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October 13, 2009

TO GET INVOLVED
S TUDENT U P NITY&
San Francisco State University

Roots of the Problem: Effects & Solutions

OWER Second Edition

TEXT In a preliminary poll of 120 stu-

dents, 27% had known someone
who had dropped out due to the
tors will cost the state over a bil-
lion dollars in uncollected taxes.
Yvette Rojo responded, “My mom
would go on strike.” Corey Wong
said, “If everybody on this campus
decided, ‘let’s not go to school,’

SFSUP cuts and 36% had considered

dropping out themselves. When
asked to identify the root cause of
TO 41411 the cuts, 50% chose “corporations
paying very small taxes because
to recieve free up-
they contribute to all the cam-
dates on news and
paigns and pay all the lobbyists.”
how to take action. When asked what we should do,
17% chose big rallies, 39% chose
write letters to legislators,  and
44% chose a strike.  [funding], and when people real-
Miguel Gonzales, an engineering
student who works at the Korean
Student Association, said, “Right
now I’m only taking five units....
I can’t really advance with my
major... I’ve been thinking about
changing my major, but I don’t
have any interest in any other ma-
jors”
According to the SF Chronicle,
“To be a the furloughing of tax collec-
is having furlough days as well.
We might lose our house.” Jon, a
cook at SFSU, stated, “The hardest
then you wouldn’t have to write a
letter.” Miguel stated, “If the pro-
fessors join in as well, you’ll see
hit are those who work outdoors.”
Gardeners had a 10% pay cut and
that they will be much more effec-
tive [then just students].”
are being threatened with layoffs.
Corey Wong, from the Asian Stu-
dent Union, thinks lobbyists for
corporations have gotten smarter,
stating, “They slowly cut away
ize that their priorities are wrong
and somebody is profiting off of
it, there is no resistance… It seems
like a fact of life, or a force of na-
ture.”
Tia Tyra suggested, “An in-
creased business tax for the really
large corporations that make bil-
lions of dollars.” Akim Little thinks,
“What would work is if everyone in
the school, or in multiple schools,

Resistance
student
and not a
revolutionary
In a collective and
is a boisterous roar, students,
contradiction” faculty, and workers across
-Salvador Allende California campuses are
refusing to cough up
inflated fees, withstand
crippling layoffs, and
swallow annoying
furloughs.
On September 24th,
that collaborative voice
resounded the loudest.  chanted, “EDUCATION IS
Thousands of UC faculty,
students, and workers
rallied on campuses
across the state.  CSU
campuses and City
College of San Francisco
joined the movement. For
a day, California picketed,
protested, and yelled in
solidarity.     50.   Students for Quality
w w w. s t u d e n t u n i t y p o w e r. o r g i n f o @ s t u d e n t u n i t y p o w e r. o r g
UC Berkeley shouted the
most thunderous with
5,000 strikers.  Sproul Plaza,
the heart of the campus,
erupted with sonorous
chants, raised fists and
a fervent indignation
toward the contractions
of public education.  support and admiration
Crowds then ushered
into a general assembly,
where future tactics were
discussed and more unity
manifested. Altogether,
ten UC campuses struck
on September 24th.  At UC
Davis, hundreds united.  Education Endowment
They rallied, marched, and
stormed the administration
building, shouting “Whose
UNIVERSTY!?  OUR
UNIVERSITY!” They then
proceeded to camp outside
UC Davis Chancellor Linda
Katehi’s house. The budget
situation has become
“untenable,” according to Education at San Jose
students at UC Santa Cruz, State University organized
where a rally evolved into a “WTF?!: Come Voice
a weeklong occupation.  Your Outrage” rally on
Universities and September 22nd from
organizations throughout 11am-1pm. It was a “major
the nation and around the success,” with “almost
globe sent them letters of 500 people attending…
the largest rally at SJSU
for their efforts.   since the 1970s.” They are
now busy planning for
     At San Francisco State,
October 12th, in support
we too enunciated our
of AB 656, a bill proposed
grievances. Circling
by Assemblyman
Malcolm X Plaza, we
Alberto Torrico, called
the ‘California Higher
UNDER ATTACK! WHAT ARE
WE GONNA DO!? STAND
UP! FIGHT BACK!”  Students
took up the bullhorn
and voiced their arduous
registration  experiences,
and related their
uncertainty of financial
aid to the crowd of about
 Student Unity and Power

