Friends:

One of our valued comrades and partner of a UC graduate was severely beaten by police inside Tolman Hall last night, while he cried out repeatedly, "please stop hurting me." As a matter of course, he was issued severe charges; the more the police injure someone, the worse the charges must be so as to justify their violence.

There is little doubt that he will not be convicted, should this go to trial. However, because his injuries were severe and he had been denied medical attention at the UCPD building nor at Santa Rita, his partner felt it was imperative to get him out as swiftly as possible. This meant posting bond rather than the $15,000 bail, and forfeiting the $1,500.

The good news is that his partner just started a community care job this week that provides medical insurance; she told me this, tearfully but wryly, last night. The bad news is that she is currently broke. She managed to get the necessary amount from her family, but they themselves are quite poor. As a result, we are taking up a collection to help repay them some or all of the amount, and asking for your support. Please understand: because this was bond and not bail, any donations will be exactly that; it won't be returned at trial. We are grateful for contributions of any amount.

Please contact Joshua Clover (jclover@ucdavis.edu) if you are able to help with this, and we'll make arrangements about gathering what we can — and we'll repeat our thanks, both in specific and for the strength of our shared friendships.

Bay of Rage: Book Block Makes It Happen at UC Berkeley:

Day 1: September 22 the first day of anti-austerity actions on CA campuses

After a rally that drew more than 400, a 20 title strong book bloc led the crowd on a rowdy march through the campus towards Tollman Hall. Upon reaching the building, the book bloc fought off police as the crowd rushed in to occupy the building. Over the next hours, students and friends occupied multiple rooms of the building while police watched nervously. Meetings were held, students held a skype meeting with their counterparts in Chile, donated food was delivered and those present discussed how to push the struggle forward over the next months. At 9pm, riot police flooded the building and clashes broke out as those inside forced their way through police lines and rocks and bottles rained down on the officers. By the end of the day, the police had made two arrests and one book The Sex That is Not One by Luce Irigaray was confiscated by police.

This was the first day of what promises to be a hot fall on campuses across the state.

Public Education Coalition, Update 3:

Unfortunately, the open occupation was ended rather violently by the UCPD. While students and community members had gone into Tolman to create an open, collective alternative space for organizing, studying and solidarity, the UCPD had no intention of allowing students to live in peace. UCPD tackled a demonstrator some time around 8PM arresting him for likely bogus charges. Later, while students chanted in the lobby of Tolman, UCPD tried to block the doors to force students in. When students tried to open the doors, UCPD pushed, punched, and batoned students. One demonstrator trying to exit was tackled, beaten, and had his legs twisted for absolutely no reason. His screams were audible even after UCPD carried him to the second floor of Tolman.

Occupy CA: UC Berkeley Tolman Hall Occupied
Daily Cal Live Blog: Day of Action
Daily Cal Article: Day of Action ends in violence, two arrests
Daily Cal Storify: UC Berkeley's Day of Action
Golden Gate Xpress: UC Berkeley students occupy Tolman Hall, two arrested
KRON: U.C. Berkeley Demonstrators Occupy Empty Classroom Building to Protest Tuition Hikes
ABC: 9 Hour Protest Ends at UC Berkeley
CBS: Classrooms at UC Berkeley Occupied by Tuition Hike Protesters
SF Chronicle: UC Protests Funding Cuts
Sacramento Bee: Students seize UC Berkeley hall
AP: Student Protesters Occupy UC Berkeley Building
CNN: Berkeley students take over campus building to protest proposed tuition hike
Twitter: @callie_hoo, @reclaimuc

statement from the occupation of Tolman Hall at UC Berkeley

We’ve come together today to call for a halt to the destruction of our public schools,
and to insist that education be universally accessible and free. But today we are not
simply pressing demands; we’re also working collectively to reclaim our campus, to
make it a little more public and a little less estranged from us. Starting this afternoon,
we’re opening up a university building to be used as an organizing and educational
space; for teach-ins, film screenings, planning meetings, and whatever else we students,
workers, and debtors at large decide will help us more effectively resist austerity.
We’ve decided to begin by reclaiming the seismically-unsafe Tolman Hall. In August
2011, The Daily Cal reported that in the midst of the “financial crisis”, unsafe
buildings across the 10 UC-campuses would have to wait before they could be
retrofitted. The administration has shut down 13 classrooms in Tolman Hall, which we
are here to reclaim and transform. The UC administration has engaged in an actuarial
risk assessment and decided that students should not be in the building but that
workers are still required to labor there daily. While buildings like Tolman Hall are
being closed throughout the UC-campuses, the University continues to build multimillion
dollar buildings that are nominally public. Tolman Hall stands as a ruin of
public education. We want to call attention to the ways in which the dismantling of
public education and public services is manifested by the defunding of public
infrastructures on our campuses and in all classrooms across this country – buildings
and classrooms that are not simply “brick and mortar” but are the spaces of
collective action and institutional memory. Today, we move to remake these landscapes
of inequality and to open up a new center of resistance.

We invite all (with the exception
of police officers and UC
administrators) to join us in
reclaiming and holding this space
open so that we may begin to
dream and imagine together how
we can re-build a truly public
university on the ruins of this one.

tol