File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2000/postcolonial.0003, message 42


From: DefendAffAction-AT-aol.com
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 10:09:41 EST
Subject: Flyer for Wed. UC Regents' meeting, and place + time to gather at


Dear everyone,

What follows is the full text of the flyer we are circulating to organize 
people to this Wednesday's UC Regents' meeting to demand that they reverse 
the ban on affirmative action in the UC system. (This includes a box calling 
people out to the Berkeley school board meeting in defense of integration in 
Berkeley's K-12 public schools this Wednesday.)

At UC-Berkeley, people will gather at the fountain at Sproul Plaza at 10:00 
am to take BART and carpool to the UC Regents' meeting.

-- Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary (BAMN)

----------------------------------------
DEMAND THAT THE UC REGENTS REVERSE THE BAN
ON AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN THE UC SYSTEM!

ALL OUT TO THE UC REGENTS MEETING:
Wednesday, March 15, 2000
----------------------------------------

Rally and Press Conference -AT- 12:00 noon… Speak-out in public comment -AT- 1:15 
pm at UCSF Laurel Heights campus (3333 California at Presidio, San Francisco)

Meet at 10:00 am at the fountain at Sproul Plaza to take BART and carpool to 
the meeting

BAMN Meetings every Tuesday, 7:30 pm, Room 155 Barrows Hall
----------------------------------------

The movement to reverse the ban on affirmative action in the UC system is 
within reach of an important victory. Concerted action by all those who want 
to reverse the ban can secure this victory. California is leading the nation 
in the birth of a new Civil Rights Movement. The UC Berkeley campus and the 
Bay Area is at the center of this emerging movement. Our struggles over the 
past 5 years in defense of affirmative action, integration and the gains of 
the 1st Civil Rights Movement have placed us in a decisive moment in history 
in the fight for equality. 

Because of the united organized action of students, professors, and community 
in the country, centered at the UC Berkeley campus, we are now squarely 
positioned to force the UC Regents to reverse the ban on affirmative action 
in the UC System. Over 14,000 individuals and organizations have signed the 
petition demanding that the UC Regents do this. UC Regent William Bagley has 
written a proposal which is now supported by Lieutenant Governor and Regent 
Cruz Bustamante, the San Francisco Chronicle, UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert 
Berdahl, the ASUC at Berkeley, and the Daily Californian. It is clear that 
the vast majority of people in California have supported reversing the ban, 
but the Regents still have not acted. Regent Bagley has said that if the 
Regents voted today, the ban on affirmative action would be reversed. The 
balance of power on the Regents has shifted, and all credit is due to our 
emerging movement. The momentum is on our side. THE TIME IS NOW. All 
defenders of affirmative action must mobilize across the state to the UC 
Regents meeting and demand the ban on affirmative action in the UC System be 
reversed now. 

The Regents have dragged the reputation of the UC System through the mud. Not 
only are black and Latino students opting for a more welcoming campus and 
instead going to colleges and universities that have a stated commitment to 
them, but so are black and Latino administrators and faculty. The reputation 
of the UC System as one of the leading and most progressive universities in 
the world cannot be restored without reversing the ban on affirmative action. 

The Regents allowed themselves to be made the political tool of Ward Connerly 
and Pete Wilson, made 209 possible and sparked the national attack on 
affirmative action. That attack has grown into a nationwide attempt to 
reverse the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court decision 
outlawing segregation in public schools and to reverse the progress toward 
integration and equality won by the heroic and self-sacrificing struggles of 
the generation that preceded us. Reversing the ban on affirmative action in 
the place where it started would be a big blow to the national attack on 
affirmative action. It would send shock waves across the country declaring 
the attack on affirmative action is a big mistake, should have never happened 
and must be reversed.

