March 4 — A Day to Defend Public Education!
[Note:
Following is the statement adopted on Saturday, Feb. 27 by the March 4 Strike
Committee at UC Berkeley on the need to build a “movement that is inclusive,
democratic, and non-violent.”]
This
Thursday, March 4th promises to be an important step forward in advancing the
struggle to defend public education and all public services. On October 24th, a
conference held at UC Berkeley and attended by more than 800 students and
workers from different sectors from across the state, put out a call for a
Strike and Day of Action on March 4th. Hundreds of schools from all sectors of
education throughout California have responded, and will be taking action to
protest the catastrophic cuts, layoffs, and fee hikes and to propose solutions
to the priorities crisis of both the UC Regents and Sacramento.
Last
semester our mobilizations were successful in forcing a response from both the
Regents and the Governor in regards to the crisis facing students and workers
within our educational institutions. But their response has been insufficient:
the budget has not been made transparent, the fee hikes have not been
rescinded, and workers continue to be laid-off alongside promises of new cuts
to classes and student services. Meanwhile, the UC administration continues to
refuse to disclose the full budget and explain why the reserve funds cannot be
used for education while they continue to raise our fees, cut our classes and
student services, lay-off workers and continue the re-segregation and
privatization of our university.
The
Governor’s response has fallen short as well. We reject his attempt to
dissociate higher education from the K-12 system and the Community Colleges —
sectors which are under-funded and under threat of privatization. We reject his
proposal to privatize California’s prisons to create funds for higher
education. We cannot accept this!
The
UC Berkeley March 4th Strike Committee endorses all actions that seek to deepen
our movement and strengthen our solidarity through peaceful demonstrations —
our movement is inclusive, democratic, and non-violent. Our power on March 4th
will come from our collective action. Likewise, we discourage individualistic
acts of vandalism and will resist, united,
provocations by the police that could hinder us from coming together in this
crucial time for our movement. Our movement is more massive, open and
democratic than the isolated actions of “vandalism” portrayed by the media and
the UC Administration.