Students march for peace in D.C.

Anita Varma Senior Editor

300,000 people assembled on the streets of Washington D.C. for a joint march and rally for peace sponsored by anti-war coalitions United for Peace and Justice, and Act Now to Stop War and Racism (A.N.S.W.E.R.) on Saturday, Sept. 24. Thirteen Vassar students attended the protest as a group, and some individuals went using their own transportation.

The march started at the Ellipse, and protestors marched across the streets with signs. “Some of us picked up signs along the way that were distributed by the march planners,” said Robinson Yost ’08 in an e-mailed statement. “I believe they said ‘End imperialist aggression in Iraq and Palestine.’”

Vassar’s Democracy Now chapter and the Women’s Studies department worked to coordinate the trip to D.C.

Women’s Studies intern Hayden Nelson-Major ’06 worked on getting a bus to the protest, but plans changed because of financing problems.

“Unfortunately, several days before payment was due, the bus company contacted us saying that the price of the bus would be substantially higher,” said Nelson-Major. “We could not raise enough money in so short of a period of time [so] instead we organized carpools.”
Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and Ralph Nader were three speakers at the start of the event at the Ellipse. They spoke about issues of foreign policy, and the Bush administration’s lack of interest in listening to people against the war in Iraq.

“They were saying that we know we aren’t going to be heard,” said Tyler Robinson ’08. “The media reflected that. There was no reflection of how big an event it was. Its important that we were all out there and that we share the same grievances against the Bush administration.”

Robinson added that several speakers made parallels between the war in Iraq and the Vietnam War.
“Both were imperialist wars with no real purpose,” said Robinson.
350 anti-protesters took to the streets as well, but Robinson said that they were overshadowed by the thousands of protestors.
Yost said that his motivation to make the trip to D.C. for the demonstration had to do with

contributing to a record of resistance to Bush’s foreign policy.
“Regardless of whether this protest changes anything (doubtful), it is now a part of the historical record,” said Yost.

Although turnout at the event was huge, Nelson-Major echoed Yost’s sentiment that mass protests like this one would not change foreign policy.

“I don’t think that popular demonstrations in our current political climate at all influence the policy or operation of the bush administration,” said Nelson-Major. “[But] it is important for people around the world to know that there are folks in the United States who oppose the war in Iraq, and more generally the government's foreign policy.”