[Peace-discuss] Fw: Roundup Nov. 17-20 Campus Protests; Rally Against UC Repression on Nov. 23 @ UC Berkeley!; How to Win this Struggle: Strike on March 4 to Defend Public Education! Letter from UC Berkeley AFT President Denouncing the UCB Administration

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Roundup Nov. 17-20 Campus Protests; Rally Against UC Repre
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Larry Duncan 
To: lduncan at igc.org 
Sent: Sunday, November 22, 2009 4:05 PM
Subject: Roundup Nov. 17-20 Campus Protests; Rally Against UC Repression on Nov. 23 @ UC Berkeley!; How to Win this Struggle: Strike on March 4 to Defend Public Education! Letter from UC Berkeley AFT President Denouncing the UCB Administration








THE ORGANIZER NEWSPAPER
P.O. Box 40009
San Francisco, CA 94140
Email: theorganizer at earthlink.net
Website: www.socialistorganizer.org
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(Please forward widely!; please excuse duplicate postings)


IN THIS MESSAGE:


1) Introduction: Summary of Nov. 17-20 Actions in Defense of Public Education


2) Rally Against UC Repression on Monday, Nov. 23 @ UC Berkeley!


3) Videos, Photos and Articles on Nov. 17-20 Campus Protest Actions


4) Letter from UC Berkeley AFT President Denouncing the UCB Administration


5) How to Win this Struggle: Strike on March 4 to Defend Public Education!


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Introduction

Last week's protests in defense of public education have captured the attention of the whole country. A quick summary balance sheet of the November 17-20 actions: Given the last-minute organizing, the turnout at all campuses was very significant, testifying to the deep anger: 2,000+ at UC Berkeley, 2000 at UCLA, 500+ at UCSC, 200+ at UC Davis, 80 at CCSF, 150 at SFSU, 100+ at Fresno State, etc. The energy at the protests was extremely high, and people understood that this struggle was not going to be won this week.

What next? The most immediate step is to organize against the massive police repression deployed and win amnesty for all the protesters throughout the state. See below for information about the Rally Against UC Repression Monday at UC Berkeley.

Most important, it is necessary to seize the moment and channel the momentum and energy into a mass democratic movement by students, workers and faculty on every school, in every sector of public education.


Our main task remains to channel this anger and momentum into an effective statewide strike on March 4. We must immediately begin discussion with the trade unions and student organizations to get them to strike on March 4. We must move immediately to set up Strike Committees at each school. We need to build the December 5 regional meetings (San Jose, Central Valley, and LA) and get as many organizations -- unions in particular -- to sign onto the March 4 call. The fact that UTLA, the LA teachers' union, has adopted the March 4 call is a huge development. Likewise, there is now talk of trying to organize to make March 4 a national day of action. -- E.B.


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Rally Against UC Repression on Monday, Nov. 23 @ UC Berkeley!


Why is the UC administration repressing those who are fighting to defend public education?

Last Friday dozens of students and workers were brutalized by the police, with the complicity of the UC administration. Come rally in support of the victims. This is not just about police brutality; it is an important step toward deepening the struggle against the fee hikes, cuts and layoffs.

12 p.m. rally on Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley
1:30 p.m. gathering at the Oakland Courthouse
661 Washington Ave (near 12th st. BART), Oakland, Room: 112, Time: 2 p.m.

The students, faculty and workers of this campus spoke on Friday, and our voices were heard around the world. We must stand in solidarity with those charged unfairly, and it must play a central role in how we move this movement forward.


The charges against 3 of the occupiers (those arrested early in the day) are for FELONY BURGLARY. The irony of the situation should be mentioned; that we are being charged with burglary (though we burglarized nothing) while the administration is stealing all of our futures. We would really appreciate any and all support.


p.s. The charges for the rest of the occupiers is misdemeanor trespassing, and that court date will occur December 23.

