Blogging live from the U.C. Berkeley protest

Students protest at Sather Gate on Sproul Plaza. Photo by Erica Mu.

Click here for live photos updates of the U.C. Berkeley protest throughout the day.

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1:50 pm: (51st & TELEGRAPH) This is where the protest journey ends for me. As I continue up 51st, I can hear the crowd chanting its way down Telegraph Avenue, this time, “Whose streets? Our streets!”

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1:15 pm: (ASHBY & TELEGRAPH) The throng of protesters are stretching about three city blocks from the corner of Ashby and Telegraph. The group had recently passed Willard Middle School, where kids and teachers hung over the second-story balcony cheering the protesters on.

Another puppet has been erected amidst the crowd, and it’s becoming clear that people are here for different reasons. There’s a group of anarchists holding signs commanding, “Occupy Everything!” while other signs ask to make U.C. Berkeley a sanctuary school.

I notice that a lot of local store-owners and workers have stepped out of their offices and storefronts in order to see what all the commotion is about. One older restaurant-owner is clapping along with the chants. She isn’t sure what the protest is about, but she’s “all for it!”, she tells me—whatever it is.

Other residents are yelling, “You’ve got to fight for your rights!” Some lean over fences; some are standing on top of roofs.

At the moment, the crowd has stopped. Several police on motorcycles and bikes are about a hundred feet ahead of the banners and signs announcing the group. At first, there’s a sense of tension: is this where the protest turns into another tale like last Thursday’s late-night “riot”?

The people at the head of the group yell over their bullhorns that the protest is going to go silent. “Fists in the air!” one young man advises.

A sigh of relief washes over all involved, though—the police are just directing traffic away from Telegraph Avenue. The protest continues into Oakland.

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11:45 am: (BANCROFT & TELEGRAPH) From my vantage point on the lawn of Sproul Hall, it’s difficult to tell how many protesters have gathered at Sather Gate. My initial guess is around 200; however, I quickly realize that I’ve underestimated. The group starts to move toward Bancroft and Telegraph Avenues in order to begin the rally that will eventually lead into a march, and endless streams of students and community members seem to join the crowd out of nowhere.

There’s a complex and palpable feeling of jubilation and anger in the air surrounding this group, which has taken up residence at the intersection of Bancroft & Telegraph. Speakers mounted on bike trailers blast dance music, while separate chants of “Whose university? Our university!” rise from different sections of the crowd. There are different sections now because the throng has expanded to around 750 people.

Students and the press are climbing on top of newspaper dispensers in order to get a better view of the main show. A truck is parked directly in the middle of the intersection. Following in the U.C. Berkeley history of protest reaching back to the Free Speech Movement, speakers climb onto the truck bed with bullhorns to address and rally the crowd.

I managed to catch speaker Rafael Velasquez right before his turn to speak. A graduate student in Education at U.C. Berkeley and public school teacher in the Bay Area, Velasquez has a lot invested in the Day of Action. “I might not be affected by the budget cuts, but the next generation of students will be,” he tells me. When asked whether he has organized the event, he responds, “We’ve all coordinated this together.”

Velasquez isn’t the only one with generational insight here. 72-year-old Berkeley resident and U.C. Berkeley alumnus Jane Miller has watched tuition jump from less than $200 when she first started at U.C. Berkeley in 1956.

Not everyone who is at the protest is or was a student at U.C. Berkeley. Berkeley City College student Imad Hassan has trekked up the hill from his school to protest with his peers. He tells me that the budget cuts directly affect him because he can’t afford to go to U.C. Berkeley, and he’s struggling to pay for a city college education.

Eventually all the speakers climb the mobile soapbox and have their turn. At around 12:45 p.m., the dance music turns back on, the crowd begins to chant, and the party moves slowly down Telegraph Avenue to Frank Ogawa Plaza in Downtown Oakland.

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11:00 a.m.: (SPROUL PLAZA) There are four main crowds forming on Sproul Plaza this morning: the protestors on the picket line, the police monitoring the scene, a surprising number of bystanders watching the spectacle--and media, basking in the fray.

As two students climb Sather Gate to hang banners and wave flags, I overhear student bystander coeds assessing the situation.

“I was just in class in Wheeler when the fire alarm went off…,” says the first.

“At this point,” another chimes in, “if they really want to be effective, they should just go to Sacramento…”

“Hey!,” a third onlooker offers, “I don’t give a s***!”

While some students are hesitant to join in on the protest, Berkeley community members have come out to support the demonstration. An older lady with graying hair shouts to the spectators, “The point is to join the picket line, not go around it!”

But the truth is, a lot of people are here to see a show, and that’s exactly what they’re getting.

Out of nowhere, two men and three women in suits and money-print ties occupy the space between spectators and protestors. The women raise a 20-foot high puppet resembling Frankenstein with a bow-tie and dollar bills stuck to its clothing. Also raised is a four-foot high drawing of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The men roll out a “red carpet.”

Claiming to be SCAB: Strategic Counteractivism Brigade, the men with bullhorns invite people to cross the picket-line in a mock show. Two young male students I’m standing next to try to understand the scene:

“So are all these people against [the protestors]?” one wonders.

“No dude,” his friend says, “I think they’re with them and pretending to be against them.”

