Announcing Panel on Current Struggles at California Universities @ SF Bookfair (Saturday)

Panel speakers from: *San Francisco State *UC Santa Cruz *UC Santa Barbara *D-Q University

* At UCSC and UC Berkeley, communities have occupied trees doomed for development, drawing attention to the profitable yet disastrous research fueling expansion at the expense of eco-systems and sacred lands.
* At San Francisco State, fee hikes and privatization are increasing disparity between the elite research departments and the non-specialized ‘public’ sector. Determined protests are attacking the profit motive at the base of the university’s structure.
* At UC Santa Barbara a growing anti-militarization movement has spotlighted the UC’s extensive military research and investment. Recently, over 1,000 people participated in evicting a campus convention on the military applications of bio-technology.
* DQ University is California’s only indigenous college, and was founded in the 1970’s on a reclaimed Air Force base. Recently, students have faced repression as they move towards self-direction of their education, connecting in a sacred way to the land, and continuing the tradition of native resistance.

The universities actively reproduce our society’s capitalist relations. California’s public education system works increasingly to benefit those who own companies and shit in government offices. Recent unrest resisting ecolgical destruction, workers’ exploitation, and corporatization have attacked the structure of the education system and the unsustainable future being projected for our lives. The more we make connections and act in solidarity, the more visible it will become that what is needed is a radically different society.