Events
FREE THE UC DAY took place on March 19th - Click here for info.
# # #
Past Events
Wed. Feb 27th 2008, 7pm, 145 Dwinelle
The Rebirth of the University of California
a Teach-in and Forum:
From Imperial University to People’s University
featuring Gray Brechin, author of Imperial San Francisco
plus speakers from: Tuition Relief Now, Berkeley Stop the War, Berkeley NOW,
Fiat Pax, Stop BP-Berkeley, International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal,
Students for Justice in Palestine, Students Organizing for Justice in the Americas,
Save the Oaks, Student Worker Action Group, Third World Liberation Front and more!
Thursday May 17th:
Attend the UC Regents Meeting to Protest UC’s involvement with Nuclear Weapons and to stop the signing of the British Petroleum deal. (More info here).
Schedule:
8 am - public comment period
If you'd like to make a one-minute statement to the Regents, please call their office during business hours to sign up: 510-987-9220.
10 am - Rally!
Join us outside the meeting for music, speeches, and beautiful art as we call on the Regents to adopt an emergency resolution to sever ties with the nuclear weapons labs.
11:20 - DOE lab oversight committee meets
12 - Press conference outside the meeting
Location:
UCSF Mission Bay Campus.
For driving directions, a campus map, and parking info, please see:
http://pub.ucsf.edu/missionbay/directions/
Transportation:
For carpool, please email Chelsea Collonge:
Public transit: The UCSF Mission Bay campus is served by the Muni T-Third Street line, which stops at the UCSF Mission Bay Station located on Third Street near 16th Street.
Please read below for more background on our campaign. And feel free to visit the fasters at our spot by Wheeler Hall, Monday-Wednesday 11 am - 6 pm!
============
Dear friend,
On Wednesday, May 9th, more than forty students and alumni at three UC campuses went on a hunger strike to demand that the University of California stop designing, engineering and manufacturing nuclear bombs. We are calling on the Regents to pass a resolution at their next meeting -- scheduled for May 17th -- severing all ties to the nuclear weapons complex. We will sustain our fast at least until that meeting, if not much longer. We are writing to ask for your support of this timely act of civil resistance, and of the just cause for which we sacrifice.
For over six decades, the UC has been the US government's primary nuclear warhead contractor, having managed the Los Alamos (NM) and Livermore (CA) nuclear weapons compounds since their inceptions. Every nuclear warhead in the US arsenal was designed by a UC employee. These include the B61-11 "bunker busters" currently deployed in the Persian Gulf, with which the US government is threatening Iran. Now, the UC is even building a new hydrogen bomb: officially, the first new US nuclear weapon since the end of the Cold War and setting up one of its labs to actually manufacture nuclear warhead components.
As hunger strikers, our basic position is this: At this critical time in our world, with the survival of our planetary ecosystem hanging in the balance, it is imperative for the UC Regents to stop providing a fig leaf of academic respectability to the creation of the world's most toxic and deadly weapons, and instead use their position of political leverage to spur the US toward genuine nuclear disarmament, democratization, and demilitarization.
The hunger strike action represents the culmination of over five years of organizing and struggle by UC student nuclear abolitionists, anti-war activists, and anti-imperialists. We have petitioned, written letters, marched, rallied, spoken out at UC Regents meetings, and even physically disrupted some of those same meetings to demand that the UC get out of bed with bombs. Now, we are escalating our tactics. We seek, above all, for our actions to be commensurate with the truly formidable challenges confronting our generation and the earth.
We'd like to highlight five ways that you can support us, in order of those we consider most important:
1. Join us for a short-term (one-day, for example) solidarity fast. Fasting is a remarkable way to cleanse your body, and doing so for a short amount of time entails virtually no physical risk. Even if you can't fast, come visit us on campus! There will be six Berkeley students doing a 7-day solidarity fast with the hunger strike, and during the day they will be sitting near California Hall with signs and outreach materials. Please come show your support!
