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Indybay Feature
Day of Action in San Francisco: Impressions
Students, parents, teachers and other malcontents gathered at SF’s Civic Center this afternoon to protest public education cuts and more.
San Francisco, March 4-The day was sunny. The convergence at the Civic Center in San Francisco was for the national Day of Action to protest cuts in public education, one. There were similar actions in 32 states and 40 California counti4es.
The SF gathering represented all the diversity and exuberance and boldness and determination of the new student movement. “Save Our Schools!” rang out across the plaza and into the streets.
On stage the emcee boomed out the student bodies arriving: “Lincoln High, Laney College in the house, Mission High, Lakeshore Elementary, College of San Mateo, UC Berkeley, Jefferson Elementary of Daly City, City College, Cal State East Bay, 10 busloads from DeAnza!”
On adjacent Grove Street school buses were parked on one side of the street and police vehicles on the other.
And signs were everywhere: Fund Schools Not War, Why Pay More For Less, Bail Out Students Not Banks, Race To the Bottom Shame California, and the inimitable Three Word Sign.
Back on the stage a band of teachers broke into a rocker whose chorus went “It’s a long way to the top, If you want to teach in school,” and mantra’d “San Francisco Unified makes you wanna cry.”
The already electrified crowd rocked out too, as expensively clad people on the mayor’s balcony across the street gawked and got their share of snaps before disappearing back into their den of iniquity.
The song ended but the show went on. “On this stage today you will see not one elected official,” the emcee decreed, perhaps in response to the decadent display on the balcony. “NEVER AGAIN!” the call and response again in reference to their betrayal at every level of government.
A number of students took the stage next. “Each prisoner costs $25,000 a year,” Aliya edified us with, “while each student gets funded $7,000 a year. So is that fair?”
Reston from City College in SF declared, “I’m outraged. Our schools are bleeding to death. Education is vital to our humanity. Let us raise our hands, clench our fists and go forward together. Education is not a privilege, it is a right.”
A San Francisco State student announced that “This year 40,000 will be denied the right to be in the California education system. Today is a starting point. We won’t back down even when we are under attack.”
Away from the rally there is more action. Students are occupying Polk Street in front of City Hall, as well as the steps of The Gavinator’s playhouse. Cops have sealed off the block at each end.
From the steps an unending roar of chants and near white noise fills the air. “Education Should Be Free, No Cuts, No Peace!” comes right at you frequently. Everyone seems to know the words by heart.
I take a walk around the Hall. On the McAllister side three kids are playing this year’s version of tag. “Robert’s the Governor,” one girl informs another. I guess that means he’s “it.”
I take a look at the statue. It’s McAllister himself, and part of the inscription reads: “Learned, Able, Eloquent.”
I head over to the library for another kind of relief, one that’s provided by the public toilets there. Many demonstrators whose bladders are protesting as well accompany me.
On my way in I notice that near the bike racks outside the House Of Books two people are sleeping on the sidewalk.
When I get back another person has joined them. They are all African American men. Another African American man walks up to them, this one in a uniform. “You gotta get up and go,” he orders. They don’t.
So they’re joined by a white uniformed man who takes over. “You like protests, don’t you?” he taunts them. “You do a lot of business.” Everyone else walks by, though the men on the sidewalk are dealing with the deepest cuts of all.
When I come in a roundabout way back towards the Civic Center, a boisterous march is breaking away from the rally and moving fast towards Market Street. Police on motorcycles are moving up on them as they meet Market. But it turns out that’s only to play traffic cops as they accompany them.
The march takes one lane of Market and hoofs it downtown while people along the way pour out of stores to cheer them on. Except for security guards of businesses along the way, who check to make sure none of their merchandise is about to be liberated.
At the intersection of Third and Market the march turns left and heads down the whole of Kearney towards North Beach, singing out, “Who’s Streets? Our Streets,” and “Save Our Schools!”
But then the street marching students hook another quick left onto the steepest part of Pine Street. Those at the head of the march start sprinting up the hill, and the rest of the protesters run after them.
The police presence, which has gradually increased along the march, is literally left in the dust. The cops catch up with the march after it makes another left downhill on Polk Street. When the procession nears the trolley car turnaround at Market, a trolley’s driver stopped there clangs out a beat long and loud in solidarity.
