>Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2003 03:08:58 -0700 (PDT)
>From: Adam Turl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Fw: URGENT APPEAL FROM THE BERKELEY STOP THE WAR COALITION
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>***** please forward widely *****
>
>Dear friends:
>
>The University of California has found three students
>- Rachel Odes, Snehal Shingavi, and Michael Smith -
>guilty of participating in an illegal assembly and
>refusing to cooperate with university officials for
>their involvement in the anti-war sit-in that took
>place in Sproul Hall on March 20, 2003. Not only does
>this mark an attack on anti-war protesters and people
>of conscience throughout the country, the entire
>process from start to finish has been riddled with
>unfairness and makes a mockery of anything resembling
>justice.
>
>The problems with the sham of a hearing are almost too
>many to list: the university refused to have an open
>trial (until we showed up with forty protesters); the
>university refused to give students ample time to
>prepare a defense; one of the three students wasn't
>even served with a letter telling her to appear at the
>hearing; the students were unable to gather witnesses
>in time for the hearing (some of them are out of the
>country and a few have graduated); the university did
>not make all of their evidence available to our
>advocate; the university has singled out three
>protesters from over 400 who participated in the
>sit-in and the 119 who were arrested that day for
>selective prosecution; the university selected an all
>male hearing panel to adjudicate the hearing; and the
>students' request for a continuance was ignored.
>
>Instead of being a party to this kangaroo court,
>students walked out of the hearings in protest and
>demanded that the university at least consider giving
>them more time to prepare. The university refused.
>
>Other than the blatant disregard for procedure, there
>are two things that make this decision by UC Berkeley
>outrageous.
>
>First, that UC Berkeley is the only university in the
>nation (to our knowledge) that is prosecuting students
>for protesting the war the day after the bombing
>began, despite the fact that protests happened on
>scores of campuses throughout the US..
>
>Second, that student protesters were right about every
>aspect of the war. There are no weapons of mass
>destruction. There is no proven threat of attack from
>Iraq. Civilian and military casualties continue to
>mount and the US continues to spend exorbitant sums to
>maintain a military presence in Iraq - yet it fails to
>turn on the water or electricity. The attacks on
>civil liberties continue to mount. Fees for students
>at UC Berkeley and dozens of campuses continue to
>rise.
>
>We will be sentenced in two weeks, on October 28th,
>2003. We intend to protest this decision on that date
>and will send out information about this as soon as we
>can.
>
>In the meantime, please take a few moments and write
>to the Chancellor and the Student Judicial Affairs
>Office (addresses and phone information below) and
>tell them that you believe that this decision is
>unwarranted and unjust. Especially at Berkeley, where
>there are memorials to Free Speech movement of the
>1960s all over campus (the Mario Savio steps and the
>Free Speech Movement Café), these kinds of attacks on
>free speech and civil disobedience are not only an
>attempt to roll-back the activist gains won on this
>campus, but also in defiance of the university's
>mission to promote free speech and debate.
>
>We have included some talking points below that you
>may want to include in your conversation or
>correspondence with the administration at UC
>Berkeley. Please do email us at
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] with any correspondence
>that you send so that we can keep a record of the
>letters that the administration receives.
>
>Also, please sign our online petition at
>http://www.petitiononline.com/stopwars/petition.html
>
>We need your help. Please lend your support to
>anti-war student activists and activists who are
>fighting for social justice by letting the
>administration know that their actions are not
>supported by members of the community, students,
>alumni, faculty, and staff.
>
>Sincerely,
>Berkeley Stop the War Coalition
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>Please contact:
>
>Chancellor Robert Berdahl
>
>EMAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>MAIL: 200 California Hall #1500
>Berkeley, CA 94720-1500
>TEL: (510) 642-7464
>FAX: (510) 643-5499
>
>Assistant Chancellor John Cummins
>EMAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>MAIL: Office of the Chancellor
>200 California Hall
>Berkeley, CA 94720-1500
>TEL: (510) 642-7516
>FAX: (510) 643-5499
>
>Student Judicial Affairs Officer Neal Rajmaira
>EMAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>326 Sproul Hall
>Berkeley, CA 94720
>TEL:(510) 643-9069
>FAX:(510) 643-3133
>
>TALKING POINTS
>1) Students should not face charges or disciplinary
>actions for participating in non-violent civil
>disobedience.
>2) Activists should be allowed, freely, to speak and
>protest on campus without harassment from the
>University or its officers.
>3) Any attempt to charge protesters for peaceful
>protest represents an attack on free speech.
>4) The war and occupation of Iraq were wrong and
>protesters were right to protest.
>5) Student activists fought for the right to organize
>on this campus in the 1960s and should be allowed to
>continue to organize.
>6) The University of California, Berkeley should
>declare its opposition to the war and occupation by
>naming Baghdad University a sister school.
