Dissent is patriotic
Dissent is patriotic
Dear friends:
On March 20, the day after the war on Iraq began, the Berkeley Stop the
War Coalition, like many other anti-war groups across the country, held a
demonstration on campus to protest the war and demonstrate our opposition
to the military policies of the Bush administration. Thousands of
students walked out of their classes at noon to join us on Sproul Plaza
in what university administrators called the largest protest in decades
at the University of California, Berkeley.
The protest was inspiring, all the more so because it was a part of an
international movement to oppose war. During the course of the
demonstration, several hundred students peacefully marched into Sproul
Hall, the university administration building, and held a peaceful sit-in.
(We have attached a few news reports of the protest at the bottom of this
email). The demands were simple: declare Baghdad University a sister
school to UC Berkeley as a show of opposition to war; cease monitoring
international students on campus; and stop fee hikes and wage cuts during
the course of war. The administration refused each of these demands and
arrested 119 protesters.
All criminal charges were dropped against the protesters. And for all but
three students, student conduct charges were also dropped. But three students
(Rachel Odes, Snehal Shingavi and Michael Smith) who are among the most
prominent activists in the coalition now face student conduct charges that
would make it impossible for them to protest on campus and would punish them
for doing what was right. While the university has offered community service
as a kind of plea bargain, it carries with a probationary warning that would
make it impossible for student activists to protest again on campus.
We believe that these charges are not only unfair (in that they single
out three people from over a hundred to prosecute) but are also unjust.
They are designed to intimidate students and political activists and to
chill speech. They also represent an attempt to attack one of the most well
known anti-war student organizations in the country in order to make it easier
to attack other anti-war students organizations across the country.
The irony of it is that today, with no weapons of mass destruction, no
proven threat of an attack from Iraq, increasing costs of the occupation,
growing numbers of civilian and military casualties and fatalities,
continued attacks on civil rights, the protesters have been proven
correct - the war on Iraq was wrong.
And, since the war started, not only have fees been raised for students
and wages and jobs been cut for employees at the University of
California, but international students are now required to register with
federal agencies as a condition of enrollment.
And still, the university is going to prosecute student protesters.
On October 14th, the university held formal hearings and found three students
guilty of participating in an illegal assembly and refusing to cooperate with
university officials for their involvement in the anti-war sit-in that took
place in Sproul Hall on March 20, 2003. Not only does this mark an attack on
anti-war protesters and people of conscience throughout the country, the entire
process from start to finish has been riddled with unfairness and makes a
mockery of anything resembling justice.
The problems with the sham of a hearing are almost too many to list: the
university refused to have an open trial (until we showed up with forty
protesters); the university refused to give students ample time to prepare a
defense; one of the three students wasn't even served with a letter telling
her to appear at the hearing; the students were unable to gather witnesses
in time for the hearing (some of them are out of the country and a few have
graduated); the university did not make all of their evidence available to
our advocate; the university has singled out three protesters from over 400
who participated in the sit-in and the 119 who were arrested that day for
selective prosecution; the university selected an all male hearing panel to
adjudicate the hearing; and the students' request for a continuance was
ignored.
Instead of being a party to this kangaroo court, students walked out of the
hearings in protest and demanded that the university at least consider
giving them more time to prepare. The university refused. Other than the
blatant disregard for procedure, there are two things that make this decision
by UC Berkeley outrageous.
First, that UC Berkeley is the only university in the nation (to our
knowledge) that is prosecuting students for protesting the war the day after
the bombing began, despite the fact that protests happened on scores of
campuses throughout the US.
Second, that student protesters were right about every aspect of the war.
There are no weapons of mass destruction. There is no proven threat of
attack from Iraq. Civilian and military casualties continue to mount and
the US continues to spend exorbitant sums to maintain a military presence in
Iraq - yet it fails to turn on the water or electricity. The attacks on
civil liberties continue to mount. Fees for students at UC Berkeley and
dozens of campuses continue to rise.
We will be sentenced in two weeks, on October 28th, 2003. We intend to
protest this decision on that date and will send out information about this
as soon as we can.
