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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT><A
href="http://socialistworker.org/print/2009/12/11/police-attack-sfsu-occupation"></A> </DIV></FONT></H1>
<H1 class=headline>Police attack SFSU occupation</H1>
<DIV
style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(51,51,51)"
class=introduction>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold" class=sw_author>Alex Fu and Sid
Patel</SPAN><SPAN class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN>report from San
Francisco on a building occupation at SFSU that ended in a police assault and
dozens of arrests.</P></DIV>
<P
style="MARGIN: 1em 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; COLOR: rgb(104,104,104); FONT-SIZE: 1em"
class=dateline>December 11, 2009</P>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT><A
href="http://socialistworker.org/print/2009/12/11/police-attack-sfsu-occupation">http://socialistworker.org/print/2009/12/11/police-attack-sfsu-occupation</A><A
href="http://socialistworker.org/print/2009/12/11/police-attack-sfsu-occupation"></A></DIV>
<DIV class=body>
<P
style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: medium">IN
THE early morning hours of December 10, police in full riot gear attacked a
peaceful building occupation at San Francisco State University that was
organized to protest budget cuts, furloughs for faculty and fee hikes.</P>
<P
style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: medium">The
police broke into the business administration building through a window and
proceeded to clear it with guns drawn, endangering the safety of all the
activists. Officers forced open doors from the inside and violently shoved aside
students picketing the entrances on the outside, throwing some to the ground. In
all, 28 students were cited and released, on charges ranging from traffic
citations, to failure to disperse, to trespass.</P>
<P
style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: medium">Clearly,
the SFSU administration decided to both ignore the grievances of students and
collude with police to violently remove them.</P>
<P
style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: medium">The
occupation of the building began early Wednesday morning. About 20 students
barricaded themselves inside, declaring an end to "business as usual" and
presenting<SPAN class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN><A
style="COLOR: rgb(142,4,4); TEXT-DECORATION: none"
href="http://occupysfsu.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/demands-for-our-occupation/">a
list of demands</A><SPAN class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN>[2]. Hundreds
of students came out to hold pickets at each of the building's entrances
throughout the day.</P>
<P
style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: medium">At
the high point of the action, over 300 students formed a human chain that
circled the building. Cash-strapped students found ways to donate blankets, food
and drinks to both the occupiers and those picketing outside. Members of the
community, faculty and staff came out to show support, and protest organizers
from City College of San Francisco, University of California Berkeley and
University of California Santa Cruz came to campus to participate in the
solidarity actions.</P>
<P
style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: medium">The
occupation took place in the midst of registration for spring classes, as more
and more class sections have been cut and fees are increasing. The idea that
galvanized the very frustrated student population is the idea that if they take
our classes, we'll take their buildings.</P>
<P
style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: medium">"I
came out because I support my friends who are a part of this," said student
Keri-Ann Oddman. "I'm probably going to get dropped from financial aid, and I'm
basically done with it. It's either action now, or they're going to walk all
over us."</P>
<P
style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: medium">When
some of the occupiers were released from detention, they spoke out. "Today, we
saw an increased excitement and involvement in student activism," said senior
Aaron Salazar. "And that is what gave a lot of us our endurance to carry on.
>From here, we need to take those people that showed up and plug them into
organizations, so that this energy can grow and materialize into a victory for
workers around the state."</P>
<P
style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: medium">Freshman
Napaquetzalli Martinez added: "The most inspiring part of the occupation was
that it was part of the larger working class struggle, not only about the cuts
at our school."<BR>- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</P>
<P
style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: medium">THE
OCCUPATION was an important indicator of the campus mood as organizers move
toward a day of strikes and protests to defend public education, set for next
March 4, and to involve not the UC and CSU system campuses, but teachers,
parents and students in pre-K through 12th grade education. At SFSU,
mini-General Assemblies were held at each entry point to the occupied building,
where ideas for March 4 were discussed.</P>
<P
style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: medium">The
administration at SFSU has demonstrated that it has no desire to engage with
students about even the most basic demands, such as restoring a
several-thousand-dollar budget for the Ethnic Studies Student Resource and
Empowerment Center. The shameful fact is that many of these administrators
enjoyed big raises on top of their large salaries and perk-packages over the
past few years, even as classes have been cut, faculty and workers laid off, and
fees hiked.</P>
<P
style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: medium">One
important criticism of the occupation has come from faculty and students
involved in the campus movement--the action was organized in secret by a small
group of activists, and intentionally excluding other leading campus activists.
The result was that the number of occupiers was small, and outside support had
to be put together hastily. This only made it easier for the police to break up
the occupation.</P>
<P
style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: medium">Secondly,
the occupation was organized on the same day as a planned SFSU General
Assembly--and actually caused its cancellation. Dozens of students, faculty and
staff had been planning for the general assembly as the next step in building a
democratic, united movement on campus.</P>
<P
style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: medium">Building
the General Assembly is still an urgent task--the next one will take place on
Wednesday, December 16 (postponed from the previous week). A united, democratic
effort is the best hope of building for mobilizing students, faculty and staff
to strike and shut down SFSU's campus on March 4--and of moving beyond to get
the budget cuts taken back.</P>
<P
style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; FONT-SIZE: medium">=
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =</P>
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class="node insert ib_do node-unpublished">
<DIV
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; FONT-SIZE: 1.1em; FONT-WEIGHT: bold"
class=ib_header><SPAN class=ib_label>What you can do</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=content>
<P style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; FONT-SIZE: medium">Support
the peaceful occupiers by calling the Office of the Vice President for Student
Affairs and Dean of Students Dr. J.E. Saffold at 415-338-2032 and demanding that
all charges be dropped and no disciplinary action be taken against the
protesters.</P></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>
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class=footer>
<P>- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</P>
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class=url-footnotes>
<LI><A style="COLOR: rgb(138,136,136); TEXT-DECORATION: none"
href="http://socialistworker.org/department/Activist-News">[1]
http://socialistworker.org/department/Activist-News</A></LI>
<LI><A style="COLOR: rgb(138,136,136); TEXT-DECORATION: none"
href="http://occupysfsu.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/demands-for-our-occupation/">[2]
http://occupysfsu.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/demands-for-our-occupation/</A></LI>
<LI><A style="COLOR: rgb(138,136,136); TEXT-DECORATION: none"
href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0">[3]
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0</A></LI></OL>
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