Antiwar activists from the Rochester area will join more than 40 antiwar groups throughout Upstate New York for a regional "Bring the Troops Home" rally in Syracuse on Saturday, September 29.

The rally, which will take place on the Syracuse University campus, was organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War-Ft. Drum, the Campus Antiwar Network, and the Upstate Antiwar Network. Local participation was planned by Rochester Against War, says activist Doug Noble.

Among the Rochester-area residents going to the rally is Ken Love, an RIT senior and a member of the Campus Antiwar Network, an umbrella organization of high school and college antiwar groups throughout the country. "We are trying to amplify student opposition to the occupation of Iraq," says Love. "We are for an immediate withdrawal. The US has destroyed the Iraqi infrastructure. The Iraqi people are fleeing their country because they are worse off than before. According to their own polls, more than 65 percent of the Iraqi people want the US to leave."

Love, a former military cadet turned peace activist, says his group will be working to make high school and college students across the country aware of what he terms "campus complicity" - schools' indirect support of the war through their contracts with the federal government or military contractors. RIT, for example, has 13 contracts with the Department of Defense, says Love.

Rochester Against War has leased two buses and is expecting to bring more than 100 activists from the Rochester area to Syracuse. Buses will leave for the Syracuse rally at 9 a.m. September 29 from the MCC parking lot. Tickets are $20 per person and $10 for students. Reservations: 271-2620 or 442-3383.