The march heads back up Market to UN Plaza, where it circles up for a loud last collective clap of exhilaration. “It starts slow and picks up speed fast, just like the movement,” someone explains.
I head back to Civic Center Plaza, where the rally is over and they’re taking down the stage. I spot a sign stuck in a large ceramic planter. “Let my people learn!” it proclaims.
Yes, they are. And fast.
The SF gathering represented all the diversity and exuberance and boldness and determination of the new student movement. “Save Our Schools!” rang out across the plaza and into the streets.
On stage the emcee boomed out the student bodies arriving: “Lincoln High, Laney College in the house, Mission High, Lakeshore Elementary, College of San Mateo, UC Berkeley, Jefferson Elementary of Daly City, City College, Cal State East Bay, 10 busloads from DeAnza!”
On adjacent Grove Street school buses were parked on one side of the street and police vehicles on the other.
And signs were everywhere: Fund Schools Not War, Why Pay More For Less, Bail Out Students Not Banks, Race To the Bottom Shame California, and the inimitable Three Word Sign.
Back on the stage a band of teachers broke into a rocker whose chorus went “It’s a long way to the top, If you want to teach in school,” and mantra’d “San Francisco Unified makes you wanna cry.”
The already electrified crowd rocked out too, as expensively clad people on the mayor’s balcony across the street gawked and got their share of snaps before disappearing back into their den of iniquity.
The song ended but the show went on. “On this stage today you will see not one elected official,” the emcee decreed, perhaps in response to the decadent display on the balcony. “NEVER AGAIN!” the call and response again in reference to their betrayal at every level of government.
A number of students took the stage next. “Each prisoner costs $25,000 a year,” Aliya edified us with, “while each student gets funded $7,000 a year. So is that fair?”
Reston from City College in SF declared, “I’m outraged. Our schools are bleeding to death. Education is vital to our humanity. Let us raise our hands, clench our fists and go forward together. Education is not a privilege, it is a right.”
A San Francisco State student announced that “This year 40,000 will be denied the right to be in the California education system. Today is a starting point. We won’t back down even when we are under attack.”
Away from the rally there is more action. Students are occupying Polk Street in front of City Hall, as well as the steps of The Gavinator’s playhouse. Cops have sealed off the block at each end.
From the steps an unending roar of chants and near white noise fills the air. “Education Should Be Free, No Cuts, No Peace!” comes right at you frequently. Everyone seems to know the words by heart.
I take a walk around the Hall. On the McAllister side three kids are playing this year’s version of tag. “Robert’s the Governor,” one girl informs another. I guess that means he’s “it.”
I take a look at the statue. It’s McAllister himself, and part of the inscription reads: “Learned, Able, Eloquent.”
I head over to the library for another kind of relief, one that’s provided by the public toilets there. Many demonstrators whose bladders are protesting as well accompany me.
On my way in I notice that near the bike racks outside the House Of Books two people are sleeping on the sidewalk.
When I get back another person has joined them. They are all African American men. Another African American man walks up to them, this one in a uniform. “You gotta get up and go,” he orders. They don’t.
So they’re joined by a white uniformed man who takes over. “You like protests, don’t you?” he taunts them. “You do a lot of business.” Everyone else walks by, though the men on the sidewalk are dealing with the deepest cuts of all.
When I come in a roundabout way back towards the Civic Center, a boisterous march is breaking away from the rally and moving fast towards Market Street. Police on motorcycles are moving up on them as they meet Market. But it turns out that’s only to play traffic cops as they accompany them.
The march takes one lane of Market and hoofs it downtown while people along the way pour out of stores to cheer them on. Except for security guards of businesses along the way, who check to make sure none of their merchandise is about to be liberated.
At the intersection of Third and Market the march turns left and heads down the whole of Kearney towards North Beach, singing out, “Who’s Streets? Our Streets,” and “Save Our Schools!”
But then the street marching students hook another quick left onto the steepest part of Pine Street. Those at the head of the march start sprinting up the hill, and the rest of the protesters run after them.
The police presence, which has gradually increased along the march, is literally left in the dust. The cops catch up with the march after it makes another left downhill on Polk Street. When the procession nears the trolley car turnaround at Market, a trolley’s driver stopped there clangs out a beat long and loud in solidarity.
