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Indybay Feature
Pictures of Sit-In and Rally at Oakland Unified Headquarters
Six Oakland Community Members Arrested at Oakland
School District HQ Demanding Meeting With State
Superintendent Jack O'Connell.
School District HQ Demanding Meeting With State
Superintendent Jack O'Connell.
Micah Clatterbaugh, Chicano Moratorium Coalition; Kali Akuno, Malcolm X Grassroot Movement; Anne Weills, Civil Rights Lawyer, Michael Siegal, Coalition Against School Closures; Linda Halpern, teacher at Community Day School; Pamela Drake, Canditate for City Council District 2 staged a sit-in to demand restoration of local
democratic control of the Oakland schools.
Oakland, CA. As of 3:45 p.m. today, Tuesday March 1st, six Oakland residents began a sit-in in the office of the state administrator of the Oakland schools when their demand for a meeting with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack
O'Connell was refused; about 75 students, parents, teachers and labor leaders rallied outside. The group demands a meeting with Superintendent O'Connell.
"We do not recognize the current district leadership as legitimate," says Kali Akuno, an Oakland-based educator who was part of the sit-in. "We call on Superintendent O'Connell to restore democratic
control to Oakland's public school system." As part of their action today, the coalition issued four demands for Superintendent O'Connell. They are:
1. The immediate restoration of local democratic control over the Oakland Unified School District;
2. No school closures and no charter conversions;
3. No layoffs; and
4. An immediate meeting with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell to discuss the implementation of these demands.
Michael Siegel of the coalition, also sitting-in, continues: "Recent actions by State Administrator Randolph Ward to close schools without community input, to open our campuses to private school and charter school corporations, and to threaten the complete shutdown of our adult education program only further our resolve to resist this hostile takeover until Oakland parents, educators, and community members can once again decide how best to educate our children, youth, and adults."
The community coalition includes parents of Oakland Unified School District students, educators, high school students, and representatives from Youth Together, the Oakland Education Association (OEA), the Million Worker March, the American Federated County State and Municipal Employees union (AFSCME), Oakland Parents Together, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, and Education Not Incarceration.
for more info go to this link -
democratic control of the Oakland schools.
Oakland, CA. As of 3:45 p.m. today, Tuesday March 1st, six Oakland residents began a sit-in in the office of the state administrator of the Oakland schools when their demand for a meeting with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack
O'Connell was refused; about 75 students, parents, teachers and labor leaders rallied outside. The group demands a meeting with Superintendent O'Connell.
"We do not recognize the current district leadership as legitimate," says Kali Akuno, an Oakland-based educator who was part of the sit-in. "We call on Superintendent O'Connell to restore democratic
control to Oakland's public school system." As part of their action today, the coalition issued four demands for Superintendent O'Connell. They are:
1. The immediate restoration of local democratic control over the Oakland Unified School District;
2. No school closures and no charter conversions;
3. No layoffs; and
4. An immediate meeting with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell to discuss the implementation of these demands.
Michael Siegel of the coalition, also sitting-in, continues: "Recent actions by State Administrator Randolph Ward to close schools without community input, to open our campuses to private school and charter school corporations, and to threaten the complete shutdown of our adult education program only further our resolve to resist this hostile takeover until Oakland parents, educators, and community members can once again decide how best to educate our children, youth, and adults."
The community coalition includes parents of Oakland Unified School District students, educators, high school students, and representatives from Youth Together, the Oakland Education Association (OEA), the Million Worker March, the American Federated County State and Municipal Employees union (AFSCME), Oakland Parents Together, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, and Education Not Incarceration.
for more info go to this link -
For more information:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/03/172448...
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Good job, Jpton! Great coverage.
Great to know this direct action is happening! This is the only real way to make change.
As someone said, 'Blacks didn't get the right to vote by voting.'
As someone said, 'Blacks didn't get the right to vote by voting.'
Indybay Readers --- This fight is building momentum quick. I'm seeing it first hand.
