ACTIVATE, as a chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) has signed on to a “call to action” being circulated by various chapters of SDS for coordinated protests on March 20. The call, reprinted below, has been endorsed by 44 different groups as of March 2nd. The different groups are planning a variety of events including walk-outs, rallies, sit-ins, and other protests.

The call:

The war in Iraq is entering its fifth year. Despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of citizens want the war to end, despite the fact that U.S. forces are being defeated by the Iraqi resistance, Bush recently announced plans to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq. These troops are being committed to fight and die in an unjust war based on lies and greed. Four years is four years too many. The Iraqi people want the foreign occupiers out. They know the U.S. government is not a “liberator,” but whose presence means only continued violence, death, and destruction.

We, students and young people here in the U.S., support the right of the Iraqi people to self-determination. We refuse to accept this new strategy to “expand the military,” and reject any means the government may use to make these new troops materialize – whether through the implementation of a draft or the continued use of manipulative and deceptive recruitment techniques. We refuse to be subtle in our outcry against this war, we refuse to do nothing and be silent while people are killed in our name for profit for the rich and we refuse to be sent overseas in a war for oil.

This past November, 100 students from twenty different college campuses came together at a Students for a Democratic Society meeting in Ft.Benning, GA and unanimously decided that March 20th be declared a national day of student and youth resistance against the war! SDS is calling on all students and youth to get out in the streets, get involved and get organized against this war! We, the students and youth of this country, are taking an active stand against US imperialism and fighting for a better world. We reject this war of greed and profit, and are walking out of our classes and taking to the streets in protest!

FIGHT THE WAR MACHINE – GET ORGANIZED, GET INVOLVED, AND GET IN THE STREETS!

A full and continuely updated list of endorsers is available on the March 20 Student Day of Action against the War website.