The march heads back up Market to UN Plaza, where it circles up for a loud last collective clap of exhilaration. “It starts slow and picks up speed fast, just like the movement,” someone explains.
I head back to Civic Center Plaza, where the rally is over and they’re taking down the stage. I spot a sign stuck in a large ceramic planter. “Let my people learn!” it proclaims.
Yes, they are. And fast.
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Not once in the 3 times in 2 years when I have lost my job did I hide behind my daughter of the same age. This afternoon - as I was home trying to find work - a loud protest past my home from the elementary school down the street. The same school that my daughter will have to compete in a 'lottery' to have little chance of attending a few years from now. The protest is about budget cut the schools face - which I oppose. But in reality - it is about the jobs of the teachers themselves... If the teachers were on their way to the protest on their own, and not toting K-8 students to it with them - I would not have anything to say... But the line is drawn in my mind taking kids of an age who can not decipher for themselves what they are involving themselves in. So I made myself a counter protest sign to display as I knew they would have to return those kids back to the school they brought them from: 'Hide behind a child! Shame on you!' The kids filed by without remark thinking I was part of the parade... The teachers made comments like, "That's rude.." And one even stayed behind to tell me how much it was about the children until I reminded him that his human shields were getting away... Yes, I was home - unemployed and ticked off... These teachers - most are tenured and make ~$60K sure that sucks, but 200 days a year and ~ 7 hours a day - that's $42/hr... Plus bennies and a pension - in today's job market - that's not bad - considering.
Anyway - getting more about the news of this state-wide protest shortly after my own. High school kids in Oakland counter-protested... Because the cuts will be based on seniority - the teachers who 'cared' are the ones getting sacked... Did I feel vindicated - well yes. Kids who were old enough to see this for what it was took action. However there is more bad news - I'm still learning more about this, and I'm sure there will be more details on it soon. 100's have been arrested trying to close 880, and in Davis police used tear gas and bean bag bullets from shot-guns to re-open 80. And yes it may be about the education of these kids - but it is still really about their teachers jobs... Why don't these teachers educate them about what the bacon davis act - which ensures they all go to school in trailers made in Waco TX, and drains the budgets of this nation to the point that school teachers need to be cut. Or the math required to understand the lack of funds in the budget due to decreased revenue because of the loss of many other jobs, companies and foreclosure of homes that pay property taxes - you know 'root problems'. Sorry about ranting - but it is just plain selfish.
Anyway - getting more about the news of this state-wide protest shortly after my own. High school kids in Oakland counter-protested... Because the cuts will be based on seniority - the teachers who 'cared' are the ones getting sacked... Did I feel vindicated - well yes. Kids who were old enough to see this for what it was took action. However there is more bad news - I'm still learning more about this, and I'm sure there will be more details on it soon. 100's have been arrested trying to close 880, and in Davis police used tear gas and bean bag bullets from shot-guns to re-open 80. And yes it may be about the education of these kids - but it is still really about their teachers jobs... Why don't these teachers educate them about what the bacon davis act - which ensures they all go to school in trailers made in Waco TX, and drains the budgets of this nation to the point that school teachers need to be cut. Or the math required to understand the lack of funds in the budget due to decreased revenue because of the loss of many other jobs, companies and foreclosure of homes that pay property taxes - you know 'root problems'. Sorry about ranting - but it is just plain selfish.
March 4th Recap: The Inaugural San Francisco Budget-Cuts Walkathon
By A.W.
Where to begin, where to begin…March 4th has come and gone and I am filled with regrets, disappointment, resignation, resentment, and anger. This evening I’ve come to certain, sad, conclusions about the dynamics of the student movement which have always existed as vague impressions lurking in the recesses of my optimistic (evidently too much so) mind. Before I’m silenced by a dismissive “Well, what did you expect…the student movement is ostensibly one which is trying to protect their interests as future actors with the discourse and logic of capital” – let’s consider the facts and the build-up to today.