In the meantime, we need your help. Please take a few moments and write to the
Chancellor and the Student Judicial Affairs Office (addresses and phone
information below) and tell them that you believe that this decision is
unwarranted and unjust. Especially at Berkeley, where there are memorials to
Free Speech movement of the 1960s all over campus (the Mario Savio steps and
the Free Speech Movement Caf�, these kinds of attacks on free speech and civil
disobedience are not only an attempt to roll-back the activist gains won on
this campus, but also in defiance of the university's mission to promote free
speech and debate.
We have included some talking points below that you may want to include in
your conversation or correspondence with the administration at UC Berkeley.
Please do email us at info@berkeleystopthewar.org with any correspondence
that you send so that we can keep a record of the letters that the
administration receives.
Also, please sign our online petition.
Also join Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Peter Camejo and many others and add
your name to the letter below that will appear as a full-page advertisement
in the UC Berkeley "Daily Cal" newspaper on October 27. This will be the
day before the sentencing hearing for three Berkeley students being
disciplined for their role in a peaceful anti-war sit-in. Please send your
name and affiliation to DefendBerkeley3@aol.com. If you are
able to make a contribution to the cost of publishing this letter, please make
out a check to "BSTW" (that's the Berkeley Stop the War coalition) and put
"Berkeley 3" in the memo line. Send it to: BSTW c/o Snehal Shingavi,
322 Wheeler Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720. Lastly, please forward this letter to
professors, students, labor and social justice activists and leaders, writers,
artists, journalists and everyone you know who cares about civil liberties and
ask them to sign on along with you.
We urgently need your help. Please lend your support to anti-war student
activists and activists who are fighting for social justice by letting
the administration know that their actions are not supported by members
of the community, students, alumni, faculty, and staff.
Sincerely,
Berkeley Stop the War Coalition
ucbstopthewar@hotmail.com
Todd Chretien
Committee to Defend Student Civil Liberties
510-333-4604
UC Berkeley Contacts
Chancellor Robert Berdahl
MAIL: 200 California Hall #1500
Berkeley, CA 94720-1500
TEL: (510) 642-7464
FAX: (510) 643-5499
Assistant Chancellor John Cummins
EMAIL: jcummins@uclink4.berkeley.edu
MAIL: Office of the Chancellor
200 California Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720-1500
TEL: (510) 642-7516
FAX: (510) 643-5499
Student Judicial Affairs Officer Neal Rajmaira
EMAIL: osc@uclink4.berkeley.edu
326 Sproul Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
TEL:(510) 643-9069
FAX:(510) 643-3133
Talking Points
1) Students should not face charges or disciplinary actions for participating
in non-violent civil disobedience.
2) Activists should be allowed, freely, to speak and protest on campus
without harassment from the University or its officers.
3) Any attempt to charge protesters for peaceful protest represents an
attack on free speech.
4) The war and occupation of Iraq were wrong and protesters were right to
protest.
5) Student activists fought for the right to organize on this campus in
the 1960s and should be allowed to continue to organize.
6) The University of California, Berkeley should declare its opposition
to the war and occupation by naming Baghdad University a sister school.
Letter to Daily Cal
Berkeley Student Anti-War Protesters Deserve Due Process
On Tuesday, October 14, three University of California, Berkeley
students, Rachel Odes, Michael Smith and Snehal Shingavi, were convicted
in absentia of "disturbing the peace" by a university disciplinary panel
for their role in a March 20, 2003 anti-war sit-in. On that day, 4,000
Berkeley students responded to the beginning of President Bush's invasion
of Iraq by rallying on the historic Mario Savio steps of Sproul Hall
administration building. Over 400 students then entered Sproul Hall and
began a peaceful sit-in to demand that the University of California take
a stand against the war by declaring Baghdad University a sister school,
refusing to comply with FBI requests for information on foreign students
and pledging to refrain from raising tuition and laying off faculty and
staff because of budget cuts caused by military spending. UC
administrators refused to even discuss these demands and ordered police
to make arrests for "trespassing."
Since Sproul Hall is a public building, operated and paid for by student
tuition, and it was during business hours, UC police declared the sit-in,
which was confined to the front lobby, an "unlawful assembly."
Eventually, 119 protesters were arrested.
In the Alameda County District Attorney's judgment, the students' actions
did not warrant prosecution and all legal charges were quickly dropped.
The UC Berkeley administration, however, decided to press ahead with its
own disciplinary charges, which could include penalties ranging from
community service to a ban on participating in future protests to
suspension from school.
