For Immediate Release:
March 20, 1997
Contact: Rick Spencer, Programs Director
854-2957
Students Unite! Conference Kicks Off:
Progressive Students from all over South Sharpen Skills
Greensboro- An estimated 150-200 students activists are rolling into town
to build stronger networks and sharpen their organizing skills. The
Students Unite! conference will be held from 8 PM Friday, March 21 until 5
PM Sunday, March 23 in the Elliot Center of UNCG. An information table will
be set up in Benbow Room from 4 PM Friday, and all day Saturday.
The conference is open to all progressive students, including: gay &
lesbian, human rights, environmental, animal rights, labor, poverty,
feminist, & peace activists. The Greensboro-based EarthCulture is hosting
the event.
Students will learn how to organize protests and direct action, work with
the media, negotiate with their targets, recruit new members & empower
older ones, & even print their own t-shirts. Sunday will be spent in
issue-specific workshops, of which there are about twenty.
"With this conference, we're strengthening the student activist network,
creating lasting social change," says EarthCulture's Rick Spencer. "These
students are going to be a force to be reckoned with, as they learn skills
to help them claim more victories."
Conference highlights include:
Friday 8-10 PM "Regional Student Activism: Where did we come from & where
do we go?" panel discussion in Alexander Room. Long-time activists will
share their stories of sit-ins, war tax resistence, and fighting the Klan
in Greensboro.
Sunday 1:30-2:30 PM Shell Oil demonstration
Students will gather at the Shell station on the corner of Spring Garden
St. & Market St. to protest the companies environmental degradation and
human rights atrocities around the world. A seperate press release on the
protest will be forthcoming.
* * *
(
geocities.com/rainforest)