StudentsFacultyStaffUnited

Dear Everyone,

This Saturday (March 20) will be the anti-war march in SF
11am at Civic Center

There's always money for war, but they keep cutting our education...

check it out on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=246389069628&ref=mf

Students from SF State will meet at the Asian Art Museum at 10:30am.
CFA will meet at Plumbers Hall: 1621 Market Street (near Franklin) @ 10am.

SFSUNITED MARCH 4th FAQs
Students, Faculty, Staff United

Q: Why would those opposed to budget cuts shut their school down? I thought they valued learning.
A: Do workers go on strike because they hate their jobs? No. They strike and shut down production to protect the devaluation of their work. Think about this: When a janitor takes a pay cut, she suffers privately. When she asks the boss for mercy, she is vulnerable and can be ignored or fired. But when she organizes the other janitors to channel their private pain and fight collectively, each member becomes a powerful counter-force to reckon with.
We strike to protect what we value.
The tactic of “Shut Downs” have been used by students and workers throughout history. Every important gain has been won through sustained collective confrontation, at that tipping point where anger turns into action.

Q: Is a Strike counterproductive?
A: We’ve already won a small victory. Aides to Gov. Schwarzenegger have already let it slip to union officials that the decision to restore $305 million to the CSU system was in response to the protests and occupations that spread during the Fall. The hope was to quiet the campuses during the election season, but in doing so they have exposed the lie that there is no money for education. This is proof that tactics of mass militant action is what scares Sacramento.
The $305 million however came at the cost of cutting health care. The cuts to prison spending only meant its privatization. That’s why we need sustained shutdowns up and down the State. Although the campuses may lead the charge, strikes need to spread beyond the Universities to the most important sectors of the Californian economy. Only then will there be a crisis that can really threaten the bosses and politicians. March 4th is an important first step in building the kind of movement necessary to reverse the budget cuts.

Q: The power is in Sacramento, why don’t you go there?
A: Isn’t it a bit suspicious that UC president Yudof and SFSU president Robert Corrigan are so enthusiastic about going to Sacramento? The elite in this state are afraid of what can happen on our campuses and we have to exploit this weakness. Simply put: we can all write letters to Sacramento, but there are more powerful people who can write checks. We have power at the University precisely because we can shut it down.
Lobbying D.C. did not get us civil rights, sit-ins did. Begging Sacramento didn’t get us the college of Ethnic Studies, a 9-month student strike did.

Q: Things are better now. Shouldn’t I just worry about graduation?
A: If you were fortunate enough to get your classes this semester, you can point directly to the fact that 18,000 students were denied admission from the CSU during 2009-2010 (with 40,000 planned for 2010-2011) . The $305 million restored only covers half of what was cut, and student fees will again increase by 10%. State legislators, along with Obama’s Race to the Top program, are committed to use budget crises
as a battering ram to privatize education and break the unions.
Racing toward graduation guarantees nothing. Increased fees turn into more personal debt as we enter the worst job market for college graduates in decades. The budget cuts are not just an attack on education, but the entire public sector. MUNI/BART fares will continue to increase, cuts to social services, and hiring freezes will only get worse unless a real movement begins now. We cannot ‘wait this out.’ If they believe we’ll accept whatever they give us, they’ll continue to crack the whip.

Q: There is no money in California and we are in an economic crisis. Don’t we all have to share the sacrifice?
A: By this, the rich want workers and students to share the sacrifice amongst each other. In spite of some of the money Bill Gates or the Walton family have lost, they could still personally write a check and solve the entire budget “crisis” and have tens of billions left over. Budget cuts are an attempt to transfer the costs of the economic crisis onto the working class, via furloughs, fee hikes, wage cuts, MUNI/BART increases etc. Working people are the victims of this crisis, not the cause. As one Republic Windows and Doors worker put it, “I understand that some bad business deals were made, but I don’t make business deals, I make doors.”

Q: What’s the solution?
A: The rich have a solution to the state and national crises they created: Make workers, the poor, children and elderly pay. We have to reject that answer and propose our own solution: tax the rich. The combined wealth of the richest 1% of Americans is $21.9 trillion. A one-time 3 percent tax on this wealth would more than double the general funds of all 50 states. This is how absurd the budget crisis is. Our movement must aim to take the trillions of dollars spent on bailing out banks, funding wars, and building prisons. and put them into health care, jobs, and education.


Why You Shouldn’t Cross The Picket Line
A picket line is meant to call attention to attacks on workers and to disrupt business as usual. Bosses know that worker’s strength lie in their numbers and solidarity and will attempt to divide them at any cost. Crossing a picket line undermines organizing attempts and allows abuses to go unchallenged.
We should not have to shoulder the burden of the budget cuts privately. Today we picket as part of a state-wide movement that must continue to grow. Don’t allow them to divide us with academic threats. If we’re all out here, there’s nothing they can do to stop us.