very interested in organizing a student walkout/protest

[toymachines]

I woke up this morning to hear our dear leader spewing his usual bullshit across our airwaves, and I had a sudden surge of energy to get a student walkout/protest going on my college campus, and possibly others around the city. I am tired of my generation being so apathetic. I know this will take a major amount of work and organizational skill. I am asking you guys to help me out however you can. I attend Grossmont college in the San Diego, CA area. Any general suggestions, or any specific help or contacts in the San Diego area would be extremely helpful. I have been mulling this walkout/protest for a while, and it is far past time for it. I need somewhere to really start, the right strings to pull to get this thing off the ground. Thanks for any help you can give me.

Peace
-Steven

[FloridaPat]

1. You have to get people to care first. Is there somewhere you can

put a booth and hand out literature? Have speakers come to campus to talk about how bad things are. Talk about all the jobs that are going and their future with it. Have a booth next to the ROTC people.

[welshTerrier2]

2. lots of ideas ...

i've never been the primary organizer of large protests but here are some ideas that might help:

1. try to identify and enlist about 10 people to help you do the planning
2. contact local peace groups for example the Quakers or Vets for Peace
3. start with a series of editorials in your school newspaper and also in the public press - the editorials should focus not just on the issues you care about but also on the exact point you raised - one should be entitled: Is my generation apathetic or not? challenge your peers to get involved ...
4. coordinate the editorials with a petition drive to call for a "Day of Awareness and Education" (or something like that) to explore the damage being done to the country and to your generation's future
5. try to meet with your school's administration ... it is very important to maintain a respectful tone however hostile they may be ... tell them that your goal is not to "disrupt" but rather, as part of the "process of education", to raise awareness on issues you consider to be critically important ... the goal is to obtain as much support from them as they're willing to provide ... this could include access to your school's newspaper and website (and radio station), use of campus buildings for meetings, authorizing supportive faculty to speak at your gatherings, permitting off campus "experts" to visit the campus, etc ...
6. the demonstration itself requires very careful planning ... a great sound system is a must ... it stinks when you can't hear the speeches ... speaking of which, pun intended, you should try to arrange for a few speakers ... the peace groups might be able to help ... write to Cindy Sheehan; maybe she would attend ... big names attract bigger crowds ... and if you could get a band or two for the "pop culture" crowd, that wouldn't hurt either ... the better the event, the bigger the turnout ... do your homework ...
7. finally, if you're planning a march off the campus, you'll probably need some kind of permit from the city or the police department ... don't ignore this step and make sure you allow sufficient lead time ...

i'm no expert on this stuff but that's where i would start ... i think you have to develop a "coordinated plan" over a period of time ... i suppose you could try a more direct approach like "we will boycott classes and hold a demonstation on April 13 at 11:00 am on the main campus" but without the background work, i'm afraid your turnout would be disappointing ... the petitions make a one-to-one contact and ask people to make a commitment to attend the demonstration ... i like the "retail" feel of that as an organizing tool ...

hope this helps ... good luck ... it's always inspirational to see people of your generation as awake as you appear to be ... let us know how it goes ...

[toymachines]

3. I am hooked into some very useful tools

I am a head writer on the paper, and a dj on the radio station... so a soundsystem and editorials are already go. I am working on setting up a booth for flyers and shit, I already plaster the school with posters and flyers. And I called in to the local air america dj this morning and asked if he would come speak, so I have a good chance of pullin this off. thanks for the suggestions,I will let you know how things come along.

peace