Photo courtesy Vietnam veteran Carl Rogers leads a demonstration on the steps of City Hall Wednesday evening. About 250 Santa Monica high school students gathered to promote peace in the Middle East. Peace rally takes to the streets
More than 1,000 students converged on Santa Monica College Wednesday to voice their opposition to a possible war in the Middle East.
Protesters took to the streets in the morning, blocking Pico Boulevard before filling the SMC amphitheater for a four-hour rally that ended with a march to UCLA.
SMC’s 1,000-student event was part of a nationwide student strike against U.S. military action in Iraq. Thousands of protesters walked out of classes in schools across the country.
SMC faculty members and students spoke in front of the crowd between 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the college’s amphitheater.
“I protest for the families that are going to lose loved ones,” said SMC student Nate Cox. “This is going to be a daily struggle, but if we keep making decisions like we did to come out here today, this war will not happen.”
“I protest for the families that are going to lose loved ones. This is going to be a daily struggle, but if we keep making decisions like we did to come out here today, this war will not happen.” — — NATE COX SMC student
Chants of “Rise up with the people of the world” and “Challenge Bush” were heard in unison by the steady roll of a hand drum, as onlookers waved signs reading “Peace: Back by popular demand!” and “Money for education, not war!”
The protest remained peaceful throughout the day. SMC stationed six police officers at the amphitheater, with reinforcements positioned nearby, officer Louie Ornelas said.
3A6,SMC President Piedad Robertson called the event a “teach-in” and invited teachers to hold their Wednesday classes at the protest. She said the event could be used as a vehicle for education in nearly any discipline.
“There are different presentations of different perspectives and points of view,” Robertson said. “(The students and staff have) created an environment for people to talk about the issue with respect.”
Professors who spoke to the crowd praised the student’s passion and encouraged them to stay involved on a local level.
“You inspire the students,” politics professor Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein cheered as he addressed the excited crowd. “You inspire the staff. You inspire Santa Monica.”
Tahvildaran-Jesswein told students there is a direct correlation between humanitarian and social service work done in the U.S. and the money spent abroad in war. He asked students to be wary of the downfalls of globalization.
62F,“This is more than just oil,” he said. “This is about globalization.”
Professor Mario Padilla, who brought his poetry class to the protest, said students shouldn’t misinterpret why many professors didn’t join the protest.
“We are from a different generation,” he said. “And these young people are the ones that need to carry this torch.”
Padilla said being involved in the protest was an individual choice for teachers and students in his morning class, which he held despite the strike.
“(Students) that walked out, I allowed to walk out,” he said. “And those that stayed, I continued to teach.”
Students from Samohi, Venice, Malibu, Ocean Park, Palisades and Crossroads high schools also skipped class to protest alongside SMC students.
“We are not blinded by any propaganda,” one Venice High School student said to a cheering audience. “And we refuse to be tools to an administration.”
SMC students who helped organize the event said their actions will go well beyond Wednesday’s strike.
“We’re going to take actions in the school and we’re going to take actions in the community,” said student organizer Pachanda, who declined to give his last name.
Other organizers said their message is not anti war.
“Our mission is to educate the students so they are more capable of changing society,” said Jordan Bloch of Progressive Alliance, a self-proclaimed radical student rights group.
Some SMC students declined to be involved in the protest.
Laughlin Elkind, who was waiting for a class to begin across the lawn from the protest, said he didn’t want to be a part of the event.
2FC,“I won’t support the protest until I feel there’s an alternative (to war),” he said. “There is a power play going on, and sure oil is a part of it, but I don’t think that’s what this war is about.”
Other students on campus said classes were “pretty full” despite the crowds amassed at the amphitheater.
After the rally, protesters planned to march past the Federal Building and the Veteran’s Cemetery in West L.A. and join a separate protest that was being held at UCLA.
A smaller band of about 75 protesters broke off after the rally and marched down 4th Street towards the beach, past City Hall and down Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade.
In a separate protest, roughly 250 Santa Monica high school students met on the steps of City Hall Wednesday evening.
The event, titled “No business as usual at schools, work or in the neighborhoods,” was intended to “convey how stopping the war is a democratic commitment and a local imperative,” according to a flyer distributed by the Westside Students and Anti-War Activists, who arranged the event.
Activists Blase Bonpane and Ted Daley, as well as Vietnam veterans Ron Kovic, author of “Born on the Fourth of July,” and Carl Rogers, and Mayor Pro Tem Kevin McKeown spoke to the high school pupils.
McKeown said students marched to City Hall carrying home-made signs, including a peace symbol made out of hula hoops.
“I’m very moved by this,” he said. “Teachers and students have woven peace and non-violence into the curriculum and come together to listen to people speak quietly about peace.”
- Nate Cox, SMC student
- Professor of Politics Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 6, 2003. Read the original PDF.