Fight Back! News

News and Views from the People's Struggle

Green Bay: Student pro-Palestine protesters cut Sen. Tammy Baldwin event short, make her leave

By Dane Snudden

University of Wisconsin-Green Bay SDS members chanting outside of Senator Tammy Baldwin event after getting kicked out. | Fight Back! News/staff

Green Bay, WI – On March 22, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) interrupted a College Democrats speaking event on campus that had U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin as a guest speaker. The event was promoted in secret on campus to prevent SDS from organizing and was supposed to teach students how to get people to vote for her. SDS found out and decided to mobilize.

The students started by entering the room with signs reading things such as “Liberal silence is violence” and “Bombing kids is not self-defense.”

After their entrance, SDS co-chair Jacob Aker-Law read a statement drafted by the students. “Tammy Baldwin calls for a ceasefire because it is politically convenient, while she still receives thousands of dollars from defense companies,” he said.

The statement drew a response from those in attendance at the Baldwin event, who then asked the protesters to leave. Once outside, the SDS members began chanting.

The students proceeded to chant for 20 minutes straight, as onlookers from throughout the University Union started recording and joining in the chants. The chanting even garnered the attention of three campus police officers, who tried to intimidate the students, to no avail. Ultimately Baldwin exited the room through the back door cutting her one hour event short by 30 minutes.

This is the second time Tammy Baldwin has come to Green Bay and has been met with protests. The first occurring in March at the Brown County Democrats gala in which members of SDS joined members of the Green Bay Anti-War Committee outside of the event. This protest against Baldwin marks the first indoor protest that SDS has engaged in since their inception this fall and has inspired many of the members to participate in further actions of this kind.

#GreenBayWI #WI #StudentMovement #SDS #AntiWarMovement #International #Palestine #GBAWC