As Colin Powell finished detailing U.S. support for war,
Wednesday’s anti-war teach-in on campus turned away people at
the door ““ literally.
The 450 in attendance, including several protesters, filled
Ackerman Grand Ballroom to capacity, requiring approximately 50
others to wait outside for others to leave.
The event included a video and speech by Barbara Johns, from the
human rights group “Voices in the Wilderness” and live
telephone conferences with activists and professors Howard Zinn and
Noam Chomsky. The event was sponsored by Speak Out, a local
socialist organization.
Marc Lispi, a UCLA alumnus and member of Speak Out, began the
teach-in by listing the reasons the U.S. government gives for war
and explaining why they are “deceitful lies and
half-truths.”
Lispi cited the United States’ reason for war as an
attempt to maintain a capitalist system.
He was interrupted by demonstrators, who filed in front of the
audience holding signs with messages such as “Finish the
job” and “Rescue the Kurds.” Lispi told them to
get out as event organizers surrounded them.
After a brief discussion in the corner with event organizers,
two of the protestors UCLA students Grant Rabenn and Alex Mikaelian
continued protesting in the corner of the room.
Rabenn said they were not there on behalf of any student group,
but wanted to show their dissatisfaction with anti-war
activists.
“(Anti-war activists) haven’t proposed any policy to
solve the problem. They’re just complaining,” Mikaelian
said
Johns then began her speech by respecting the dissenters’
right to protest.
Johns, having returned from a trip to Iraq, showed video footage
and discussed health and economic devastation in the country as a
result of U.S. military action.
“It is as if the Persian Gulf war never ended. Our
bombings have impaired all water treatment facilities and sewage
runs in the streets where children play,” she said.
Zinn, author of “A People’s History of the United
States,” explained why he thought the United States’
reasons for war were based on lies.
“George Bush is the greatest threat to peace in the
world,” he said.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Chomsky said
Saddam Hussein should be disarmed through inspections and not
war.
He discussed the growing opposition to the war and the numerous
people who have participated in anti-war demonstrations.
Benjamin Alvarez, a fifth-year linguistics and philosophy
student, said he knew what Zinn and Chomsky would say, but said he
enjoyed hearing new facts.
Alvarez opposes the war and thinks no country should have
nuclear weapons.
“I think weapons of mass destruction are more dangerous in
our hands than Iraq’s, especially because we’ve dropped
them twice,” he said.
Brittany McLaughlin-Ford, a second-year music history student
said Chomsky reaffirmed her beliefs.
“I don’t think we should go in and impose our own
government. I would say if there was a way to get Hussein out, that
would be fine,” she said.
Lispi said he hoped the event’s turnout, which exceeded
expectations, meant many students would be active in opposing the
war.
“But students alone are not sufficient to stop the
war,” he said.