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Videos, Photos and Articles on Nov. 17-20 Campus Protest Actions


Here below are the best, most detailed, most graphic videos, photos, and articles available online so far concerning the Nov. 20 (and earlier) actions at UCB, and UCLA, UCD, UCSC, SF State, and CSU Fresno. (Many other schools also held actions; please send out reports/links!). Let's use this growing momentum to deepen and broaden local actions and build up to a statewide strike of all public education on March 4!

Nov. 20 at UC Berkeley:


Video of Police Brutality at UCB http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOI5l2_RghQ
KTVU -- Very good TV coverage -- Strong Images of Police Brutality http://www.ktvu.com/news/21674608/detail.html
The Daily Cal -- Good Article and Footage of Protest/Chanting in Rain http://www.dailycal.org/article/107612/wheeler_hall_occupation_ends_peacefully
San Francisco Chronicle - Good article http://www2.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/20/BA611ANSAB.DTL
The Daily Cal- Great Photo Slideshow http://www.dailycal.org/mediabox.php?id=415&type=slideshow
NYTimes http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/us/21tuition.html?ref=us
Indybay.org coverage http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/11/20/18629379.php

Nov 18-20 Protests Throughout the State:

UCLA Video Coverage (Check out poll: 79% of public are against fee hike!): http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=7127527
UCLA Indymedia Coverage: http://la.indymedia.org/archives/display_by_id.php?feature_id=1906
CSU Fresno Library Study In: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/11/20/18629688.php
UCSC Occupation of Kerr Hall: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/11/20/18629398.php
UC Davis Protests after 52 Arrested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsX5oPkqjnk
UC Davis - Good Student TV coverage of Occupation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWBa20tygk0
SF State Nov. 18 Action - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=718K2LT5vU4

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Letter from UC Berkeley AFT President Denouncing the UCB Administration

Subject: Re: Wheeler Hall Protest Ended Peacefully
From: kkestrel at berkeley.edu
Date: Sat, November 21, 2009 11:49 am
To: "Robert J. Birgeneau, Chancellor" <CALmessages at berkeley.edu>

Dear Chancellor Birgeneau,

I would like to respectfully disagree with your statement that "[t]aking over our classroom buildings is not a productive way in which to advance our shared interests in gaining support for public higher education."

When I think of the time and effort that students, staff, and faculty have spent over years trying to bring their grievances and constructive suggestions for remedies to UC administrators, and the way in which their concerns have been ignored and sidelined, I think that an action such as the student occupation of Wheeler Hall is highly productive if, as it seems to have done, it brings awareness of UC's dire situation to the general public, and exposes the incompetence, non-transparency, and
cronyism which characterize the UC administration's decisions.

In April 2005, you called a meeting of leaders of all the campus unions in the conference room in California Hall. We shared our concerns and hopes with you, and at the end of the meeting you said you had found the session productive and planned to do it again every year. To my knowledge, you have never followed up on that plan. You have occasionally met instead with representatives of single unions, and have heard student concerns only in public fora in which your office carefully controls the flow of events. This has not established the relationship of trust which seemed possible after that April 2005 meeting. The result is all too obvious. When you ask all of us to go forward together, we see that as disingenuous, even a co-optation and dilution of all the organizing we have done and the sacrifices we have made in recent years.

In the minds of many of our campus community members, the administrators of the University of California are taking over far more than a building. You are turning the public's greatest educational asset into a huge research park increasingly controlled by private interests. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Woody Guthrie sang that "Some will rob you with a six-gun/Some with a fountain pen." The students who occupied Wheeler Hall used no weapons except the power of their convictions and willingness to take the consequences of their actions. You and your administrative colleagues, on the other hand, most assuredly continue to wield your "fountain pens" in a cynical, hypocritical, and greedy way as you use your power to bypass the intent of the charterers of the University of California and the formulators of the Master Plan for Higher Education.

Respectfully yours,

Kathryn A. Klar
Lecturer in Celtic Studies
6303 Dwinelle Hall
Campus

642-4484 (message only; no office phone due to budget cuts)

K-12 education in California public schools.

