Pamphlet: WHOSE BUDGET CUTS?

Pamphlet with facts and figure on the budget cuts--who they affect and who they don't! See a full display tomorrow from 10 AM-2PM on Red Square with more details...

Meeting Dec. 2nd 7 PM, Suzzalo Cafe

Informal discussion on

University of California Struggles and Budget cuts at UW

Dec 2nd, Wed

Suzallo Cafe

7pm

Many of us have been excited to see what's been going on in California. Students, workers and community members came together to fight the 32% fee hike and layoffs of workers. In UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UCSC there have been occupations and protests. The recent events in UC give all us around the nation, a glimpse of how powerful we are when we come together. There are many questions that lie ahead: Will the University of California struggles spread to other campuses in the country? How are administrators, and management going to respond to this? What are the direct action tactics that organizers have used and how can we learn from them? Will these fights be generalized to other workplaces in California, and in the country?

At UW, budget cuts are also happening. The economic crisis has served as an excuse for restructuring and privatizing the university. But who's crisis is it? The same story goes: the most oppressed are affected, while those at the top continue to make big fat paychecks. This means lay offs, speed up and extra work for workers, and tuition hikes and reduced support services for students.

On Wed Dec 2nd at 7pm, members of Democracy Insurgent would like to discuss with all interested folks, how we can work together to organize a more powerful and united front against the privatization efforts of the university.

**We know its nearing finals period, so it will be a short meeting!

Some links on the UC struggles:

Pictures/Articles:

SF Gate

Associated Press

NY Times and more

This

Video –

SF Gate

Another

UCLA

Check out our zine on budget cuts at www.democracyinsurgent.org

For updates on our actions: www.nobudgetcutsuw.blogspot.com

Update on CIA Protest

As you all may know, last Wednesday Nov. 4th, the CIA was scheduled to hold a recruitment session in Smith Hall on campus. Along with For a Democratic University (FaDU), International Socialist Organization (ISO), and Campus Anti-war Network (CAN), DI called a picket in protest of their presence at UW. We started small but soon drew a few more people, including graduate students and professors; enough to make a visible and vocal showing. Apparently, our efforts were successful because the recruiting session never actually occurred. The CIA agent who was supposed to conduct the session never showed up to the room! Count it as a victory. Together, we made it clear to the university and to the CIA recruiters that they will not be able to use our school as a recruiting ground for U.S. Empire - not without opposition, at least.

The next day, however, we received an email from Phil Hunt, an advisor in the Student Activities Office, saying we needed to report for a meeting with him regarding an "incident." It's unfortunate that basic acts of protest and free speech draw reprisals from the authoritie at a public institution that posits itself as a beacon of free thought. We were accused of disrupting the educational mission of the university. This begs an obvious question: Since the CIA has a long history of violently suppressing democratic movements throughout the Third World, and since CIA actions have contributed to the bombing of civilians and universities in other countries, what constitutes disrupting learning: a five minute picket, or bombs exploding on top of your school's roof?

While DI is not currently involved in a longterm anti-CIA campaign, this picket was an extension of the work we did last year opposing the CIA on campus as part of the Demilitarize UW Coalition. Here is a link to the Coalition's proposal to end the INSER program and kick the CIA off campus, which we put out last year. Please take a look at it for extensive details on the brutal, murderous history of the CIA and how exactly it is connected to UW.

We also recognize that the CIA, U.S. imperialism, and labor struggles are not completely separate. CIA recruiting is very much tied to student labor and undergraduates, many of whom are so desperate for the declining number of jobs, that militarization and the job of torture seems like the only option. This is part of how the militarization of education - in an econmic crisis like this, functions. While the rich get richer, the poor and working class are funnelled either into prisons or the military, and sometimes one and then the other. This is always more true for people of color and immigrants, who are made systematically more poor, and tracked into prison and potential deportation, with a militarized job as the only way out.

For these reasons, we see the CIA on campus as not only an issue of U.S. Empire, but one of civil rights, access to education, and unemployment.

Thanks to all for your continued support. Stay tuned for future actions, events, and updates.

Democracy Insurgent

For a Democratic University!: Granito De Arena Film Screening 11/12 4:30 PM

By For a Democratic University; Grad students against privitization

Granito de Arena (Grain of Sand)
a film about privatization and the struggle for democratic education in Mexico
Nov. 12 4:30 PM
Loew Hall 102

Please join For a Democratic University for a showing of this film that focuses on labor struggles in schools in Mexico, and how students and teachers fought together against oppression and privatization for democratic schools. Stay for a discussion with FaDU about how we can understand privatization, labor struggles, and education at the University of Washington, now.

FaDU is an independent labor group of TAs, RAs, and other graduate students, fighting against privatization, budget cuts that affect women, people of color, queer folks, immigrants, and folks with disabilities, and for true academic freedom and a democratic university for students and workers in the UW community.

Synopsis from website:

For over 20 years, global economic forces have been
dismantling public education in Mexico,
but always in the constant shadow of popular resistance...

Granito de Arena is the story of that resistance –

the story of hundreds of thousands of public schoolteachers

whose grassroots, non-violent movement took Mexico by surprise, and who have endured brutal repression in their 25-year struggle
for social and economic justice in Mexico's public schools.

Completed in 2005, Granito de Arena provides context and background to the unprecedented popular uprising that exploded in Oaxaca, Mexico, in 2006. It serves as an excellent prequel to Corrugated Film's latest release, Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad.

Award-winning Seattle filmmaker, Jill Freidberg, spent two years in southern Mexico documenting the efforts of over 100,000 teachers, parents, and students fighting to defend the country’s public education system from the devastating impacts of economic globalization.

Freidberg combines footage of strikes and direct actions with 25 years worth of never-before-seen archival images to deliver a compelling and unsettling story of

resistance, repression, commitment, and solidarity.

PROTEST CIA RECRUITMENT- NOV 4, 3:15 SMITH HALL

By For a Democratic University, Democracy Insurgent, sponsored by ISO and Campus anti-War network:

In Soo Chun Memorial; Press

By IWSJ; IWSJ.seattle@gmail.com

Yesterday at 11 AM, literally dozens of people filled Red Square on UW's campus to mourn the loss of In Soo Chun. Click below for our press release, and an article on the event from the Seattle Weekly. If anyone finds more press coverage, please send to IWSJ. Also see pictures, care of our friend Aditya, below. Video will be posted soon as well. Thanks to all who came out.

Seattle Weekly

IWSJ Press Release

Salvador Castillo speaking:

A shot of the crowd on Red Square
Mary and Jane Mee holding the IWSJ banner. Matt, of Democracy Insurgent, speaks.

Some of In Soo Chun's co-workers, following the memorial.

Memorial for In Soo Chun - October 30th

One year ago, former UW custodian, In Soo Chun self-immolated in Red Square at the University of Washington. His death raised a lot of questions that have gone unanswered. Former co-workers, students, and community members will gather on the 30th to remember him, one year after his death, and to demand an independent investigation into the events leading up to his death.

Sponsored by International Workers and Students for Justice (IWSJ)