(NION): Not In Our Name
By Jesse Baer

On Sunday, 38 Oberlin College students arrived in New York City to protest President Bush’s war on Iraq. They assembled in Central Park with a crowd of similarly inclined citizens from across the country — including other college students, people old enough to be their parents, and some young enough to be their children.
The event was organized by a national group called Not In Our Name.
“Not In Our Name is a coalition of a lot of different resistance organizations that came together after Sept. 11 in order to create a space for individuals to engage in acts of resistance,” explained senior Marianna Leavy-Sperounis, one of the organizers of the trip to New York.
Oberlin students who took part seemed impressed by what they had seen.
“The best part was that it was peaceful,” said junior Lauren Schiff,
another organizer. “It was about speaking out, not acting out.”
Students also marvelled at the diversity of the crowd that attended.
“It was extremely diverse,” said Schiff. “It wasn’t just white protestors. There were people from all walks of life.”
The event was structured as a stationary rally rather than as a march, with “singers, activists and artists,” including the likes of Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins and Martin Sheen, on a stage addressing a large crowd.
“It’s risky for artists to take political stances,” Leavy-Sperounis said.
Although there was no clear consensus on how many people showed up, estimates ranged from 10,000 to over 25,000. Similar events took place in over 25 other cities, although New York’s was by far the largest.
“Those old enough to know said that yesterday’s Central Park rally to protest a United States invasion of Iraq drew a larger crowd than similar gatherings in the mid-1960’s,” began the story in Monday’s New York Times. The protest seemed to garner even greater media attention overseas than it did in the United States.
Oberlin students returned to campus inspired by what they had seen.
“It seemed like a celebration more than a demonstration … sort of a celebration of dissent,” said Schiff. “The whole [idea behind] Not In Our Name is really compelling to me. It lets me express my anger in more constructive ways.”
According to Leavy-Sperounis, that idea is that although the war in
Iraq, the USA Patriot Act, and so forth, are “enacted in the name of all Americans, in fact we don’t agree with these initiatives.”
Organizers have created what they call a “Pledge of Resistance.”
“It’s seen by many as an alternative to a pledge of allegiance, because there are many people who don’t want to pledge allegiance [right now],” said Leavy-Sperounis. “I find that every time I take it, it really reaffirms the work that I’m doing, that we’re doing. It really speaks to the social and moral responsiblity that we have as Americans, as human beings, to resist injustice.”
Leavy-Sperounis and Schiff are now trying to build on the momentum of the rally, organizing an anti-war movement on campus. Next on the agenda is another national protest on Oct. 26, centered around a march on Washington.
Although it coincides with Oberlin’s Fall Break, Leavy-Sperounis and Schiff hope that people will participate in joint actions in their hometowns, or wherever they happen to be.
Impressed with the turnout in New York from Ohio colleges, including Antioch, Hiram, Kent State and Cleveland State, Leavy-Sperounis and Schiff will try to bring those colleges together again for an anti-war conference within the next several weeks, which will focus on building awareness of the situation.

The as-yet-unnamed anti-war movement at Oberlin will meet on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in Wilder.