[Music] [Applause] palm pleads for ethnic studies and this poem please for Chicano Studies and asian-american studies and Native American Studies and African American Studies and this poem written on my body will not stop because you cannot put pain holds on this poem you cannot drag this poem through the night without it getting louder you cannot put handcuffs on this poem without it getting stronger you cannot arrest this poem without it growing bolder I wanted to give you a poem but I offer you my body instead [Applause] in the spring of 1999 Berkeley students organized a strike to save the ethnic studies department from drastic budget cuts and the loss of faculty members we organized this movement under the banner of TWU LF drawing our name from the original third world Liberation Front which fought for the creation of a third world college at the University of California at Berkeley in 1969 number one that funds be allocated for the implementation of the third world College a department of Asian Studies controlled by Asian people B Department of Black Studies as proposed by the double ASU C Department of Chicano Studies D any other ethnic studies programs as they are developed and presented we needed ethnic studies because there was no history or or culture there was nothing from our perspective it was only from the perspective of of the European point of view through ethnic studies twl F called for an education which reflected both the histories and contemporary realities of people of color in the u.s. and an education that prepares students for the general service of their respective communities as teachers community leaders and citizens this call took the form of a prolonged student strike which was influenced by protests and liberation movements throughout the world for the first time in in the history of womankind and mankind we had youth emerging as protagonists and the human drama of revolutionary struggle it was a historical moment there was very unique not only in the history of our country our you know the USA but also at the world I mean because there was not only a youth rebellion here in this country at this part of the world but it was all over the world Africa Latin America Europe Asia you name it it was happening [Music] [Music] much like the rest of the world the berkeley student strike was met with violent resistance there was a long strike that occurred ten weeks longest costly a most violent strike in the history of UC berkeley [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] when people of color got up in unity and went on strike it scared him they brought out the National Guard and they dropped the tear gas on campus [Music] at the end of a long 10-week strike the Department of ethnic studies emerged challenging the traditional mode of education by bringing community into the curriculum the third world Liberation Front strike and the movement for ethnic studies change that educational environment you know and opened it up you know saying hey we want to be included not only do we want to be included you know we want to be able to be the ones that write history you know and and and also we want to be the ones that make this university relevant you know to the community despite the overall success of the ethnic studies scholarship from its early days the department struggled against close scrutiny and criticism from the administration this ongoing struggle was later compounded by severe budget cuts in the early 1990s I think studies cut back began in around nineteen ninety nine years ago when California economy went on the into a very very long chronic recession five years ago we will compel by the administration not only to to merge all the programs between ethnic studies but also to have a reduction of a downsizing consolidation reduction of our staff support budget everything in California as in previous times the economic recession of the early 90s was largely blamed on immigrants this period of anti-immigrant scapegoating led to the passage of propositions including 187 209 and 227 targeting youth low-income communities and people of color as you can see with the recent backlash against immigrants and people of color communities in California as you can see with 209 187 there it speaks to a continuing need for something like ethnic cities to exist because it provides a space for people today to come in to the education institution like UC Berkeley and develop a critical analysis of things like inequality race relations and things like that so they could have a better understanding of the experiences of people of color to fight against things like Proposition 187 and 209 and positions that might be coming up soon work for the benefit today [Music] [Music] as students were organizing against the conservative backlash the administration ignored the faculty struggle against the budget cuts and dismantling of the department there was a growing insensitivity to the the blatant demise of the department the best that can be said is that there was a blindness about it and so there was a sense of panic and in and there was a sense that I think as the students have stated of the the administrative channels being blocked we had a clear understanding that students and students of color because this was predominantly student of color body were not taken seriously by administration we were aware that funding for ethnic studies had decreased over the years just by not having classes offered that used to be offered five or six years ago professors weren't getting hired with tone line passing and then with the numbers coming back of how low the underrepresented students of color were at Berkeley and then the custom extend I mean like everything that was hitting all of our communities it just started coming downhill of hard and I think it sort of shocked everybody it was basically a sense of avasta that all of us need to start doing something whatever it is and it needs to be something big the time was basically ripe on April 14th 1999 students occupied barrows Hall which houses the ethnic studies department and distributed their demands which called for the hiring of new faculty members and sustaining the department [Applause] [Applause] barrels Hall basically took on a life of its own it was something that gathered an entire campus community together to demonstrate the