Protesters Outside the Main Gate

"National Service" = "Military Draft"?

Frank White, a member the Progressive Labor Party, a Communist party in the U.S., was standing outside the Columbia University gates yesterday, handing out flyers reading, "Don't Be a Sucker for 'National Service'! Candidates, ServiceNation Use Patriotism & Nationalism to Pave Way for the Draft."
"I'm here to swim against the tide," said White, 33, of Flatbush. "People have been fooled about what national service is. They view it as something innocuous. We view it as patriotism building in order to build more war."
McCain told "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" reporter Judy Woodruff that service cannot be compulsory.
White's flyers read, in part, Ultimately, the shortfall in troop numbers will be filled through a draft, promoted as 'national service, and sold as 'volunteerism.'
"It may be difficult to get the public behind an unpopular war," White said, "but if military service can be equated with grassroots community service, it might not be so unpopular."

To Vote or Not to Vote

Within less than two hours, over 50 people registered to vote at a table set up across the street from Columbia for the Obama campaign, according to campaign volunteer Carol Martin. Meanwhile, protesting groups were calling on people not to vote. "Actively not voting is not the same as passively not voting," says Sean Venkat, a student leading the group outside the campus gate. "Apathy is thinking that you can go once every four years and vote and that this would change the world." Venkat says his political awareness began four years ago after a visit to Mexico, where people vote actively yet achieve no change.

Protesters, police getting along

Manhattan School of Music students Katherine Thomas and Gina Izzo, both 21, chatted with Officer Mitchell from New York police as they protested outside Columbia at 116th Street and Broadway. There are still plenty of protesters at the entrance to the university — with lots of police close by — but police thus far have left the protesters alone.

Both Thomas and Izzo said the police have been respectful of protesters. "They're doing their duty. It's a good thing — I feel safe," said Thomas.

Thomas and Izzo said they didn't know about the protests beforehand, but they decided to join as they walked by.

"I don't believe McCain and Bush know what they are doing at all," said Thomas, adding that even her friends in Iraq think they should be coming home.

9/11 Protests: different kinds, same intensity

Protestors outside Columbia

No Protests; Candleless Vigil Instead.

There have been rumors of protests on campus in response to tonight's forum, but so far there is only a small vigil on the steps of the Low Library.

There are no candles at the vigil because University rules don't allow them. Instead, the vigil consists of a few people standing around a sign that says "Peace is the greatest service," eating snacks and waiting for the campus-wide broadcast to start.

Andrew Tillett-Sacks, president of the Columbia Coalition Against the War and a member of Lucha, which means "struggle" in Spanish, said that the groups wanted to have a bigger protest but it was difficult to organize with the campus on Secret Service lockdown.

He said that outside organizations like Code Pink also wanted to protest outside the campus, but said he advised them against doing so since he knew that the street would be shut down.

Student groups plan additional programming and possible protests.

Today the Columbia Spectator reported that several student groups have met to start planning additional programming and possible protests for Thursday's forum.

Highlights include:

• A College Democrats media training and policy workshop with Students for Obama, the official student organization of Obama's campaign.

• A Thursday voter registration drive conducted by the non-partisan Columbia Political Union and co-sponsored by the College Democrats and Republicans.

• Students for a Democratic Society might hold a silent protest on the day of the event.

• And the Columbia International Socialist Organization is attempting to organize a joint response with other campus activist groups.