OUR MOVEMENT IS STRONG, AND THE FORCES OF THE ATTACK ON AFFIRMATIVE ACTION 
ARE VULNERABLE. On February 24, 2000, students, professors, student groups, 
community, and labor unions joined together at UC Berkeley in defense of 
affirmative action. This day of action was part of a national day of action 
in defense of affirmative action and integration. UCLA and the University of 
Michigan were some of the campuses that joined us in solidarity. Here, nearly 
400 Berkeley High School students walked out of school and marched up to the 
Cal campus. A UC Berkeley professor, the student body president, 
representatives from labor unions SEIU and AFSCME along with high school 
students and middle school students and Cal students spoke-out to demand that 
the Regents reverse the ban on affirmative action in the UC System. Ward 
Connerly knows that our movement is gaining momentum and getting ready to 
knock down his door, and that in his words, "reversing the ban would be seen 
by all as a direct assault against Prop 209." Ward Connerly said "this is 
getting to me" in an Oakland Tribune article in response to a press 
conference held by BAMN and president of student government at Cal demanding 
that the UC Regents reverse the ban. Ward Connerly has been the national 
frontman for the national attack on affirmative action. If the ban were 
reversed Connerly would become a political loser and liability to everyone 
around him. Connerly recognizes this reality and feels vulnerable. We have 
the strength of the movement on our side and must take advantage of this 
opportunity to push on forward to victory. 

The struggle for affirmative action is not something that the Democrats can 
avoid. Davis and the other ruling Democratic Party politicians in the 
California government have gained the decisive majority in California now 
because voters were sick of the racist and divisive politics of Pete Wilson. 
Recently in the Democratic Party primary debates Gore and Bradley have been 
jockeying for the position of who is the more anti-racist candidate. Each one 
claims to be the one who will do more for black and Latino voters. If Gray 
Davis wants a political future with either candidate reversing the ban on 
affirmative action in the UC System is something he can and must do. Davis 
needs the votes of minority voters to get re-elected. Ignoring racist 
inequality is not something he can afford to do any longer. 
    
Our struggle can win. Our forces have momentum. We must take advantage of 
this historic opportunity to move the struggle for equality forward. Regent 
William Bagley wrote his proposal to reverse the ban on affirmative action as 
a direct result of the strength of the fall '98 UC-wide walkouts. Our 
continued inspired struggle is needed now. In Tallahassee, Florida, in 
response to the attempts of Republican Governor Jeb Bush and the University 
of Florida Regents to eliminate affirmative action there, over 30,000 people 
marched in defense of affirmative action on March 7 in the largest civil 
rights march in Florida history and the largest march in defense of 
affirmative action so far. All defenders of affirmative action and 
integration must come forward now and lead the whole country forward. 
Reversing the ban on affirmative action in the UC System can lend support and 
inspiration to defenders of affirmative action across the country. It can 
propel the whole country forward. The opportunity is ours to make history! 
We've got to reach out and take it!

----------------------------------------
The following organizations and individuals have joined the call to reverse 
the ban on affirmative action in the UC system:

Associated Students of the University of California at Berkeley (ASUC), SEIU 
(Service Employees International Union) Local 250, University Professional 
and Technical Employees (UPTE-CWA) Local 1, San Francisco Central Labor 
Council, Sacramento Central Labor Council, Orange County Central Labor 
Council, Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), Japanese American Citizens 
League (JACL), Filipinos for Affirmative Action, Associated Students, Inc. 
(ASI) at Sacramento State University, Lieutenant Governor and UC Regent Cruz 
Bustamante, UCB Chancellor Robert Berdahl, former UCB Chancellor Chang-Lin 
Tien, UCSF Chancellor Michael Bishop, UCLA Director of Admissions Rae Lee 
Siporin, Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary 
(BAMN), Revolutionary Workers League, Glide Memorial Church in S.F., Chinese 
for Affirmative Action (CAA), UC-Berkeley Cal Democrats, UC-Berkeley NAACP, 
UC-Berkeley African American Theme House council, the UC-Berkeley Oscar Wilde 
House council (lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender theme house), Mills College 
Womanists Against Institutional Racism (WAIR), Organizing Director of the 
California Faculty Association, Berkeley High Leadership class, Oakland High 
Youth Power, Asian American Association (AAA), Black Seminarians of the 
Graduate Theological Union, Cal Black Pre-Law Society, UC-Berkeley United 
Students Against Sweatshops, and many other organizations and individuals.

Have YOU signed the Petition to Reverse the Ban on Affirmative Action in the 
UC System?
If you haven't, visit our website, http://www.bamn.com/reversetheban.htm, to 
sign the petition.
----------------------------------------

DEFEND INTEGRATION IN BERKELEY K-12 PUBLIC SCHOOLS!

