Simon James (Bruce Davison) is a student at the fictional Western University in San Francisco. Students are protesting the university's plans to replace a rec center and a playground in a black neighborhood with a gymnasium for tax reasons. Simon falls in love with Linda (Kim Darby), part of a group of protestors who are occupying a university building, and starts getting involved with the movement.
The Strawberry Statement contains examples of:
- Air Guitar: Simon lies on the sofa with his arms around a cushion, listening to music and strumming on the cushion.
- Flipping the Bird: A protestor flips off a cop during a protest at the playground.
- Freeze-Frame Ending: The movie ends with a freeze-frame of Simon being dragged away by police.
- Furniture Blockade: The protestors barricade themselves in the building by piling tables and chairs in front of the doors. The police easily push through the blockades.
- I Have a Family: A professor who supports the protestors pretends that they're taking him hostage so he won't lose his job. He says, "I have kids!"
- Insurance Fraud: One grocery store owner lets the protestors take as much food as they want for free, as long as they pretend they're robbing him so he can get insurance.
- Percussive Maintenance: One of the protestors asks Simon to find out why the Xerox machine isn't working. Simon presses a few buttons and whacks it a few times before he sees that it's not plugged in.
- Police Brutality: When Simon's right-wing rowing teammate punches him in the face, giving him a bloody lip, he spits blood on his shirt and smears it on his face so he can pretend to be a police brutality victim in order to increase his clout. Later he experiences the real thing when the cops raid the building and start kicking and beating peaceful protestors.
- Special Thanks: "The producers of this film gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of the people of San Francisco and another anonymous locale for participating in the production of this motion picture. Other cities refused to cooperate - perhaps feeling that strawberries are irrelevant."
- Spiteful Spit: A cop hits a protestor in the face with his baton. The protestor spits blood on the cop's helmet.
- Title Drop: "The strawberry statement" is how the characters refer to a comment by a faculty member: "Whether the students vote yes or no on a given issue means as much to me as if they were to tell me they like strawberries."
- Waving Signs Around: Protestors wave signs that say things like "Ban Bombs, not Blacks" and "Disarm - War Is Insanity."
