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(Community colleges have been hit with cut after cut in recent years, and this spring students were threatened not only with further cuts, but with fee hikes to as high as $25 per unit. Tens of thousands of students, faculty and staff demonstrated in Sacramento and across the state. They succeeded in reducing the proposed fee hikes, but still face enormous cuts in classes and services. Jeremy Prickett of the California Coalition Against Poverty (CCAP) describes the scene in San Diego.)
San Diego City College is an overwhelmingly working class community college. The current state budget crisis is eliminating classes and will increase tuition from $11 to $18 per unit next semester. One in five teachers in the San Diego City Schools (public) district faces lay off (very likely my younger brother), and class size limits are being lifted at all K-12 levels. We decided to connect the issue and cost of this impending war to the budget cuts in public education. Enrique DeLaCruz proposed the campaign and became its coordinator.
A loose national coalition had picked March 5th, 2003 as a day for a national student walkout. Many campuses held vigils, teach-ins, after school marches, etc. Our action was the only walkout in San Diego. We planned a snake march through the downtown streets, ending at the main State of California administration building. This seemed to be a suitable level of disruption for CCAP's first major public action beyond our regular direct action casework level.
The marchers were overwhelmingly 13-17 year old working class youth completely new to political action. Enrique MC'd the crucial pre-snake march gathering period and prepped the youth. If things got crazy, an organizer would silently raise a fist and the whole crowd would follow suit. However, one of our main chants came spontaneously from a 14 year old girl: "Feed the Poor, Not the War!".
The snake march was a tremendous success. The lead sergeant first approached us barking orders, declaring himself, "The Boss" demanding to know our route, destination, etc. With a very calm evasiveness we managed to satisfy him until we stepped off. As the sergeant ordered us onto the sidewalk, we took to the streets. Once he recovered, he took to the front and ordered us to go straight down B Street. We instantly turned left, ignoring his command. A march by the people is not a snake march or direct action if controlled by the police.
We hit Broadway and were cheered by office workers hanging out of windows. Even the onlooking suits were heard commenting on the police overkill, deploying riot squads, mounted units, a jail bus, and helicopters against the organized mass of teenagers. The mood was electric! As we neared the Federal Building, we took a sudden right turn and the snake march was now rolling through frozen traffic on Front Street. An incident at the state building sent our security team into action; red arm bands, walkie-talkies and all. One of the security team members witnessed a young person get snatched by a cop. The team member secured a small security detachment and legal observer and chased down a female officer who was holding the young person by the hand. The officer happened to be his mother and she apparently didn't approve of his participation.
The action ended in an impromptu rally on the campus of City College. Anti-War spoken word was performed, event announcements and CCAP activists repeated the commitment to fight any disciplinary measures against people who participated in the walk out and snake march. "Any administrator, professor, teacher, or employer who tries to punish any one of us, will deal with every one of us!" We are organizing a movement not just to stop the unjust war and occupation in Iraq, but the ongoing war against the poor. Ultimately, we can only stop war and poverty by replacing the capitalist system, which is based on war and poverty. We move one step at a time, and March 5th was a big step!
[Jeremy Prickett is a California Coalition Against Poverty (CCAP) activist and Peace & Freedom Party registrant.]
This story included a Partisan photo by Tom Condit. The caption reads, "Thousands of community college students and staff rallied at the state capitol to protest cutbacks and fee hikes." Some of the signs visible in the photograph say "Don't balance the budget on the backs of our students", "No Education = No Opportunity, No Hope", and "Fighting for YOUR EDUCATION".
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