2. Attend our "No Nukes In Our Name!" rally at the UC Regents meeting on Thursday, May 17th at 10 a.m. at UC San Francisco's Mission Bay building. Due to the level of local, statewide, and national attention we expect to gain through this action, we anticipate being able to bring a great deal of pressure to bear on the Regents. You can also sign up to speak during the public comment period of the meeting at 8 am - please call the regents secretary. A large mobilization at this action is crucially important! For driving directions, visit
<http://www.ucnuclearfree.org>
or contact youth[at]napf[dot[org.
3. Call the UC Regents ˆ ask that they vote on our resolution for nuclear weapons lab severance on May 17th. It is crucial for as many supporters as possible issue this demand, whether they be California tax-payers, UC students, or concerned citizens of the world! Please see Regents contact info below.
4. Write a letter to the UC Regents ˆ ask that they vote on our resolution for nuclear weapons lab severance on May 17th. Please see the list of contacts below. An online form letter will be available at
www.ucnuclearfree.org beginning on Wednesday, May 9th.
5. Write a letter of solidarity to the hunger strikers. You can send emails to youth[at]napf[dot]org, and we will forward them on to the other hunger strikers. Your letters will go a long way toward boosting our morale as the hunger strike wears on. We will read many of them at the rallies and public events we hold to garner support throughout the action.
We wouldn't be writing to you if we didn't consider your support vitally important to the success of this initiative. We expect that the hunger strike will receive national attention and mark a significant step forward in the struggle for nuclear abolition. It may very well achieve its aim. If it is to do so, it needs to have broad-based support both at UC campuses and far beyond!
There has never been a more critical time for the UC Regents to take a principled stand against the US' nuclear weapons programs. They are in a very powerful position to do so: They can withdraw their management of the Los Alamos and Livermore labs, which are the keystone institutions in the US nuclear weapons complex. They could cast the UC's enormous political and intellectual weight on the side of international law and morality, and seize this opportunity to work toward nuclear disarmament. To do otherwise is to continue to provide a much-needed veneer of academic legitimacy to the creation and maintenance of weapons that poison communities and endanger the entire world.
Past Events
• Tues May 1st: Boycott school, work, etc. - no business as usual, walkout on behalf of immigrants’ rights.
Picket: 7 -11 am
Gather: 11 am
Rally: 12 noon
March: 1 pm- Sproul Plaza
Calendar of Phoenix Coalition-endorsed Events
Monday, April 30th, Greek Theatre: Press Conference with Danny Glover (on behalf of custodial workers)
Monday, April 30th, 12 noon, Sproul: Flyering for May 1st
Monday, April 30th, 5:30-7pm, Foothill DC: SWAG picket
Tuesday, May 1st, 5:30-7pm, Crossroads: SWAG picket
Tuesday, May 1st , 7pm 105 Northgate: Forum "Why Save the Oaks"
Wednesday, May 2nd: BP Teach-in
Wednesday, May 2nd, 5:30-7pm, Unit 3 DC: SWAG picket
Thursday, May 3rd: Opening of Nonviolence Exhibit at Berkeley Public Library
Thursday, May 3rd, 5pm : UC Worker Action at I-House Gala
Thursday, May 3rd, 5:30-7pm, Clark Kerr DC: SWAG picket
Thursday, May 3rd, 7pm 50 VLSB: "59 Years of Ethnic Cleansing and the
Ongoing Palestinian Diaspora," hosted by Students for Justice in
Palestine
Thursday, May 3rd, 7:30 pm, Dwinelle (Room TBA): SWAG planning
meeting for Friday action
Friday, May 4th, Sproul Plaza (time TBA): SWAG demonstration
Saturday, May 5th: Cinco de Mayo Copwatch in San Jose
Monday, May 7: Spring Festival at the Oak Grove
Wednesday, May 9th-May 16th: Hunger Strike by the Statewide Coalition
to Demilitarize the UC
• Wed, 4/25/07 - One week anniversary of the tree-sit with drumming, dancing, and the promotion of the nationwide boycott in solidarity with Immigrant Rights. Tree-sitters turned themselves in to police for arrest.
• Sat, 4/21/07, Cal Day - see media and news page more details.