[Sehefac] 5/7 solidarity rally at UCR cancelled & other updates

[Ellen Reese]

Dear colleagues,

The Solidarity rally planned for 5/7 at noon at the bell tower has been
cancelled. As you might have heard, those involved closed the encampment
last Friday after winning various demands through an agreement with UCR
administrators.

There are various sign-on statements and other actions happening or being
planned or considered related to police repression of student protesters at
other campuses, including UCLA.

RFA circulated one sign-on statement this morning.

Below is a message regarding another sign-on statement for UC faculty and
staff (developed by faculty and staff at UCLA related to the situation on
that campus, but open to all UC faculty and staff to sign):


Michael Chwe <michael at chwe.net>
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12:56 PM (3 hours ago)
to me

View this email in your browser
<https://mailchi.mp/9c07f5772cfc/please-support-the-three-demands-of-ucla-faculty-and-staff?e=68cf1b2f10>

Dear friends,


Thank you for signing our open letter
<https://gmail.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=769d7ffcf6d3a8b5d61cce5b7&id=583cf3571c&e=68cf1b2f10>,
“No Police Actions: Letter to UCLA Chancellor Gene Block from University of
California Faculty and Staff.” We now have over one thousand signatories.
Thank you so much for your support, and please continue to circulate.


In response to the calamitous events of April 30 to May 2 on our beloved
UCLA campus, our UCLA faculty and staff has met collectively, in meetings
of over two hundred people, to discuss our response. Our discussions were
urgent, sincere, thoughtful, and productive.


A group of roughly one dozen faculty met and discussed for days how to best
incorporate everyone's suggestions and thoughts. The arrests of our
peacefully protesting students this morning has given us even greater
urgency.


The result of our discussions is the letter below, with three central
demands. Please circulate this link as widely as possible to all of your
friends and colleagues throughout the University of California.



https://sites.google.com/view/uc-demands/
<https://gmail.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=769d7ffcf6d3a8b5d61cce5b7&id=d58605c773&e=68cf1b2f10>


Our demands are:


1. We hereby demand that Chancellor Block resign immediately, and ask the
UCLA Academic Senate and UC-AFT to pursue a vote of no confidence. We
further demand that the next Chancellor of UCLA commits to upholding the
full free speech and assembly rights of students, faculty and staff.


2. We demand UCLA to recommend all legal charges be dropped and grant full
amnesty to all students, staff, and faculty who were involved in the
encampment and peaceful protest, as well as subsequent and ongoing arrests
of UCLA affiliates. No UCLA persons should face any disciplinary actions or
non-renewal of employment for participating in or supporting the protest
encampment and subsequent protests.


3. We demand that UCLA issue a report within 30 days to fully disclose all
investments so that students may understand how the university prioritizes
their finances, and we call on UCLA to divest from all military weapons
production companies and supporting systems, in dialogue with the demands
of the student protestors.


We are closely following the UAW Graduate Student Academic Worker plans to
vote on a strike. Following a vote for a strike, those of us who are senate
faculty will not perform any struck labor in Spring 2024. Independently, we
are coordinating within our large faculty and staff group the possibility
to withhold our own labor until these three demands are met.


Please circulate the link above to all colleagues and friends, as widely as
possible.


In addition, we are having a zoom meeting (using a non-UC zoom account) at
9pm pacific tonight at this link


https://zoom.us/j/97323058863?pwd=ZWsvYVY0Q0dYQ1NoK0ovejZSeWorQT09


to discuss our demands and strategy going forward. Please join us and
invite friends and colleagues. Please forgive if you are receiving this
message more than once.


Best,

Michael






-- 
Ellen Reese
Professor and Acting Vice Chair, Department of Society, Environment, and
Health Equity (https://sehe.ucr.edu/)
Chair of Labor Studies (laborstudies.ucr.edu)
Faculty Co-Director of the Inland Empire Labor & Community Center (
ielcc.ucr.edu)
UC-Riverside

*Most recent books *
*Unsustainable: Amazon, Warehousing, and the Politics of Exploitation*
(with Juliann Emmons Allison, UC Press, 2023)
https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520388383/unsustainable

*The Cost of Free Shipping: Amazon in the Global Economy*, co-edited with
Jake Alimahomed-Wilson (Pluto Press, 2020; Winner of UALE's Best Book
Related to Labor Education Award, 2020-2021)
https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745341484/the-cost-of-free-shipping/
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