Outstanding doc from inside Wheeler Hall by Brandon Jourdan and David Martinez:
And an update on last night’s UC Davis action:
Video of an early negotiation with a typical faux-sympathetic administrative snake at Mrak Hall, UC Davis:
The second Davis Occupation ended last night when administrators agreed on 5 student demands, including recommending charges dropped against the students arrested in the last week’s occupation, and not pursuing academic sanctions against those students.
Last time the administration decided to arrest all occupying students, this time the students left around 11 pm without a single arrest!
The administrators are running scared, UC! Keep up the momentum! Occupy again! Again and again!
Here’s administrator Janet Gong reading the agreement:
If she doesn’t seem too happy, it might be because she refused to meet these demands the day after the occupation in front of a ballroom of pissed students who attempted to reoccupy Mrak that night, but after this succesful action she was forced to give in!
Here’s a video of Janet Gong earlier in the night arguing the pigs she just called aren’t riot cops, they’re just armed with “tactical equipment” like tazers, batons, and shields!
More from the Davis Students’ blog: http://ouruniversity.wordpress.com/
In other news, there was another large student demo at UC Irvine this afternoon, and Université de Lausanne in Switzerland was occupied today!
(more photos from UCB by Andrew Stern)
From Student Activism:
Tomorrow is the one-week anniversary of the first University of California protests (and arrests) against the regents’ decision to impose huge new fees on the students of the system, and UC’s activists show no signs of letting up.
Today saw a rally and march on the main administration building at UC Irvine, and the first arrest of the week at that campus. It also saw a candlelight vigil — still ongoing — at UC Berkeley, in the wake of the news that the university will be investigating charges of excessive police force at protests there last week.
And at UC Davis, where 52 protesters were arrested in an occupation of administration building Mrak Hall last Thursday, students are hunkering down for the night at Mrak again. The Davis activists’ blog reports that between sixty and seventy students are in Mrak now, and they’ve “made a commitment to stay the night.” They’re dancing, they’ve ordered pizza, and they’re settling in to chat about demands.
Follow the Davis occupation on twitter.
From Democracy Now:
As UC Berkeley Investigates Police Brutality Against Students Protesting Fee Hikes, a Report From Inside the Takeover of Wheeler Hall
The University of California, Berkeley is investigating allegations of police brutality against students and workers protesting fee hikes and budget cuts last week. 40 students were arrested Friday night after campus police entered Wheeler Hall, which the students had taken over earlier in the day. The students were part of a statewide movement protesting the UC Board of Regents decision to raise tuition by 32 percent. Independent journalist Brandon Jourdan, who was embedded with the students inside the occupied building on Friday, files a report for Democracy Now!
UC Headquarters in Oakland briefly occupied
November 23, 2009
Outraged by the eviction of the Wheeler Occupation and the police violence around Berkeley Friday, over 100 students seized UC Headquarters demanding to talk to UC President Mark Yudof.
With supporters and riot police massing some administrators apparently talked to the students for 2 hours, and the students left by the time the building closed. This tweet indicates a very phoney sounding compromise on the part of a UC administrator. Nonetheless, action continues throughout California.
Follow this indymedia link for updates on Monday’s action and search these Hash Tags on Twitter: #UCStrike #OurUni #UCregents
UC Berkeley finally fucking OCCUPIED!
November 20, 2009
Wheeler Hall at UC Berkeley occupied this morning after unsuccessful occupation of Capital Projects yesterday. Police entered building at 6 am, pepper-spraying and beating occupiers. Most of the people remain barricaded on 2nd floor, holding strong. Police are threatening to use tear-gas. Close to 50 police in riot gear inside the building beating on the door. . .
Read the rest of this entry »
Video: NYC March in Solidarity with UC Occupations!
November 19, 2009
Students and friends take the streets, dropping banners off of statues and buildings, crashing New School art parties and decorating the city in solidarity with all the UC occupations!!!
California OCCUPIED
November 19, 2009
California is Occupied
November 18, 2009
The Regents of the University of California are voting, at UCLA, on 32% fee increases for students from November 17 – 19. (The CSU trustees are also meeting on these dates). Students through out the state of California are in an uproar.
UC Santa Cruz: over 500 students are occupying the Kresge Town Hall as of 3:45pm, Wednesday.
the details: hundreds of students rallied at the two entrances to campus shutting it down for several hours. Another group of 300 students entered into the Kresge Town Hall to create an organizing space around the budget cuts. Later in the evening, students at the entrances joined the others in the Kresge Town Hall. Currently, the space is being used to plan further actions.
