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A call for support
On Friday, October 30th, Doug Zuidema, Director of Judiciary Affairs at UCSC, notified a collection of students — many of whom were journalists reporting outside the Humanities 2 Occupation — that they were potentially subject to disciplinary proceedings. The charge: simply being present in a space in which a political action was taking place. On Thursday evening, UCSC officials dispatched campus police to disperse a group of students and faculty meeting in a library to discuss the impact of the budget crisis on public education. University officials are engaged in an armed campaign to intimidate protestors, threaten press coverage of political action and restrict students’ and workers’ right to assemble. After witnessing two occupations on a single campus during the first month of the academic calendar, the UCSC administration is terrified that a new radical student-worker movement is gaining strength and numbers. The University increasingly functions like a police apparatus: taking surveillance photos at protests, compiling dossiers on individuals, modifying response protocols and manufacturing phony charges against students and workers for kangaroo courts. As further evidence of administrative paranoia, university officials preemptively evacuated several buildings which were thought to be the targets of future occupations.
In the eyes of the bureaucrats running this system, direct action constitutes a serious threat. Their response strategy is clear: attack anyone around political actions — and anyone discussing them for that matter — in order to scare away support for any political action at all. These are attempts to govern with fear, to silence our dissent. The administration seeks to divide us from one another, to alienate “the protestors” from “the campus community.” But we are increasingly realizing the truth of our collective situation: our community is being torn apart by this crisis. We are the crisis. These expressions of dissent through action ARE forms of discourse as well. They are modes of opening conversation beyond the limited forums available and ways of provoking discussion.
This is a call to students, workers, and faculty to support the freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and freedom of speech on this campus. We can use these disciplinary actions and police operations as a flashpoint for generalizing our collective struggle. Indeed, a diversity of tactics will be necessary in the days to come. It would be a perilous mistake to tolerate these brute tactics of intimidation and threat.
To the active demand for a free society, the University responds with a pair of handcuffs and a can of mace. There is a word for this policy: barbarism.
None of this should come as a surprise. The administration encourages us to express our dissent in discourse, but they criminalize all expression of dissent through action. It is only during a real political crisis that we catch sight of this ugly fact, lurking behind the glimmering facade of every ivory tower.
This is a call to students, workers, and faculty to support the freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and freedom of speech on this campus. We can use these disciplinary actions and police operations as a flashpoint for generalizing our collective struggle. Indeed, a diversity of tactics will be necessary in the days to come. It would be a perilous mistake to tolerate these brute tactics of intimidation and threat.
To the active demand for a free society, the University responds with a pair of handcuffs and a can of mace. There is a word for this policy: barbarism.
None of this should come as a surprise. The administration encourages us to express our dissent in discourse, but they criminalize all expression of dissent through action. It is only during a real political crisis that we catch sight of this ugly fact, lurking behind the glimmering facade of every ivory tower.
For more information:
http://occupyca.wordpress.com
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Just wanted to send a shout out from UCSF emphasizing what a wonderful communique this is. We are so inspired by your actions. Keep it up Santa Cruz!
I just want to let you know that we have been following the communiques which have been released and are also significantly inspired by your organizing at Santa Cruz here at San Francisco State University. We also have issues when the police come and videotape our demonstrations, or those of our comrades in organizations like: BSU, MEChA, General Union of Palestinian Students, and the Muslim Student Association. We know that there are undercover cops as well that take our photos and speak into their hidden microphones... however, we are still organizing because intimidation cannot prevail when the people unify collectively to challenge the role of education and build alternative forms of power that exists horizontally...
Therefore, we send our support!!!!
Free all Political Prisoners! Because every prisoner is a political prisoner...
Therefore, we send our support!!!!
Free all Political Prisoners! Because every prisoner is a political prisoner...
I'll write more later about this, but I was one of many students Zuidema tried to punish in his years in the Office of Student Conduct at UC Berkeley.
I was part of a group of students that took over Barrows Hall to demand that the University recommit itself to the original model for the Ethnic Studies dept and stop killing the department like they had been for years.
I was one of 5 singled out for various reasons during the Barrows Hall sit-in. The other 4 were - Francisco Cassique who they tried to suspend or expel for reacting appropriately to acts of police brutality by UCPD; Shahed Mustafa and Chris Zamani who they tried to suspend or expel for their ongoing leadership on campus and willingness to do take a stand, and Joanna Eveland a woman who you don't want to mess with...when Vice Chancellor Horace Mitchell asked her if she wanted to go along with the program...she screamed "IF WE WENT ALONG WITH THE PROGRAM THERE WOULD BE NO ETHNIC STUDIES"
Strangely enough it seemed that the Universities charges seemed to be motivated by something other than what we had done. Zuidema and Co. didn't seem to be going after the 2 white kids in the same way that he was Chris, Shahed, and Francisco. This wasn't some sort of isolated incident either, it really seems like there is a definite pattern to the way Zuidema and other University and College administrations attempt to silence people and even expel them.
In the end, the disciplinary committee of faculty, staff, and students commended us for our actions and all criminal charges were dropped.
Zuidema lost, but maybe the whole point was really just the harrassment and distracting us from what we started out fighting for.
Just don't forget its all connected...don't forget that higher education is supposed to be free to all residents of California...that it turns out free speech is very important and that our campuses should be governed by shared governance at each campus(ie democracy)...that ethnic studies, women's studies, lgbtq, environmental, and other critical studies were born out of struggle and we need to fight to rebuild them and build bridges between them and hopefully an autonomous college...
more later...
sorry for the rant...but Zuidema and the UC administration know that they are wrong on this and they are fighting a losing battle, but they are trying desperately to maintain order so that they can continue to sell our public higher education system off to the highest bidder.
I was part of a group of students that took over Barrows Hall to demand that the University recommit itself to the original model for the Ethnic Studies dept and stop killing the department like they had been for years.
I was one of 5 singled out for various reasons during the Barrows Hall sit-in. The other 4 were - Francisco Cassique who they tried to suspend or expel for reacting appropriately to acts of police brutality by UCPD; Shahed Mustafa and Chris Zamani who they tried to suspend or expel for their ongoing leadership on campus and willingness to do take a stand, and Joanna Eveland a woman who you don't want to mess with...when Vice Chancellor Horace Mitchell asked her if she wanted to go along with the program...she screamed "IF WE WENT ALONG WITH THE PROGRAM THERE WOULD BE NO ETHNIC STUDIES"
Strangely enough it seemed that the Universities charges seemed to be motivated by something other than what we had done. Zuidema and Co. didn't seem to be going after the 2 white kids in the same way that he was Chris, Shahed, and Francisco. This wasn't some sort of isolated incident either, it really seems like there is a definite pattern to the way Zuidema and other University and College administrations attempt to silence people and even expel them.
In the end, the disciplinary committee of faculty, staff, and students commended us for our actions and all criminal charges were dropped.
Zuidema lost, but maybe the whole point was really just the harrassment and distracting us from what we started out fighting for.
Just don't forget its all connected...don't forget that higher education is supposed to be free to all residents of California...that it turns out free speech is very important and that our campuses should be governed by shared governance at each campus(ie democracy)...that ethnic studies, women's studies, lgbtq, environmental, and other critical studies were born out of struggle and we need to fight to rebuild them and build bridges between them and hopefully an autonomous college...
more later...
sorry for the rant...but Zuidema and the UC administration know that they are wrong on this and they are fighting a losing battle, but they are trying desperately to maintain order so that they can continue to sell our public higher education system off to the highest bidder.
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