Students Participate in Boston Peace Rally

About 20 Harvard students protested the U.S. bombings in Afghanistan as well as U.S. Congressional bills they say will curtail civil liberties at a rally in Boston yesterday afternoon.

The demonstration, which began with speeches at Copley Square and culminated in a march through light drizzle to Blackstone Park, was organized by the New England-based United for Justice with Peace (UJP), a coalition that includes Boston area anti-discrimination and anti-war groups.

Most Harvard students in attendance were members of the Harvard Initiative for Peace and Justice (HIPJ), a group founded after Sept. 11 that organized a peace rally at Harvard on Sept. 20, prior to the U.S. bombings.

Speakers at yesterday’s rally, including Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner and representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Commit-tee, argued that the American response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was threatening the civil liberties of students, foreigners and U.S. citizens.

“We should not be frightened into giving up our hard-won constitutional rights,” Nancy Murray, director of the Bill of Rights Education Project for the Mass. chapter of the ACLU, told the crowd.

She referred to bills recently passed by the U.S. House and Senate that would extend the federal government’s ability to conduct wiretaps and other surveillance activities and would allow information to be shared among intelligence agencies.

Much of the demonstration, however, focused on the war in Afghanistan rather than perceived constitutional violations at home. Protesters waved signs, with slogans like, “Bush: Don’t kill in our names,” and chanted “no more war” as they marched to Blackstone Park.

“We want to let elected officials know that a sizable number of Americans do not support bombing a population on the brink of human catastrophe,” said Jennifer Horan, an UJP spokesperson. “Right now, there’s a lot of fear and [politicians] are not willing to step out. To have this good turnout on a week’s notice on a dismal day gives notice.”

Horan estimated that 3,000 people were in attendance, although Boston Police Capt. William Evans put the number at 500 an hour earlier. A few counter-demonstrators also attended the protest.

“I don’t know if this [anti-war] message is going to get anywhere in this type of conflict,” said Mass. Bay Community College first-year Eric Haynes. “It’s not Vietnam—we’ve been attacked.”

The UJP representatives said they supported working through diplomacy to bring the terrorists to justice in either international or American courts.

While peace rally attendee Erik A. Beach ’02 said he supported efforts to punish the terrorists, he characterized the strikes in Afghanistan as a “vengeful action” that targeted the wrong people.

“It doesn’t seem like they have plans to capture the terrorists,” said Beach, who joined HIPJ after the bombings began.

HIPJ member Mary M. Jirmanus ’05, who was handing out fliers to protesters, said she hoped that the rally would show the government and the community that some Americans do not support the war.

“I wonder why there aren’t more Arab Americans out there [protesting], and it’s because they’re scared,” said Jirmanus, a Lebanese Christian. “I think there’s something wrong with that.”

Jirmanus helps represent HIPJ at meetings of the Campus Anti-War Coalition, a Boston-area student group that helped organize the rally.

Coalition member Joshua Feldman, a junior at Emerson College, spoke about student response to what he called a “cycle of violence.” Although the coalition has taken no official stance on how students should react to the possibility of a draft, Feldman said he would refuse to fight.

“Personally, I don’t believe war will ever be justified,” he said.

The coalition only includes Boston-area colleges—a contingent of about 20 students from Brown University attended.

Bess McKinney, a senior at Brown, said violence against Afghans was “creating hundreds more terrorists” as a backlash.

“If we went in covertly, it wouldn’t require the deaths of innocent civilians,” she said.