Friday, November 20, 2009

UCLA LATEST UPDATES

NOVEMBER 19TH LATEST NEWS

2:30 A chicanco/chicana studies class is held outside, on the steps of Campbell Hall, explaining the history of the Black Panthers assasinated there and some reasons behind the occupation

2:20 Students and workers surround vehicle escorting Regents out

VOTE FOR 32% TUITION HIKES CONFIRMED

1pm Return to Covel, several speakers address issues of racism and privatization. Approximately three speakers express support for the occupation.

12:30 Students arrive in Westwood, blocking of Wilshire, marching down Wilshire and back to Covel

Noon: Students start the march down to Westwood, ready to block off intersections.

11:30am Studnets rush through Powell, Haines, Royce and other buildings screaming "walkout." At least one class is liberated from work for the day.

11am Apprx. 300-400 Students march from Covel to Campbell hall to support the occupation

9am CAMPBELL HALL REMAINS OCCUPIED - IN ORDER TO CONTINUE THE OCCUPATION, THE OCCUPIERS NEED SUPPORT! TO ANYONE who is able to hear this call: MOBILIZE and DEFEND the liberated space that belongs to everyone IMMEDIATELY.

7am Students issue communique: http://uclaresists.blogspot.com/2009/11/communique-from-ucla-occupation.html

2am: Campbell Hall still occupied.



12:30am: Students occupy Campbell Hall and rename it Carter-Huggins, after two Black Panthers shot at UCLA in 1969.

NOVEMBER 18TH BELOW

11:45pm Bus from San Diego arrives

10:30pm People invited on stage to share their own ideas and opinons about the student movement. Rousing speeches.

10:00pm University shuts down sound at Crisis Fest, students form a general assembly to talk about the effects of racism, the wars abroad, capitalism and the future of the student movement.

9: 00pm Buses from Berkely come in, wild dancing begins.

7-9pm Bands, live performances at Crisis Fest, unions provide free dinners & drinks to students and workers setting up tents.

6:00pm ABOUT 75-100 PEOPLE AT CRISIS FEST, hip hop fills the campus as we wait for buses from Berkeley, Santa Cruz, Davis and more!

5:00 Crisis Fest set up begins

3:00 TEACH OUTS held at Covel Commons

12:55pm - 1:10pm:


- ANNOUNCEMENT OF TUITION HIKES AT CAMPUS TACO BELL

-SPONTANEOUS PROTEST AT BRUIN PLAZA!

-REPORTS that at least 3 members of UCLA's Afrikan Student Union have been TASERED by police, more beaten with batons!

12:40pm:

-WITH HELICOPTERS OVERHEAD, POLICE ARE THREATENING to use TEAR GAS.
-Unconfirmed reports of students throwing rocks at police.

11:40am - 12:30pm:

-POLICE HAVE PELLET GUNS DRAWN and demand that protesters disperse -
-ORDER TO DISPERSE WITH THREAT OF ARREST given
-50 STUDENTS LINK ARMS IN DEFIANCE
-ORDER TO ARREST GOES OUT, 15-20 students stay linked in defiance
-PROTESTERS ARE COERCED BY POLICE to the base of Covel
-BETWEEN 15-20 ARRESTS
-AN ESTIMATED 500 people protesting

11:40am:

-SWAT TEAM AND POLICE GIVE US 10 MINUTES TO EVACUATE
-AT LEAST 10 ARRESTS

11:30am:

Skirmishes with the police outside of Covel Commons where the Regents are holding their meeting. One student has been tasered and kicked back by cops.

We are also hearing that one student in the rush has broken their leg and National Lawyers Guild is on the scene to help.

Stay in touch all day!

For additional updates:

http://studentactivism.net/
http://ucregentlive.wordpress.com/
http://twitter.com/ucregentlive

Thursday, November 19, 2009

UC Davis Admin Occupation

200 students have occupied the main administration building at UC Davis!

Protest Sit-in against fee increases, UCSC

Students at UC Santa Cruz have staged a sit-in at the Kerr Hall administration building in protest to the fee hikes! Messages of love solidarity to the UCLA occupation from the UCSC general assembly in occupied Kresge Town Hall!

KERR HALL & KRESGE OCCUPIED UCSC

3pm

Kerr Hall, the administrative building at UCSC has been occupied by 200 studnets. Kresge was occupied earlier in the day.

n19 2:59pm

Regents ave now left the building, their buses have been blocked from moving by thousands. Reports of arrests in Sproul plaza.
More details to follow.

REGENTS APPROVE FEE HIKE, STUDENTS BLOCK EXITS

The UC Board of Regents voted, as threatened, for a two-year phased 32% increase in student fees despite system-wide protests yesterday and throughout the quarter. In response, thousands of students, faculty and workers have blocked the exits to the meeting space. THE REGENTS ARE LOCKED-IN. No arrests reported as of 1:47 pm. More details to follow as the situation develops

UPDATE

11:05 -- Hundreds of students moving on to take Wilshire.

11:00 -- Student march has taken over intersection of Westwood and Le Conte. About 300 and growing.

10:30 -- Students breakaway from Regents meeting protest for campus-wide snake marches. 150 students begin class disruptions and calls for solidarity.

COMMUNIQUE FROM THE UCLA OCCUPATION

On 19 November at approximately 12:30 students occupied Campbell Hall at UCLA. The time has come for us to make a statement and issue our demands. In response to this injunction we say: we will ask nothing. We will demand nothing. We will take, we will occupy. We have to learn not to tip toe through a space which ought by right to belong to everyone.

We are under no illusions. The UC Regents will vote the budget cuts and raise student fees. The profoundly undemocratic nature of their decision making process, and their indifference to the plight of those who struggle to afford an education or keep their jobs, can come as no surprise.

We know the crisis is systemic - and that it reaches beyond the Regents, beyond the criminal budget cuts in Sacremento, beyond the economic crisis, to the very foundations of our society. But we also know that the enormity of the problem is just as often an excuse for doing nothing.

We choose to fight back, to resist, where we find ourselves, the place where we live and work, our university.

We therefore ask that those who share in our struggle lend us not only their sympathy but their active support. For those students who work two or three jobs while going to school, to those parents for whom the violation of the UC charter means the prospect of affordable education remains out of reach, to laid off teachers, lecturers, to students turned away, to workers who've seen the value of their diplomas evaporate in an economy that 'grows' without producing jobs - to all these people and more besides, we say that our struggle is your struggle, that an alternative is possible if you have the courage to seize it.

We are determined that the struggle should spread. That is the condition in which the realization of our demands becomes possible.

To our peaceful demonstration, to our occupation of our own university, we know the Univeristy will respond with the full force of the police at its command. We hear the helicoptors circle above us. We intend to learn and to teach through our occupation, humbly but with determination. We are not afraid. We are not going anywhere.

CAMPBELL HALL, UCLA: OCCUPIED

Campbell Hall has been taken by students on the UCLA campus. Support needed outside.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

UCSC SHUT DOWN

500 students shut down UCSC

150 Students in San Francisco State U Took Admin Building

3:30 pm

words came out that 150 students in San Francisco State University have taken the administration building.

ATTENTION!

CALL TO EVERYONE TO MEET AT COVEL COMMONS @ 3PM!!!!

- UCSC STUDENTS HAVE SHUT DOWN THEIR CAMPUS
- FROM SANTA CRUZ TO LOS ANGELES; WE WANT EVERYTHING!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

PLEASE share your experience

IF YOU HAVE BEEN AT THE REGENTS PROTEST AND WITNESSED ANYTHING AT ALL - please share it in the comments for this post.