Protesting the recruiters at SFSU
By
SAN FRANCISCO--Students protested the presence of the Marines, Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Border Patrol--all of whom had booths inside San Francisco State University's (SFSU) career fair on September 25.
About 50 people took part in the march, chanting, "Brothers and sisters, have no fear. Immigrants are welcome here" and "What are they recruiting for? Murder, rape, torture, war!" Several organizations participated in the protest, including the SFSU chapter of the Campus Antiwar Network, Radical Students, Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), Courage to Resist, the International Socialist Organization, MEChA and La Raza.
When they arrived at the career fair, many of the marchers wanted to sit in at the various recruitment booths, but the police were able to stop students from entering the fair at all. Instead, protesters staged a die-in outside.
As students lay on the ground blocking the sidewalks, IVAW member Eddie Falcon shouted out, "These people represent the millions that have died in Iraq and Afghanistan because U.S. bombs have exploded on their homes. These people represent the thousands of U.S. soldiers who have died for these illegal wars. These people represent the suicide epidemic of soldiers who have returned from these wars with PTSD."
As the career fair continued, activists held a lively rally outside. Some student were eventually able to get inside to grill the Marine recruiters, asking them if they knew that SFSU had an anti-discriminatory policy--and that the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy openly discriminates against gay people.
SFSU has a rich history of counter-recruitment protests, but due to the recent decline of the antiwar movement, activists haven't been able to build sizable actions for the past couple of years. Friday's demonstration is a welcome development for the antiwar movement on our campus, and the immigrant's rights movement as well.
If we hope to kick these racist institutions off our campus, activists will have to continue to build the antiwar and immigrants rights coalitions.