UC Berkeley attempted occupation. Students have been organizing massive actions through out these three days as well.
UCLA, 14 students arrested earlier. UPDATE (8am Thurs): UCLA IS OCCUPIED
the details: students at UCLA held a “crisis fest” on Wednesday night. At 12am, students go and occupy the campbell hall and rename it the Carter-Huggins Hall, after two black panthers that were murdered in the building. As of this morning the building is still occupied.
-see website
-info from LA Times, LA Indymedia
SFSU held a sit-in, that has now ended. See Indybay.
City College of San Francisco, 500 students walked out in solidarity
General strike and occupation of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
October 22, 2009
General strike and occupation of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna! Come down to squat and join the party!
Greetings form Austria: “We are right now blocking the biggest lecture hall at the university in vienna, austria, to protest against the cut backs on the budget for education and for free access to university for everyone! keep on fighting for free education for everyone!!!
Today, Tuesday 20.10.09 from 12.30
Occupation of the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, Schillerplatz 3
At 12pm a press conference is to be held in front of the Academy of Fine Arts,
Followed by a symbolic evacuation of the university, and finally the occupation of the Academy.
Join us, take your friends and sleeping bags with you!
There’s food, music and ideas for further self organised programs.
The plan is to use the coming days in order to establish an increased number of protest measures!
No study fees for nobody!
Free education for ALL!
Read the rest of this entry »
A CALL TO REVOLT
October 16, 2009
The glass walls of passivity, separating us from one another, can only be shattered with revolt. We are occupying a second building on the Santa Cruz campus of the University of California because we have answered the call of the first to occupy everything. Tonight is a demonstration to students and workers everywhere that the division between taking what you want and planning for a movement to come only appears as a problem for abstract thought about taking action. We only catch sight of the fires of the insurrection to come on the morning after the unrest of the night before.
UC Santa Cruz Occupied!
September 25, 2009
http://occupyca.wordpress.com/
http://wewanteverything.wordpress.com/2009/09/24/communique-from-an-absent-future/
We seek to push the university struggle to its limits.
Though we denounce the privatization of the university and its authoritarian system of governance, we do not seek structural reforms. We demand not a free university but a free society. A free university in the midst of a capitalist society is like a reading room in a prison; it serves only as a distraction from the misery of daily life. Instead we seek to channel the anger of the dispossessed students and workers into a declaration of war.
Italy: Universities of Pisa, Rome, Bologna, Venice, Turin, Padova, Milan and Naples OCCUPIED ahead of G8
July 7, 2009
www.edu-factory.org
Last night 21 Italian students of the universities of Turin, Padua, Naples and Bologna have been arrested through a violent act of the Italian police. Sixteen students have been imprisoned, and other five have to stay under house arrest. Moreover two social centres and several houses have been raided and searched in Turin, Padua and Naples.
The students arrested are in charge of resistance to police and violence during the G8 University in Turin on May. The Anomalous Wave occupied the universities, took the streets and blocked the cities against the unsustainable and illegitimate G8 University Summit, and against the crazy policy of the Italian government.
During those days, Turin’s University was animated by several debates and meetings in which edu-factory collective participated too.
Tehran University students stiffen their resolve to continue protests in the face of heavy-handed assault
The shuttered gates and police cordons outside Tehran University told only part of the story: the institution was shut and would be for the foreseeable future.
For the other part of the story – how one of the most brutal episodes of the stand-off unfolded – there were as many theories as there were students filing through the streets of Tehran .
“We have not been allowed to go to the university since Friday; we really don’t know what has happened exactly,” said Hossein Salehi, 22, one of thousands marching to the university’s dormitories to denounce the death of students at the hands of pro-regime attackers on Sunday night. “One of my friends who was present at the dorm complex that night and was able to escape … said that he was beaten by three riot police while he was pushed to … the ground. I saw his injuries on his legs and his back by my own eyes.”
SOAS Occupied Over Retaliatory Deportation of Cleaners
June 19, 2009
Students and allies at the University of London’s School of School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) have occupied the university today to protest against managers’ attacks on migrant workers. Nine cleaners from the university were taken into detention after a dawn raid by immigration police on Friday. Five have already been deported, and the others could face deportation within days. One has had a suspected heart attack and was denied access to medical assistance and even water. One was over 6 months pregnant. Many have families who have no idea of their whereabouts. The cleaners won the London Living Wage and trade union representation after a successful “Justice for Cleaners” campaign that united workers of all backgrounds and student activists. Activists believe the raid is managers’ “revenge” for the campaign.
