This is their communiqué:

The spaces we live in are broken: occupation is our defense.

As capital spirals further into crisis, we are constantly confronted with the watchword of austerity. We are meant to imagine a vast, empty vault where our sad but inevitable futures lie. But we are not so naïve. Just as Wall Street functions on perpetually revolving credit markets where cash is merely a blip, so also does our state government. High tuition increases have been made necessary not by shrinking savings, but by a perpetually expanding bond market, organized by the UC Regents, enforced through increasing tuition and growing student loan debt. Growth has become a caricature of itself, as the future is sold on baseless expanding credit from capitalist to capitalist. Our future is broken. We are the crisis. Our occupations are the expressions of that crisis.

But on the university campuses, where militarization is increasing daily, we have more immediate needs. Our relationship with the administration and police is not one of trust and openness; the arrogance and nonchalance with which they regularly inflict violence against us is just as regularly followed by a thoroughly dissembling, inadequate, and cowardly condemnation of that violence. One hand attacks—one hand denies. Our universities and our public spaces are today ultra-militarized zones, where students and workers are monitored and subjugated under the pretense of “health and safety.” Officer Kemper from UC Irvine drew his gun at the Regents’ meeting at UCSF. Berkeley UCPD participated in violently clearing the Oakland Communards from Oscar Grant Plaza just weeks before they would come to UC Davis for the events of November 18th. On the day of the first Oakland General Strike, UCOP office in Oakland was lent out to OPD to “monitor” protests. Under the pretext of mutual aid, squads of armed and armored riot cops move from one campus, one public space, one city, to the next. The circulation of cops throughout the state shows that the mobile, militarized force of repression knows no boundaries: it will protect capital, government, and the status quo, wherever they are threatened. In a university whose motto is fiat lux, the administration crushes dissent and veils its intentions with lies. It has the same intentions as Mayor Quan or the Military in Egypt: to crush resistance, by any means necessary.

To continue our resistance, our immediate need is to create a safe space of togetherness, care, and freedom. When we occupied Mrak, the same officers who would later be involved in pepper spraying us watched over us as we slept. As we gathered to discuss, plan, and act to protect our right to education, the Orwellian “Freedom of Expression Team” and the “University Communications Team” loomed nearby, texting the pigs and administration on their stupid androids, smiling at us in their fake, overfed way, scooting near like unpopular highschool kids trying to overhear the weekends’ party plans. Later, these same concerned FOEs, would stand by on the quad and do nothing, grinning like idiots, as students pepper-sprayed at point blank range called for medics. It is clear to us that public space has become a euphemism for militarized, ordered, monitored space. Occupation opens a common space which is not the extension of private property to group property, but the active exclusion of all that reinforces private property. We must exclude the police and the administration, and their “Freedom of Expression Team” lackeys as well, in order to create the openness and togetherness which is impossible in their presence.

The UC Chancellor, President, Regents—who prattle on endlessly about diversity while the university closes its doors to brown students, who hail marginal utility while “the economy” closes its fist around the poor, who dream up ways to boost the university’s standing on some imaginary scale of “excellence” while slurs, swastikas, nooses, and Klan masks appear endlessly on our campus, who meet protests with violence and truth with lies—they have already proven their incapacity to imagine a future different than the present. We occupy because we will not wait for the broken future they have planned for us, because we do not trust our “elected officials” or administrators to make decisions that address problems beyond their own narrow interests. This action is not the beginning of a discussion; this is the end of the discussion. We cannot negotiate for our needs, we will not negotiate for our needs, we will meet our needs. (via UCDecolonized)

Read more:

• Communiqué for a radical occupation – SensusCommunist

As things settled back down, word came to marchers that the empty Cathedral Hotel, located on Franklin and Geary, was occupied (by Homes Not Jails). Marchers proceeded to go and support the occupation.

A complete timeline of the day’s events is available here.