commitment and dedication to this cause people Ron stop pausing every single day at noontime ready for whatever ready for a sit-in protest a rally an occupation whatever it was people were basically down for whatever [Applause] [Applause] the tactic of a hunger strike was one that a couple of us had been thinking about a hunger strike that would really sort of appeal in terms of middle-of-the-road people it would sort of appeal to people's moral conscience as well as the fact that the university we knew the university did know how to deal with that and and because burgle is such a public figure and and has always tried to remain such a good guy in the public knowing that he wouldn't be able to justify starving students on his front step a hunger strike definitely kind of conveys a different message it's really kind of conveying a message that you would give up some part of your life for something else and it definitely to other people it means something else it means seriousness that the issue at hand is not a joking matter that is it's a matter of life or death on April 29th five UC Berkeley students and one student from San Francisco State began a hunger strike and camped outside California Hall which houses the chancellor's office see we been do any all the time but if you want us to see [Music] we don't mind see we've been doing it all the time but if you want us to say you've got to give something bad you think I'm do your pressure tactics I think there's a lot of well-meaning white folks out there who don't really have the critical analysis of the United States that is offered through ethnic studies I also think it's important to have to see the histories of people of color because we only get one history and that's the history of white people it actually is a very specific history I never learned my history as an Irish Americans ethnic studies means to me to look to read a book and to see that it's talking about me to see that it's talking about other people of color and their real histories it means to reclaim my space as a woman as a lesbiana of color here in this country my parents were both involved in the sixties down in Northridge in establishing Chicano Studies down there and so for me personally it's just that's just ridiculous that something that my parents fought for that I would so that I could benefit from it's gonna be taken away while I'm still here in college and so my purpose is that there will be something here for you know Louise's kids and the kids that are around here but there will be something we see this as part of a larger transformation in society that involves you know defending bilingual education not just here defending the affirmative action defending the rights of immigrants the university's mixed up in the corporate game it's mixed up in the army game the military game is mixed up in you know the discrimination racism this makes up in the prison it's mixed up in prisons very much so and they're in the low level of education offered to our communities in this state is very much a result of money going towards prison this is connected to a larger change and you know in the overall society as the hunger strike continued the administration stonewalled and continued to refuse to negotiate with students I've told the Chancellor this is our University and he's come back at me say no this is the people of California but then if you took a moment to think about that he would see that yeah I'm a person of California and the many other people here the diverse group of students the coalition of students are people of California for that matter the world and we're shaping that new world to come University this is a place that doesn't exist without students and I think it needs to be clear that that he needs to be accountable to students and sit down with students so we can work through and negotiate we cannot have anarchy with every student believing that they have the right to to demand what resources a particular department ought to have the doll says he will not negotiate and when asked if he'd call police in to clear out the camp he told reporters he would keep his options open on the fifth day of the hunger strike at 3 o'clock in the morning the administration ordered the university police to arrest the students [Music] they brought in a truck full of bike racks and set them up in a barricade or in a circle around the camp and were themselves and a human circle working with the police officers were I got on their bolt more so this is an illegal gathering trust pattern of what they said please make informed decisions about your actions and we would shout and drown them out and you know whistle [Applause] or walk on your own I saw the people who completely gave of their body and we're dragged and were punctured people who decided to drag themselves all the way to this beach and we could hear their screaming people you know some of new people cried when the buses were leaving people were getting funding on the cops that had been around this ran over there and then we just saw like these cops dumping on the people that were on the ground and like hitting me and we were amazed that that you know if they also sacrificed themselves to protect us by the time we had sat there and we had watched so many people get arrested and we had watched the cops you know dragged them even when they didn't need to drag them we'd watched people lie down in front of the bus as we watched the bus drivers say that they didn't even want to drive these buses I think we knew that we had to keep going and everybody just kicked into high gear and it's amazing what so few people got done in so few hours [Applause] Knight raided by police in riot gear and I think the message I think that was the first time that we realized how incredibly stupid the Chancellor had been to arrest those students and how much he'd in fact helped our cause and I remember standing there and watching Jason Ferreira had the TW LF banner and he climbed up the wall of California Hani posted it up and it was just like this Aurora I don't kind of fell [Applause] after they arrested over 80 people in the next day you know a thousand people came out the community support also came out because they do feel that this is connected to many battles I mean this is a battle about education Dolores Huerta was there speaking to us you