note that below report includes couple instances of 'parentheses' editorializing that may folks may/may not agree... Michael Hoover > (en) US, Boston: Albright speech disrupted at Northeastern U graduation > > >From "Matthew Williams" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date Mon, 19 Jun 2000 04:19:57 -0400 > ________________________________________________ > A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E > http://www.ainfos.ca/ > ________________________________________________ > > On Saturday, June 17, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright spoke at the > graduation ceremonies at Northeastern University in Boston and received an > honorary degree. Outside of the building where the graduation ceremony was > being held, about twenty five to thirty people held signs and distributed > over 1,000 leaflets to the huge crowd of Northeastern graduates and their > families attending the event; the leaflets detailed Albright's horrible > human rights record, highlighting sanctions on Iraq and military aid to > Colombia in particular. We brought one complete sound system and several > bullhorns and got around the police's ban on using amplified sound by > rotating between them, the users of each feigning ignorance of the orders > the last set of people had received from the police to not use amplified > sound. Given that it was a pretty chaotic, unstructured coalition (groups > present included Boston Mobilization for Survival (parent group of the > Campaign for the Iraqi People and the Boston Campus Action Network; radical > in orientation and includes a number of anarchist members), the Colombia > Support Network, the International Socialist Organization (one of the less > obnoxious Leninist groups), Food Not Bombs, the Committee for Peace and > Human Rights (progressive but really flakey), and the New England War Tax > Resisters), this would not have been entirely unbelieveable. The police > finally allowed us to use a bullhorn from the concrete traffic island > dividing the road near the building, from where the large crowd waiting to > get in could still hear us--for police, they were actually being pretty > reasonable. Speakers emphasized that we were not there to ruin any one's > graduation, but to challenge the US government's abominable human rights > record as represented by Albright's actions while in office. > > Twelve activists from Mobilization for Survival and the Colombia Support > Network who managed to get tickets from sympathetic people with extras went > into the graduation ceremony. Apparently hoping to prevent the sort of > disruptions that have happenned when she has spoken, Albright started her > speech while about a thousand people were still waiting to get in the > building as everyone was made to walk through a metal detector and have > their bags searched. Her speech got disrupted anyway. Four banners were > dropped from balconies as she spoke and received her degree. The first > banner, displayed as she began her speech, read "Iraq sanctions = weapons of > mass destruction"--one woman sitting next to the activists actually helped > hold the corner of this banner. Next, a banner that read "Sanctions will > kill fourteen Iraqi children during this commencement" was unfurled as > Albright was finishing her speech, followed by "No Blood for Oil" as she > received her honorary degree. The last banner, which read "Stop U.S. Guns to > Colombia" was displayed just afterwards. Ten of the twelve activists > inside were escorted out; no one was arrested. Three of the banners were up > for thirty seconds or so, but one stayed up for several minutes before the > police were able to confiscate it and eject the protesters. > > Security was the tightest one security guard had ever seen, even "tighter > than [a] Clinton" visit. Two of the banners were smuggled in under womens's > skirts (they have not yet gotten to the point where they are willing to > strip search people to avoid embarrassing Albright); the other two were > overlooked when the police searched bags--although one was hidden in a date > book that the cops flipped through twice and somehow didn't notice the > banner. > > The activists escorted outside were later interviewed by an Associated Press > reporter, and speakers from the rally were broadcast live on local AM news > radio. This action was part of a growing trend of actions, organized mainly > by activists working against sanctions on Iraq, targeting Albright whenever > she attempts to speak publicly, particularly at college graduations. > > ******** > The A-Infos News Service > News about and of interest to anarchists > ******** > COMMANDS: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > REPLIES: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > HELP: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > WWW: http://www.ainfos.ca > INFO: http://www.ainfos.ca/org > > To receive a-infos in one language only mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] the message > unsubscribe a-infos > subscribe a-infos-X > where X = en, ca, de, fr, etc. (i.e. the language code)
