out of education,” said Ben Waxman, a 17-year old student from Philadelphia. “We’re going to resist.”

As of Sunday evening, 230 high school and college campuses have pledged their support for this day of national student resistance, with new school registrations continuing to pour in each minute. Organizers expect 300 campuses organizing a local strike or walkout.

Local participants are planning a diverse array of tactics including teach-ins, sit-ins, rallies, banner-drops, puppet shows, snowball fights, and of course, strikes and walkouts as they call for their campuses and government to serve education instead of war.

Students will walk out of classes all over New York City during the morning, and a final convergence point will be a massive rally at Hunter College at 2:30 pm. Philadelphia, Chicago, and Los Angeles schools will also hold city-wide student rallies.

At many convergence points, youth and students will take a “vote” to stop the war and increase funding for education. The ballots will be counted and sent to congressional representatives to underscore the message. “We’re excerising our electoral power while taking direct action,” said Waxman.

Resources for press, including an updated list of campuses and local organizer’s contact info are available on the NYSPC’s website at: http://www.nyspc.net/presspg.html. See the New York Time’s weekend story on the strike at: http://www.nyspc.net/nyt3-1.html.

The “National Student Strike” event is coordinated by the National Youth and Student Peace Coalition (NYSPC). The call for a student strike has been taken up by students in Canada, Spain, Australia, the UK, France,Bulgaria, Switzerland, and elsewhere.

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National Youth and Student Peace Coalition
1413 K St. NW, 9th Floor
Washington DC, 20005
501-244-2439,
clearinghouse [at] tao.ca; http://www.nyspc.net

*Members of the National Youth & Student Peace Coalition include:
-180/Movement for Democracy and Education
-Black Radical Congress-Youth Division
-Campus Greens
-Muslim Students Association of the US and Canada
-National Youth Advocacy Coalition
-Not With Our Money
-Student Environmental Action Coalition
-Student Peace Action Network
-Students United for a Responsible Global Environment
-Students Transforming and Resisting Corporations
-United Students Against Sweatshops
-United States Student Association
-Young Communist League
-Young Democratic Socialists
-Young People's Socialists League

Anybody with Media Questions for SF State can contact:
Maria Perez at 510-459-4158

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