Open Letter From Prof. Catherine Cole to UC Berkeley Administrators

By Ricardo Gomez | Published: December 12, 2009

Dear Chancellor Birgeneau and EVCP Breslauer,
I am writing with this urgent request regarding today’s arrest of students at Wheeler Hall. I don’t know why these arrests have happened when it had appeared earlier this week that the organizers of this “soft” occupation/open university had worked so carefully with the administration and police  to have this event sanctioned through Friday. I understand from the news report in the SF Chronicle today that the administration was worried about a public event scheduled for tonight. I hope that all efforts for a rational and civil negotiation with students about those concerns were not only attempted but exhausted before armed police invaded the building this morning and conducted mass arrests of our students who were at the time either sleeping, studying, or writing papers, and then carted off to jail.
Urgently, I am asking that those arrested be cited and released. The administration and UCB will gain no ground by overreacting and holding them in jail, but will rather add fuel to the fire of those who feel the administration does not care about and respect our students, and does not perceive the way in which our students–the best and brightest of their generation, the future leaders of our state and nation–can be enlisted as critical and necessary collaborators in the fight to save public higher education. The UC will not benefit by garnering more stories in the national media like this article from December 4 Newsweek: “Whether you’re an oppressive foreign dictatorship or [...] Continue Reading…

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Students Arrested for peacefully studying and sleeping in Wheeler Hall

By Ricardo Gomez | Published: December 12, 2009

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 [...] Continue Reading…

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Strike Nov. 18-20 in protest of the UC Regents Meeting

By isaacnoah | Published: November 18, 2009

strikeSTRIKE TO PROTEST UC

REGENTS MEETING IN UCLA 11/18-20

Wednesday, November 18th
Day 1 of the Strike: WALK OUT
5:00 am. UPTE Picket lines start at construction sites
7:15 am. Main Picket lines begin at all campus entrances
11:00 am. Begin gathering on Sproul Plaza for the Rally

Noon. Strike Rally on Sproul Plaza sponsored by the Solidarity Alliance

Speakers include (list and order subject to change)
Ananya Roy, UC Berkeley Professor and Solidarity Alliance
Solidarity Coalition at UC Davis: Catherine Fung (Grad Student), Joshua Clover (Professor) and Jeff Bergamini (UPTE)
Berkeley UCUC: Nancy Reiko Kato (UPTE), Joe Pulido (AFSCME), Juan Garcia (CUE),
Annie McClanahan (UAW), Mary Kelsy (UC-AFT)
Faculty Organizing Group at UCSC: Barbara Epstein (Professor)
Bob Hass, UCB Professor and Former Poet Laureate of the US
UCB Students: Tavae Samuelu, Sohir Albgal, Hugo Camarena, Viola Tang, Noah Stern, Marika Goodrich
Kathryn Lybarger, AFSCME and Solidarity Alliance

1:30 pm. Send off of activists taking the bus to UCLA
1:30 – 3:30 pm. March led by the Strike Committee of the General Assembly
4:00 pm. First Strike Meeting: What’s Next?
7:00 pm. Film Screening and Discussion of Salt of the Earth (1954)
ASUC Senate Chambers, Eshleman Hall
9:00 pm on. Solidarity Booty Shake in the Bear’s Lair Food Court

Thursday, November 19th.
Day 2 of the Strike: OPEN THE UNIVERSITY / SHUT DOWN THE REGENTS

5:00 am. UPTE Picket lines start at construction sites
8:00 am. UPTE Picket lines at UCOP in Oakland
7:15 am. Main Picket lines begin at campus entrances
9:00 am – 10:00 pm. Celebration of the 40th Anniversary of The Black Scholar
Lipman Room, 7th floor of Barrows, Born of the SF State Strike, all TBS events are in Solidarity
9:00 am – 3:00 pm. The Open University Lectures in the Bear’s Lair Food Court
9:00 – 10:00. Welcome to the Open University / International Skype Connection
10:00 – 11:00. Gray Brechin, “It doesnt have to be this way: Higher Ed in the New Deal”
11:00 – 12:00. Daniel Graham on “The Coup in Honduras”
12:00 – 1:00. Ananya Roy on “The Financialization of Everything”
1:00 – 2:00. Michael Cohen and Kathryn Lybarger on “The IWW and American Labor Radicalism”
2:00 – 3:00. TJ Clark on “From Print Capitalism to Screen Capitalism”