Autumn 2009 saw a certain specific radical escalation in terms of this struggle, in ways which often made no material demands but instead struggled to physically actualize and articulate a space in which the logical of control and authority was effectively challenged. Many student radicals all over California, used occupation not merely as a means to draw attention to the fiscal crisis that our education system has found itself in – but rather, more ambitiously and in my opinion righteously, used the tactic of occupation as a means to (on a purely visceral and symbolic level) take back control of their individual experience of living within the totality of capitalist relations. The rhetoric surrounding many of the communiqués supports this, such texts released by various autonomous groups at Santa Cruz and Berkeley all were engaging in a discourse which made it evident that the radical milieu of the student movement was not thinking about fee hikes and budget cuts…but rather questioning the very institution of academia itself and its role in the maintenance of not only intellectual hegemony but also social construction in the broadest sense. Texts like “A Communique from an Absent Future” and materials put out by groups like La Ventana Collective (many of which have been anthologized in “After the Fall: Communiques from Occupied California” by the good folks at Little Black Cart) pointed to a serious engagement with current anarco-insurrectionary discourse. They’ve taken their cue from the Tarnac/ Invisible Committee folks, done their Situationist homework, and echoed, albeit in fresh new ways, the sentiments expressed in May ‘68. All this is a roundabout way of saying that there is indeed a radical contingent in the California student movement, and my problem with today/tonight was that this contingent was almost entirely absent from the “actions” in San Francisco.
The rally at civic center was organized to be “family-friendly” and was being touted as the central convergence point within the Bay Area. This obviously was the case as the turnout clearly surpassed the numbers in “demonstrations” elsewhere in the Bay. But for what this convergence had in numbers, it lacked in a radical contingency such as that seen in Oakland by several hundred folks occupying the freeway and causing gridlock for hours. Even the actions in Santa Cruz escalated to the point of genuine confrontation with police.
San Francisco let me down on this one.
At approximately 6:15 p.m. or so, just as the sun was starting to set a small march broke away from the mass rally at civic center quickly gaining numbers until a few hundred people were marching down Market St. right downtown. I had been desperately waiting for night to fall, to see what would enfold once we left the predictable monotony of the rally. My critiques of the majority of the marchers are no different from the general anarchist vs. liberal debates that plague almost every large demonstration from mobilizations against G20 summits to the recent anti-Olympic actions in Vancouver. There was a group (I’m assuming they were one as many of them wore matching shirts and situated themselves at the front of the march through downtown with their megaphones) which effectively hijacked control of the march, collaborated with police (by telling them where we were headed), and physically impeded individuals attempting to escalate and engage in more militant actions.
I don’t know who the fuck you all were or where you from, but please accept this most sincere and genuine FUCK YOU ALL.
It reminded me of the civilian pawns, “community arbiters” in their bright neon-green jackets during the Oscar Grant Rebellion last year in Oakland. The police have nothing to fear, when something as seemingly rhizomatic as a march, is policed by people within our own ranks who are saying they are our comrades. We were told by the “organizers” to stay only on one side of the road, not to march down one-way streets, and they physically stopped the march from crossing red lights. To add to all of this insanity, I saw someone pull a trashcan off the sidewalk into the street to impede the path of motorcycle police and one of these march hi-jackers went and picked up the trash can and replaced in its rightful place. Of course the generic, trite, idiotic chants were present and I found it most ironic that folks were chanting “Who's streets? Our streets!” while sticking to one side of the road and obeying all traffic laws as if we were one really long and loud human bus. Don’t define the nature and limits of our individual struggles, you don’t speak for all of us. A diversity of tactics was not, I repeat, NOT given space here to grow and actualize.
We walked through some of the most opulent and affluent displays of egregious wealth in the entire Bay Area – the Union Square area downtown. Multi-national corporations, all sorts of banking centers, the flagships of commodity consumption – and nothing. Nothing. A few hundred young individuals, angry (not enough), and nothing. To you liberal shits who will say, “Nothing? How can you say nothing! We marched through the streets peacefully for our cause(s)! We gained attention for X,Y,Z.” I say this to you…Within the physical realm, the realm of material day-to-day relations smashing the storefront of bank who received a bailout while your little college education keeps getting more expensive doesn’t accomplish anything. But it’s equally as stupid as marching on the right side of the street and collaborating with police thinking that you’re accomplishing something.
