Feature Archives

5/19/04: Fasters leaving for Sacramento after press conference at noon in Oakland
Community support has been quickly growing for seven individuals, including a mother, two teachers, two students, and two community members who began a full-fledged, water-only, fast on Monday, May 10, 2004. On Thursday, UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta visited with the fasters and urged people to come out to show their support.
Last month, during Spring Break, local teachers, students and community members made a 70-mile March 4 Education from San Pablo to Sacramento. After the marchers were ignored by legislators and the Governor, several members decided to start the Fast 4 Education at Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland. The fasters, who originally wanted to maintain a 24-hour-a-day presence, have not been able to stay overnight because of ongoing harrassment by Oakland officials.
"I am glad that my own teacher will not eat to make sure that our schools look better than jails." - Kenneth Saechao (4th grader, WCCUSD, speaking in Sacramento)
Facing Termination | Fast 4 Education website | Sign Petition | Letter of Support from UFW
Photos and Updates: Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 8 | Video from Dolores Huerta's visit 1 2 3

On Friday April 9th 2004, nearly 1000 students, parents and teachers departed from San Pablo in a 70 mile march to Sacramento to protest for equality in education funding, the full funding of Proposition 98, and the elimination of West Contra Costa Unified School District debt. Marching through Vallejo and Fairfield, the marchers rallied at Solono State Prison in Vacaville on Monday April 12th. The march then went through Vacaville and Dixon arriving in Davis on Wednesday April 14th. On April 15th, marchers rallied with UC Davis students at the UC Davis Quad. The March ended with a rally at the State Capitol in Sacramento on Friday April 16th. Marchers testified about the plight of California schools in a legislative hearing room, but neither legislators nor the governor showed up to listen. Five marchers now plan to go on a hungerstrike May 3rd to call attention to the plight of the West Contra Costa school district.
On Monday April 26th, there will be an Education Forum in Berkeley and on April 27 there will be a noon rally at the State Capitol in Sacramento. The next meeting of the March for Education Committee will be on Sunday April 25th in Richmond.
March4Education | Schools Not Jails

On Friday April 9th at noon, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) will held its annual demonstration in remembrance of the Deir Yassin Massacre of 1948. Photos: 1 2
Past SJP Protests at UCB: 3/7/2001 | 4/24/2001 | 4/9/2002 Deir Yassin Protest | 10/2003 Checkpoint protest | 5/2002 Protests | 10/16/2002 | 11/19/2002 Barak Protest
Students for Justice In Palestine | Deir Yassin Remembered | Stop The Wall

3/23/2004: Cesar Cruz, who is a poet, an organizer, and a conflict management consultant at a school in Richmond, was fired on March 23rd. He has been helping to organize a 70-mile march from Richmond to Sacramento during April 9th-16th, of elementary students, parents, and faculty to protest the budget cuts affecting the school at which he worked. Cruz is also helping to organize a youth center near a police-occupied high school, and he was part of a campaign to either get rid of a principal or do away with the position so that the community could run the school. Cruz's supporters believe that the firing is to set an example from the administration to others who want to organize for change in the school system.

On March 16 there was a City Council hearing on school closures. State Administrator Randolph Ward is threatening to close five Oakland elementary schools in predominately low income African American and Latino communities to potentially save 1.2 million dollars. Meanwhile, Alameda County is spending 177 million dollars to build a new prison for children.
Parents, teachers, union members, church members, elected officials and concerned citizens of the Coalition Against School Closures rallied and spoke before the City Council during their debate.
Photos: 1   2 | Read More...

On Thursday March 4th, over one hundred students and teachers and students rallied in front of UC Chancellor Berdahl's office to protest the proposed closure of Berkeley Extension's English Language Program(ELP). 32 faculty members will be laid off if the closure goes forward. Read More

March 16-- Defend Oakland Schools (rally and hearing)