The New Student Movement Against the Bush Regime
Resistance in the Face of Suppression
Revolution #026, December 12, 2005, posted at revcom.us
The past six weeks have witnessed something new and quite inspiring: the emergence of a student movement against the Bush regime that has shown determination to resist and to reach out in the face of serious repression and is now focused on actions at Bush's State of the Union speech. Coverage of these struggles in this issue of Revolution details both the breadth of the repression visited against this movement and the initial response. The actions in response to Hampton University’s suppression of the November 2 protest on its campus and the attempt to then expel seven student participants is the most notable case in point--both for the hard edge of repression but, even more so, for the ways that students are fighting this. Every student movement that has changed history has faced repression and, at the decisive moment, stood firm and grown through resisting it. This one must do the same.
It wasn’t--and it isn’t--confined to Hampton. The repression has gone beyond what we can cover in this issue. The challenge is clear. We cannot accept the authorities' attempts to suppress and ban students' protest and their demands that Bush must go and take his agenda with him! High school youth and students have the right to speak the truth and fight for their future and the future of humanity. The students who have stood firm against the threats and repression of the school officials and the police are an example for others. And they must be defended. Are we going to wait until we get to the situation depicted in the movie White Rose --where students under Hitler got executed for passing out protest leaflets?
The high schools and campuses are an important battleground in building for mass actions to DROWN OUT BUSH'S State of the Union Message. And the struggle to defend the students who stepped out on Nov. 2 is an important part of getting on the road of taking independent historical action, making further leaps in building a whole movement to Drive Out the Bush Regime and creating a whole new dynamic in society where the people against this regime, by the power of their numbers and determination, compel every other force in soceity to respond to them.
Revolution will continue to spotlight and focus on it. Send us reports on the battle, and watch these pages for news on this fight.