SPEAK-OUT at the Berkeley School Board meeting
(Old City Hall, on Martin Luther King, btwn. Allston Way and Center St.)

THIS WEDNESDAY, March 15, 2000
Press Conference 7 PM    Meeting begins 7:30 PM

Following on the heels of the attack on affirmative action, public school 
desegregation plans across the country in Boston, Cleveland, St.Louis, Kansas 
City, Charlotte, North Carolina and other cities have been dismantled with 
little to no resistance. This attack now faces us in the Bay Area.

NOW, THE BERKELEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT'S (BUSD) DESEGREGATION PLAN IS 
BEING THREATENED WITH A LAWSUIT BY THE PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION (PLF). The 
city of Berkeley must stand united in defense of integration in the BUSD. The 
PLF is a racist, right-wing law firm that has played an active role in the 
present attacks on integration and affirmative action programs across the 
country. The Berkeley school board has been indecisive in defense of its 
current school desegregation plan and as a result has opened the door to 
attack by the PLF. If this threat is not met with a rigorous mass defense, 
BUSD will return to the conditions of overwhelming segregation. We must not 
allow this to happen.

The city of Berkeley is highly regarded as a leader in providing its students 
a progressive, integrated public education. Because of massive community 
support the Berkeley School Board voted on April 18, 1967 to take the first 
steps in the direction of integration for equal, quality public education for 
all of its youth. As a result, the school district became the first in the 
country to voluntarily implement the Brown v. Board of Education decision 
with comprehensive desegregation plans designed to integrate its schools. 
That same support for integration exists at UC Berkeley as well.

In response to these attacks, high school students in the Bay Area are 
beginning to organize and fight. BAMN and S.F. high school students were able 
to force the San Francisco Unified School District to appeal a judge's 
decision to end all effective measures of school integration in San 
Francisco. In Berkeley High School, nearly 400 students walked out February 
24 in defense of integration and affirmative action, and students have been 
gathering petition signatures to demand integration and quality education. It 
has fallen to this generation to defend the progress achieved by the civil 
rights struggles of the 1950s and 60s. Those of us who stand in the proud 
tradition of the Civil Rights Movement - those of us who oppose the racist 
inequality of our society - MUST ACT NOW.

----------------------------------------
Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary (BAMN)
Website: www.bamn.com
Hotline/voicemail: (510) 895-3068
E-mail: DefendAffAction-AT-aol.com       

Program of BAMN: 1) Defend affirmative action! No resegregation of higher 
education! 2) Stop the implementation of the racist, sexist Proposition 209 
in California. 3) Force the University of California Regents to rescind their 
vote to destroy affirmative action. 4) Build mass, militant actions to stop 
the University of California, University of Michigan and other university 
administrations from implementing any anti-affirmative action policy in 
employment and/or admissions. 5) Stop the implementation of the racist 
anti-immigrant Proposition 187 in California. 6) Build a mass, militant, 
integrated, independent movement that uses any means necessary, including 
education, rallies, marches, building occupations and strikes to defend 
affirmative action, win our demands and to fight for equality in American 
society. 7) Use democracy to build the movement. Hold open mass meetings and 
conferences, vote on strategies and tactics, and elect a steering committee 
accountable to the members of the Coalition. 8) Build a democratic statewide 
coalition that is financially and in every way independent of the Regents, 
University of California, University of Michigan and other administrations 
and government. Open it up to anti-racist activists and organizations from 
high schools, community colleges, state universities, unions, black, Latino 
and other minority organizations, anti-racist groups, women's rights groups, 
lesbian/gay organizations, etc. 

------------------------------
If you would like to be removed from or added to the Defend Affirmative 
Action mailing list, please write to DefendAffAction-AT-aol.com with "remove 
[your e-mail address]" or "add [your e-mail address]" in the subject field.

Write to DefendAffAction-AT-aol.com to place yourself on one specific mailing 
list if you haven't already!
For the national mailing list (in which you don't receive strictly local 
e-mails), send an e-mail with "add national [your e-mail address]" in the 
subject line.
For the Bay Area mailing list, send an e-mail with "add bay area [your e-mail 
address]" in the subject line.
For the California mailing list, send an e-mail with "add california [your 
e-mail address]" in the subject line.


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