9:30 am – 3:00 pm. The Open University Workshops on Sproul Plaza
9:30 – 10:30. Field Trip and Experiential Learning Tour with AFSCME 3299
10:00 – 11:00. “This is what Berkeley did for me” a photo workshop
12:00 – 1:00. “What is Public? A participatory event in search of the public”
12:00 – 1:00. “Utopias at Work”
12:00 – 1:00. “Ladies and no-gentlemen: How to Avoid Sexism in Organizational Situations”
12:00 – 1:30. Capoeira on the Picket Lines: Demonstration and workshop at Bancroft and Telegraph
1:00 – 2:00. Race and Racism on Campus and In America
1:00 – 2:00. Katherine Lee, “Academic Labor: A Workshop for Students and Workers”
2:00 – 3:00. Annie McClanahan & West Hays: “Prisons and Education: Teaching in CA Prisons”
2:00 – 3:00. Gray Brechin & Peter Byrne, “UC Inc. Workshop on Researching the Regents”
MORE AS WANTED, NEEDED and ABLE

Noon. Striking Workers March from Bancroft and Telegraph
3:10 pm. Dump your trash at California Hall, Sponsored by ASFCME
Bring your campus trash and rally at the east entrance of California Hall.
4:00 pm. Second Strike Meeting: What’s Next?
7:00 pm. Film Screening: “Alcatraz is not an Island” 102 Krober Hall
40th Anniversary of the Occupation of Alcatraz & American Indian Heritage Month
8:00 pm. Musical performance by John Handy Quartet, Lipman Room, Barrows
Part of The Black Scholar Celebration
9:00 pm. Film Screening and Discussion of The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)
ASUC Senate Chambers, Eshelman Hall

Friday, November 20th
Day 3 of the Strike: ESCALATE
11:00am -12:00pm. Bridges Recruitment & Retention Center Rally on Sproul
Noon. Mass Gathering at California Hall
9:00 – 1:30 Celebration of The Black Scholar’s 40th Anniversary, Lipman Rm, Barrows
2:00 – 5:30 pm: Poetry Reading sponsored by The Black Scholar
10:00am – 5:00pm: 40th Anniversary of the Occupation of Alcatraz, Bancroft Hotel
Speakers include original occupiers Dr. Lehman Brightman, Dr. LaNada War Jack and Ilka Hartmann as well as student presentations. [...] Continue Reading…

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48 hours til the Strike: TONS of events today (+ a couple clarifications)

By isaacnoah | Published: November 16, 2009

Hi everyone,

Two Days til the Strike against the Regents meeting and the fee increase begins! Today (Mon. Nov. 16) is jam packed with events on the budget cuts. Exciting!

TODAY’S EVENTS:

intnl

1. International Student Teach-In on the Budget Cuts:

6-8pm in the Multicultural Center in MLK.
Hosted by International Students Association at Berkeley
The event will highlight the effects of the budget cuts on international students. This event is especially important because an increase in international students is being used to help make up the budget deficit for the UC system, reducing the number of resident Californians who are admitted. This is something that International students have not asked for and do not want, and it is important for us to come together so that we can act in solidarity against the cuts.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=169436071733&ref=ts
[...] Continue Reading…

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Petitions against the Fee Increase!

By isaacnoah | Published: November 13, 2009

Please sign the below petitions:

http://www.saveuc.org/petition_fees.php
SAVE the University’s petition to postpone the vote on the fee increase until a full audit can be conducted to discover if student fees are being diverted to debt service for university construction projects and to subsidize the medical centers at UCSF, UCLA, and UC Davis.

