  |
 |
||
|
|
|
 Books, Not BombsPosted on Nov 24, 2009
By Amy Goodman California campuses have been rocked by protests this past week, provoked by massive student fee increases voted on by the University of California Board of Regents. After a year of sequential budget cuts, faculty and staff dismissals and furloughs, and the elimination of entire academic departments, the 32 percent fee increase proved to be the trigger for statewide actions of an unprecedented scale. With President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan war strategy—which, according to one leak, will include a surge of 35,000 troops—soon to be announced, the juxtaposition of education cuts and military increases is incensing many, and helping to build a movement. As I traveled throughout California this past week on a book tour, I was, coincidentally, in the midst of the regents’ vote and the campus protests. At UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, UCLA, Cal State Fresno, UC Davis and Cal State Chico, students approached me with stories of how the fee increases were going to price them out of school. Students were occupying buildings, marching and holding teach-ins. At UC Davis, several young women, among the 52 arrested, described to me how they had been attacked by campus police, shot with Tasers. Students there also protested the Saturday closure of the libraries, showing up at the president’s university-provided house to study there, since the library was closed. He let them in to study rather than spark a confrontation that probably would have ended with police action and arrests. Blanca Misse, a UC Berkeley graduate student and organizer with the Student Worker Action Team, was among those who’ve been organizing. She told me, “We are striking because we care a lot about public education, and we care about another kind of public education, maybe, than the one they offer, a real public education out of the corporate model.” Laura Nader (Ralph Nader’s sister) is a professor of social cultural anthropology at UC Berkeley, where she has taught for nearly 50 years. Earlier this year she co-authored a measure approved by the UC Berkeley Academic Senate calling on the school’s athletics program to become self-sufficient and stop receiving subsidies from student fees. She is a critic of the increasing power that corporations such as BP and Novartis have over the universities, and she has a long personal history fighting for public education. She teaches general-education classes that attract hundreds of students—noting that students these days, taught to take tests, “are great at choosing answers on a multiple-choice test, but have never heard of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” Her focus on the basics reflects her concern of the attack on public education in this country: “It isn’t something that just happened, and it isn’t something that was unplanned,” she told me. “People really do adhere to the model that this shouldn’t be a public good. And if we continue in this direction, there’s going to be a two-class system: those who go to college are going to be those who can afford it, and those who don’t are going to be the middle class.” The movement’s centerpiece is a strong coalition that includes students, workers and faculty. Bob Samuels is president of the University Council-American Federation of Teachers, the union representing non-senate faculty and librarians of the University of California. Although California is facing a serious budget crisis, Samuels told me the UC system has more than sufficient funds: “It doesn’t have to raise student fees. It doesn’t have to fire faculty. It doesn’t have to cut courses. They’re talking about eliminating minors and majors. They’re talking about moving classes online. They’re doing these drastic things. And what we’re seeing is just basically undergraduate students are subsidizing research, they’re subsidizing administrators, they’re subsidizing things that have nothing to do with undergraduate instruction.” Advertisement Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column. Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 750 stations in North America. She is the co-author of “Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times,” recently released in paperback. © 2009 Amy Goodman Distributed by King Features Syndicate CommentsAre you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig. Add Your Comment |
For Paul Conrad
Email
Print
Share
Digg
Facebook
TwitThis
StumbleUpon
Reddit
YahooBuzz
Email
BlinkList
del.icio.us
Fark
Furl
Google
LinkedIn
Mixx
MyShare
NewsVine
Propeller
SphereIt
Technorati
YahooMyWeb
Newsletter 
Become a Fan
Follow Us
Subscribe
Tags|Bazaar|Podcast|About Us|Contact Us|User Agreement|Privacy Policy|FAQ: Comments and Moderation
Copyright © 2010 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.
By Witness, December 3, 2009 at 12:55 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
University of California doesn’t have the money,
Report thiscausing fee hikes, because it was given to the Stanford
Research Institute, Inc. It’s called privatization.
By caitlin manning, November 30, 2009 at 4:47 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
This is a great article, putting the current struggle in context.
