UC Solidarity

Boots Riley Follow Twitter updates at : http://twitter.com/ucbprotest
***From Dan Moguluf as of 3pm***
At the University’s request every one of those arrested who did not have outstanding warrants or other criminal issues (64 of the 66 arrested) are now being cited and released. The bail requirement has been dropped. As a result only two people will remain and/or need to post bail, and it’s not even clear if either of them are students. You should know that your questions and comments played a role in this outcome.

Press Release: UC BERKELEY “OPEN UNIVERSITY” RAIDED BY UC POLICE, 65 ARRESTED

PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION
UC BERKELEY “OPEN UNIVERSITY” RAIDED BY UC POLICE, 65 ARRESTED

Contact: Elias Martinez (559) 999-4964 and Ianna Owen (570) 977-0487

This morning, on the fifth and final day of a weeklong “Open University” held at UC Berkeley’s Wheeler Hall, University of California Police stormed into the building around 5am, arresting 65 people without provocation, witnesses said.

“People were not given a final warning – police burst in while people were sleeping and immediately started locking doors and arresting people. Many students have papers due today, and finals to take starting tomorrow,” said Elias Martinez, an undergraduate from Political Science. “There had been cops in here all week, they were acting like it was okay. We had no idea.”

The police raid at UC Berkeley came one day after students participating in an occupation at San Francisco State University, also railing against budget cuts to public education, were arrested by SFSU Police at 3am.

Douglas Virgos, an undergraduate student, spent the night in the UC Berkeley building but then left on a food run in the early morning. “I got back and saw that the police had put handcuffs on the doors. I was there all night and never heard police tell us we had to leave.”

Students and faculty supporters who gathered on the scene shortly after raid alerts went out say they saw the students, some of them without shoes and wearing only their underwear, being loaded onto Alameda County Sheriff’s buses headed to Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.

“We’ll be shuttling people out there all day on caravans to do jail support and camp out there until the protesters are released,” said Melissa Barker, an undergraduate of Interdisciplinary Studies and parent. “The fact that the cops drove 65 people all the way to Dublin makes me think that the charges will be way more than misdemeanor trespassing. We’re worried, but we’ll do everything it takes to support our folks. We’ll be there all weekend if it takes.”

Students have been holding public events, including teach-ins on the UC budget, study-ins, and live music shows as part of a “Live Week” of Open University events since Monday.

The week of events was scheduled to end with a free concert in Wheeler Hall, where the Oakland-based political hip hop artist, Boots Riley, would perform tonight.

“We are going to proceed with the event today, and this show will be larger than ever. We’ll continue to organize with students from other schools and build a worldwide movement of students fighting to retain and expand public education,” said a student who withheld their name, fearing university reprisals. “The police attack only makes us angrier.”

Here's a short pamphlet answering some of the most frequently asked questions on UC's budget crisis.

Please distribute widely!!!

Across the world, as in California, forces are using the economic crisis as an excuse to further privitizate education.  We are receiving messages of solidarity from across the world; here are a few.

We, the students of the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf in Germany, show our solidarity with the striking students of U.S. America.
Since 4 days we occupy our auditorium to initiate a discussion about the education system.
All over the world students have the same aims!
Expand public education for everyone!
More influence at the campuses!
No tuition fees!

Stand on!
Be solidary!

Hey,

I heard what has been happening and I simply want to tell you myself, my friends and other students in Trinity college, Dublin, Ireland support you 100%

Dlúthpháirtíocht & ádh mór ort
Solidarity & good luck.

Slán,

-A Trinity student

Hi there,
I'm a poet and creative writing teacher in Galway, Ireland.
I've been following news of the student occupation at UCLA and Berkeley and wanted to do something to register my support. Here is my poem 'A Brief History of Those Who Made Their Point Politely And Then Went Home' which addresses some of the issues you are facing. I've redicated it to the UCLA & Berkeley students and if you want to publish it on the website blog or anyone wants to read it at any of the demos that would be fine with me. There's a video me reading it at this link.

All best wishes for a successful outcome

Kevin Higgins

A Brief History Of Those Who Made Their Point Politely And Then Went Home

For the occupying students at U.C.L.A & Berkeley November 2009

On this day of tear-gas in Seoul
and windows broken at Dickins & Jones,
I can’t help wondering why a history
of those, who made their point politely
and then went home, has never been written.

Those who, in the heat of the moment,
never dislodged a policeman’s helmet,
never blocked the traffic or held the country to ransom.
Someone should ask them: “Was it all worth it?”

All those proud men and women, who never
had the National Guard sent in against them;
who left everything exactly as they found it,
without adding as much as a scratch to the paintwork;
who no-one bothered asking: “Are you or have you ever been?”
because we all knew damn well they never ever were.

Kevin Higgins,  from The Boy With No Face, Salmon Poetry 2005.

 

Solidarity from Connecticut Students Against the War!

Declaration of Student Solidarity

Students, Youth, Workers, People of Color, and all Oppressed Peoples are being forced to absorb the crisis of Wall Street. We are being attacked and Wall Street and Washington are trying to make us pay for their crisis. Their plan is to cut our public programs, attack our social support systems, attack our families with mass layoffs, and expand the war on workers and the poor. The conditions that Students and Youth are faced with are just the beginning of what we will experience as we enter the world as workers. In this common interest, Connecticut Students Against the War issues the following statement:

Students and Youth all over the world face tuition increases, firings of staff workers, adjunct, and non-tenured faculty, cuts to programs and classes, expansion of class sizes in college and the public school system, cuts in essential programs, a general decrease in opportunities for employment, the Economic Draft and growing military influence in Youth Programs and schools.

In Connecticut, our public schools are facing drastic cuts threatening the jobs of an estimated 1500 teachers and paraprofessionals, threats to unions contracts, the closure of several extracurricular programs, and the halt in school purchases of needed supplies. This threatens the jobs of these workers and the quality of each student’s education as class sizes grow, work hours increase, supplies drop, and as the crisis deepens.

At the same time that we receive no relief from our debts, while the government bails out the institutes who are responsible for the crisis, while it continues to fund illegal wars and occupations around the world. We have become victims of a crisis that we could not prevent and over which we have no control to reverse.

We as Connecticut Students Against the War declare opposition to tuition increases, staff reductions, forced work increases, abandonment of children and students, attacks on union contracts, cuts to academic programs and classes, and any present or future disciplinary measures by administrations against students struggling for justice.

We call for the canceling of all student debt, an expansion of the education system, an expansion of employment opportunities for youth and workers to include truly green jobs, an expansion of government aid to all who seek education, and a reduction of tuition costs to increase access and affordability to higher education. We call for students in the public education system and at the college level to unite with their communities to resist all cuts and to demand an end to the war on workers and the poor to make us pay for the crimes of high finance.

We declare support for and stand in solidarity with struggles against cuts in education and social support systems.

We declare our support and stand in solidarity with UC Students who are standing up against the regressive policies of the university and the state of California.