UC Berkeley administration begins negotiations as support continues to grow for hunger strike

Here's a short clip from the Hunger Strikers up at CAL Berkeley. Below is the latest media update.

CONTACT:
Marco Amaral  (619) 764-8540  marco.amaral6@gmail.com
Tanya Smith  (510) 325-6381  tanyagays@yahoo.com
Maricruz Manzanarez  (510) 375-0245  balucu@hotmail.com
Horacio Corona (fasting) (559) 789-2381 corona12@berkeley.edu
Katherine Isabel Vega  (661) 802-2943  kathyivega@gmail.com


12pm rally to support strike demands as fast enters the 5th day

When: 12pm, Friday May 7th
Where: California Hall on UC Berkeley Campus
Visuals: hundreds of supporters, hunger strike encampment, picket signs, performances.

BERKELEY, CA—Students, workers, and community supporters are protesting on the front lawn of California Hall for the 5th day of a hunger strike with demands of denouncing racist legislation in Arizona, creating a sanctuary campus and ending retaliation against student and worker activists (see next page for complete demands). 40 to 300 people have been outside the main administrative building round-the-clock as support continues to grow. On Thursday, as over 60 students from Berkeley High joined the rally to make it the biggest one seen to date, Vice Chancellor George Breslauer finally met with a team of negotiators for the first time. Little progress was made.
 “The Vice Chancellor just wanted to have a ‘discussion’ and ‘get to know us’ without taking any steps to address the reasons we are on strike”, says Marco Amaral, a freshman who is one of the organizers of the strike. “We appreciate his willingness to meet with the team but he showed no interest in ending the strike; something he can do at any point he chooses. Our demands are very reasonable and there is no need for these stalling tactics.  We will continue to strike until all of our demands are met”.
 A rally is planned today at 12pm to increase the pressure on the administration. In addition, regularly scheduled demonstrations each day with an 11am mass and prayer service and a 7pm rally.

For up-to-date information on the hunger strike visit our Facebook page at
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=114079228632152

The demands to end the hunger strike are:

1. Publically denounce Arizona’s SB1070 Law and ask President Yudof and other UC Chancellors to do the same.  We urge you to bring this up at tomorrow’s UC system-wide meeting with other Chancellors.  Blatantly racist and xenophobic laws run counter to the values of the UC education system.

2. Make UC Berkeley a Sanctuary Campus and provide extensive protection for undocumented students. 

3. Drop all student conduct charges related to protest actions that occurred during the academic year 2009-10.

4. Stop cuts to low-wage workers on campus and stop attacks against union activists; rehire all AFSCME service workers and UPTE union activists and Cal performances employees.

5. Suspend the Student code of conduct and initiate a democratic student-led process to review the code. Those participating in this process should be charged with attending particularly to concerns about students’ due process rights and to free speech considerations. If, through this review, it is determined that a new code can be written in any way that adequately addresses these concerns, a new code should be written by a democratic, student-led body. If not, the student code of conduct should be abolished.

6. Accept responsibility for the violence and escalation of the confrontation surrounding Wheeler Hall on November 20th and December 11th 2009 that resulted in injuries to many students and jeopardized the safety and security of AB540 students. Additionally, commit to using non-violent means of ensuring safety at student demonstrations in the future.