This petition has gathered over 1000 signatures in just one day. Please help us build momentum by spreading the words to your friends and fam! [...] Continue Reading…

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Transportation to upcoming Regents Meeting at UCLA

By Ricardo Gomez | Published: November 13, 2009

bearpic

Hi everyone,

If you are interested in getting some free rides down to UCLA from the Nov. 19th UC Regents meeting (where they will decide on whether or not the increase student fees by 32%) then please sign up at: protestucregents.com
[...] Continue Reading…

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NOV. 2ND JAZZ FUNERAL FOR HIGHER EDUCATION 12-1PM

By Ricardo Gomez | Published: October 31, 2009

Day of the Dead English pdf-01

NOV. 2ND JAZZ FUNERAL FOR HIGHER EDUCATION 12-1PM starts at SPROUL ends at CALIFORNIA HALL

“Being the President of the University of California is like being the manager of a cemetery; there are many people under you, no one is listening.”
-UC President Mark Yudof

On the heels of the Regent’s vote to increase student fees by 32% and the continued defunding of all sectors of education in California, we the casualties of these decisions must take mass action against our collective death.

Come mourn the death of public education in California and celebrate our collective rebirth.

Altars to the dead on display all day at the Heller Lounge Multicultural Center in MLK.

Jazz Funeral for Public Education 12-1PM. Starts at Sproul Hall and ends at California Hall.

Dress in black OR bright colors.

Sponsored by: The Center for Latino Policy Research, the Comparative Ethnic Studies program, AFSCME 3299 the Solidarity Alliance, among others.

On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=165551679846&index=1#/event.php?eid=185540297441&index=1 [...] Continue Reading…

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Another Week of Higher Education Oct. 24th- Nov. 2nd

By Ricardo Gomez | Published: October 19, 2009

Starting with the October 24th State-wide Mobilizing Conference and ending with the Nov. 2nd Dia de Los Muertos event.

higher_Ed

OCT 24th – NOV 2nd: ANOTHER WEEK OF HIGHER EDUCATION!

Saturday, 10/24 Statewide Mobilizing Conference for Public Education
9am-5pm in Pauley Ballroom, MLK Student Union
Sponsored by the UC Berkeley General Assembly
http://www.savecapubliceducation.org/

Monday, 10/26 Teach-In on the Crisis of the Public University
4-7pm in Pauley Ballroom, MLK Student Union
Speakers: Ariel Boone, Jayna Brown, Stan Glantz, George Lakoff, Ananya
Roy, Nancy Skinner, Phil Ting, Alberto Torrico
Sponsors: CalSERVE Coalition, Bridges Multicultural Resource Center, SAVE
the University, Solidarity Alliance, Berkeley Faculty Association, and the
Townsend Center for the Humanities

Tuesday, 10/27 Naomi Klein “The Shock Doctrine: California Style”
8pm in Pauley Ballroom, MLK Student Union
Free. Tickets available only at the door from 6:30pm on.
Sponsored by the Mario Savio Lecture Fund
http://savio.org/the_lectures.html

Wednesday, 10/28 Robert Cohen “Freedom’s Orator: Mario Savio”
5pm in Free Speech Movement Cafe, Moffitt Library
Speakers: Robert Cohen, Saul Scott, Lynn Hollander Savio, Leon Litwack,
Colleen Lye
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/news_events/fsmprograms/upcoming.html

Thursday, 10/29 Ruthie Gilmore: “Life In Hell…or How Capitalism Saving
Capitalism From Capitalism SHOULD FIRE OUR POLITICAL IMAGINATION”
5pm-8pm, Bancroft Hotel, 2680 Bancroft Ave.
Sponsored by the Center for Race and Gender & Geography Dept
http://crg.berkeley.edu/content/gilmore

Monday, 11/2 Day of the Dead/Día de los Muertos:

Varied activities include altars with social justice themes sponsored by the Center for Latino
Policy Research and others, and a Louisiana style Jazz funeral sponsored
by the Solidarity Alliance. The events will aim to highlight the acts of
the “dead” in the cemetery that, according to UC President Mark Yudof, is
the UC. Other UC campuses are planning similar activities. Location &
time TBA. [...] Continue Reading…

