Why we must mobilize to the January 19th UC Regents Meeting

Our movement is fighting to win.

We voted on demands and we intend to win them.

Why we must mobilize to the January 19^th UC Regents Meeting:

Our enemies are relying on the month long Christmas break to have quelled our movement. They know that when we went home to our families, many of our parents, while expressing their support for the movement’s aims, were quick to remind us of all they’ve sacrificed for our education, and to hammer home our duty to uplift our families from poverty. This is the semester, they’ve said to us, to bear down and get the grades, the scholarship, the internship, to take more units than ever, to graduate sooner in order to save our families money and ourselves debt, or to ensure we can graduate before fees are raised beyond our ability to pay.

The best way to fight for our families is to step forward as leaders of this new movement

The truth is though, that this is no way out for ourselves or our families from the clutches of poverty or the degradation of racism and anti-immigrant bigotry separate from our young movement’s ability to raise the living standards and opportunities of everyone in our community. We are continuing their fight for us, and our education, but we have taken their battle a step further by not only fighting for our families but fighting for all oppressed people.

Our parents may not understand, but the best way we have to fight for them, their dignity, equality and prosperity is to step forward as leaders of this new movement and fight to steer it in a direction that can achieve victory for our demands and put the oppressed in power.

We not only learned who was on what side in history, but we learned that our side could win!

Those of us who’ve been a part of this new movement experienced something we could have never learned in the classroom. When we stood side-by-side and locked arms, facing down police sent by our “liberal” administration to beat us into submission, we felt more connected to our classmates than we had our entire time in college. We knew, even as we struggled to put it into words, that lines were being drawn and sides being taken. Our administration, chancellor, the police, the regents, and their private backers were on one side, and that side is fighting for a UC system that is increasingly elite, privatized and segregated. The future they want for our education is one in which we are in constant competition with our classmates, our primary objective in class is to figure out what the professor wants to hear and college is only a place to get a career, and no longer a place to question, to try new things, to discover who we are and what we believe, and then to fight for it. The choice before us was stark, and we chose to hold our ground. And we won! So many people turned out to defend their classmates, their campus and their vision for education that the police were the ones who had to retreat by the end of the night! We not only learned who was on what side in history, but we learned that our side could win!

Now is not the time to wait, or cool off

We cannot forget this victory, or our part in winning it. The normal ebb and flow of student activism would have dictated that it is now time for a return to business as usual after a long break such as this, and we must make sure this is not the case. We are in a different era now. We made it different. We’re different. We’ve worked too hard to get into college to be denied the right to graduate because of fee hikes and privatization, and we’ve learned too much to think we can make this fight as individuals, separate from a movement, and make this world into the sort of world we want for ourselves, our families and our communities.

We are in a different era now. We made it different. We’re different.

Now is not the time to wait, or cool off. We should not wait for the Regents to propose another outrageous fee increase or devastating round of cuts to mobilize to shut down their meeting. The Regents have had to back off of their previous 81% fee hike proposal. This is our time to press our advantage and bring our demands for DOUBLING UNDERREPRESENTED MINORITY ENROLLMENT, RESTORING AFFIRMATIVE ACTION a UC WIDE DREAM ACT, LOWERING TUITION BACK TO 2009 LEVELS, and DROP THE CRIMINAL/STUDENT CODE OF CONDUCT CHARGES AGAINST ALL CAMPUS PROTESTERS to them.

We have unfinished business with these Regents

We must make clear to them that they can have no rest, no peace or reprieve until they have met the movement’s demands, and that until they do we will raise Hell at every meeting, press conference and public appearance they make.

In short, we have unfinished business with these Regents. They must meet our demands, or suffer the consequences every meeting until they do.

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