On Nov. 9 in Santa Cruz, over 500 students held a spirited rally protesting tuition and fee hikes as part of a statewide day of protest at college campuses across California. The actions were organized by ReFund California, a coalition of unions, student groups and community organizations calling for taxes on the rich to fund education.
After rallying on the UC Santa Cruz campus, students shut down the main entrance of the campus for over an hour before marching on Highway 1 to a Wells Fargo branch. Chants included, “No Hikes, No Fees, Education Must Be Free!”
Joined by community members and Occupy Santa Cruz participants, protesters linked hands and surrounded the bank shutting it down. A large banner reading “Occupy Education” was hung from the Wells Fargo sign over the main entrance.
Wells Fargo, the top holder of student debt for UCSC students, was bailed out in 2008 while not paying corporate taxes and was convicted of predatory lending and wrongful foreclosures in 2010. One of Wells Fargo’s senior executives, Russell Gould, sits on the UC Board of Regents.
After shutting down the bank, protesters marched to the Occupy Santa Cruz site. Throughout the day, several demonstrators carried Party for Socialism and Liberation placards with slogans demanding free education and canceling student debt.
Victor Velasco, internal vice-chair of the UCSC Student Union Assembly told Liberation News: “It’s time something like this happened. What’s so beautiful about the Occupy movement is that it promotes unity.”
Occupy Santa Cruz now includes nearly 100 tents in San Lorenzo Park, adjacent to the county courthouse, and is growing every day. A vigil is held 24 hours a day on the steps of the courthouse; there have been several rallies, and multiple marches on bank branches have taken place.
Recently, there was a march on City Hall to protest police harassment of the protesters and maneuvers by the city to clear the encampment. “Today’s excitement is reflective of the Occupy movement, it’s national, it’s global, it’s big and it’s fired things up,” said UCSC student Chris Cuadrado, a member of the UCSC Rainbow Theatre and Chicano Latino Resource Center, who was the emcee of the rally.
Students, campus unions and community members are mobilizing for two protests on Nov. 16: the UC Regents meeting in San Francisco and the CSU Trustees meeting in Long Beach. At these meetings, $2.6 billion in additional cuts to education are on the table. The goal is to shut down the meetings so the cuts cannot be enacted. Several buses have already filled up from Santa Cruz.
