« A reflection on Israeli Apartheid Week | Main | The cowardice of the Daily Cal and the Daily Clog »
Student Activists at UCSB Stop Biotech Military Research Conference
By yaman | February 14, 2008
At Berkeley, there would probably be more kids registered to attend the conference than protesting outside of it. From the IndyBay report:
Speakers for the march made it clear that students support scientific research but when research is done for military paymasters it makes campus scientists into war accomplices at a time when the U.S. is occupying foreign lands in internationally condemned wars of aggression.
For example, A UCSB researcher worked on technology for a new type of bomb which was dropped on an Afghan wedding, killing 40 Afghanis gathered to celebrate the love between two people and their families.
U.S. officials denied responsibility for the bombing until camera footage made it impossible to deny. To the researcher’s horror, his teammates working on the bomb expressed no remorse for the innocents killed by their invention. Instead, they celebrated the news because the bomb worked as they intended it to.
Protesters reminded ICB attendees that scientists have moral responsibility for the consequences of their actions and when they work for the military, the consequence is that people die, many of them innocent civilians.
These students succeeded in shutting down the conference, which will not continue into its second day.
This is the kind of protest that this country needs right now–not the silly parades that are going on every month or so in the cities (at best, they’re networking devices), or candle-light vigils, or other spectacles that fail to have any effect whatsoever on interfering with the process of ongoing war–especially interfering with those who think they have no responsibility to bear.
All serious protest actions should be geared towards stopping the flow of things. Everywhere they go, those who are party to the military-industrial complex in times of war or occupation or colonization should expect to be greeted by crowds of people who have had enough.
It’s time to abandon the serious frustration that has accompanied most folks who feel helpless about what has happened unimpeded for the past several years. This March will mark the 5-year anniversary of the American invasion of Iraq.
Let’s see if we can make it mark the beginning of the end, too.
Topics: Current Events |
February 14th, 2008 at 10:47 am
I sense an increasing radicalisation in your words and a growing frustration….join us Yaman..in the dark side.
February 14th, 2008 at 10:51 am
I’m not frustrated, I’m optimistic. As for method and tactic… nothing has changed, this is consistent with what I wrote 6 months ago.
February 15th, 2008 at 1:49 am
Yaman… thank you for this post which we need a lot
We need this sense of accomplishment, we need to see justice realized by our demands…
We have the believe but we lack the strong will and courage to speak up…
We’re numbed to death… we need to DO something and CHANGE every thing.