That said, the nature of a militant confrontation does accomplish this: smashing the window, burning the dumpster, confronting the authority of a hostile police force – does something ontologically. I am a firm believer that participating, experiencing, and fully engaging in explicitly transgressive social behavior such as a riot or black bloc demonstration both deconstructs and redefines one’s ontological relationship to authority. It is a level of empowerment that one cannot find through the general boring conduits of activism alone, it is something much more profound than this. It is a recognition that the relationship of subservience to dominance is not static, it can move, bend, and it is one which is purely contextual, subject to the will and desire of its actors.
The march eventually circled around back to Market Street and back to Civic Center. One of the march hijackers jumped on a pedestal (oddly poetic and perfect for their group’s self-aggrandizing posturing) and shouted on the megaphone, “Great job guys!” For a second I thought this hijacker was going to hand us all little gold-star stickers. No prolonged engagement, no discussion on what to do next, simply a mass dispersal. I shit you not, when I say that within 10 minutes a crowd of approximately 300 folks dissipated instaneously because of their deference to the authority of these march “organizers.” They said we’re done, so we must be done. Nothing else to do, let’s not talk about alternative strategies, lets just all pat each other on the backs, thank the cops, and go home and watch TV.
One friend in my affinity group remarked that this was, “The San Francisco Budget-Cuts Walkathon” and another, “Critical Mass without bikes” – and to be completely honest, that’s what the march felt like. Like we were all on a really large cross country team training for our next meet.
To conclude: Fuck you San Francisco, this East Bay kid should’ve stayed on his side of the bay today. Thanks to Oakland for saving face by taking the freeway! Hella nice kids, hella nice!
Final Score: Oakland 1 – San Francisco 0
By A.W.
Where to begin, where to begin…March 4th has come and gone and I am filled with regrets, disappointment, resignation, resentment, and anger. This evening I’ve come to certain, sad, conclusions about the dynamics of the student movement which have always existed as vague impressions lurking in the recesses of my optimistic (evidently too much so) mind. Before I’m silenced by a dismissive “Well, what did you expect…the student movement is ostensibly one which is trying to protect their interests as future actors with the discourse and logic of capital” – let’s consider the facts and the build-up to today.
Autumn 2009 saw a certain specific radical escalation in terms of this struggle, in ways which often made no material demands but instead struggled to physically actualize and articulate a space in which the logical of control and authority was effectively challenged. Many student radicals all over California, used occupation not merely as a means to draw attention to the fiscal crisis that our education system has found itself in – but rather, more ambitiously and in my opinion righteously, used the tactic of occupation as a means to (on a purely visceral and symbolic level) take back control of their individual experience of living within the totality of capitalist relations. The rhetoric surrounding many of the communiqués supports this, such texts released by various autonomous groups at Santa Cruz and Berkeley all were engaging in a discourse which made it evident that the radical milieu of the student movement was not thinking about fee hikes and budget cuts…but rather questioning the very institution of academia itself and its role in the maintenance of not only intellectual hegemony but also social construction in the broadest sense. Texts like “A Communique from an Absent Future” and materials put out by groups like La Ventana Collective (many of which have been anthologized in “After the Fall: Communiques from Occupied California” by the good folks at Little Black Cart) pointed to a serious engagement with current anarco-insurrectionary discourse. They’ve taken their cue from the Tarnac/ Invisible Committee folks, done their Situationist homework, and echoed, albeit in fresh new ways, the sentiments expressed in May ‘68. All this is a roundabout way of saying that there is indeed a radical contingent in the California student movement, and my problem with today/tonight was that this contingent was almost entirely absent from the “actions” in San Francisco.
The rally at civic center was organized to be “family-friendly” and was being touted as the central convergence point within the Bay Area. This obviously was the case as the turnout clearly surpassed the numbers in “demonstrations” elsewhere in the Bay. But for what this convergence had in numbers, it lacked in a radical contingency such as that seen in Oakland by several hundred folks occupying the freeway and causing gridlock for hours. Even the actions in Santa Cruz escalated to the point of genuine confrontation with police.
San Francisco let me down on this one.
