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Protestors Picket Marine Recruiters

Law Professors Condemn Invasion of Grenada

Harvard protest over the U.S. invasion of Grenada continued yesterday as members of campus groups rallied outside the Office of Career Services and Off-Campus Learning (OCS-OCL) to demonstrate against the annual recruitment visit of Marine representatives.

Approximately 50 demonstrators protesting the recent deployment of 6000 Marines to the Caribbean island chanted slogans. Listened to speeches, and marched in picket lines that temporarily blocked traffic on Dunster St.

"We have a duty to inform the native young people going in there that they are not flocking to serve God and country--they are flocking to fight Ronald Reagan's dastardly war," said Ibrahim Gassama, a third-year law student, speaking from the office steps.

"Let us take the pride out of being a Marine and keep their numbers few," he added.

Demonstrators included members of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, the Committee on Central America, the Spartacus Youth League, Mobilization for Survival, the Boston Alliance Against Registration and the Draft, and an adhoc committee from the Law School.

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Inside the Office of Career Services, Marine recruiters Capt. J C Buckingham and Capt. Frank Walizer discussed the Marine Corps' officer candidate programs with Harvard students between the hours of 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Four students had met with the recruiters by 1 p.m., Buckingham said.

Asked if the demonstration outside had affected recruitment defforts, Buckingham said, "If there has been any impact, it does not appear to have been significant.

An average of five to seven students turnout to meet with the recruiters during their annual visits, Buckingham added.

While interest in enlisted programs has increased since the invasion of Grenada and the recent deaths of U.S. Marines in a Lebanon bomb blast. Harvard interest in the officer programs has not changed. Buckingham said.

Professor of Biology Ruth Hubbard'45 joined the demonstration. She condemned President Reagan for pursuing a "shameful" and "totally racist war" in Grenada and criticized the Administration's statements on the situation as "a pack of lies."

Unless we get the U.S. out now, Grenada will become to put it bluntly--a brothel with the U.S. as its pimp," she said after the rally.

Before dispersing, the protesters marched to Holyoke Center on Mass Ave. chanting "Lebanon, Grenada, U.S. out now" and "The Marine scum must go."

A publicized Conservative Club counter-protest did not materialize.

First Lieutenant Robert C. Barber'72, an active duty Marine assigned to study at the Law School, said he did not object to the protesters as he stopped in the office of career services to visit the recruiters.

"We take oaths as Marine officers that we will uphold and protect the Constitution of the United States, and they are exercising their constitutional rights," he said.

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