purcel@evergreen.edu
b.) Spread the word! Email people, post it on your website or write an editorial...
c.) Donate money either to SDS for events after its budget was frozen (contact olympiasds@riseup.net) or to our legal defense fund for those arrested post-uprising (www.evergreenlegaldefense.org or evergreenlegaldefense@gmail.com). The defense fund site also describes other ways to get involved in our legal defense campaign (e.g. calling the prosecutor).
d.) People in the Olympia area can come to the rally on the day of our second appeal. We don't yet know the date, but if you want to come or are interested in other organizing efforts or support, please contact us at olympiasds@riseup.net .
Do you anticipate that the college administration will back down and reinstate SDS as a campus club or do you think that the struggle to get reinstated has just begun?
Filemon: Whether or not the administration backs down from this ridiculous suspension, support for SDS has grown tremendously as a result. We appealed the suspension and we continue to meet regularly and organize events, only now without any school funding.
Courtney: We don't know what will happen! We have spoken to many people who have been involved with Student Activities over the years, and none of them remembers any precedent of student organizations being suspended. There is no way to tell the future, but it will be most beneficial to everyone involved if the administration acts in favor of free speech.
Readers know that Olympia is on the forefront of direct actions against the US occupations and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including several attempts to prevent military shipments at the port there and Tacoma. Is there anything else SDS and other groups in Olympia are working on to continue their opposition?
Courtney: There are many, many activist groups in Olympia and surrounding towns. Olympia SDS, Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace, and other groups are fighting to turn Olympia into a sanctuary city for G.I. resisters and undocumented workers; we also anticipate more port actions. There is also a developing campaign against ICE (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) and their "holding centers" (read: prison camps). In addition, we are continuing our campaign in support of those arrested both at the Dead Prez concert and during the aftermath. There are also SDS subcommittees working on issues as diverse as setting up a free health clinic, abolishing the prison-industrial complex, and ending sexism in the Left. This work is vital, and our group's suspension has slowed much of it down. The fantastic work done by other student and community groups is threatened by both their generous, resource-consuming support of our subsequent work and the administration's attack on political speech. The sooner we win this fight, the more effectively we can all work on other broad issues of social justice.
Anything else you all want to add?
Filemon: I want to call on all people to build solidarity with the Immigrant Rights movement, a struggle for dignity and human rights. As people are unjustly detained and deported everyday, private concentration facilities are being constructed to contain innocent people who are only trying to support their families. 30 miles north of Olympia in Tacoma, WA, is the GEO Group owned Northwest Detention Center, the regional Immigration prison where people are denied legal counsel and have been subjected to food poisoning multiple times.
Everyday children are being separated from their parents by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and are denied decent healthcare and access to financial aid for education. People in Olympia are currently working on a Sanctuary city proposal that would prohibit Olympia City officials from cooperating in any manner with both Immigration agents who seek to detain undocumented immigrants and Military police who seek to capture GI War Resisters. This will hopefully bring two issues together that have a huge impact in communities across the country.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
