NEWS & LETTERS, Janurary-February 2010
Cal. open university students brutalized
Editor's note: Two participants in the University of California, Berkeley, campus activities during the Fall of 2009 gave a report of their experience. The following are excerpts from their statements.
K.: On Sept. 24 we had a walkout [to protest the proposed 32% tuition raises, lay-offs of staff and forced days off for faculty]. It was the largest rally at Sproul Plaza ever. It made people think about how to organize, to do new things that would draw more attention.
The next action was to be a three-day strike. Workers as well as students called for a strike. There were picket lines for three days, Nov. 18, 19 and 20th, which coincided with the regents' meeting in L.A. where they were going to vote on the 32% tuition hikes, among other issues. On Nov. 20 a group of students decided to escalate. There were protests at every UC campus and we were not being heard. A very diverse group of students, most of whom did not know each other, decided to occupy Wheeler Hall. We were from many parts of the campus, from many different campus groups.
A.: For 12 hours we held the doors closed. The police were pulling on the knob on the outside. If they opened the door even a little bit, they would be able to cut the ropes holding the doors closed. They were putting wedges under the doors, drilling holes to try to get the hinges off, etc. It was physically and mentally exhausting, and we had to trust each other that we were not going to be left alone at the door. Whenever the police attacked the door we would yell "Whose university? Our university!"
K.: Campus presence swelled. In the afternoon a lot more police started showing up. People outside started to block police in any way they could. Police confronted those outside. It was one-on-one, physical and brutal. I know one girl whose hand was broken. Another friend was shot with a rubber bullet. As people were chanting "this is a peaceful protest" cops were beating them.
We were arrested, charged with misdemeanors, cited and released on-site, mostly because the police knew they were not going to be able to take us to jail, since there were tons of people.
A.: We peeled back layers of the administration's moral authority. They unleashed that much brutality on students yet they were not willing to talk to us.
K.: Our next action was to do something about "dead week," Dec. 7-11, a week before finals. We would turn it into "live week." We went to Wheeler Hall again and organized places to study, teach-ins, skill-shares, etc. We had something going on 24 hours a day. We were utilizing student space that would not have been utilized otherwise.
On the last day, Friday morning, I was sleeping, others were studying, when the cops burst in and started arresting everybody. There were non-citizen students in there, who could face deportation if they were arrested.
Imagine, you could be studying on your campus, or sleeping, and get arrested on trespassing charges and sent to jail! All 76 of us got misconduct charges, which made no sense. All we were doing was keeping a building open so people could use it. Yet we were charged with preventing classes from taking place!
The reason the university spokesman gave for the arrests is that we were planning a hip-hop concert Friday. They said it was going to be a threat to student safety. The hip-hop concert was going to be the send-off event, a congratulations for keeping the building open.
A.: The university said that this was a protest, and when you are protesting you should expect to get arrested. But for many people there, it was not just a protest, it was a community. We were creating something. We called it an open university. We wanted a viable model of student-organized space. We didn't destroy anything, on the contrary we saw beautiful things happen. We showed that we can have a truly public university.
K.: You probably heard about the events at the Chancellor's house that night. People decided to go there. It's not clear what transpired. There was property damage and some people were arbitrarily arrested and sent to Santa Rita jail.
A.: We don't know what actually happened that night. The university spokesperson's account of it goes completely against a faculty member's account. And he was sitting right there observing it. It may have been a mistake, but it was also a response to the very, very aggressive act earlier that morning when students in Wheeler were arrested. If we are to condemn the breaking of chancellor's windows, we still can't put it on the same level as the violence perpetrated by the administration this semester, including a lot of violence that is not so visible. Excluding people from education, running the university in an undemocratic fashion, are also acts of violence, and much more morally corrupt than students getting a little out of control. It's important to look at these things in perspective.
K.: On Nov. 20, when police were brutalizing students, violence happened. What happened at the chancellor's house was not the same order of violence. How could that be called terrorism, and not what happened to the students on Nov. 20? When it happens to a school official it's terrorism, but when it happens to students, it's just what they should expect for peacefully protesting!
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