Today at 11:15 a.m., students at UCLA and high schools
throughout the L.A. area have planned to walk out of classes in
opposition to the possible war against Iraq and increases in
student fees. And although the walkout is unlikely to alter
President Bush’s aggressive war stance or force the UC Board
of Regents to reverse fee increases, the organizers and
participants should be praised for their efforts to help students
express their opinions.
Our generation of teenagers and 20-somethings has lived in one
of the most peaceful and prosperous eras in U.S. history. This
stands in stark contrast with the 1960s, for example, which offered
ample reasons for people to protest at massive scales: they had
family members dying in the Vietnam War, plus the heat of the civil
rights movement. Our generation is new to the ways of social
change, so it is truly inspiring to see students up in arms when in
disagreement with leaders, even before the war with Iraq has
begun.
The walkout may not visibly affect the decision-making
politicians, but it has the power to raise awareness and induce
mobilization on campus. By uniting in an anti-establishment
gesture, the participants in the walkout are pushing their fellow
students to make a decision about the war and prompt a more
widespread public dialogue. Every student who has a class at 11:15
a.m. will have to think about their position on the war.
Today’s walkout is also in protest of student fee
increases taking place this year and very likely, next year as
well. It may seem counterintuitive to protest policies which make
receiving an education more difficult by walking out of classes
where education is administered. However, the walkout holds
importance as a symbolic gesture of dissatisfaction against the UC,
not individual classes and professors. The connection between war
and student fees is subtle, but it is there nonetheless: fee
increases happen because budgets get cut. Budgets get cut because
the U.S. government has provided little relief to states with major
deficits ““ the same government preparing to fund a major
war.
Students have little say in student fee increases and basically
no say in the pending war decision. It is critical that they band
together today and increase their influence by the tool they do
have: strength in numbers.