If the conviction against these three prominent activists in the Berkeley
Stop the War coalition stands, it will chill free speech at UC Berkeley.
Compounding matters, the UC Berkeley administration has made a mockery of
due process rights. It has stacked the deck by assigning full-time
administrators to prosecute the students, while assigning only two unpaid
and inexperienced student advocates to the defense.
The administration has repeatedly violated its own written procedures.
For instance, two of the defendants received certified letters notifying
them of the hearing on October 3, just seven business days prior to the
hearing. The third student, Rachel Odes, never even received a letter.
University policy clearly states that defendants must be notified at
least 10 days in advance of the hearing. When this fact was brought to
his attention, disciplinary hearing committee chair physics professor
Robert Jacobsen told Odes that "since her friends told her about it, she
only lost a day or two."
This disregard for university rules adversely affects the students'
ability to prepare a defense because the administration also asserts that
any witnesses or evidence to be used in the hearing must be submitted at
least 5 days in advance. Thus, the students had, at most, 48 hours to
contact witnesses, gather statements, retain legal counsel and generally
prepare themselves for the hearing. The defendants brought these
procedural violations to the attention of the five man hearing board and
requested a one-month delay. Jacobsen dismissed these concerns out of
hand and admonished the students not to pursue a "scorched earth"
defense. When supporters in the audience at the hearing gasped, the
hearing board chair declared that he would "move the hearing to the men's
room" if there were any interference from the public. After realizing
that one of the defendants was a woman, he embarrassingly added, "or the
women's room."
As the defendants attempted to plead their case, the Jacobsen interrupted
them, held up his finger like an umpire and said, "that's one!" When the
defendants continued, he continued, "that two!" Before they could be
called out on three strikes, Michael Smith spoke up saying, "Our academic
careers on are the line. More importantly, this is about the right of
students to dissent on this campus and to receive due process when the
university comes after us. We are not going to sit here and be part of
this joke of a hearing." The three defendants then led their supporters
out of the hearing room.
We believe that Berkeley is violating these students' right to due process.
We do not understand why a reasonable delay in the hearing could not be
granted.
We protest the decision to convict them in absentia.
We call on UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl and Dean of Students
Karen Kenney to step into this process and cancel the October 28
sentencing hearing.
We demand that a new hearing date be set, on a date mutually agreeable to
both parties that respects the students' right to organize an adequate
defense.
The Bush Administration has carried out an unprecedented attack on civil
liberties in this country over the last two years. The UC Berkeley
administration has a special duty to ensure that its academic community
stands as a beacon of light for hard-won legal protections for which so
many generations have fought. The university should be encouraging
discourse and tolerating dissent as part of a diversified educational
experience, benefiting the student body and the community as a whole.
Instead, it is cutting corners and steamrollering students' rights in its
rush to punish opposition to war. It is time for the UC Berkeley
administration to come to its senses and grant a new hearing for Odes,
Smith and Shingavi.
Signed,
Peter Camejo
Green Party candidate for governor
Noam Chomsky
Professor of Linguistics and Philosophy
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Howard Zinn
Professor Emeritus
Boston University
Author of A People's History of the United States
Anthony Arnove
Editor, Iraq Under Siege
South End Press
Katrina Yeaw
Western Regional Representative
Campus Anti-War Network
Eyad Kishawi
Free Palestine Alliance
Initiated by the Committee to Defend Student Civil Liberties
Affiliations listed for identification purposes only
Articles and reports on the protest
1) War reawakens protest movement at UC Berkeley - Demonstrations held
at Sproul Hall, in Berkeley park and at Oakland City Hall
By William Brand, Angela Hill and Mike Adamick, STAFF WRITERS
Oakland Tribune, March 21, 2003
BERKELEY -- America's attack on Iraq brought an instant and spirited
protest from students Thursday at the University of California, Berkeley.
Police arrested 119 demonstrators inside Sproul Hall at the end of the
largest protest on the campus in at least a decade. The rally, sponsored
by the Berkeley Coalition to End the War, brought out at least 1,500
spectators -- mostly students.
And unlike most protests, this one didn't end at protesting. All but 19
were UC students, Cooper said.
"There were 18 adults and one nonstudent minor."
