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Reporting Back from the Rally at the U (we took over coffman union!)

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seg4527 Donating Member (851 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-23-05 03:41 PM
Original message
Reporting Back from the Rally at the U (we took over coffman union!)
The rally went pretty well. I counted 80 people or more at one point, which is a pretty decent increase from the 60 people we had there in January.

We had about 4 or 5 counterprotestors, from prostestwarrior.com

The rally portion went okay. Like usual at these types of things, most of the speakers were mixed. The AFSCME lady was a terrible speaker, but had a good message. The high school student from student counter-recruitment movement was great. And the veteran of the Persian Gulf War was AWESOME. She confronted the counter protestors, and said that until they enlist in the army, they have no right to call her, or any of us unpatriotic, and they just stood their with their "witty" signs and their tails between their legs.

Then we marched to one of the pedestrian bridges, blocked it off for the most part, and hung our anti-war banner over Washington Avenue, and got a few honks from cars.

Something we didn't mention to the crowd at the start, but were planning, as long as the numbers were big enough and the excitement was there, was to enter Coffman Memorial Student Union. Erika, the president of AWOL, suggested it to the crow, and everybody seemed excited about it, so we went in. At that point, the counterprotestors left the march, because they were scared of getting arrested or something, I guess. They're sooo macho, you know. :-P

So we entered Coffman Union, about 40 of us, I'd estimate. We marched around the first floor a while, where kids lay around in between classes and "lounge". We chanted loudly slogans such as "this is what democracy looks like! bush is what hypocrisy looks like!" and so on, and got a bunch of really dirty looks, but also got a few people signed up with us. We then marched down the elevator, and into the lunch room. At that point, a rather large man who I think is some kind of official at the lunch place said "you can't DO this" but we did it anyway. We were in the lunch room, and chanted for about 5 or 10 minutes, a guy talked a lot about the misinformation from US government (former support for iraq, support for saudia arabia, egypt, and such). Somebody yelled "shut up" but we didn't. And then we decided we'd caused enough disruption for one day, so left, just as the police were coming, presumably to either ask or make us leave our OWN student union.

We stood on the steps a while, and chanted some more, and then we all went our seperate ways.

It was quite exciting.
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ewagner Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-23-05 03:44 PM
Response to Original message
1. I feel better.....
I've wondered if the current generation of college students had any guts...any commitment....I've been troubled by the apparent lack of passion on the part of the young.....

but all my doubts have been washed away...

Great job....I'm damned proud of you! :toast: :toast: :toast:
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mzmolly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-23-05 03:44 PM
Response to Original message
2. Thanks for sharing.
:toast: to you!
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Worst Username Ever Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-23-05 03:46 PM
Response to Original message
3. As a U grad, I am a bit jealous.
Edited on Wed Mar-23-05 03:46 PM by Worst Username Ever
What I would have given for the opportunity to take part in something like that. Ah, the curse of living in the peace, prosperity, and good will of the late 1990's. Thank god that nightmare is over! :P
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Lydia Leftcoast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-23-05 04:23 PM
Response to Original message
4. Just one emoticon for you...
:yourock:
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jean Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-23-05 07:33 PM
Response to Original message
5. What did your banner say?
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seg4527 Donating Member (851 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-23-05 08:49 PM
Response to Reply #5
6. i believe it said "troops out of iraq!"
and it had a picture of something on it, as well as todays date. it was the same banner that somebody made to advertise the protest, and they hung it outside of their apartment window, right over a convenience store owned by crazy right wing christians.
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jean Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-23-05 09:20 PM
Response to Reply #6
7. I bet it looked great draped over the bridge - the bridge itself is cool
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seg4527 Donating Member (851 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-23-05 09:26 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. it was. plus there were like 50 plus people on the bridge.
today was definitely the best protest i've ever been to. might not have been as big as others, but as i've said before, these campus ones usually have a LOT of energy.
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katinmn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Mar-24-05 08:01 AM
Response to Original message
9. Congrats!
:yourock:

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seg4527 Donating Member (851 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Mar-24-05 11:12 AM
Response to Original message
10. here is an artivle and VIDEO
they don't talk a lot about the taking over coffman union, which, in my mind, and in some other group members mind, was the most exciting and important part of the protest.

http://mndaily.com/articles/2005/03/24/63797
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seg4527 Donating Member (851 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-25-05 04:43 PM
Response to Original message
11. Minnesota Daily Reported 100 people there!
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