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. --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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