Open Letter Requesting United Student Contingent in Bay Area for March 20

BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
END THE OCCUPATION OF IRAQ!
END THE OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE!
MONEY FOR EDUCATION, JOBS AND HEALTHCARE,
NOT WAR AND OCCUPATION!


February 18, 2004

To all antiwar students in the Bay Area,

The Berkeley Stop the War Coalition invites all Bay Area students and campus antiwar, Palestinian rights, Muslim and Arab groups to form a united student contingent for the upcoming March 20, 2004 march and rally to end the occupations of Iraq and Palestine.

On the one-year anniversary of Bush’s immoral, illegal, unilateral invasion of Iraq, and as the brutal Israeli occupation of Palestine drags on for its 37th year, people from around the world will march to demand an end to occupation. When 15 million protested the invasion of Iraq last February 15, the New York Times called us “the world’s second superpower.” Now is the time to once again take to the streets and show Bush, Blair, and the whole world that we will not remain silent in the face of such injustice!

With innocent Iraqis dying by the thousands, and American casualties at over 500, Bush’s myth of a ‘precision-guided’ war rings all the more hollow. Every day that passes without finding weapons of mass destruction highlights the lies and deception that were used to sell this war. As questions mount about his own service during Vietnam, more and more Americans are turning against the war and occupation, resulting in the lowest approval rating of Bush’s presidency (49%). Only half of Americans believe that the war was worth it — down from 59% just a month ago.

Military families across America are calling for an end to the occupation and the safe return of their loved ones, and we join them in condemning the treatment of US soldiers as cannon fodder for Bush’s war for oil and empire. As veterans’ benefits are cut and tours-of-duty stretch on past the one-year mark, we echo the call of the Bring Them Home Now campaign – Bush says bring ‘em on, but we say BRING THEM HOME NOW!

At the same time, the antiwar movement in the United States is joining its counterparts across the world in condemning — and demanding the end of — the Israeli occupation of Palestine. With Israel using US-made weapons to further its domination of the Palestinian people, and the US in turn borrowing Israeli methods of occupation, it is imperative that we point out the connections between the two occupations and that we call for the end of the occupations of both Palestine and Iraq with equal passion.

Here at home, education and health care budgets are being slashed — while hundreds of billions are spent on the weapons of war and occupation. Two million jobs have been lost in the last three years, while war profiteers Halliburton and Bechtel overcharge their way to massive profits in Iraq.

As students, we have a special role to play. Historically, the student movement has helped to lead the fight for civil rights, an end to the Vietnam War, the demise of Apartheid, and many other struggles throughout the past five decades. We are now in a position to broaden the movement and grow stronger, to build ourselves into a force that can END THE OCCUPATION and BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

We ask that all Bay Area students committed to ending Bush’s war on the world march together on March 20 — from every college and high school, every organization, and every viewpoint.

Let us use March 20 to both build the antiwar movement and strengthen the ties between students in the Bay Area opposed to the occupations of Iraq and Palestine.

In Solidarity,

Berkeley Stop the War Coalition

For more information or to sign on to this open letter (both organizations and individuals), please contact Michael Smith of the Berkeley Stop the War Coalition [mgs [at] berkeley.edu].