A Call for Days of Action against the Tuition Hikes/Occupation: A Do-It-Yourself Guide

DAYS OF ACTION AGAINST THE TUITION HIKES
University students and workers in California must organize immediately to occupy, blockade
and strike on all campuses November 17-19.

We call for a wave of occupations and blockades to bring the university to a halt. The proposed fee hikes of 32 percent, to be ratified November 17-19, are only the latest indication that the California university system is bankrupt. We cannot allow it to continue through the end of the term.

Too many workers have already lost their jobs. The jobs for which our educations supposedly prepare us have already disappeared. We have given our ‘representatives’ enough time to work out peaceful solutions to these problems, and we see no indication that they have made any progress.
We are not interested in any more tedious conferences or assemblies, which draw out hundreds of people, but only for an endless conversation. We are not interested in more ’symbolic protests’, whether walkouts or strikes, insofar as they are pre-announced to end after one or a few days. More meetings and protests will only waste our energies, while the administration continues to implement its plans without hindrance.

A movement of occupations has been building. Multiple occupations broke out in recent weeks at UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley, at CSU Fullerton and CSU Fresno. These occupations are part of a worldwide movement, stretching from California to New York, from England to Greece and Austria.

These occupations have proven that we can take action immediately. People are convinced to act not through endless talk, but when they see that others are willing to take risks. It is only when those who have little to lose actually do something that those who have a lot to lose can join them.

These occupations have proven that we can take action without fear. The administration has been so brazen, raising tuition and cutting jobs, only because we let them. In fact, they are the ones who have to fear confrontation, not us. They have done and can do nothing to stop us, but only if we act.
These days of action are a chance for us to expand our movement, for new people to get involved, for new spaces to be taken and transformed.