Tampa, FL – Starting on August 18, members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) will kick off a major, week-long effort to build for the August 27 protest at the Republican National Convention, by visiting college campuses in the Southern region of the U.S.

SDS organizers from across the country will be traveling in waves through colleges from Louisiana to Georgia, just as schools come back into session. There they plan to meet with other student organizers and hold demonstrations and meetings to support the national student movement for education rights, to protest the 1% agenda of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions and invite those interested in building SDS chapters to attend the upcoming SDS National Convention.

SDS's Southern Tour is running from August 18 to August 22. Students from as far west as Utah will be visiting colleges in Louisiana and Mississippi. More SDS activists from states such as Wisconsin and Florida will be going through Georgia and Alabama, visiting a dozen schools along their route including, Georgia State, University of Georgia, Emory, Auburn, and the University of Alabama.

Conor Munro, an SDS activist in Gainesville, Florida explains the importance of why students in the South should protest the RNC, “Policies championed by Republican legislators in the South have really hit oppressed nationality and working students hard. The RNC being in Tampa gives the student movement the opportunity to fight back, starting with the March on the RNC August 27.”

SDS has been steadily building for what has turned into being a summer full of major national mobilizations, beginning with the NATO protests in Chicago. There, SDS led hundreds of students in a contingent raising the banner against wars and occupations and demanding more money for schools. Since then, SDSers have been steadily working to ensure a large student presence at both political parties’ conventions, with chapters in Florida leading the work at the RNC and chapters throughout North Carolina making plans for demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.

SDS is asking that people sign the pledge to protest the RNC and DNC by going to www.NewSDS.org – this will provide updates about the student contingent as they develop.

SDS has also announced its intention to host their 7th-annual National Convention in Gainesville, Florida at the end of October. SDS encourages any and all students and youth to register for their National Convention by going to their website.

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