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Get Up, Stand Up....And Walk to Berkeley! March for Education and Youth Rights!
When: September 15-22, 2004
Where: San Jose to Berkeley From September 15-22, a group of students and community members will walk from San Jose to UC Berkeley to dramatize our concern for the future of education and youth rights in California. We believe our state should value the welfare of its citizens and make the future of the state (i.e., its youth) a top priority. Our hope is to collaborate with our sisters and brothers throughout the state in the struggle to claim the basic rights and opportunities society promised us.
Along the way, we will visit as many community, state, and private colleges as possible, to dialogue with our fellow Californians and build a person-by-person comprehensive understanding of how the state's skewed political priorities are impacting its citizens.
The walk will conclude with a special appearance at the UC Regents meeting in San Francisco on September 22. The long-term vision of the "Education Rising" campaign is the creation of a "union" for students. This union, based on a structure of deep participatory democracy, will serve as a political voice for all those who care about education and youth rights.
Walk Itinerary
Sept. 15 (Wednesday)
1. CSU San Jose 9-11:30 a.m.
2. Santa Clara University 1-2 p.m.
3. Mission College 3:30-5:30
Sleep: West Santa Clara or East Cupertino
Sept. 16 (Thursday)
4. De Anza College 10-11 a.m.
5. Foothill College 1-2 p.m.
6. Stanford University 5 p.m.
Sleep: Stanford University Co-Op
Sept. 17 (Friday)
7. Canada College (Redwood City) 11 a.m.-12 p.m.
8. College of San Mateo 4-6 p.m.
Sleep: Butano State Park, San Mateo
Sept. 18 (Saturday)
Camping retreat: Butano State Park, San Mateo
Sept. 19 (Sunday)
Camping retreat: Butano State Park, San Mateo
Sept. 20 (Monday)
(Bus across San Mateo Bridge)
9. Chabot College (Hayward) 9-10 a.m.
10. CSU Hayward 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
11. Merritt College (Oakland) 5-6 p.m.
Sept. 21 (Tuesday)
12. Laney College (Oakland) 8:30-9:30 a.m.
13. Vista College (Berkeley) 1 p.m.-2 p.m.
14. UC Berkeley 4 p.m.
Sept. 22 (Wednesday)
(Bus to San Francisco)
15. UC San Francisco (Regents meeting)
16. CSU San Francisco
The bulk of the time on the walk, we will dialogue with students and other state residents, to learn their struggles and hopes, gather their thoughts on the direction of the state, and join them to formulate ideas and tactics for how to secure a better future than the one the state’s powerbrokers have set aside for us. To facilitate these aims, we will conduct meetings with student leaders at every campus we visit, bring hundreds of surveys for people to fill out, and perform chants, rallies, and songs to vocalize our message at every point on the trek.
Rally at Sproul Plaza - Sept. 21st, 4:00 pm
Upon arriving in Berkeley, we will mark the walk’s culmination by gathering at Sproul Plaza, the historic celebratory hub of numerous past student movements. In addition to music and spoken word performances, the program will include speeches by various inspiring activists, student leaders, and walk participants.
UC Regents Meeting - Sept. 22nd
On the final day of the walk, we will amass at the UC Regents meeting at Laurel Heights in San Francisco, where we will use the public comment period to speak our vision of what a more just, democratic, and empowering future would look like.
Lodging
We are in the process of securing sleeping space for each night of the walk. Thus far, we have reserved a co-op at Stanford University for Sept.16 and, of course, Butano State Park in San Mateo for Sept. 17-18.
Food Arrangements
We are receiving large food donations from local Santa Cruz markets including the Staff of Life, New Leaf Market, and the Food Bin. Many vegan options to be provided.
Education Rising Weekend Retreat
We will rest our bodies and renew our spirits at San Mateo's Butano State Park from Sept. 18-19. If you are not attending the walk but would like to take part, contact us ASAP at future@riseup.net to reserve space.
