[News] Defend activists at SFSU

[News at freedomarchives.org]

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 at sfsu.edu
please CC your email to: cansfsu at hotmail.com

Penny Saffold, SFSU Vice President/Dean of Students
Phone: (415) 338-2032, Fax: (415) 338-0900
Email: psaffold at sfsu.edu
please CC your email to: cansfsu at hotmail.com

For more information please contact:
wcaudy at stars.sfsu.edu









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