HAWAII: Background--Protest Actions leading up to the occupation of UH Administration Bldg

Honolulu, HI, May 7, 2005--On Thursday, April 28th, 30 activists entered the UH president’s office and announced that they would not leave until he agreed to kill the proposal for the military research center. Meanwhile, students and supporters gathered as faculty held solidarity teach-ins outside the president’s office in Bachman Hall. On Wednesday, May 4th the activists declared that "...our occupation has been a tremendous victory" and returned the president’s office to Dr. McClain, vowing to return and reclaim the space in the future if the administration ever again fails to fulfill the duties of this office.

In a press release the Save UH/Stop UARC Coalition stated, in part:

"Last Thursday, we occupied Interim President David McClain’s office to take back our University from an administration that had failed to uphold the core values and mission of this institution, and neglected to listen to the serious and legitimate concerns of our university ohana. The Save UH/Stop UARC coalition was forced to take this step because of the administration’s dishonesty and unwillingness to acknowledge the valid concerns that were raised. In doing so we transformed Bachman Hall into an alternative space where democracy and justice could take root.

We, the ohana of the university, remain steadfast in our commitment to defending our school and communities against the UARC and other forms of militarization. We pledge to continue our struggle to ultimately stop the UARC and uphold the vision expressed in our University motto: “Ma luna a’e o na lahui a pau ke ola o ke kanaka”—Above all nations is humanity."

The plan to establish a UARC for Navy directed and funded research came to light unexpectedly last November, when the UH Board of Regents gave the plan its provisional approval before any public announcements or discussion had taken place. It subsequently emerged that UH administrators had first approached the Navy with the idea as early as September 2002, and that chancellor Peter Englert had been actively promoting the UARC for months behind closed doors. As a leaked Navy memo makes clear, the purpose of the proposed UARC is to “improve system performance of DoD [Department of Defense] weapons systems.”

As news of the plan spread, outraged students, faculty and community groups formed the Stop UARC Coalition. At three public meetings belatedly held by the chancellor in mid-April, opponents of the plan blasted the administration for going forward without full public disclosure and discussion and for failing to acknowledge or address the ethical and social costs of increased militarization.

In 1967-8, UH contracted with the US Army to do research involving Agent Orange, the toxic defoliant widely used by US forces in the Vietnam War. The deaths by cancer of three UH employees is attributed to exposure to Agent Orange during this research. There is moreover a long history of opposition, especially among native Hawaiians, to militarization on O’ahu, an island on which military bases already occupy 25% of the land. Opponents argue that the UARC directly contradicts the UH motto (Maluna a'e o na lahui a pau ke ola ke kanaka: "Above all nations is humanity") and cannot be reconciled with the university’s mission to become a uniquely “Hawaiian place of learning.”

As students and faculty condemned the three April “consultations” as a deceptive attempt by UH administrators to retrospectively wrap their plans in a semblance of legitimacy, activists repeatedly interrupted the proceedings with creative forms of protest. A mock chemical spill staged by students in Haz-Mat suits and gas masks disrupted the first meeting. At the second, about 25 students in skull makeup staged a die-in. When the chancellor ended the meeting before people standing in line to speak were heard, students and faculty followed him out and blockaded his car, preventing it from leaving campus.

At the final meeting on April 21, the director of the Hawaiian Studies center at UH and spokespeople from native Hawaiian groups warned the chancellor that the UARC was an insult to indigenous values that would provoke fierce opposition. Meanwhile, students in clown costume took the stage holding a banner reading: BOGUS CONSULTATION IN PROGRESS.

In a burlesque action that alluded to a lab monkey that escaped from a high security bio-containment facility at University of California-Davis, four students dressed as security personnel chased another student in a monkey costume through the crowded auditorium. Still other students masquerading as death held a banner with the message SECRECY KILLS.

Ignoring the growing opposition, the UH chancellor continues to push ahead with the planned UARC, lobbying with his staff at the state capitol and at the editorial boards of Honolulu newspapers. Despite his advocacy, a resolution calling for UH to abandon its plan was passed by the state legislature. Another resolution passed by a senate committee called for a task force to further investigate costs and benefits.