Santa Barbara, CA – Over 95 students from every corner of the U.S. gathered on the University of California-Santa Barbara campus over the Oct. 21 weekend to attend workshops and hear speeches from fellow SDSers and affiliates, and to forge plans for the next year. The convention was organized and hosted by the SDS affiliate Student Activist Network.

The convention took place over two days. The first day was comprised of workshops and plenaries held by SDSers and affiliates, as well as guest speakers from other groups such as Anakbayan, League of Filipino Students, Centro CSO, Black Lives Matter, and Freedom Road Socialist Organization. Topics ranged from imperialism and national oppression to the basics of SDS chapter organization.

The second day of the convention consisted primarily of the passing of resolutions, including an official platform, and adopting a structure outline for the national organization – all to be published in the near future. The second day included the planning of national actions and initiatives to draw various chapters closer together, create higher levels of organization, and engage nationally in important activity.

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UCSB students put out the call for the student strike against the war – “No school, no consumption, no business as usual.” Over 25 other high schools and universities held actions as well, walking out of classes, staging ‘die-ins’ and holding rallies to demand an end to the occupation.

“I didn't have much faith in this community in terms of breaking away from the apathy in order to bring, not only consciousness, but change; however, I was completely proven wrong,” said Nicole Borba, an student at UCSB who participated in the strike. “Over 1000 students at UCSB and 26 campuses across the nation took action to stop this war. We took back our voice as students and gave that voice form.”

This was the largest antiwar demonstration at USCB since the 1970s. Students there plan on organizing another student strike and rally on March 17 and other universities across the nation are taking up the call put out by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) to mobilize against the war on March 20, the 4th anniversary of the war in Iraq.

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