walkout!

the sinverguenzas uc regents + sinverguenza arnold schwarzenegger are trying to push through a 32% tuition & fee increase in the university of california for next year. undergraduate tuition & fees would hit more than $10,000 (obscene!), with fewer & more crowded classes and of course cut hours for libraries, etc. the cal state schools have been seeing similar mierda. the regents are pretty hell bent on taking the last bit of "public" out of public higher education in california, gutting even further an already significantly privatized state university system (which used to be entirely subsidized!).

but ok! there's a massive walkout scheduled for today. students as well as professors & lecturers will walk out at all 10 uc schools throughout california. union workers from cue & upte will strike, and will set up picket lines at the entrances starting at 7:15am.



sure, (academia in general and) the uc schools in particular are institutions in the service of captialism & imperialism, actively cultivating the next generation of corporate technocrats and thugs, and housing some main components of the imperial war machine.

they're also where lots of us first came across gramsci or fanon or lenin. where we busted through our first police lines, took our first arrests, learned what proper political agitation is and how to defend ourselves against batons & pepper spray. and have been sites of proud & militant movements for students' rights & educational equity throughout the decades. and though it's currently quite far from where we would want it to be, the battle for public education is essential and the fight it deserves is a valiant one.

**

ok! ¡ya vámanos! here are a couple songs to play while you paint your picket signs and ready your bullhorn:

ain't gonna let nobody turn me round : u.s. civil rights movement activists



corrido de los combates de zacatenco : judith reyes



[wow, i just listened again to this judith reyes song, which comes from a collection of music from the student strike at unam in mexico city in 1968. it actually recalls the date september 24th (!) which was the date of an uprising at a technical school in df. students occupied the school and set up barricades in the neighborhood, even commandeering an oil truck from a nearby refinery from which to throw molotov cocktails at police cars. i think that's an auspicious sign.]

ok, last thing. a bit of agitation from the design students at the university of buenos aires from their fight against budget cuts...



and from anti-war & free speech activist mario savio at uc berkeley in 1964...



no fee increases & no layoffs or furloughs!!!! ¡¡¡no a las recortes!!! ¡¡¡no a la privatización!!!

see you soon at ucb & in the streets.