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UC Solidarity Alliance Statement of Principles

By Ricardo Gomez | Published: September 30, 2009

STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES

From the Solidarity Alliance

UC Berkeley, September 28, 2009

The Berkeley Solidarity Alliance wishes to congratulate all the participants and organizers of the triumphant Walkout on September 24, 2009. We are proud of our collective commitment to a peaceful and inclusive day of action. However, this is only the beginning of our campaign to defend public education in California. We kindly accept the thanks of UCB Chancellor Birgeneau and agree that we must mobilize people off the campuses, working with both the Sacramento Legislature and the voters of California. However, our movement is equally focused on holding accountable the University Office of the President, the UC Regents, and each campus administration. We will continue to protest the lack of democracy and transparency of UC President Mark Yudof and the Regents because of their dangerously misplaced priorities and destructive project of privatizing the UC. In calling for the 9/24 Strike and Walkout, the Solidarity Alliance has made history by reaching across the deepest lines of division that falsely separate workers, students and faculty. In our project of building and defending this newly won and beautifully demonstrated Solidarity, we hereby affirm, and urge our allies to adopt, the following principles:

  1. We believe in democratic participation by everybody. Every voice is equal, all are also listeners.
  2. We are committed to protecting the rights of others, with maximal sensitivity to the vulnerable.
  3. We are determined to practice Solidarity in alliance with all students, workers and faculty groups who share our goals while respecting each others’ constituencies.
  4. We know our diversity to be our strength, and we know that ensuring Solidarity among the students means standing up for working class and middle class students, defending students of color, out-of-state and international students, and supporting transfer and first generation college students.
  5. We are committed to workers’ rights. The staff of the UC are just as vital to the health of this University as the faculty and students. The services provided by UC staff must be protected and not slashed; workers contracts must be honored and their Unions protected from those who would see the lowest paid members of our community driven into poverty.
  6. We will uphold the value of higher education as a public good that must remain accessible and affordable to all the people of California and beyond.
  7. We believe that public education should be democratic in its organization and governance. Unelected Regents, incompetent presidents with “emergency powers,” outrageous spending on administration and secret budgets are real threats to what is best about the University of California.
  8. We believe that this must be a fight to defend all public education in the State of California from kindergartens to colleges. UC must not use its privileged position to make a special deal with Sacramento at the expense of the Cal State System, the Community Colleges and all the public schools, most of whom are suffering far more debilitating cuts than UC Berkeley.
  9. We recognize that while the State of California is in an unprecedented financial crisis, we reject as false the faith that diminishing opportunity, cuts to the most vulnerable and privatization are inevitable. We believe that higher education should be free and must expand as a necessary response to this crisis.
  10. We firmly believe that Solidarity can and must win this fight.

-The Solidarity Alliance

[...] Continue Reading…

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Thank you! 9/24 success, international media coverage

By Ricardo Gomez | Published: September 28, 2009

ba-ucwalkout25_3_0500638416

We would like to thank all of the courageous students, faculty, and staff that stood up to make history on 9/24 by taking part in the Day of Action. Last Thursday was a perfect example of what solidarity looks like.

Because of the Day of Action and the events, teach-ins and panels leading up to it, there are now thousands of students on our campus that understand the difference between a private privilege and a public good and the necessity of protecting and preserving the UC as the latter.

We also brought that narrative to major media outlets around California, the U.S., and the world. Bellow is a short list of some of the media outlets the Day of Action made it to:

Time: California’s Budget Crunch: The Universities Protest

NY Times: California University Cuts Protested

Guardian (UK): University of California campuses erupt into protest

SF Chronicle: Thousands protest fees, cuts at UC campuses

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsome even mentioned the walkout in an article he wrote on higher education. Your work to make 9/24 a success is pushing the debate to where it needs to be, among students, faculty, and staff, but also among those vying to lead this state into the future.

We must not stop now. In the coming weeks there will be more action, more discussion, more debate on how to move forward. We urge you to take part in that process and to stay engaged. Keep checking this website for more updates. [...] Continue Reading…

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