At approximately 6:15 p.m. or so, just as the sun was starting to set a small march broke away from the mass rally at civic center quickly gaining numbers until a few hundred people were marching down Market St. right downtown. I had been desperately waiting for night to fall, to see what would enfold once we left the predictable monotony of the rally. My critiques of the majority of the marchers are no different from the general anarchist vs. liberal debates that plague almost every large demonstration from mobilizations against G20 summits to the recent anti-Olympic actions in Vancouver. There was a group (I’m assuming they were one as many of them wore matching shirts and situated themselves at the front of the march through downtown with their megaphones) which effectively hijacked control of the march, collaborated with police (by telling them where we were headed), and physically impeded individuals attempting to escalate and engage in more militant actions.
I don’t know who the fuck you all were or where you from, but please accept this most sincere and genuine FUCK YOU ALL.
It reminded me of the civilian pawns, “community arbiters” in their bright neon-green jackets during the Oscar Grant Rebellion last year in Oakland. The police have nothing to fear, when something as seemingly rhizomatic as a march, is policed by people within our own ranks who are saying they are our comrades. We were told by the “organizers” to stay only on one side of the road, not to march down one-way streets, and they physically stopped the march from crossing red lights. To add to all of this insanity, I saw someone pull a trashcan off the sidewalk into the street to impede the path of motorcycle police and one of these march hi-jackers went and picked up the trash can and replaced in its rightful place. Of course the generic, trite, idiotic chants were present and I found it most ironic that folks were chanting “Who's streets? Our streets!” while sticking to one side of the road and obeying all traffic laws as if we were one really long and loud human bus. Don’t define the nature and limits of our individual struggles, you don’t speak for all of us. A diversity of tactics was not, I repeat, NOT given space here to grow and actualize.
We walked through some of the most opulent and affluent displays of egregious wealth in the entire Bay Area – the Union Square area downtown. Multi-national corporations, all sorts of banking centers, the flagships of commodity consumption – and nothing. Nothing. A few hundred young individuals, angry (not enough), and nothing. To you liberal shits who will say, “Nothing? How can you say nothing! We marched through the streets peacefully for our cause(s)! We gained attention for X,Y,Z.” I say this to you…Within the physical realm, the realm of material day-to-day relations smashing the storefront of bank who received a bailout while your little college education keeps getting more expensive doesn’t accomplish anything. But it’s equally as stupid as marching on the right side of the street and collaborating with police thinking that you’re accomplishing something.
That said, the nature of a militant confrontation does accomplish this: smashing the window, burning the dumpster, confronting the authority of a hostile police force – does something ontologically. I am a firm believer that participating, experiencing, and fully engaging in explicitly transgressive social behavior such as a riot or black bloc demonstration both deconstructs and redefines one’s ontological relationship to authority. It is a level of empowerment that one cannot find through the general boring conduits of activism alone, it is something much more profound than this. It is a recognition that the relationship of subservience to dominance is not static, it can move, bend, and it is one which is purely contextual, subject to the will and desire of its actors.
The march eventually circled around back to Market Street and back to Civic Center. One of the march hijackers jumped on a pedestal (oddly poetic and perfect for their group’s self-aggrandizing posturing) and shouted on the megaphone, “Great job guys!” For a second I thought this hijacker was going to hand us all little gold-star stickers. No prolonged engagement, no discussion on what to do next, simply a mass dispersal. I shit you not, when I say that within 10 minutes a crowd of approximately 300 folks dissipated instaneously because of their deference to the authority of these march “organizers.” They said we’re done, so we must be done. Nothing else to do, let’s not talk about alternative strategies, lets just all pat each other on the backs, thank the cops, and go home and watch TV.
One friend in my affinity group remarked that this was, “The San Francisco Budget-Cuts Walkathon” and another, “Critical Mass without bikes” – and to be completely honest, that’s what the march felt like. Like we were all on a really large cross country team training for our next meet.
To conclude: Fuck you San Francisco, this East Bay kid should’ve stayed on his side of the bay today. Thanks to Oakland for saving face by taking the freeway! Hella nice kids, hella nice!