Cooper said the Sproul Plaza crowd was the largest for a political
demonstration in years. "We had some large demonstrations in the
mid-1980s against apartheid," he said. "In the 1990s, there were some
antiwar rallies that drew 1,000. But we estimate this crowd at 1,500
today."
2) 119 Arrested in Sproul Takeover
Anti-War Sit-In Freezes Administration for Hours; Thousands Walk Out, Join
Noontime Peace Rally
By AMELIA HEAGERTY, ANDREA HERNANDEZ, MARTIN RICARD and NATE TABAK
Friday, March 21, 2003
One hundred seventeen protesters were arrested yesterday afternoon after
they refused to leave an anti-war sit-in in the main lobby of Sproul
Hall.
More than 30 UC police officers were present, with two to five officers
removing each protester. Ninety-eight of those arrested were UC Berkeley
students. The majority of the demonstrators were escorted out of the lobby
without incident, but several had to be carried.
The students at the Berkeley Stop the War Coalition-organized sit-in had
three requests-the same demands they made at their earlier peace rally.
They asked UC Berkeley to declare the University of Baghdad its sister
school and not increase student fees or cut staff wages during the war.
They also demanded the university not give student records, especially
those of international students, to federal agencies.
Once the arrests began, it took police less than 90 minutes to empty
Sproul's lobby of sit-in participants. Sproul Hall, which houses most of the
university's administration, was closed down for more than four hours
yesterday. This came at a time when admissions staff were one week away from
mailing out acceptance letters.
Officials said they lost valuable time yesterday because the sit-in
brought their daily business to a halt. The protesters who refused to stand
were dragged, carried or forced to stand with "pain holds." Police forced
protesters to comply with orders by twisting their arms behind their backs or
pressing the pressure points on their necks, said UC police Capt. Bill Cooper.
After they were removed one by one, all 117 were cited on suspicion of
misdemeanor trespassing by the UC Police Department and released.
The demonstrators entered the building shortly after rallying on Sproul
Plaza at noon. The arrests started three hours later, after protesters had
been addressed by both Vice Chancellor Horace Mitchell and UC police Lt. Jim
West.
"We certainly recognize your right to express your opinions about the
war," Mitchell said to the crowd. "For those of you who decide you want
to be arrested, we ask that you continue to do this in a nonviolent way."
West told the Sproul occupants if they did not leave the building, they
would be subject to arrest and or campus disciplinary action.
The demonstrators filled the main lobby of Sproul, sitting cross-legged
and chanting anti-war sentiments. "One, two, three, four, we're students,
we're anti-war. Five, six, seven, eight, stop the violence, stop the hate,"
they chanted as they continued to occupy the lobby.
"This is the only way to stop (the war) and cause pre-emptive peace,"
said UC Berkeley freshman David Born. UC Berkeley staff and administrators
stood on the sidelines but said they could not accommodate the students'
demands.
"There's no way that any of us here can meet any of those demands,"
Mitchell said. "Those are different decision-making bodies."
A large group of students watched from just outside the door, spilling
onto the steps of Sproul Hall and chanting along with those inside. They
pounded on the windows and chanted frantically in support of the sit-in
participants.
"This was our first time doing this," said UC Berkeley senior Chris
Goslow. "We've never participated in a cause before since we've been here
(at UC Berkeley). Now we're activists."
UC Berkeley graduate student Snehal Shingavi, an organizer of the sit-in,
led the crowd in chants and blasted sentiments on a loudspeaker. As the
students were taken from the lobby one by one, those remaining continued to
rally, chanting loudly.
When police used pain holds and other techniques to remove individuals
from the scene, protesters screamed "Shame! Shame!" at the police angrily
and chanted, "The whole world is watching." Although police reported no
injuries, Shingavi said some protesters sustained injuries to their eyes,
arms and heads.
"People were going limp so police had to drag them," said UC Berkeley
junior Azadeh Amani, who was arrested in the protest. "People were
banging their heads on the stairs."
Many protesters returned to continue protesting on the steps of Sproul.
Other campus activities were affected by the commencement of the war.
Many teachers canceled classes, and many students walked out at noon in
protest.
3) Coverage from Indymedia
story and pictures - http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/03/1586753.php
pictures - http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/03/1586647.php
audio clip - http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/03/1586672.php
Note: This information has been collated from 3 different mails from
Berkeley Stop the War Coalition and Committee to Defend Student Civil
Liberties.
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