Students for a Democratic Society member Tamara Tal and her attorney Al McSurely are declaring victory in a court battle for first amendment rights. On April 30, Jeffrey Nieman, the Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey L. Nieman sent a letter to McSurely stating that he had filed a voluntary dismissal in the case of State v. Tamara Tal. Nieman wrote in his letter that "the facts [are] insufficient for conviction beyond a reasonable doubt." Ms. Tal had been charged with "failure to disperse" (blocking free passage of a walkway-- C.H. town ordinance 11-6).

There will be a rally and speak-out in support of Students for a Democratic Society member and Chapel Hill activist Tamara Tal on Monday April 14, 2008 in front of the Chapel Hill Post Office/Courthouse at 11 am. Tamara Tal was arrested on a public sidewalk November 30, 2007 at the Burger King protest in Chapel Hill and on Monday, April 14, she will plead "not guilty" to the charge of "failure to disperse" (blocking free passage of a walkway-- C.H. town ordinance 11-6).

UNC Students for a Democratic Society and the Carolina Hispanic Association (CHispA) invite you to a series of events:

Chicano Liberation and the Struggle for Immigrant's Rights

Screening of the film "Walkout"
Tuesday April 8 at 7pm in Greenlaw 413, UNC Campus

The film tells the story of the successful East LA walkouts in March 1968 when thousands of Chicano students protested the racist school conditions in LA. Their demands for better facilities, new schools, Chicano studies, an end to the high dropout rate and more college prep classes were met, resulting in reforms to the LA school system. The walkouts were organized by the Brown Berets, a revolutionary Chicano youth organization in the 1960s and 70s.

Talk by Carlos Montes (who is portrayed in Walkout)
Wednesday April 9 at 7pm in Greenlaw 413, UNC Campus

Carlos Montes worked with other Chicano revolutionaries to create the Brown Berets, an organization that fought racism in education and housing, police brutality and protested the Vietnam War. He will be speaking about his history organizing for Chicano rights and its ties to the current struggle for immigrant rights. Carlos Montes is a veteran of the Chicano liberation movement, a long time trade union organizer, and a leader of the immigrants rights movement in LA. He is a member of Latinos Against War and the March 25th Coalition.

At the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, 450 students attended an antiwar rally at noon and 300 marched through campus and into the community, occupying the main intersection in town before ending with a closing rally on the steps of the administration building. SDS, thirteen other student organizations, members of the newly-founded UNC Coalition Against the War, six community organizations and members of Iraq Veterans Against the War led the demonstration.

Five years ago, George Bush, the Democratic and Republican Parties and the United States government committed what the Nuremberg Court called the “supreme international crime.” They waged a war of aggression against a sovereign nation, and they justified it with lies. They claimed Iraq possessed and was actively developing weapons of mass destruction. But it did not take long for the truth to surface: Bush and big oil interests had been planning this war for years. The real motives of this war are not defensive, nor are they altruistic; they are imperial. The U.S.

Dear friends and allies at UNC,

This March will mark a grim milestone: the U.S. occupation of Iraq will enter its fifth year. After five years of war and occupation, over 1.2 million Iraqis and 4,000 U.S. troops have lost their lives, and more that $500 billion has been poured into the failing occupation, money that should have been spent making education more accessible to millions of young people in this country who cannot afford it, to provide healthcare, housing and jobs to all Americans, and to rebuild the Gulf Coast, which is still suffering from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina more than two and a half years later.

WHAT: Demand Peace, Stop Violence and End the Iraq War!
WHEN: March 19, 2008 at 12:30pm
WHERE: Gather in the Pit for a Rally and March
WHO: Students, Faculty, Staff and Community Members

Join the UNC Coalition Against the War.

We are: Students for a Democratic Society, Black Student Movement (Political Action Committee), Feminist Students United, Young Democrats, Arab Student Organization, Student Action with Workers, Solidarity with Palestine through Education and Action at Carolina, the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender/Straight Alliance, Criminal Justice Action and Awareness, Muslim Organizations Actively Integrating Carolina, Advocates for Human Rights, Prochoice USA, Native Health Initiative, and Animal Rights Collective.

This Wednesday will mark a grim milestone: the U.S. occupation of Iraq will enter its fifth year. That means five years that the people of Iraq have been forced to live under the daily violence of the U.S. occupation of their country resulting in the deaths of over 1.2 million Iraqis and nearly 4,000 U.S. troops.

UNC-Chapel Hill Students for a Democratic Society, in solidarity with over 75 other Universities and High Schools across the country (http://www.newsds.org/), is working shoulder-to-shoulder with the UNC Coalition Against the War to call on all students and community members stand up, walkout and speak out against the brutal war on Iraq. We will gather in the Pit at 12:30pm on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 for a rally and march.

The rally will include speakers from member organizations of the UNC Coalition Against the War and Iraq Veteran Against the War, Joe Gill. We hope that you will break from your daily routine on this day to join us in struggle against violence in all of its tragic forms.

The march will feature giant puppets, beats by Cakalak Thunder, radical cheer leading and more!

The UNC Coalition Against the War is a broad-based coalition between a diverse set of student organizations at UNC. We are uniting together in a common effort to build for a large antiwar protest on March 19, and to continue efforts beyond March 19 to build the antiwar movement at UNC. The points of unity between our groups are:

1. We demand an end to the occupation - Troops Out Now

Find out this Thursday, Feb 21, when Iraqi-American Dahlia Wasfi gives a presentation about her experiences in occupied Iraq and the need for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops. Jason Hurd, an Iraq war veteran and president of the Asheville chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War will give a short introduction. Dr. Wasfi's presentation will be followed by a facilitated question and answer period.

When: Thursday February 21 at 7 PM
Where: Dey Hall room 307

ALL OUT FOR MARCH 20, 2008

This March will mark a grim milestone - the fifth anniversary of the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq. Despite the clear mandate from the American people to end the occupation, the U.S. government continues to wage war upon the Iraqi people. Bush’s mocking response to dwindling public support for the war has been the “troop surge,” or simply more of the same, while simultaneously threatening neighboring countries like Iran. For their part, the Democrats refuse to commit to a clear anti-war stance, even as they try to posture as the opposition party. Meanwhile, the threat of domestic recession looms, racist attacks increase, and millions lack decent housing, jobs, education, and health-care.