What To Bring
- Musical instruments: The communal vibe that will carry forward the walk will also animate numerous night-time jam sessions, drum circles, games, and team-building activities. Bring musical instruments so that they can be transported in the car to our nightly rest spots.
- Money: Bring a fair amount of money (at least $20) just in case we encounter unforeseen food shortages or other hitches in our plans.
- Camping gear: Sleeping bag, sleeping pad, tent, flashlight.
Background
In May, nearly two dozen UC Santa Cruz students conducted a 50-mile, three-day walk from Santa Clara to San Francisco to support legislation to create a U.S. Department of Peace. The walk concluded with a face-to-face meeting between the walkers and aides for Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), U.S.House minority leader. The walk received considerable TV and radio coverage, including segments on KTVU Channel 2 and KPFA radio, as well as the following print media features:
News from around California. San Francisco Examiner, May 30, 2004
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) -- Nearly two dozen students spent their Memorial Day weekend walking nearly 50 miles from Santa Clara to San Francisco to promote peace.
The students from the University of California, Santa Cruz began the march Saturday and planned to arrive at House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi's office by Tuesday morning.
They hope to encourage the San Francisco legislator to support a bill introduced by long-shot Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, that would create a Department of Peace.
The agency would shape policy and promote peace in America and abroad. Among other things, the legislation would create a Peace Academy to train students to resolve disputes in nonviolent ways.
"The international conflicts we see on a huge scale are a reflection of how we live every day," said Yoel Kirschner, a freshman majoring in environmental studies. "The bill is a good thing to have. It addresses violence in all forms, even violence in prisons and violence against the elderly."
Although the legislation, first introduced by Kucinich in 2001, appears to have a slim chance of passing, it serves as a symbolic rallying cry for some opponents of the war in Iraq.
So far, no Republican has supported the bill, but that hasn't deterred Kucinich.
"I think there's still a chance it'll happen," Kucinich said during a campaign stop in Alabama on Friday.
UCSC students march for peace. Sentinel staff report, June 1, 2004.
SAN FRANCISCO — About two dozen UC Santa Cruz students marched from Santa Clara to San Francisco over the holiday weekend to support a bill calling for creation of a Cabinet- level Department of Peace, said Will Parrish, a UCSC student.
The bill was introduced by presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio.
The students began their crusade Saturday and this morning planned to meet House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi at the San Francisco Civic Center to present her with a petition in support of the bill, Parrish said.
A rally was planned at noon at the Civic Center.
Published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
Upon returning to Santa Cruz, we decided to direct our energies toward an issue strongly related to peace but one perhaps even closer to home: the state's mythical "budget crisis" and its effect on education and services designed to benefit youth. Our vision is to unite all California youth to assert a powerful collective voice in the state political process.
Current Education Rising Platform
- Raise Taxes on the Rich, Not Students! Tuition and fee increases are essentially a massive tax increase on a very specific segment of the population -- students and their families. Meanwhile, the tax rate paid by the city's richest denizens has reached all-time lows. But according to a recent LA Times poll, 69 percent of Californians favor restoring the income tax rate on the wealthiest one percent of citizens to 1998 levels, which would raise $3 billion in rightful education funding.
- Education Not Incarceration! Largely because of the state’s harsh drug sentencing laws, general fund spending on colleges in California has dropped by $1 billion since 1985, while prison spending has increased by
$3 billion. It's time to close down the prison-industrial complex and reinvest in our crumbling schools.
- End the Repression of Youth! Not only have many California public schools become direct pipelines to prison, but many of these schools essentially are prisons, complete with constant repressive surveillance of students and daily frisks by armed security guards. In addition, absurd curfew laws have abounded in recent years, and state propositions 209, 196, and 187, all passed in the last decade, represent gross violations of youth civil liberties.
Contact Us
If you would like to participate in the walk (all or a portion of it) or would like to offer any other form of support, please Email us at future@riseup.net or call Education Rising headquarters at (831) 454-0829.
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