6 people getting dragged away in chains don't make a movement.
just look at history. at u.c. berkeley in 1964 is was something like 700 students getting arrested, doing non-compliance, that lasted til past dawn that woke up not only a campus and community, but a generation.
this ain't happenin' in oaktown. sorry, getting filmed passively letting the pigs kick their ass must have huey turning over in his grave. that ain't direct action, he's saying.
we don't need guns or hyper-militance, but we need a fuckin' lot more imagination that getting on our knees and pleading to the man's sense of morality. it takes smarts and fresh tactics. they are cutting everything and another human interest news story ain't gonna change that.
as joe hill said: don't mourn, organize!
so let's so using passive tactics that don't work and let's starting figurin' out some new, fresh ones that will.
(no disrespect to the righteous folks who were out there, but c.d. in 2005? come on!)
phil
just look at history. at u.c. berkeley in 1964 is was something like 700 students getting arrested, doing non-compliance, that lasted til past dawn that woke up not only a campus and community, but a generation.
this ain't happenin' in oaktown. sorry, getting filmed passively letting the pigs kick their ass must have huey turning over in his grave. that ain't direct action, he's saying.
we don't need guns or hyper-militance, but we need a fuckin' lot more imagination that getting on our knees and pleading to the man's sense of morality. it takes smarts and fresh tactics. they are cutting everything and another human interest news story ain't gonna change that.
as joe hill said: don't mourn, organize!
so let's so using passive tactics that don't work and let's starting figurin' out some new, fresh ones that will.
(no disrespect to the righteous folks who were out there, but c.d. in 2005? come on!)
phil
i wrote:
* so let's so using passive tactics that don't work...*
what I meant was: let's STOP using passive tactics that don't work..
and i meant let's get radical and get the whole fuckin' community occupying the offices and refusing to leave, not 6 people and a bunch of media scabs.
* so let's so using passive tactics that don't work...*
what I meant was: let's STOP using passive tactics that don't work..
and i meant let's get radical and get the whole fuckin' community occupying the offices and refusing to leave, not 6 people and a bunch of media scabs.
Nobody is stopping you from organizing those 700 people. If you do-- I'll be there-- until then I'll salute the 6 that got arrested.
what if they called a direct action/photo op and MORE media hacks showed up than activists. maybe then we would realize it's more cost-effective to just hire the media to do our *messaging* for us. then we could just stay at home and watch it on TV.
A crowd of arrestees doesn't materialize out of thin air, it has to be inspired.. next time 60 inside, 750 outside, then 600 inside and 7500 outside... at this point i don't think the state would have much chance...
was is it that people think *activism* and like fucking pavlovian dogs they get on their cell phones, call the multinational media conglomerates' local affiliates--who are another enemy to all working and poor people--and beg them to put the news of a handfull of people getting arrested on the 6 o'clock news or on the cover of the corporate daily rag?
whatever happended to *direct action* like the wobblies used to do it?
have you all given up and said: *if you can't beat them, join them?*
why don't you just get a job at CNN and change the world from within?
and getting arrested! what's that all about?
it reeks of the morality of church and preaching and thick books of morality.
whatever happended to *direct action* like the wobblies used to do it?
have you all given up and said: *if you can't beat them, join them?*
why don't you just get a job at CNN and change the world from within?
and getting arrested! what's that all about?
it reeks of the morality of church and preaching and thick books of morality.
Next time somebody's getting arrested, you can show up and fight the cops off. Also, if you have a hand free, bring a video camera and make a segment for your local pirate TV station.
Very impressive critique. Actually the point of the action was to galvanize much larger actions that are to come. Phil, I hope to see you at the Town Hall meeting on March 8th from 6-8PM at the First Congregational Church, 2501 Harrison and the rally on March 15th at 4PM at the State Building, 1515 Clay Street. They'll be much bigger chances for you to prove your your prowess as an activist in the months to come. I'm glad your committed to action and organizing!! It will be great to have your help.
i'll just read about it in the sf examiner. you guys seems to have it taken care of.
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