Students for a Democratic Society, a San Jose State group, held an anti-war protest on Seventh Street Plaza Monday with other student activism groups in attendance.
Students for Democratic Society is the SJSU chapter that’s dedicated to progressive issues, according to its Instagram account page.
The student group was answering a call to action raised by the United National Antiwar Coalition, an organization dedicated to anti-war movements and unifying “collective action against a major perpetrator of war and injustice: U.S. government,” according to its website.
David Almeida, history senior and the Students for Democratic Society first secretary – a term coined to stray from a title that establishes executive power and pursues a more collective leadership – said one of the group’s founding principles is opposition against any U.S. war.
“We think they’re usually unjust and that they bring economic woes and devastation to people abroad,” Almeida said. “[Instead,] they can use the resources and money to help people here.”
The U.S. also has an extensive history of military and political intervention including overthrowing several regimes as seen in Hawaii, Cuba, Iran, Guatemala, Congo, Chile, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Iraq, according to a June 7 History Channel article
While the protest objected to all U.S. intervention in foreign wars, it was predominantly focused on the U.S.’s current trade embargo on Cuba.
The decades-long embargo was introduced by then-President John F. Kennedy in 1962 in response to “certain actions taken by the Cuban government,” according to the U.S. Department of State Cuba Sanctions webpage.
According to an Oct.19 Reuters article, then-President Donald Trump implemented stronger sanctions in 2017, which has been retroactively eased by President Joe Biden.
However, many foundational elements of the embargo still remain unchanged, which is complicating “financial transactions and the acquisition of goods and services by the Cuban government,” according to the Reuters article.
“Look at Cuba right now,” said John Duroyan, history junior and Students for Democratic Society member. “It's facing these economic difficulties despite their great strides in social programs because of this blockade and it's utterly ludicrous.”
Duroyan said he was tasked as a speaker of the event, in which he shared the history of the trade embargo and advocated for the removal of U.S. military involvement in Cuba and other countries.
He was joined by members of the SJSU group Young Democratic Socialists of America, including Sam Bigelow, the group’s president, who came out to support Students for Democratic Society because of their shared beliefs.
“I thought it would be nice to focus on other left-wing groups and support them,” Bigelow said. “Whether or not we think it's pertinent to our current situation, these ongoing conflicts are just gonna end up impacting us whether we like it or not, whether we pay attention or not.”
David Almeida said despite the groups’ main goal to bring attention to the cause, the protest did not rally a large gathering because of timing and location issues.
“More people need to know about what the U.S. exactly is doing abroad, because in the media, they paint a picture like we're doing something good for people,” Almeida said. “But in reality, it doesn't. So hopefully people can look more into that.
Almeida called for students to learn more about U.S. intervention and take action by voting for politicians with anti-war platforms.
“Part of the strategy is to vote for politicians that are anti-war, vote for representatives that are supporting any sort of aid to Ukraine for example,” he said. “And of course, organizing is the best way to get a movement going, to get attention and to get changes.”
