A R C H I V E S
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| AntiWar Protesters Disrupt Live Broadcast of MSNBC |
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| yunus |
| 11/25/02 at 19:02:12 |
| On November 20, eight student activists and one local activist participated in an action to disrupt the Hardball television show with Chris Mathews. Hardball was being aired live from Page Hall on the Downtown campus of the University at Albany, The special guest that night was Senator Hillary Clinton, whose recent vote to give George Bush unlimited power to wage war has angered many area activists. As Chris Mathews pointed out in the interview, Clinton has no power to stop the president. The action was supported by a rally outside the show (of course not shown in the broadcast). The rally outside involved roughly fifty+ people, carrying signs, chanting "No War, Yes Peace", banging drums. The event itself drew about 250 to 300. 15 protestors also greeted Sen. Clinton as she hurried through the back door to the event. The State University Police, Secret Service and Albany Peace all did their best to force the protestors to move across the street, claiming that they had confiscated the public sidewalk for security purposes. They repeatedly threatened the protestors with arrest if they didn't move; one officer even grabbed signs out of people's hands and tore them up. Eventually the protestors negotiated a spot about 20 yards from the entrance. The police then erected barricades in front of the protestors. Clinton raced in about 10 minutes later, her head hung low. She has been having a hard time recently with her public appearances in NY following her vote in support of Bush's war with Iraq. Inside, During the Live televised broadcast Protesters disrupted the event and showed their disdain for the impeding war with Iraq.The actions centered around the recent campaign to stop the impending war on Iraq (and Senator Clintons approval for the mass genocide occuring in Iraq), but individual activists represented other issues. One activist was invited onstage where she asked Senator Clinton about her false promises to oversee the situation in the Oneida Nation (Native Americans homes are being demolished) (For more information on that issue check out www.oneidasfordemocracy.org). All protestors were escorted out, with one activist being carried out by security. The protestors were then forced to give their names and social security numbers under the consideration of future action by the University. One student clearly not involved with the planning or participating in the action was stopped and detained by the police. She was also forced to give her name and social security number. At this time it is uncertain if other students were also detained for questioning. If anyone would like a copy of Hardball, contact the following groups: Ironweed Collective 518 436-0929 Campus Greens Campus Action According to the website, the next dates for Hardball are as follows: 11/27 @ the Air Force Academy 12/4 @ University of Chicago Graduate School of Business If you are interested in finding out if Hardball is coming to a campus near you, check out the following website. www.msnbc.com/modules/tvnews/Hardball_CollegeTour/ Chris Mathews claimed that the Campus Tour has a total of 30 campuses, Albany being the ninth. On the website, only the above two are mentioned. Peace and Solidarity, Yunus Fiske |
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