Ron: First, what is the March 20th Day of Action? How did the idea originate?

Kati:We hope that this day of action will be a catalyst for students to rise up and get organized against the war in Iraq. Four years is four years too many, and it’s time that students in this country get organized against this war. In Asheville, we hope that our actions will draw in more people who want to get more involved in organizing against the war. We also hope that our actions contribute to building a grassroots student anti-war movement. Nationally, we hope that this will help build ties with other campuses and connect different movements together in order to work towards ending this war.


Ron:I notice that the majority of the campuses that have signed on for the March 20th action are from the southern part of the United States. Why do you think this is? In my mind it's somewhat significant in that it goes against the idea so many US residents have about the south—you know, reactionary and pro-war.

Kati:I think it is very significant that a lot of schools from the south are organizing against the war. It goes against the stigma that the south is normally faced with – that all anti-war organizing happens in the north and that the southern US is largely ignorant of and not involved in any progressive movements. There is some exciting organizing going on in the south – for example, UNC SDS took part in organizing a demonstration against John Ashcroft, who came to speak at their campus. Members of both Alabama and Asheville SDS groups also have participated in a lot of events (MLK day marches, a 4th of July march in New Orleans) concerning race and national oppression, since that is something that is especially relevant to us in the south.

It’s amazing to see that, for March 20th, the schools signing on to the call are from all over the United States – from North Carolina and Alabama in the south to Los Angeles and Santa Barbara in the West to New York City and Boston in the northeast to Minneapolis, Chicago, and Ohio in the Midwest, to name a few.


Ron:What is your impression of the new SDS? Is it growing in numbers and influence?

Kati:I think that we as students finally have an opportunity to build an independent student anti-war movement through SDS. I talk with students on a regular basis that are either considering or have just affiliated with SDS, and the number of SDS chapters grows weekly. SDS groups are having regional conferences and connecting with each other through forum, conferences and actions. Now, we are connecting with one another as SDS through this national day of action. There is a felt need in the student movement for a national student anti-war organization, and SDS is it.

Ron: What are your hopes for its future?

Kati: My hope for the future of SDS is that we continue to grow both in influence and in numbers across the nation, and that we are able to get organized on a national level in order to have even more nationally coordinated actions against the war in Iraq. There is a new wave of student activism in this country, and I hope to see SDS play a leading role in this movement. The student movement against the war in Vietnam took awhile to take off, but once it did it took off in a big way. We hope to see the same develop with SDS against this war in Iraq.

Ron: What are some of the other campaigns SDS is involved in--nationally and locally?

Kati: The main campaign that SDS is involved with is working against the war in Iraq, but SDS is a multi-issue progressive organization. In Asheville, we had a week of action around Palestine, where we built a 45-foot long, 8-foot tall mock apartheid wall on our campus and hosted teach-ins and showed a documentary about the situation in Palestine. There have been student strikes and marches for immigrants’ rights in conjunction with the May 1st demonstrations. UCLA SDS worked with UCLA's Moviemento Estudantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA) to organize a demonstration against a speaker from the Minutemen that ended up canceling his speech at the university as a result of the protest. University of Central Florida SDS recently issued a statement calling for release of former Black Panther political prisoners. SDS is a vehicle for taking actions around any and all progressive issues.

Ron: Back to the war. What do you personally think it's going to take to end this war?

Kati: The Iraqi resistance are the ones fighting against this war every day, and – similar to what we saw with the national liberation front in Vietnam – they are the ones who have the power to end it. The United States and their allies are losing the war in Iraq, and it is only a matter of time before they are forced to withdraw their troops. Here in the United States, we need to work on getting Bush and the Republicans out of the White House – for example, there is going to be a large demonstration at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis in 2008. We in the anti-war movement also need to put pressure on the Democrats to actually adopt concrete measures against the war and to stop funding the war.

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