[Freethe SF8] Olympia SDS to hold Rally for Free Speech

[SF-8 case]

Olympia SDS to hold Rally for Free Speech

Tuesday, May 13 2008 @ 02:20 AM CDT
Contributed by: Anonymous
http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20080513022047341


On Wednesday, May 21st the Olympia chapter of Students for a 
Democratic Society will hold a rally for free speech leading up to 
our last and final appeal with The Evergreen State College 
administration regarding our student group's suspension. The rally 
will start at 3pm in Red Square at Evergreen. All community members 
are welcome to attend this. Now is the perfect time that our 
comrades, allies and supporters from Olympia, Cascadia, the US of A 
and beyond put pressure on the Evergreen administration to reinstate 
SDS as a student group, with full funding, complete rights and no 
strings attached.

CALL OUT FOR SUPPORT OF OLYMPIA SDS AND FREE SPEECH

On Wednesday, May 21st the Olympia chapter of Students for a 
Democratic Society will hold a rally for free speech leading up to 
our last and final appeal with The Evergreen State College 
administration regarding our student group's suspension. The rally 
will start at 3pm in Red Square at Evergreen. All community members 
are welcome to attend this. Now is the perfect time that our 
comrades, allies and supporters from Olympia, Cascadia, the US of A 
and beyond put pressure on the Evergreen administration to reinstate 
SDS as a student group, with full funding, complete rights and no 
strings attached.

Here's who you can put pressure on. You can make the demands listed 
above, and feel free to add in any more information (see below) you 
want. Wendy Freeman will be presiding over our appeal on May 21st, 
but Art Costantino and Les Purce both have been putting a lot of 
pressure on SDS.

Wendy Freeman
Director of the Career Development Center
360.867.6187
freemanw at evergreen.edu

Art Costantino
Vice President of Student Affairs
360.867.6296
costanta at evergreen.edu

Les Purce
President
360.867.6100
purcel at evergreen.edu

WHAT HAPPENED TO SDS?

Olympia Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was suspended by The 
Evergreen State College administration as a student group. We can no 
longer access our budget, have meetings, book events, or do many 
other functions that regular student groups do. SDS was originally 
suspended from until January 1, 2009 and will then face probation 
until March 13, 2009. After an appeal was held, our suspension was 
shortened and our probation will go until January 1, 2009.

WHY DID THIS HAPPEN?

Olympia SDS planned a series of events for Friday March 7th. The 
first event was a panel discussion on the San Francisco 8 to discuss 
issues of torture, police and government repression, COINTELPRO, the 
Black Panther Party and political prisoners. The second event was a 
folk show with musical artists David Rovics, Danny Kelly and Mark 
Eckert to raise awareness about anti-war activist Carlos Arredondo 
whose twenty-year-old son Marine Lance Corporal Alexander Arredondo 
was killed in Iraq.

Just two days before the events were to take place, the 
administration decided to cancel both events, using the "moratorium 
on concerts" to cancel both the folk show and the panel discussion.

The so-called "moratorium on concerts" was created by the 
administration following a Valentine's Day dead prez show on campus 
that led to an uprising of concert goers after a black man named 
Kaylen Williams was arrested by a white cop. Concert goers peacefully 
demanded he be let go. He eventually was, but police from several 
other local agencies came in and, without any warning, started 
clubbing and pepper-spraying people. Countless people were injured 
and one member of SDS was hospitalized that night for internal 
bleeding. The crowd responded to the violence and racism of the 
police by throwing bottles, rocks, garbage and other objects. The 
cops retreated, leaving a cruiser behind which was then flipped and 
some of its contents taken. Nine people have been charged with 
various felonies and misdemeanors since the uprising, and the 
administration and police continue to hunt the student population for 
more "rioters". Art Costantino has gone so far as to encourage the 
police to investigate the Hip Hop Congress, SDS and prominent port 
protesters in their hunt and students' records have been given to the sheriffs.

When word went out that the SDS events would be canceled, members of 
SDS consulted with the musicians, panelists, and community members 
who helped organize the event and decided to go through with it on 
the two conditions that there would be no further advertising for the 
event and that in case police came to the event to shut it down, that 
SDSers would deescalate the situation. In addition, members of SDS 
and many other students not in the group approached administrators 
Phyllis Lane, Art Costantino and Les Purce to try and go through with 
these events. But all three administrators did not listen.

Because SDS went through with these two events (which are protected 
by the First Amendment and free speech rights), the administration 
decided to suspend SDS's group status. We in SDS also believe this 
suspension came about for our group's official condemnation of the 
racist, violent police. SDS has also worked in various ways to 
support those who have been used as scapegoats by the administration 
following the uprising.

WHAT IS OLYMPIA SDS, ANYWAY?

Some people may be unsure about Olympia SDS and what it is exactly. 
The mission statement of the group states that Olympia SDS is a 
non-hierarchical radical anti-authoritarian student organization 
dedicated to promoting radical political and social change through 
action/praxis rather than rhetoric in a movement working to build an 
educated world that is democratic and free of all forms of 
exploitation and oppression.

Olympia SDS formed in May 2006 and has been organizing around issues 
of campus democratization, poverty and homelessness, the prison 
industrial complex, political prisoners, the war and occupation of 
Iraq, port militarization resistance efforts, labor struggles, 
immigration and many other issues. Some of its most recent projects 
have been centered on creating a Free Student Union, establishing a 
free health clinic, supporting the San Francisco 8 and working to 
make Olympia a Sanctuary City for undocumented workers and GI war 
resisters. Olympia SDS is part of a network of over 250 SDS chapters 
with 1,000s of members. SDS takes its name from the 1960s-70s SDS 
which was rooted in ideas of participatory democracy, student 
syndicalism (unionism) and was active in the civil rights and 
anti-war movements at that time.

If you have any questions, feel free to email olympiasds at riseup.net. 
Also, if you would like to make donations for the legal defense of 
Kaylen Williams and/or others who were arrested following the 
uprising, email us as well.
This message was not written by Olympia SDS as a group, but by one SDSer.

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