2008 Woodie Awards
Protests mark five years of war in Iraq
Riskier 'direct action' planned for today
Isabel Gottlieb
Issue date: 3/20/08 Section: Campus News
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OIF and Providence SDS, which is composed of SDS groups from Brown, the Rhode Island School of Design and local high schools, organized a "Week of Action" from March 17 to March 20. The week includes a movie screening, a "Funk the War!" dance party and a "direct action" event today at noon.
Direct action is "direct engagement with the system ... rather than lobbying or protesting," SDS organizer Mike Da Cruz '09 said. It is "civil disobedience, an attempt to put ourselves in direct opposition, directly confront the person with the power to change things," he added.
Direct action may mean risking arrest, OIF and SDS member Kelly Nichols '09 said. But it is important to "show that we're willing to put ourselves out there in opposition to crimes and injustices taken by the government."
Wednesday's event was organized by the Rhode Island Spring Mobilization Committee, a community peace group. SDS members also went to meetings to help plan the event, Nichols said.
About 40 students began their march at Faunce Arch, bearing signs with, "Drop tuition, not bombs," "Resist the War Machine" and "End the violence! Peace now!" The protestors banged empty water drums and recycling bins and were accompanied by about four people playing instruments and wearing gold-tinsel-wrapped top hats.
The students met a larger group of protestors in Kennedy Plaza's Burnside Park, where the Mobilization Committee had brought speakers including Paul Hubbard of the International Socialist Organization. Hubbard called for an "immediate and complete withdrawal" from Iraq and encouraged grassroots organizing to get "millions into the streets."
The protest then snaked through downtown Providence, stopping in front of several military recruitment offices as well as the national headquarters of Textron, Inc. Textron manufactures cluster bombs, which cause a high number of casualties among Iraqi civilians, Nichols said.
Outside the Textron offices, protesters chanted, "Hey Textron, you can't hide; we charge you with genocide." No one in the building appeared to respond. After a few minutes, the demonstrators moved on.