Report thisThere is something new and interesting emerging in this new student
movement: the role of the “ocupacionistas”.. It was the occupations last week
(at Berkeley, at Davis, a generally conservative campus, at Santa Cruz) that
gave impetus to what can now be called a “movement”. What changed is the
escalation beyond rallies,marches petition signing and teach-ins. There are
students who are taking the risks of challenging property laws and occupying
what should be THEIR spaces, and they have inspired many others to get
involved in the struggle. The excellent Jordan/Martinez video of the Wheeler
Occupation that you played last week shows something remarkable: despite
having been savagely beaten by cops and lied to, a mass of over a thousand
supporters stood outside and refused to leave until the occupiers had been
unhandcuffed and released with misdemeanor charges. They won a standoff
with the riot police.
The ocupacionistas are an inspiration: they speak a fresh language, they have
the courage to take risks, they are anti-authoritarian and they are finding new
ways to think, act and practice against capitalism.
By Anarcissie, November 27, 2009 at 4:33 pm Link to this comment
It seems to me what the students at UC should do is go on strike. I don’t mean march around with signs, I mean withdraw or go on leave of absence, and not pay any tuition. Get off the rat-race ramp for a season or a year, go do something worthwhile, even pursue your studies privately or with fellow non-students. Or go teach in the slums and ghettos. Just stop paying tuition. As long as you buy Charlie’s nuts at five dollars a pound, he’s not going to sell them for three dollars a pound. It’s buyers’ strike time. My guess is that if even 30% of the students did this it would bring down the system. But I also think that once it was credibly threatened, UC would find some other way of financing its largesse.
Report thisBy Dr. Know, November 27, 2009 at 11:16 am Link to this comment
Orwell revisited the Postmodern World
War is Peace: When a nation is at war, with the whole population geared behind war effort, as in 1984, who is more at peace in their position than the leaders of the country. If the leaders have acted cleverly enough they will have directed their population’s anger towards ‘the enemy’. It is therefore less likely that a disgruntled citizen is going to attempt to overthrow the government than if it were a time of peace, and the disgruntled citizen had no-one to blame but the nation’s leaders. So, to the leaders, War Is Peace
Freedom is Slavery: When the population of a nation is enslaved into serving their government, the only ones with freedom are the leaders of that government. First of all, if properly enslaved, the population is too busy serving the government to stop them doing anything, and secondly, the leaders don’t have any work to do, leaving them free to do as they please.
Ignorance is Strength: If the population does not know that anything more can exist, or that they are being lied to, or that change is possible, they aren’t going to care. If a government can manage to keep it’s population so ignorant that they do not question what they are told, no weaknesses within what the government says will ever be found.
In summary, when is a body so strong as to be free to do as it pleases in peace than when it’s minions are ignorantly enslaved into war.
More of orwellian interpretation @
http://www.notbored.org/goldstein.html
Dr. Know
public intellectual
realist/postmodern/anarchist
http://community.freespeech.org/user/dr_know
$atan Rulz: this life is made for suckers
Report thisBy mandinka, November 25, 2009 at 9:17 pm Link to this comment
dear annicet, notice that you didn’t quibble with the point so I take it you argee. Good for you
Report thisBy gerard, November 25, 2009 at 9:06 pm Link to this comment
Argh! (again) Oh, well . . . G. Washington couldn’t spell good either. Or was it A. Lincoln? Neither one of them went to Berkeley, by the way. Lives of great men oft remind us you don’t have to study English. All you have to do is speak it—or go back where you came from! Me? I’m a righter—righter than you, I mean. Very mean.
Report thisBy Anarcissie, November 25, 2009 at 8:18 pm Link to this comment
That would be admirable if it existed. They might also consider teaching spelling and grammar.
Report thisBy mandinka, November 25, 2009 at 6:59 pm Link to this comment
Really just what kind of education is so admirable at Berkly there anti US stance, their pro communist retorick.
Report thisThere is a big difference between and education and an indoctronation the foremer is what college is about about the latter is what is taught in Russia and cuba
My point was nader’s sister guess you failed to read the article againg and felt the need to bloviate. Nader has done a lot to make America safe really??? With his nuicence lawsuits he’s the typical ambulence chaser and amassed millions with his whoring tatics
By gerard, November 25, 2009 at 6:45 pm Link to this comment
Interesting to know what does go on at Berkeley that is so reprehensible. There’s actually nothing scarier than education. Somebody might find out something they aren’t supposed to know. Somebody might think a thought that shouldn’t be thought. Somebody might disturb the status quo that others are finding very comfortable indeed. Somebody ...
Oh, please. Ralph Nader has done more to protect “We, the people of the United States of America” than any 20 other people I can think of. If we turn on each other and refuse to “form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity” it won’t be his fault.