Different groups are expressing their discontent in a variety of ways this morning, and as the puppets fall to the ground, a cheer rises from the protestors.

But unity makes an appearance at 11:20 a.m. when a group of Oakland high school students chant their way down Sproul Plaza, joining the protestors at Sather Gate. The crowd swells in anticipation for the noon rally, yelling, “The people united, will never be divided.”

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10:15 a.m.: (SPROUL PLAZA) Third-year Business and MCB student Sherry, who wouldn’t give her last name, is sitting on a bench with first-year Chemical Engineering major Wilson, who also wouldn’t give his last name. They’re chatting and half-watching the protest before classes. I ask them what their plans are today.

“I have research all day. I’m not really going to the protest…” Sherry says shyly.

Wilson says, “I don’t think it’s effective.” He points out his frustrations, saying, “Talking and petitioning to the politicians [would be more effective]. Blocking people from school doesn’t really help.”

Many students, like Sherry and Wilson, are just trying to go about their business today. A journalism student who wouldn’t give his name places himself firmly in the “impartial” group of students. He says, “There are more students than you’d think who aren’t really into the protest.”

Still, there are hundreds of people, here, who are clearly into the “Day of Action.” And it’s actually a common sight to see protestors protesting the protestors. At Sather Gate, a man representing political activist Lyndon LaRouche is wearing a giant sign displaying a photo of President Barack Obama decked out with a Hitler-esque moustache. He pumps his fist in the air and walks around in front of a crowd of protestors. A student quickly responds by dancing around him, turning the protest into classic political theater.

A man in a beanie and sweat pants angrily walks by, shouting, “This isn’t the s*** I pay for.”

At this moment, a member of the protestors shouts through a bullhorn that protestors are mobilizing, moving from Pimentel Hall uphill on the east side of campus. He urges the bystanders to join him, and a group of students with banners is at the ready to follow him past Sproul Hall and Barrows Hall. A strong group of protestors remain at Sather Gate, watching as the young man with the bullhorn leads a group up the hill. They continue to chant, “When workers and students are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!”

However, as the number of protestors grows, so does the number of police officers. When approached for a comment, I am quickly told that all comments on behalf of the campus police would come from spokesperson Alex Yao, who is not on the scene.

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10:00 a.m.: (SPROUL PLAZA) The blocks surrounding the south end of the U.C. Berkeley campus are slowly coming to life as students wake for their morning agendas, whether it be class or protest.

Gathered on Sproul Plaza are about 20 students dressed in matching yellow shirts with half their faces painted in the image of a skull. This is Mechxa de U.C.B., a group that celebrates an ancestral struggle against colonization. The skulls painted on their faces represent the “death of public education,” according to Development Studies & Ethnic Studies sophomore Eddie Rivero. Rivero sees a clear line from that ancestral struggle to the struggle that Mechxa is fighting this chilly morning.

“With the budget cuts—we’re still being colonized,” he explains. “The people who can’t get an education are the people of color.”

While the group of protestors grows at Sather Gate, Mechxa has protest plans off-campus. Rivero says, “We’re going to University Ave. and San Pablo Ave. in order to get the word out to the Latino community. Most people down there probably think, ‘Oh, it’s just another crazy protest at U.C. Berkeley.’”

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8:15 a.m.: (SATHER GATE) 75-100 students stand in a crowd barring the entrance through Sather Gate. They’re carrying banners and signs reading, “Stop privatizing public education!” and chanting “One struggle, one fight, education is our right!” and “Si, se puede!” 

A few cops stand nearby, casually chatting with each other but watching the crowd for any sign of outbursts. Sitting 50 feet behind the group of protestors is a cop car, ready for anything that might happen. Cops are visible throughout the campus, either walking in heavy-traffic zones or standing outside the entrances of buildings.

Geography senior Claire Sarraille is flyering at Sather Gate. She says that the budget cuts don’t directly affect her, but the point is that it’s bigger than any one student. I ask her about the students who are still crossing the picket lines and making their way to class; she responds, “It’s not about keeping people out of class; we want them to have that education…But the protest is about people not having access to education, and if the budget cuts continue in the way they are—cutting out lower and middle class students—then eventually, these students will also be barred from higher education. It’s a bigger lesson than maybe one class.” 

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8:00 a.m.: (BANCROFT & TELEGRAPH) Around 20 students and union workers form a picket line at the iconic entrance of the U.C. Berkeley campus. Students and members of the American Federation State County Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and United Auto Workers (UAW), who represent the university’s graduate students, are handing out flyers and urging people with bullhorns not to cross the picket line in a show of support for public education and fair wages for campus workers.

United Auto Worker member Jessica Tal explains why she’s picketing this morning: “We’re tired of the people who did not make the financial crisis suffering the brunt of that crisis. We’re tired of the privatization of public education. The pay cuts should come from the top, not from the bottom! Our workers are the lowest paid on campus, and they’re being laid off or are receiving pay cuts. We’re here in solidarity with the workers, and we’re also here for the students. The 30% fee increases for the U.C.’s are barring students from the education they deserve.”

AFSCME member Johnny, choosing not to give his last name, says that he doesn’t know the nuances and details of the protest, but fee increases and cuts to workers’ pay is enough for him to protest.

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