A.B. (1971), M.A. (1973), Ph.D. (1977). All from the Department of
Linguistics, UC Berkeley.
Lecturer at Berkeley since 1980.
President, UC-AFT Local 1474 (Lecturers and Librarians)

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How to Win this Struggle: Strike on March 4 to Defend Public Education!


Statement by The Organizer Newspaper


Momentum is building. The will to resist the destruction of public education has been expressed in the inspiring September 24 walkouts, the massive October 24 Statewide Mobilizing Conference at UC Berkeley of over 800 activists, and the November 18-20 UC and CSU actions across the state.

These are great first steps. But what will it take to win this struggle?

We in Socialist Organizer are convinced that nothing short of a statewide strike of UC, CSU, CC, Adult Education and Pre-K-12 students, workers, and faculty will be enough to stop the cuts, layoffs, and fee hikes -- and roll back the racial segregation of public education.


No school can function without teachers, students, and workers. We make these institutions run -- and we can and must shut them down until our demands are met.

March 4, 2010 was chosen by the October 24 Statewide Mobilizing Conference to be a statewide Strike and Day of Action. We must begin organizing now to win as many students, teachers, workers, and their unions as possible to strike on this day. Here's what it will take.

Stop "Lobbying" the Democrats


We must convince our peers, co-workers and organizations that "lobbying" the Democrats is a dead-end. What have been the results of this strategy? Cuts, cuts, and more cuts -- by both the Republicans and Democrats, parties funded and controlled by the ruling rich. Sacramento and the bureaucrats will only cede to our demands if we force them.


Parallel to this, UC President Yudof and the other bureaucrats try to wash their hands of any responsibility for the cuts -- they tell us that instead of organizing on campuses we should "go pressure Sacramento." But the UC currently has enough money in reserve funds and executive salaries to prevent any cuts! And if the CSU, CC, and K-12 administrators were serious about defending education, they would do everything possible to promote -- rather than prevent -- a strike on March 4.

Organize the Majority

People are ready to fight back, but we have not yet involved the majority in this struggle. People are overwhelmingly opposed to the cuts -- but too many think that nothing can be done or that there "is no alternative" to the cuts.


We must explain that this is a crisis of priorities not a "budget crisis" -- and that this struggle is winnable. We must build a broad, inclusive, mass democratic movement, open to all individuals and organizations that want to fight the cuts. General Assemblies should be organized at all schools. We must involve and champion the demands of students and workers of color, who have been the most affected by the crisis.

Build Student-Worker-Teacher Unity Across the State

The ruling class relies on the strategy of "divide and conquer." They will pit UCs against the other sectors of public education, workers against students, and unions against other unions. We must begin to build unity among students, workers, teachers and their organizations; unity among the different regions of California; and unity with other public sector organizations and community groups.

Students have for the moment taken the lead in this struggle, but a real strike is not possible without tapping into the power of the workers (including teachers) and their trade unions. Workers can literally shut down any institution just by refusing to work -- that's real power.

We must do everything possible to organize rank-and-file workers and union activists to push their unions to strike on March 4. Organizing a strike among workers won't be easy: There exist many reactionary laws preventing strikes, and most of the labor leaders are tied to the Democrats and the power structure. But given the depth of the crisis, a strike is both possible and necessary.


Start Organizing for March 4 Now!

While the protests this fall have been important, most have been organized with only a few weeks' notice. None have been real strikes of all workers and students. To build toward such a huge strike takes time - and there is no time to lose. Every school and workplace should immediately set up March 4 strike committees to start publicizing, organizing, and mobilizing.

March 4 can be an historic turning point not just for the fight in public education, but for the broader struggle in defense of public services, for immigrants' rights, for single-payer healthcare, against the wars, and beyond.

* All out for a strike on March 4!
* Stop the fee hikes, cuts, layoffs, and segregation of public education!
* Tax the rich!
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