Big victory for Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley
By
Workers World San Francisco bureau
At midnight on April 28, six students began a hunger strike
at the University of California at Berkeley to save the Ethnic
Studies Department.
The hunger strikers, organizers, and thousands of
supporters--calling themselves the Third World Liberation
Front--set up tents and occupied the lawn in front of
California Hall for over a week. They were pressuring
Chancellor Robert Berdahl to enter into negotiations with
faculty and students of Ethnic Studies.
After eight days and nights of highly spirited and sometimes
emotional rallies, meetings, news conferences, performances and
a lot of organizing--victory was won.
Almost every TWLF demand was met:
* eight more full-time faculty to be hired over the next few
years;
* return of the $300,000 taken from the department this
year;
* a promise to help fund a Center for the Study of Race and
Gender;
* temporary place for a multicultural student center until a
permanent one is built;
* space in Barrows Hall for a mural;
* student representation in the task force that makes
important decisions in the department;
* nearly complete amnesty for over 100 students who were
arrested for civil disobedience throughout the struggle.
The strike brought attention to a department threatened by
budget cuts and a diminishing number of full-time faculty. The
Ethnic Studies Department at UCB encompasses the separate
programs of Native American Studies, Asian American Studies and
Chicano Studies. African American Studies is part of the
College of Letters and Science.
Students and faculty began their struggle by trying to
negotiate with the chancellor. When he refused to do so in good
faith, they brought the fight to progressively higher levels.
Their tactics proved extremely fruitful.
Thousands of supporters were aware of the important role
that Ethnic Studies plays in educating people about the true
history of this country and its peoples. They went to the
liberated zone of California Hall for hours and often days to
show solidarity.
Supporters included students and faculty from the elementary
to college levels, public officials, labor unions, community
groups and other concerned people.
The days and nights built multinational unity among people
who clearly understand the connections among their struggles.
When speakers mentioned the need for action about the U.S./NATO
war in Yugoslavia, winning a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal and
stopping state-sanctioned executions like that of Manny Babbitt
at San Quentin, people in the crowd clapped, nodded and shouted
in agreement.
The Third World Liberation Front was originally the name for
the student-led movement that forced UCB to develop the Ethnic
Studies Department in 1969. Now, 30 years later, a new
generation of committed and creative students has brought the
name alive so that the victories of yesterday do not become the
losses of today and tomorrow.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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