As the nationwide March 4th protests against cuts to public education grow near, groups around the state are trying to get the word out. In Berkeley, UC students plan to hold a rally at noon and teachers in the Berkeley Unified School district plan to march on Martin Luther King Street after school lets out. There will be rallies in San Francisco, Sacramento and around the state.
After violence erupted at UC Berkeley on February 26, many people are concerned that the March 4 protests will grow violent. Some think direct action is necessary to underscore the seriousness of the threat to public education. Others think it will detract from the message.
A group that runs the blog Occupy California released this high quality video of last week’s disturbances at UC Berkeley and it shows students dancing in the streets one minute and overturning dumpsters the next. The narration on the video makes a direct connection to cuts in education with the violence.
As the narrator puts it, “When the conflict spreads beyond the university and its sanctioned student groups, when people become involved on their own terms, when a dance party becomes a protest becomes a party again and then transforms into a riot and back into a party. This is the coveted mass movement where people question thier roles and identities as students, as street people, as jocks or as activists.”
I didn’t quite understand the anonymous narrator’s line of thought, or argument, but this is a interesting video that provides the best snapshot yet of what happened on Friday, Feb. 26.
