| Objective | | | What to Do on April 16 | | | How to Help Organize | | | Legal Information |
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What is most important is that we spread the word so that the walkout is as widespread and has as much press coverage as possible. You can help by talking and e-mailing people in as many other schools as possible about the walkout, drawing, posting and distributing flyers and pamphlets, helping to publicize the walkout and writing up information for the website. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
To publicize the walkout, you can contact newspapers, magazines, radio stations, and television, and post information onto poles, walls, bulletin boards, relevant websites, and even yourself (for information on silkscreening a sh! irt with a message like "Help Us Fight Against War in Iraq - http://www.iraqwarwalkout.com", e-mail us).
Placing phone calls is probably the most helpful way to publicize the walkout. Radio stations, newspapers, and magazines could potentially help us reach thousands of people who wouldn't have known about the walkout otherwise. The better we prepare the press before the walkout, the more likely that it will be well-covered afterwards. Also, youth groups and antiwar groups could be invaluable in spreading information about the walkout.
In case you have trouble deciding what to say on the phone, here is an example of what to say:
Hi, my name is ______________
I'm part of a group of students organizing a nationwide school walkout for Wednesday, April 16 at 10 AM in order to show the country that many of the youth of this nation are against war with Iraq, and that we will not let business as usual go on while our g! overnment sends our country into war. We want to take a stand supporting nonviolent alternatives and help to unite our generation (which is divided by many factors like race, class, and social grouping).
We are hoping to get youth in cities and towns across the country to walk out and take to the streets, engaging in discussions about Iraq and their opinions on war in general, as well as handing out pamphlets.
I'm calling to ask for your support with our demonstration. We have already started an e-mail chain, but if we could send you pamphlets to put up in your town (or city), or if you would be willing to send our information to people in your area or on your mailing lists, that would be extremely helpful.
(then ask if they have any questions)
Tell them about the web site, and say thank you even if they can't help at this time. If they are still curious, give them our e-mail (walkout2003@yahoo.com) and tell them that we can talk more in the next few days.
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Right now there is only one flyer to print out and post. [clarisworks] [word] [pdf]
Any relevant original art, writing, or completed flyers or pamphlets would be a godsend.
Any feedback or contributions to the website would be greatly appreciated, and would make our message much more clear. Research and writing on the following would make a huge difference:
Please send any contributions to walkout2003@yahoo.com.
E-mail clearly has a great potential for easily disseminating information on the protest quickly. Thus, we have written an e-mail that you can send as is or modify to your taste:
This is a call to the youth of America.
We are a group of students from all over the country who attend Buxton
School in Massachusetts, and we are calling for you to join us in a
countrywide school walkout (check out http://www.iraqwarwalkout.com
for more information). We want this walkout to demonstrate to our
country that our generation will not let daily life continue as this
war begins.
Here is our objective:
To have a country wide school walkout and local nonviolent
demonstrat!
ions of students in high schools and colleges in protest of
war, specifically war in Iraq, and promoting non violent alternatives,
on Wednesday, April 16, at 10 am. in the morning in each time zone -
that means it will be a rolling walkout that will start on the east coast
and roll over the United States as clocks hit ten.
We want to show our administration and our entire Nation that
our generation is not going to sit idly and watch as our peers
are sent off to war to take the lives of innocent Iraqi bystanders.
We should not begin a war campaign against Iraq, especially
without the support of many nations around the world. There are other
nonviolent alternatives to war and we demand that our government,
elected by the people and for the people, look at those alternatives
and use its powers to act nonviolently to solve this conflict.
THIS IS A STUDENT DRIVEN AND STUDENT ORIENTED NONVIOLENT
WALK OUT, WE ASK YOU ALL TO SPREAD THE WORD, AS A GENERATION FULL OF
MANY DIFFERENT PEOPL!
E, WITH DI
FFERENT UPBRINGINGS AND INTERESTS WE
HAVE TO COME TOGETHER AND SHOW THAT WE DO NOT WANT THIS WAR.
-the youth of america