Creative Rebellion: Cornell Resists Ashcroft

Over 150 wear hoods, walk out during former AG's speech

The architects of the War on Terror are war criminals who should be resisted and rejected at every opportunity. Dozens of organizers in Ithaca, New York decided to put this belief into action when we heard that former Attorney General John Ashcroft was coming to speak at Cornell University on November 29.

The result? At Cornell University on Thursday, over 150 people expressed their resistance to the policies of John Ashcroft and the War on Terror through creative, silent protest. Over 70 placed hoods on their heads, stood and turned their backs to Ashcroft when he tried to justify his repressive actions post-9/11.

After 15 minutes of standing silently, representing the detainees who were arrested and imprisoned without due process under Ashcroft's leadership, all of the hooded figures and many others left the room.

Thus far, the event has received some favorable press in local newspapers and in AP story picked up in New York and Vermont. The Ithaca Journal ran a front-page spread with great pictures, while Newsday in Long Island ran a brief article. The coordinated action was a result of several meetings among student leaders and community activists. Our goal was to present a powerful, critical response to Ashcroft's PATRIOT ACT and other oppressive policies. We wanted to engage as may people as possible in creative rebellion. We looked at examples of prior demonstrations including the Columbia protest of the Minute Men, as well as protests of Alberto Gonzalez and other Bush Administration officials. We discussed the most likely attack on our work: i.e., that we would "suppress free speech" by protesting.

Ultimately, a coalition of labor organizers, liberals, hippies and radicals managed to reach consensus on this direct action. We stretched the limits of our "campus code" regarding dissent and presented an example of what unified action can achieve. All of us are excited about the result: We owned the room for 20 minutes. After we stood up, Ashcroft stammered and said he did not know what to do. Only after the campus Republicans shouted, "Keep going!" did the former AG attempt to regain his flow. We stood silently, disciplined and determined, forcing the crowd to consider the victims of Ashcroft's oppression. (See rough cut of the action here.)

We hope to inspire similar resistance wherever these architects of oppression go. Please spread the word - resistance lives!

Comments

[FeelinGroovy]

Thank you Cornell students. This is great. Keep up the good work students across the country.

[jhm5th]

Glad to see that some of this college-age generation are awake! The past two times I've been to demos in DC it seemed like it was mostly the same boomers I saw there 35-40 years ago, just a little plumper and grayer. If LBJ or Nixon had tried to pull half the crap this crowd of thieves and liars has, there would've been blood in the streets. Oh, that's right--there WAS blood in the streets, e.g. Chicago, Kent State, etc.
Maybe if there were a draft, they would be paying a little more attention. Unless you have a friend or family member in the fight, it seems most have no trouble ignoring it, and the media has no trouble aiding and abetting them in this . . . .

[Sneaky]

I approve, and extend my thanks to Cornell students for their patriotism.

The students shown where they stand. Now it's the politician's turn to respond.

[transendentilist]

Hippies???? Someone should tell the author of this piece that there haven't been Hippies around since 1968.
Hippies wanted nothing to do with the establishment. Not government, not politics, not protest...etc. The Hippies turned their backs on the establishment that was killing in their names, as Americans.
Yippies are the group that the article should refer to. Yippies were violent, Hippies were not.

[UkieOlie]

I'm proud of your actions. And proud that my daughter graduated from Cornell.

[mamacat]

This sort of non-violent resistance to business-as-usual can be very productive. You have demonstrated to Mr. Ashcroft that his behaviour relative to the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners is not acceptable to many Americans. I am sure that many Republicans would also agree with this view, even if the neo-cons do not.

[Qbear]

from RENT

" the opposite of war isn't peace
it's creation
la vie boheme"

[Qbear]

BRAVO!

The street performance orginals...YIPPIES and ACT UP would be proud of this generation.

[WatermarginCoop]

Thanks so much for posting this article Michael. This kind of critical response can happen anywhere, all that is necessary is a small group of thoughtful, committed people. As the second group to protest Ashcroft in just one week, we ask students nationwide to speak out and to stand in solidarity.

For video footage of the protest:
http://www.youtube.com/user/WatermarginCoop

Critical resistance grows in America.

[Querent]

Congratulations to you and the other groups who took part in this protest, Mr. Siegal. And thanks.

[ashabot]

Notice how Ashcroft keeps referring to "your government". What the hell? So he's not under the same government as we are? So he's "above" the law, lecturing to us "under" the law. Very revealing.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Right on!

Do Ezra proud!

[skwan91607]

Once again Bush's team showed to Americans they are able to manipulate American public by all types of tricks after they subverted the Constitution and broke down the mechanism of Checks and Balances. Unfortunately they failed badly to tell the world their phony stories.
If that is the Democracy Bush try to sell to the world. Then, Bush has to find a real stupid world for his mission to be accomplished.
Only 27% of the fools in Americans listen to him and his gos' words. It is hard to believe why the rest of the 70% need to follow him??? Is that meant Democracy is not working in Americans???

[BrighterStar]

I only hope they listened while they had their backs turned. Then they might be able to listen to intelligent thoughts instead of the ones going through thier heads.

[hmmmmmer]

Protests like these are the ones that will eventually stop these criminals from spouting their anti American crap and that is what it is, anti American. The scrapping of the constitution for fear is just craziness. We could all die tomorrow without living today because we are too worried about what might happen. 9/11 was a defining moment, but what we as a country allowed it to become was blindness, we gave away some of our freedoms. I am guessing the framers of the constitution, a bunch of liberal revolutionist, wouldn't approve of this administration, no matter what had happened.