Report thisBy mandinka, November 25, 2009 at 6:18 pm Link to this comment
Seeing what goes on as an education at UC Berkley closing it tomorrow would be a big plus..
I noticed that Nader’s sister didn’t call for a change to her retirement or benefits program since that is waht is supposedly driving the increase is she a hypocrite pointing her finger of blame at someone else instead of the real culprit.
Wonder if she ever read the constitution that says provide for the national defense and promote the general welfare. The founders were very specific 1 requires tax money the other requires nothing more than cheering.
Report thisdefense spending is 20% of the federal budget and when ike make his speech about military industrial complex it was over 50%.
Personnel in the military has gone from 3.4 million under LBJ to 1.3 million and the military is the only federal agency that works.
So if nader think the feds should cough up more then take it from those that don’t work State, Interior, Justice, HHS, DHS that would free up 100’s of billions
By gerard, November 25, 2009 at 5:16 pm Link to this comment
And just stop and think of this for a moment:
Report thisPolice tasering students.
Police arresting students because of a huge, unexpected raise in a tuition that is already high.
Police terrorizing students who are objecting to being terrorized.
Police terrorizing.
Police.
Poli…
Po .......
(The End)
By Brainiak, November 25, 2009 at 3:53 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
It is good to see that the dots are finally being connected.
War= Less money for education (among other things).
It does seem that the only way to wake people up is if it has an effect on them personally. Perhaps Andrew Bacevich was right in that we need to bring back the draft. That would really start a movement.
We should randomly select members of congress that voted for the war (or to continue funding it) selected to serve on the front lines. No exceptions.
Report thisBy Leefeller, November 25, 2009 at 1:28 pm Link to this comment
Since I cannot stand fanatics and their blind beliefs or causes, this is one for the Gipper. War hawks disgust me, so they fit in the us and them category, demagogues of divisiveness they are, pimps of power, opportunists of the most disgusting kind. This may be a cause of worth.
Memories of standing on the street corner, holding candles for the fallen 300 in Iraq, seems so long ago!
So we see Sarah Palin on the front pages and the war in the back of the few newspapers still around. Manipulations abound!
Report thisBy Squeeky, November 25, 2009 at 10:05 am Link to this comment
I guess we will all have to learn our lessons the hard way (again). Alexander the Great could not conquer Afghanistan. The soviet army could not conquer Afghanistan. Afghanistan was the beginning of the end for both empires. Hmmm? I wonder who’s going to be next? I feel pity for the next country that decides to occupy that country. Get my point?
Report thisBy Mary Ann McNeely, November 25, 2009 at 5:00 am Link to this comment
By Blackspeare, November 25 at 1:51 am #
But, alas, all empires ebb at some point.
And this one’s going and going fast!
Report thisBy freedom loving american, November 25, 2009 at 3:12 am Link to this comment
Funny in a sad kinda way, I agree with all five comments.
I love ya Amy, keep up the great work and I hope to see ya in Olympia!
Report thisBy Blackspeare, November 25, 2009 at 2:51 am Link to this comment
A study of history will show that the USA since the days of President Monroe has been and remains in an expansion mode——empire building if you will. For 100 years after Monroe expansion took place in the Western hemisphere; however, beginning in the early 20th century that expansion was extended to the Eastern hemisphere namely the Far East under President T. Roosevelt. The US claims it wants to export democracy to the world, but in actuality it wants to create oligarchies around the world beholden to the US. But, alas, all empires ebb at some point.
Report thisBy LostHills, November 25, 2009 at 1:15 am Link to this comment
Take to the streets.
The ANSWER Coalition is planning emergency demonstrations on the day Obama
announces a new troop build up. It’s coming up soon. Check here to find an
action near you or to announce your own action:
http://www.answercoalition.org
Report thisBy gerard, November 25, 2009 at 12:20 am Link to this comment
And if we continue the dumbing down of young Americans, we will have an under-class of (mostly unemployed) service people who never heard of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and an second-rate-class of (frequently unemployed) professionals who have never heard of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ruled by an elite class of entrepreneurs and managers who never heard of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“Lives of great men oft remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of Time.”
Argh!
Report thisBy Anarcissie, November 24, 2009 at 11:23 pm Link to this comment
Sounds like radical redistribution to me.
Report thisBy KDelphi, November 24, 2009 at 9:52 pm Link to this comment
Why spend money on college when you can make people serve years in US filthy Imperialistic wars to “earn it”.
How Third World this is.
Report this