After walking out of their classes at 1 p.m. Wednesday in protest of the war in Iraq and rallying students down State Street, more than 40 members of UW-Madison's Campus Anti-war Network staged an all-night sit-in at U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl's, D-Wis., Madison office.
The protesters insisted the senator return to Wisconsin to meet with the group and hear its demands regarding the war in Iraq.
Filing into Kohl's 14 W. Mifflin St. office, drumming and chanting anti-war slogans, CAN members spoke via telephone to eminent progressive historian Howard Zinn and antiwar sports columnist Dave Zirin.
Zinn offered words of encouragement to CAN members, stressing Congress is ""provoking chaos, they're provoking chaos and war.""
Arriving at Kohl's office at approximately 2 p.m., armed with six demands to halt Kohl's voting for continued funding of the war in Iraq, CAN members met opposition in the form of office staff and U.S. Department of Homeland Security police officers.
Members are asking Kohl to: vote ""out of Iraq now,"" hand over ""Iraq to Iraqis,"" ""fully fund veterans' health care, including mental health,"" provide ""no strings attached reparations to the Iraqi people,"" ""ban depleted uranium"" and advocate funds ""for jobs and education, not for war and occupation,"" according to a CAN statement.
The group negotiated with office staff for a teleconference with Kohl, set for today or Friday, but refused to leave if its original demand was not met—that Kohl meet publicly in Madison with CAN members, on the record, before UW-Madison's spring 2007 exam period begins.
Darcy Luoma, director of Kohl's Madison office, emphasized her desire to cooperate with all of CAN members Wednesday afternoon, but said the office had never seen such a high number of protesters.
""I'm trying to be so accommodating,"" Luoma said, as CAN members clashed with the office staff over having all 40 protesters stay in the office overnight.
Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers present said due to building enforcements, only five students could stay overnight and would have to stay in one room of Kohl's two-room office, at which point, CAN members refused to leave.
Luoma and the officers then said all 40 members would have to remain in the conference room overnight, evoking cries of outrage and frustration from the students.
""If you're not comfortable, leave!"" Luoma said.
Instead, CAN decided to initiate discussions to meet with Kohl personally, in Madison.
Subsequent phone calls to Kohl, who was in session in Washington, D.C. Wednesday, proved unsuccessful, as the senator was ""asleep,"" according to CAN member and UW-Madison graduate student Elizabeth Wrigley-Field.
As of press time, CAN members were clashing with building security guards over the ""rules"" of the sit-in. After CAN organizer Chris Dols stepped outside Kohl's office without an escort, the security guards demanded the students remain in the conference room.
Members brainstormed ideas to deal with the situation, including camping out in front of the office and re-entering the building immediately at the beginning of business hours today, at 8 a.m.