What are we
fighting for?
The attacks on educa-
tion are part of a larger
systemic problem, and
the current economic cri-
sis has its roots in a preda-
tory capitalist system that
exploits and oppresses
the people in favor of a
rich minority who prof-
its. Seven trillion dollars
have been given to banks
and corporations in an
attempt to “recue” the
capitalist economy, while
politicians and the media
would have us believe
that cuts to social ser-
vices like education and
healthcare are necessary
sacrifices. We are already
suffering, forced to pay
for their crisis as a hand-
ful of people have been
profiting.
(continued from front page) Corporation:
Oil and Gas Severance Tax.’ The bill
would create a California Higher
Education Endowment Corporation
(CHEEC), which would oversee the
money distribution made by the
proposed tax to the UC system,
CSUs, and community colleges. “This
bill would impose an oil and gas
severance tax, on and after January
1st, 2010, upon any producer for
the privilege of severing oil or gas
from the earth or water in this state
for sale, transport, consumption,
storage, profit, or use, as provided, at
a specified rate of 9.9% of the gross
product.” Because this bill would
increase state revenue, it is subject
to Proposition 13, which requires a
2/3-majority vote from each house
of legislature to pass. The soils for
solidarity are harvesting a conjoined
movement across California.  Schools
are meeting to discuss more unified
actions, and the momentum for
victory is growing.
ANALYSIS
SFSU today is buzzing with dis-
content & seething with rebellion.
Although the issues that fuel stu-
dent discontent in 2009 are, on
the surface, much different from
those of the 1968 SF State student
strike, which offers valuable les-
sons & inspires students today.
The movement that reached its
pinnacle in 1968 was centered
on questions of racism & national
oppression. When Black, Chicano,
Native American, & Asian students
won the first College of Ethnic
Studies in the US, they conscious-
ly set out to design the college in
a way that would serve their com-
munities off campus. They won by
seeing clearly the antagonism be-
tween the interests of the school
administration California, & the
US government (embroiled in war
against the Vietnamese people)
on the one hand, & students (pri-
marily those of color) & oppressed
peoples within & outside the US
on the other hand. From this per-
spective flowed the strategy of
militant struggle, including oc-
cupying buildings, denouncing
the political status quo, & launch-
ing the longest student strike in
US history. We have to be clear
that this present class war  being
waged by billionaires against all
of us has a fundamentally rac-
ist character, & hurts all students
(even white and/or ‘middle class’
students). The people running
universities are the same people
sitting on corporate Boards of
Directors. The triumph of the stu-
dent struggle is only possible with
the destruction of the capitalist
system, which is inherently impe-
rialistic, racist and exploitative of
the working class.

How To Join?
1968 SFSU Student Strike History
After months of ten- nized with the Third World for those who cannot. S.I. Hayakawa, an au-
Student Unity & Power sion and build-up, the San Liberation Front and the The strike began in No- thoritative character who
meets every Francisco State College Black Student Union set vember of 1968, with the would become famous
campus erupted into one demands that in essence suspension of Professor for calling in the cops to
Thursday @ 7PM of the most important called for complete and George Murray for fiery smash down the strikers
in Malcom X Plaza. battles of 1968, the year equal access to relevant statements as a catalyst on campus whenever he
that changed the world. education for Third World for confrontation. Then- felt like it.
To the class-conscious and working-class people. President Smith was After months of pick-
students at State, the no- In 1960, the number of pushed between con- ets, occupations, walk-
FEEDBACK tion that change could Black students at SF State servative Trustees on the outs, rallies, sit-ins, and
come about peacefully totaled 12%, but by 1968, right and militant students militant actions, the ad-
Send us your quetions, was a myth, something that number has dropped on the left. The strike was ministration was forced
comments, concerns, and they had been taught to to 3%. How did this hap- called on November 6th, to meet the demands of
suggestions to: disarm them. For years, pen? The 1960 Master but still many students the striking students and
students had petitioned Plan for Higher Education were attending classes. faculty. The strike ended
info@studentunitypower.org the school administration, in California had created When tension intensified on March 20, 1969, after
they had brought propos- a three-tiered system and confrontation be- 5 months, the longest stu-
als to Deans and Presi- of UC’s, CSU’s, and com- came more common, the dent strike in the United

B
dents, they wrote letters, munity colleges that es- students shut down the States. It ended with the
ulletin made and still they were patient. sentially cut down on the school. The administra- creation of the School of
possible by And nothing came. number of working-class tion and Smith vocalized Ethnic Studies (now Col-
In May 1968, the ad- students who attend col- the “we can’t do anything lege) as its biggest victo-
Boris Araya ministration made one lege and reduced spend- about it,” and “our hands ry, as well as programs to
Jacob Bernhardt concession, under the ing on those who do get are tied,” answers to the help increase the number
Blake Gary pressure of a sit-in, but to attend. This trend is demands of the students. of Third World and work-
Greg Jacobs later retracted. The stu- continuing to this day, Anything seem familiar ing-class students in the
Jamal Jones
dents realized that they as less and less is being to here and now? Smith university.
Tanya Kinigstein
Adriana Lopez weren’t getting anywhere spent on education and was forced to resign later
by going through “chan- public services as a whole, that month as the Trust- Next Bulletin
Ernesto Martinez
Hobie Owen nels,” and that they never making access easy for ees felt he was too weak. will be released
Aaron Salazar would. those who can afford it Governor Ronald Reagan, October 27, 2009
Students that orga- and as impossible as ever a former actor, appointed
w w w. s t u d e n t u n i t y p o w e r. o r g S p re a d A w a re n e s s