Open Letter

Dear SDS members and supporters,

As many of you have heard, three SDS members (Jeremy Miller of UNC-Asheville, and Christine Jackson and Alyse Deller of Tuscaloosa) and Jason Hurd, president of the Asheville chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) were arrested last March after a mock-raid at the University of Alabama.

Hurd was invited down by our chapter to speak about his experiences in occupied Iraq. To advertise for the talk that was scheduled for that evening, our chapter did guerrilla theater in the Student Center, which was meant to dramatize the effects of the U.S. Occupation on the Iraqi people.  The “soldiers” wore Hurd’s which are old military-issued clothes, the “Iraqi civilians” wore kaffiyehs*.  The demonstration was a success, and we left the building as onlookers clapped.

A few minutes later, four of the protesters were surrounded by campus police, and, after being questioned, were taken into an isolated room on campus and interrogated. After four hours with no outside contact, the four were charged with disorderly conduct and hauled away to jail in handcuffs, their bail set to a total of $2,500.

Since then, we have received an outpouring of support both from our community and from across the country. The American Civil Liberties Union and National Lawyers Guild have taken up the case pro bono, and are helping us fight to defend free speech on campus. We especially want to thank SDS chapters who sent solidarity statements, contacted the Dean of Student Affairs, signed the petition, contacted us afterwards offering assistance, or who drove to Tuscaloosa to attend the trial on May 2nd.  We also want to thank Mark Rudd, Jay Jurie and the Foundation for a Democratic Society, and Warren Conatser-Echevarria for donating money to help with court and travel expenses. Throughout this campaign to get the charges dropped, we have become increasingly aware of how important it is to have a network of support from chapters across the country.

We will not stand for harassment and repression of activists, nor the criminalization of dissent and protest.  Antiwar protesters are not criminals nor as they terrorists (as the campus police here insinuated during interrogation).  We condemn not just repressive policies on our campus, but the actions of law enforcement everywhere that seek to silence those who speak out against the U.S. Government and corporate elite.  We want our Universities to serve the students, not business and military interests; we want them to support free speech,and not relegate dissent to so-called “free-speech zones.”

On May 2nd, the case went to trial and we’re excited to announce that the judge acquitted the four after  finding the prosecution lacked sufficient evidence to convict!

Alyse and Christine still face punishment from the University of Alabama and may be met with fines or explusion. They will be appearing with lawyers before Student Judicial Affairs to plead their cases as well as represent the University of Alabama chapter of SDS which is now “under investigation” and at risk of being removed from campus as a registered student organization. Jason and Jeremy have been banned from the UA campus and will probably seek to repeal the violation.

The support of SDS chapters across the country has been key in making
this fight for our civil liberties a success. We want to thank those who helped for all the solidarity and statements on our behalf as we struggle to keep free speech protected and political speech alive on our campus and in our communities.

Drop charges, not bombs!

Alyse Deller and Chapin Gray
SDS Tuscaloosa

* “The characteristic masculine Arab headdress…a square of cotton, linen, wool, or silk, either plain or patterned, that is folded into a triangle and placed upon the head.” (Britannica Online)