About 35 people in white T-shirts gathered on the Plaza of Americas on Thursday evening to protest the nine-year anniversary of the United States’ invasion of Afghanistan.
The rally was led by the UF chapter of Students for a Democratic Society.
The event featured eight speakers who spoke about a variety of topics: from the plight of women in Afghanistan, to facism in America, to the U.S. presence in South Korea.
In addition to holding the rally, SDS set up an informational table in the Plaza of the Americas all week.
They asked students to wear white T-shirts for peace, said Jose Soto, an SDS organizer.
“Our goal is to get as many people to participate as possible,” said Dave Schneider, another SDS organizer. “Even if it’s a small step like putting on white T-shirts.”
For about an hour, speakers exchanged the megaphone and stood on a bench in the middle of the field, where they made their case against the ongoing war in Afghanistan.
Some of the speakers said they were disappointed with the turnout.
Cassia Laham, president of Students for Justice in Palestine, was one of those. She told the crowd that students need to get active and spread the word to improve turnouts.
However, Schneider said he wasn’t disappointed with the turnout at Thursday’s protest.
“It’s so hard to organize around this issue right now in the U.S.,” Schneider said. “This is a war with no end in sight.”
Schneider said next year he wants to work with other organizations. That, he said, might help to make a larger impact.
“Our hope is to build up toward a bigger movement,” Schneider said. “Especially for the 10th anniversary next year.”
At the rally, students stood in a half-circle holding various signs reading “Peace in the Middle East,” “SDS stands against war,” “Troops out now” and one in Spanish that translated to “Enough with the war!”
The organizers also distributed informational fliers.
Some of the fliers shared statistics about public opinion and war, including an Associated Press poll, performed in August, that showed 60 percent of Americans were opposed to the war in Afghanistan.
“We support our troops,” Soto said in reference to the Associated Press opinion poll.
Soto added, “That’s why we advocate bringing them back. We don’t want to see our Gators going off and fighting and coming back in a wheelchair.”