Final Score: Oakland 1 – San Francisco 0
For more information:
http://thehorizontalistpapers.blogspot.com/
As the glorious sun broke through for the first time for a full day on March 4, 2010, the beginning of the Second American Revolution, after a series of rainstorms, providing some warmth albeit a little chilly at 45 degrees Fahrenheit, the workingclass of the San Francisco Bay Area stood up to demand the fruits of our labor, including but not limited to our right to free, top quality education from preschool (age 3) through and including university with no standardized tests and with only a high school diploma needed to gain admission to all universities, all of which should be public and free, paid for by taxing the income of the rich, those who make over $200,000 a year, with the progressive income tax. In a city like San Francisco and a state like California, where there are lots of millionaires and billionaires, there is more than enough money to fund education. I managed to find George Lakoff's petition to change the funding requirement from 2/3 vote to majority 50% plus 1 vote of the Legislature and sign it. You can sign it and help circulate it too. Go to:
http://californiansfordemocracy.com/
It was inspirational to see the smiling, excited faces of the children and young adults, ages 12 through the 20s, carrying signs, many of them homemade, a sign of strong grassroots support and organizing, making their demand for top quality fully funded education with lots of loud, clear chants as only young people can yell. All of the workingclass movements that this writer has seen in my hometown of San Francisco for the past 60 years now have a future because the young have picked up the banner of liberation.
One of the movements is for a living wage. Clearly, the minimum wage should be $25 per hour and teachers do not make enough money, considering their job requires a college degree, and they have to cope with the needs of lots of children who come from very poor homes where the parents are often not educated and where there is often not enough to eat. One needs $200,000 a year to support a family in San Francisco, including a house, which every family needs. Too many people have to work at 2 or 3 jobs just to make ends meet. Clearly, we need more labor organizing and higher wages for all.
Another movement is for top quality nutrition for all as we cannot learn if we are hungry. Every single school at all levels in this country must provide free top quality, nutritious, low fat breakfast and lunch to every student which this country can easily afford to do as we have the agriculture capable of feeding every single person in this country for free.
It is the profit motive of capitalism that is destroying our school system, destroying our jobs, and promoting the war machine as the greatest profits are in munitions. We cannot have guns and butter.
It was wonderful to see those who could walk for miles on end, namely the young, take to the streets and let everyone in sight know of their need for education, so that this society functions as to destroy a school system is to destroy a society. All of the management problems of the march are superfluous; the point is the young people understood to take to the streets and petition for redress of grievances, and they did it with all the loud, boisterous determined power that only the young have.
I am glad I lived to see this moment and join in the chants:
EDUCATION, NOT INCARCERATION!
THEY SAY CUT BACK; WE SAY FIGHT BACK!
http://californiansfordemocracy.com/
It was inspirational to see the smiling, excited faces of the children and young adults, ages 12 through the 20s, carrying signs, many of them homemade, a sign of strong grassroots support and organizing, making their demand for top quality fully funded education with lots of loud, clear chants as only young people can yell. All of the workingclass movements that this writer has seen in my hometown of San Francisco for the past 60 years now have a future because the young have picked up the banner of liberation.
One of the movements is for a living wage. Clearly, the minimum wage should be $25 per hour and teachers do not make enough money, considering their job requires a college degree, and they have to cope with the needs of lots of children who come from very poor homes where the parents are often not educated and where there is often not enough to eat. One needs $200,000 a year to support a family in San Francisco, including a house, which every family needs. Too many people have to work at 2 or 3 jobs just to make ends meet. Clearly, we need more labor organizing and higher wages for all.
Another movement is for top quality nutrition for all as we cannot learn if we are hungry. Every single school at all levels in this country must provide free top quality, nutritious, low fat breakfast and lunch to every student which this country can easily afford to do as we have the agriculture capable of feeding every single person in this country for free.
It is the profit motive of capitalism that is destroying our school system, destroying our jobs, and promoting the war machine as the greatest profits are in munitions. We cannot have guns and butter.
It was wonderful to see those who could walk for miles on end, namely the young, take to the streets and let everyone in sight know of their need for education, so that this society functions as to destroy a school system is to destroy a society. All of the management problems of the march are superfluous; the point is the young people understood to take to the streets and petition for redress of grievances, and they did it with all the loud, boisterous determined power that only the young have.
I am glad I lived to see this moment and join in the chants:
EDUCATION, NOT INCARCERATION!
THEY SAY CUT BACK; WE SAY FIGHT BACK!
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