Report from Berkeley and San Francisco Protests to Free the Jena 6

Burning anger at the case of the Jena 6 and the ongoing discrimination and mistreatment of Black people exploded in many places throughout the San Francisco Bay Area on Thursday. Hundreds of young Black high school and college students were the driving force behind the protests and they were joined by people of all nationalities and ages who refused to remain silent in the face of this injustice.

Over 1,000 Berkeley students rallied on Sproul Plaza on the UC Berkeley campus, joined by scored of High School students from Berkeley High and Oakland Tech who had walked out of school to go to the rally at UC. Later over 300 staged a spirited march through the campus and surrounding neighborhoods.

The rallies were marked by a determination that the Jena 6 be freed NOW and that the racism that permeates American society needs to be ended. “Racism just needs to stop. You’d think that after so many years it would have died down but the truth of the matter is it hasn’t,” Britany, a young black student from Berkeley High told Revolution as she walked with her friends to UC. Her sign, signed by many other high school students said, racism is a sickness which we must cure.

Revolution spoke with Josephine, a freshman UC Berkeley student who was the major organizer of the rally at Cal. During her speech she challenged students saing: “Now that you know about the Jena 6, what will you do about it? Will you think about it and say that’s too bad and get on with your life? Or will you call a news station and demand that they investigate the story so other people will know about it? Will you get the word out to all your friends? Will you send the letters? Will you make the phone calls. Or will you decide that you are too busy with your own life to support the cause. The decision is up to you. But when deciding please remember that the Jena 6 are just like you and it would be a disgrace to spend another day in an American society where nooses hang freely from southern trees.”

“The day I found out about it I couldn’t even sleep that night, I was so frustrated and so upset that something like this could still be happening in 2006 and 2007,” Josephine told Revolution. “I really felt the need to act. This is my first year here and I’m from the Bay Area and I’ve always seen protests and rallies at UC Berkeley. I didn’t have that much experience but I really had a passion for this.”

Eighteen students from Casa Magdalena Mora, a Chicano theme house at Berkeley came together on the steps to deliver a statement of support saying, “If we do not unite and speak out against these injustices then this country will remain socially backward. We have to ask ourselves how this could have happened? How teenagers would have to ask permission to sit under a tree? How nooses hanging from a tree could be considered a prank?”

A student from the house told Revolution about some things she had learned from growing up in Los Angeles. “We are always dealing with these things portrayed in the media, this Brown vs. Black. We’re here, Casa Mora, to stay, ‘Stop with that!’ We need to be united in order to deal with these kind of issues….We have oppression in common, we’ve both faced many years of genocide. We have to get together and fight the situation.”

Several hundred people attended a rally and speak out in downtown San Francisco in the late afternoon. Speakers included Reverend Arnold Townsend, Rhema Word Christian Fellowship Church, Willie Ratcliffe, publisher of the San Francisco Bayview newspaper, Revolution correspondent Larry Everest, activist and former Black Panther, Kiilu Nyasha, Maria Christina Gutierrez from Companeros Del Barrio, a day laborer, students from San Francisco State, Berkeley High, UC Berkeley, City College, an activist with World Can’t Wait. After the rally about a hundred people took off for a spirited march through the streets of the financial district, the Union Square shopping district, and the Tenderloin, one of the poorest areas of the city where many people live in single room occupancy hotels if they can find a place at all.

Other actions in the Bay Area/Northern California took place at San Jose State University, Laney College in Oakland, San Francisco State University, University of San Francisco, and California State University Fresno.

In the week leading up to the demonstration Revolution Books in Berkeley organized two vans for Jena in response to the call in Revolution Newspaper to “get on the bus.” Those traveling over 30 hours to attend the rally included 5 Berkeley High School students, a physician, a high school teacher, a human relations commissioner and supporters of Revolution Newspaper. Students from Berkeley High who couldn’t go to Jena went to the Berkeley City Council and asked for money to support the trip and for the Council to take a stand against the injustice. City Council member had already scheduled a hearing on Jena and attended the rally at UC Berkeley. On the way to the rally people in the vans were interviewed by media including a San Jose TV station, the Chronicle Newspaper, and Pacifica Radio’s Flashpoints.

When distributors of Revolution Newspaper took the case of the Jena 6 to ESL schools and day laborers in one city, they got an enthusiastic response. Many people asked about the picture of the lynching on the back page of the paper. When they heard about the Jena 6 and how this linked up with the history of national oppression against Black people they wanted to do something. Many people signed a banner in Spanish which was sent to Jena. A day laborer organized a showing of the “Postcards at the Hanging” section of the DVD Revolution where Bob Avakian speaks about the crimes committed against Black people throughout the history of the U.S.

The day before the rally a group several dozen Berkeley students marched from Berkeley to the nearby city of Oakland to build support for the case of the Jena 6 in the community. They were surprised by a group from a Pentecostal storefront church, who had heard about their march and were gathered outside the church to welcome them with bottles of water with “Free the Jena 6” labels pasted on.