Five Decades and Ongoing, a Protest for People's Park

Photos: Leon Kunstenaar

(Berkeley, Sept. 6)-The University of California, supposedly one of the world's great public institutions of knowledge and learning has, over the years, become woven into the corporate, financial, militarized establishment and divorced from the needs of ordinary people.

Thia was exposed when UC's investments in the war industries that are perpetrating Israel's genocidal war against Palestine, was protested in student encampments that have swept the country.

Opposition to the corporatization of UC exploded during the counter cultural ferment of the nineteen sixties. At UC Berkeley, the symbol for this was people's park, a small public park a few blocks from the UC Berkely campus. For over five decades the legal and sometimes physical conflict over who controls the park, the University or the people of Berkeley, has been been ongoing.

As UC seeks to replace the park with student dormitories, the park is in legal limbo. It is entirely walled off by a hideous wall of stacked shipping containers. This wall has become a potent symbol of the disconnect between the corporate state and ordinary people.

Protesters keeping alive the demand for a true people's park gathered at the UC Berkeley entrance and held a rally. After hearing speakers, and with a brass band playing, they marched to People's Park, now walled off. They held another rally next to the shipping containers. As they started to extend the march one of the protesters appeared on top of the wall. The march then circled back.

The police soon appeared, stopped at the wall and conferred about what to do about the ambiguous legal situation. Whose wall is it really? They then called the fire department whose skill in bringing cats down from trees would seem most relevant. The gigantic fire truck arrived and the street was now blocked from all access by flashing police suvs. The firefighters deployed a ladder, a fireman went up the wall and retrieved the protester who presumably came down willingly. The brass band played the whole time bringing a surreal and festive atmosphere. Many congratulated the climber for his defiant act.

See all high resolution photos here.