know and Angela Davis was sending her regard I mean this kind of attention in this kind of backing really showed them that this isn't just some like wildcard students they have valid concerns which are recognized in their communities and the communities will hold the university responsible City Council people from the City of Berkeley community is with you the struggle continues the struggle continues [Applause] hi [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] I have a message for our Chancellor my message is this don't arrest the students negotiate arrest the student you will also have to arrest me other faculty members from the department of that study on the lines with the students well because there was so much support for the protest after berdahl arrested everybody at California Hall that signified to berdahl that he could not end this entire thing without negotiating with students so he had the popular support for the protest as evident when people coming back to support it after California Hall California Hall arrests and you also had pressure on berdahl to negotiate with students coming from the community students and faculty he knew that faculty members were gonna get arrested which would kill him even more if we have hunger strikers getting arrested if we have faculty getting arrested you know more community members getting arrested at more students this time I mean this school would just look so evil they could you know beat us they could've did whatever they wanted but he would not have looked good and I think he wanted that to end he wanted the violence to stop and the most violent thing he wanted you know the children to eat and I kind of think that that's what really broke his back well we went into negotiations at Friday with Chancellor berdahl and his administration the negotiating team in berdahl and his administration pretty much didn't have much problems over most of the demands there was only pretty much two things that blocked us from finishing this process one was that the issue of faculty but that pretty much got resolved eventually the other issue and the issue that almost ended ended the entire process was the issue of to see for the people who are arrested at barrows Hall and California Hall the Chancellor just slammed his hands against the table and said this is a deal breaker you know and that was a moment when power just revealed itself bare face so transfer Dolan administration had to understand that the negotiating team had to go to everybody who was camping out and waiting for us in front of California and we had to talk with them and about this issue of arrest and we we left the negotiations knowing that that we had won something that we had gone in there with a very clear plan that they stuck to almost point by point and that we had gone in there with the upper hand knowing that a community was out there waiting for us that we weren't there alone that that wasn't our agreement we were walking down the hill we saw the large crowd and some of us got excited and we started chanting when the crowd saw chanting and they started chanting as well [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and the administration spent an entire day listening you need to confirm with the hunger strikers the because it is because of them that all of us are here it's because of them that we were able to get that meeting with chance of a dog the administration and it's because of them that we are going to have a victory [Music] it was understood after the negotiations that the issue of arrests would be discussed with the people it would be affected the people that were arrested at burrows Hall that never happened as a result of the miscommunication the issue of amnesty was never discussed with a larger group and people were arrested so the final demands were signed knowing that the issue of amnesty was never achieved [Applause] [Applause] this has been the best class I have ever taken a cow I did this for your nieces your nephews your future grandchildren your children period what we've all learned here and what Tamsen Fadal should definitely learn here is you do not underestimate the people we can just build this to really change this place so I just want commitment from all of you this ends not just me I mean we break this Brendan Sanz book then we move on and we build us a next year we rock this world again yeah [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] see we been do lady all the time in retrospect I think the success of the movement light in the power of collective action for students both undergraduates and graduates to come together along with faculty and the community to defend ethnic studies and also to take a stand and speak out against an administration who could have so easily granted our demands but chose not to do so I was very satisfied with this because this in this struggle the students one new ground they got everything that was cut back before back and on top of that they got a couple additional faculty positions they got a completely new Center Institute for the Study of race and gender and a Student Center a multicultural Student Center so I thought in my opinion this was a pretty big victory I think that the hunger strike agreement the final settlement was not a victory in total because you know we didn't get amnesty I think that what we got from the agreement were things that we as third-world peoples deserve and we as students and we as citizens as countries and deserve and I think that and people who aren't the citizens of this country deserves and I think that what we did get and what we did to get it the process of the hunger strike and our protest you know for that time wasn't done in a way where we were asking for things that would shake up how people think about the system we won a few battles within a campaign and many battles preceded us many battles will follow and we need to keep struggling at whatever site we can whether it be in the committee's that were formed organizing the community putting our bodies on the line in the street whatever it takes we need to continue to struggle it's not a one-time thing and and I'm confident about the fact that we will be there and that community will [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] but if you want to sound fine you will not get [Music] [Applause] [Music]