Posted on 09/19/2007 5:40:04 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
The memory of William "Curly" Hendershot is alive and well on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
Hendershot was the Dow Chemical Co. recruiter whose 1967 visit here sparked one of the most important protests of the Vietnam War era. A sit-in against the company that made napalm used in Vietnam ended in a bloody clash with police that turned many students into radicals.
On Thursday, students plan to carry signs reading "Curly, off campus!" as they protest a recruiting visit by a company they see as a villain in the war in Iraq: Halliburton Co. Protesters plan to disrupt the company's visit to an engineering career fair by discouraging students from talking to its representatives.
"We've decided that any war-profiteering recruiter stands in the tradition of Curly," said Chris Dols, a student and member of the Campus Antiwar Network, which is organizing the protest. "We're explicitly drawing the connection between the two."
The 1967 protest started with a sit-in at a university building where Hendershot was trying to recruit students. When a large crowd of activists refused to leave, police used their clubs on students to end the event with force. Dozens were injured.
The police violence turned apathetic students against the war and made others into antiestablishment radicals. Madison became a hub of the anti-war movement. Many protests ended with violence or blasts of tear gas from police. Downtown businesses were vandalized. National Guard troops were called out.
Among those beaten by police at the Dow protest was Paul Soglin, a graduate student who later became the city's mayor.
"Halliburton is certainly as offensive a company today as Dow was 40 years ago," he said. "It's just wonderful that these students are raising these issues about the ethics of a corporation like that in a university setting."
Students in 1967 demanded the university kick Dow off campus because of it had a military contract to make napalm, a chemical weapon that burned the flesh of Vietnamese.
Today's protesters say Halliburton, an oil services company once run by Vice President Dick Cheney, should not be allowed on campus because it has profited from the Iraq war with lucrative military contracts.
Halliburton notes its former subsidiary, KBR, is the military contractor and the two became separate companies earlier this year. The company says it is coming to Madison to look for entry-level employees and will tolerate the protest.
"We've come to expect this type of spectacle, just as we've come to expect that the allegations will yet again be misinformed and incorrect," spokeswoman Melissa Norcross said. "We continue to support individuals' right to voice their opinions, even when they have the facts completely wrong."
But the students say the separation doesn't absolve the company of unethical practices, which they allege include overbilling taxpayers, neglecting troops and bribing foreign officials. The company denies the allegations.
Organizers say dozens to several hundred protesters will make their case to students thinking of meeting with Halliburton representatives at the career fair.
"We're going to have such a presence there. Through our numbers and the wit of our argument, we'll turn people away," said Dols, 24, a part-time civil engineering student. "We want to make it an unpopular thing to approach the Halliburton recruiter."
Halliburton started recruiting from the university in 2003 and is "interested in strengthening a relationship with the college," said Sandra Arnn, an assistant engineering dean. Protesters haven't targeted the company before.
The university has warned protesters it will not tolerate chanting or intimidation of students. It also says protesters must allow easy access to all of the 100 recruiters expected at the event.
University spokesman John Lucas said students who break the rules could face disciplinary action from the school and arrest by campus police.
"We're hopeful it isn't going to come to that and it's one of these events where people can make their points and not be disruptive in a way that prevents other people from participating," he said.
Zach Heise, a 21-year-old senior, said activists decided they would follow all of the university's rules.
"We want to make it so that if any law enforcement comes in and says you need to disperse, we can say we are following the rules and we are going to stay right here," he said. "But none of us wants to be clubbed in the head with a billy stick."
Exactly WHO is FUNDING this current crop of "dozens and MAYBE hundreds" of 'Hippie Protester Wanna-Bees?' These kids weren't even BORN until 1987 at the earliest!
I love the smell of "Clubbed Hippie" in the morning. Well, maybe NOT, LOL! :)
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
“Halliburton is certainly as offensive a company today as Dow was 40 years ago,”
and Paul Soglin is as offensive a moronic nitwit as he was 40 years ago.
I met up with Mayor Paul earlier this spring. I sold him some shrubs for his yard and some tomato plants for his garden. I took great pride in overcharging him, too! :)
He’s actually mellowed a tad now that he sees ‘The Gaping Maws of Death’ right around the corner, LOL! What is he? About 60 now? He looks 70. Dope’ll do that to ya.
I know. I know. Those Old Hippies think they’ll live forever and are going straight to Heaven...or Nirvana or wherever Old Hippies end up, LOL!
Some enterprising FReeper could make a fortune setting up a booth that sells love beads and protest signage in Madison. These people went to Woodstock and never came back.
The “protest” lasted all of 90 minutes per a radio report I just heard at the top of the hour. They rallied a whole 120 people; some professional protesters.
Some re-creation of 1967. What a bunch of dopes, LOL!
UW protesters sing against Halliburton at career fair
Anita Weier — 9/20/2007 3:08 pm
University of Wisconsin-Madison protesters pushed police and university officials hard today in a spirited protest against the Halliburton company, which was recruiting engineering students on campus.
Given a police escort that cleared University Avenue from Charter Street to Breese Terrace, more than 120 protesters marched shortly after noon from Bascom Hill to the Engineering Centers Building, the site of a career fair with some 100 recruiters from different organizations.
The leaders of the Campus Anti-war Network did their best to skirt rules laid down by administrators. They were allowed to enter the career fair but were told not to chant, so they sang. They were told to use conversational tones, but they did so with a bullhorn.
Protesters around the Halliburton booth sang: “I say from day to day, soldiers’ lives are thrown away” and “Hey hey! Ho ho! This racist war has got to go!”
Halliburton is the target of protest because of the oil service company’s ties to the war in Iraq and Vice President Dick Cheney, its former CEO. One of Halliburton’s subsidiaries, KBR, has received several lucrative contracts from the U.S. government for work in Iraq, although the two companies are now formally separated.
The UW protesters made a point of comparing their demonstration with a famous clash in 1967 between anti-Vietnam War protesters and police over the recruitment of students by Dow Chemical Co., the maker of napalm.
“Dow was the worst profiteer in that war, and Hallibruton is in this one,” Chris Dols, one of the protest leaders, said today.
Some engineering students said they resented the disruption of their career fair when they were trying to find jobs.
Renee Miller, a student trying to talk to recruiters said, “they’re ruining our career day. I’m trying to get a job.”
Mia McKinney, a freshman from Racine majoring in industrial engineering, said: “This is a wonderful example of free speech, but they should be protesting to Bush and Cheney. These people (the recruiters) have no control over whether our soldiers stay in Iraq.”
UW police kept a wary watch on protesters in the career fair and officials made sure a pathway was clear for students who wanted to talk to Halliburton.
Halliburton recruiters would say little to the news media, but one of them, Gavin Bell, said “We want to recruit some talented individuals to work with us.”
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