Statement from occupycal:

We love our libraries and are here to protect them. Libraries are critically important for excellent education for all. We students, faculty, and community members collectively have decided to occupy the Anthropology Library at UC Berkeley to protest the dismantling of the library system on campus and public education as a whole.

We chose to occupy this space because the Anthropology library is a recent victim of extreme service cuts. The hours of operation are being cut from the previous, already slim, 9am-6pm to the current 12pm-5pm, because the university has not taken the necessary steps to sufficiently staff the library. The multiple attacks on campus libraries are a reflection of privatization and the devaluation of the public education system.

We are here to reverse this process. We call on the administration to take immediate action to hire another full-time librarian to ensure full access to this valuable resource.

The administration may claim that there are insufficient funds, but in reality these resources exist, but their allocation by UC administrators and the state does not adequately reflect the values of excellent public education. Why have the UC Regents continued to approve 21% increases in administration salaries, while students are being denied access to their libraries? Why are the taxes of the 1% so low while essential social services are being cut across the state and country?

We stand in solidarity with the Occupy movement as a whole and the protestors at UC Riverside who were met with violence in their attempt to protest the austerity policies of the UC Regents, Sacramento, and Washington D.C.

Defend our libraries and schools. Occupy together.

— The Anthropology Library Occupation
January 19, 2012 (via ReclaimUC)

Read more:

• “We Won!”: Reflections on Two Occupations of the Same Library – reclaimuc/repoliticize

The UC Regents’ Meeting @ UC Riverside began early today. Most mainstream media were inside the HUB building in which the Regents gathered. While we waited outside, reports from inside were telling that the public comment session was often interrupted by the Regents in their failed attempts to appease the student protesters who only had 1 minute each to express themselves. One comment was that regent Sherry Lansing tried to address the students by the usual means of misdirecting the students efforts towards the capital. The reports were that her comment was “useless and boring”. After the public comment session was done with, the students offered their own meeting via mic check. But the Regents did nothing but hide in another room with very few people allowed in from the public. Police remained inside but did not move to arrest anybody. At around 1 p.m. everybody was running from the front doors of the HUB to the back doors through which the Regents were supposed to make their quick escape. Students took over a staircase and then another as police in riot gear blocked their way. Administrators were seen at the windows and balconies of the buildings while talking on their cell phones, taking video, and laughing at the people below them.

The police issued several orders to disperse and every time the students booed them and asked them “Why do we need to disperse? Give us a reason!” But the police only managed to repeat the same statement over and over. At one point the Chancellor of UC Riverside, Timothy P. White was seen on the balcony and was confronted by students asking to be allowed into the building and to the meeting. Upon being recognized, he quickly left the balcony and went back inside the building to never be seen again.

Later in the day, at around 3:30 p.m. the students were notified by scouts that the police were gathering in the back to make way for the exit of the Regents. Students split their ranks and took both exits, but no Regents were seen. At 4:30 p.m. (give or take) the Riverside Police Department sent in re-enforcements and the police line started their push back on the back side of the HUB building next to the parking lot.

Rubber bullets and pepper balls were fired. The police was chased over to the other side of the building. Over 5 people were arrested and there was a rumor that a fence was thrown at the riot police.


The charges that some people have received are the following: (Felony) Assault with a deadly weapon ($25,000 bail).

From a friend of the arrested: “[My friend] was arrested at the UC Riverside Regents meeting today. [He] is a lecturer and member of UC-AFT (the union I work for) at UCR, a well-known artist, and prominent critic of the UC system, including the Regents and President Yudof. I apologize if this is too informal but I know many of you know [him] personally and many more know of him and his work. My coworker at UCR is working to secure union funds to bail him out so that he’s not held over the weekend. I don’t have a lot more details than this, especially concerning his charges or bail, but I do know from hearing witnesses that he was sitting down when police approached him and arbitrarily arrested him, and I’m absolutely sure, as many of you likely are too, that he was arrested because of his dissent, not for any real ‘crime’.” ]

