Several student groups are coming together today to sponsor a march commemorating the fourth anniversary of the Iraq war, as well as in an effort to show the community that students are willing to organize in support of a national cause.
Students plan to meet in front of Murphy Hall at noon, and then march from the Student Activities Center to the Federal Building on Wilshire Boulevard.
The UCLA Reserve Officers Training Corps office is located within the Student Activities Center, and students are starting the march there because it is probably the most obvious military institution on campus, said Babken DerGrigorian, a co-founder of the UCLA chapter of Students For a Democratic Society.
“We know that the march is not going to end the war, but that’s not what the point of it is,” DerGrigorian said. “People have learned to be complacent and accept the war. … The anti-war movement is building up and we are not going to sit here and let these things happen in our name.”
Samantha Miller, a UCLA student and L.A. organizer for a women’s rights organization called CODEPINK, was one of the main organizers of the march.
“We decided we wanted to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. … Everyone is asking why there is no student anti-war movement, but there is, and it’s time for UCLA to join in,” Miller said.
Sponsors say the organizations holding the march disagree with the Iraq war for a variety of reasons, including the unnecessary death of U.S. soldiers.
DerGrigorian said he believes the impetus for the war was based on lies, and there is no reason for U.S. soldiers to be dying in Iraq.
“Our peers, people our age, are in Iraq fighting and we want to bring them home … and get them out of harms way,” he said.
Jennifer Propper, a spokeswoman for Bruin Republicans, said she is also concerned about the welfare of U.S. soldiers, but the work they do for the rest of the U.S. and the world is very important.
“Sometimes we get so caught up in the politics of things. The reason we are safer today is because of the hard work American soldiers have been doing all over the world on our behalf. In protecting our country we are protecting other parts of the world as well, and even if we don’t realize it now history will,” she said.
Miller said she believes the current administration has not done an effective job of spreading democratic values.
“We were bringing democracy and freedom, but life under the U.S. … and the new government is worse in a lot of ways. … The educated middle class has left,” she said. “I hope to get students thinking about the war, and get more students active in the community and on campus, before we move on to Iran.”