Peace activists rally against war in Iraq

By Troy Simpson

Approximately 35 Santa Clara University students joined a demonstration Friday outside the San Jose Federal Building to protest the possibility of U.S. attacks on Iraq as a result of a Senate vote last Thursday.

No arrests were made, nor did the demonstration interfere with the daily operations of building employees according to a security guard.

"It is really important to me that something is done because people have to stand up and say loud and clear that this is not something that we agree with," said freshman Jenn Bevard. "This is supposed to be our government and right now it's not representative of the people at all."

More than 100 people attended the Friday evening demonstration from approximately 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. The protesters held signs and cheered to cars but did not enter the premises of the building.

"They do it every Friday, so it really doesn't affect anybody," said one building official. "They just come and go."

No official club or organization affiliated with Santa Clara organized the gathering of students who attended. However, many Santa Clara students at the demonstration were members of the unofficial on-campus group called the Peace Action Committee.

According to junior Blair Thedinger, a member of the Peace Action Committee and director of Santa Clara Community Action Program (SCCAP), other groups that attended the demonstration included people from the San Jose Peace Center, the Unitarian Church, the Green party and various community members.

"It was successful as far as getting our message to a larger audience," said Thedinger. "There are a lot of people all over the spectrum who are against this war."

Demonstrations are commonly held on Fridays at the San Jose Federal Building. In the wake of the 77 to 23 Senate vote on Thursday that allows President Bush the ability to attack Iraq in order to protect United States and to enforce United Nations Security Council resolutions, the turnout was much higher than normal.

Students and community members held signs, spoke on megaphones and chanted anti-war protests to passing traffic for the duration of the demonstration. Public response was generally favorable, but the protesters said they were faced with some opposition, as well.

"Some people that would see us would yell or shake their heads at us," said freshman Laura Galindo. "And there was a guy that came back a couple times who kept screaming stuff at us."

The San Jose protest came just hours after a much larger demonstration in San Francisco that reportedly resulted in 44 arrests.

After the Senate vote on Thursday, groups began to form around the San Francisco Federal Building in the evening, many of whom stayed the night to protest the following morning.

Protesting began at approximately 6 a.m. on Friday in San Francisco and continued until approximately 10 a.m., when many of the protesters went to the downtown office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to protest there.

Senior Evan Hughes, a member of the Peace Action Committee, said that many people from Santa Clara wanted to extend the energy present in San Francisco earlier that day to San Jose by attending a protest of a similar nature.

"We're trying to build an antiwar movement in the South Bay," said Hughes. "All across the country people have been protesting a lot of disappointment with the fact that our elected officials have given such broad power to the president to attack Iraq."