Read More:

• Cops and Cowards: Reflections on the Recent UC Regents Protest – Anti-Imperialist Theorizing
• DailyCal
• LA Times

• Black and White Flyer (PDF):

The marchers were able to reach the police station, but were greeted by a few hundred police. A few rocks or bottles were thrown at police, but the marchers continued to move on their way. The march zig-zagged down different roads avoiding lines of police. A half an hour later, police eventually blocked marchers and prevented them from continuing forward. A small bonfire was lit in the center of the street around 30-50m away from the police line. The police began moving forward to extinguish the flame and in that process blocked exits of bars along the street. Police then charged the crowd and tackled a few individuals and arrested them. Some demonstrators were beaten with batons, including observers. One demonstrator was shot in the face by a rubber bullet. In total 6 were arrested.

Police kettled the crowd at 9th and Washington for 15-20 minutes. Police eventually gave a dispersal warning and allowed demonstrators to leave. The crowd then regrouped at Oscar Grant Plaza.

Police appear to have targeted specific individuals. Reportedly one BART train was stopped and searched by police for fleeing demonstrators. At least one medic was arrested while giving medical attention to someone the police injured.

Update:

According to the OPD press release, “[during] the march, protesters broke patrol vehicle windows, vandalized a media van, threw bottles at the police, and lit an object on fire at the intersection of 8th Street and Washington Street.

As of 11:00 p.m., six protesters have been arrested. Offenses ranged from assaulting officers, possession of explosives, resisting/delaying officers, and vandalism. One of the protesters arrested was in possession of an explosive device described as a quarter stick of dynamite.” (via graphic journalist Susie Cagle)

Related videos:

• PunkboyinSF
• Oakfosho
• Watch this video of an #OO videographer being arrested last week during a police raid on a vigil.

Related News:

• An OccupyOakland demonstrator is facing a lifetime prison sentence and will be having a hearing in Pleasanton, California on Monday at 9am. Read more. Update: Khali’s pre-trial is set for February

Read More:

• “Fuck the Police, Long Live the Commune” – Bay of Rage
• Account of OPD’s attacks on #OO – OccupyOakland

• See photos from Bay of Rage.

1 Jan. – Oscar Grant Memorial – 1pm Oscar Grant Plaza

• More on OccupyOakland.
• See photos from Indybay.

7 Jan. – Anti-Police Repression March – 8pm Oscar Grant Plaza

8 Jan. – Feminist/Queer Block – Noon to 5pm at 19th & Telegraph

9. Jan. – American Licorice Strike/Picket – Beginning at 5am at 2477 Liston Way, Union City, CA. Additional support is needed at 2:30pm to 11pm.

19 Jan. – UC Regents Meeting at UC Riverside Protest

22 Jan. – Justice for Kenneth Harding Jr – Noon at Third & Palou in Bay View, SF

• More on Kenneth Harding Jr.

28 Jan. – Occupy Oakland Building Occupation – 5pm Oscar Grant Plaza

Related:

• #OccupyOakland establishes a new encampment on Tuesday, 27 December at 21st and Mandela in West Oakland. The encampment is being called the Cypress Triangle. Update: Cypress Triangle was evicted shortly after being established, much like at many other reoccupations.

The action was intended to keep the building open to provide programming and services to the community, including free food, employment and health workshops, and classes for high school students who have been through the criminal justice system or are at risk.

LAPD officers arrived within an hour–apparently alarmed that young people of color were trying to enter a library–and immediately shut the outside gates, trapping about half of the youth and supporters, including media and legal observers, on the property. Police closed nearby streets and had arrest vans and a helicopter on the scene. The youth participating in the action were threatened with arrest for trespassing and $5000 bail; they were eventually able to leave the site without arrest.

Following the eviction, the city–which can never seem to find resources to provide for the basic needs of the community–constructed an 8-foot tall fence around the library and parking lot to make sure that it was even more difficult for the community to access the space.