UCSC's campaign of intimidation

[Hannah Bell]

SANTA CRUZ, Calif.--Campus authorities at the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) have launched a campaign of harassment and intimidation against student activists in the lead-up to a statewide day of action against the budget cuts on March 4.

This week, about a dozen graduate students and undergraduates received a "summons" from the office of Student Judicial Affairs (SJA). SJA Director Doug Zuidema plans to ask these students questions related to their alleged role in the November walkout and occupations against fee hikes in the UC system.

Although Zuidema and the SJA act like friends of the student movement, and stress that these meetings are merely a "fact-finding" exercise, they're clearly trying to intimidate the campus left as we build for a student strike on March 4.

Half a dozen students have already faced administrative sanctions related to anti-cuts protests in the fall, including four who were forced to pay fines of more than $500 following the occupation of the Graduate Student Commons building in September, and one undergraduate who has been suspended for the rest of the school year...

The only way to resist administrative attempts at repression and co-optation is to build a grassroots movement independent of the administration and the Sacramento politicians. Students and workers need to stand up against repression and demonstrate to the administration that we still believe in the old labor movement slogan: "An injury to one is an injury to all."


http://socialistworker.org/2010/02/12/intimidation-at-ucsc