'Books Not Bombs' group holds anniversary protest of Bush Administration

BY BARBARA PALMER

On March 4, nearly a year to the day after hundreds of students participated in a daylong "Books Not Bombs" strike to demonstrate against impending military action against Iraq, a much smaller group of students held an anti-war rally and marched to Hoover Tower to protest ties between the Hoover Institution and the Bush administration. When cued by the wail of an air-raid siren, about 100 people dropped briefly to the ground in a "die-in," to symbolize lives lost in Iraq.

Students on Thursday held a rally at White Plaza and marched to Hoover Tower where approximately 100 students dropped briefly to the ground in a "die-in," to protest ties between Hoover Institution fellows and the Bush Administration. Photo: L.A.Cicero

"We need to make the connection between Stanford and Iraq clear to ourselves, to our community and to the public," student Hai Binh Nguyen shouted through a megaphone to those gathered in front of Hoover Tower. "Hoover fellows play formal and informal roles in advising the Bush administration," she said. "We've got to see that we can fight from here and we will fight from here. The effects of what happens in this building are broad. If we don't [fight], we're complicit."

Prof. Sylvia Yanagasako participated in the anti-war teach-in held on March 3, 2004 in the Main Quad. Her talk was titled "The Culture of Fear & Bureaucratic Racism: Echoes from WWII." Photo: L.A. Cicero

"Books Not Bombs II" events began at noon in White Plaza with a rally supported by a broad coalition of student groups; messages on banners ranged from "Chop Bush, Not Trees" to "Sanskriti Supports Books Not Bombs," and entertainment was provided by members of the Mariachi Cardenal de Stanford.

Professor Emeritus Philip Zimbardo spoke out against the war at a noon rally and march in White Plaza on March 3, 2004. Photo: L.A. Cicero

Coming on the heels of last week's primary elections, the event featured speakers in White Plaza, including Philip Zimbardo, professor emeritus of psychology, who talked passionately about the importance of the upcoming November presidential election. President George W. Bush is using fear and lies to manipulate the American public, Zimbardo said. If Franklin Roosevelt were here today, "he'd say, 'We have nothing to fear but George Bush himself,'" Zimbardo said.

"The outrage and chaos in the world is out of control," said freshman Johanna Santos of Spain, who wore a white lab coat painted with peace messages to the march. Compared with their international counterparts, "nobody [in the United States] really cares. Nobody wants to know," she said. "They'd rather watch [news] stories about cats being rescued from trees by firefighters."

Following the demonstration, students sat in groups of a few dozen at five faculty-taught alternative classes in the Main Quad, where topics included gender and violence, "the war on youth of color," and human rights monitoring in Iraq.

Sylvia Yanagisako, professor of cultural and social anthropology, titled her lecture "The Culture of Fear and Bureaucratic Racism: Echoes from World War II." The deportation of thousands of young men from the United States since 9/11 is an "ethnically based roundup" comparable to abuses of power against Japanese living in the United States following Pearl Harbor, she said. "It's making America less free and is wasting scarce resources."

Her talk was anchored in a personal story: Yanagisako's Japanese grandfather had been arrested in Hawaii in 1941 and deported as a dangerous enemy following a brief hearing. Her grandfather was a grocer who sold fresh fruits and vegetables on the docks of the harbor, Yanagisako said. Included in the evidence presented by a government witness was the fact that her grandfather had gone out drinking with Japanese naval officers and had been seen bowing deeply to one.

Of 110,000 Japanese Americans interned in the United States, "not a single one was found to have aided the enemy," she said.