Thousands Rally to Save CCSF: Report, Photos, Media Links

[Eric B]

Check out this report on yesterday's excellent action to save CCSF (it also includes a bunch of good photos and other media links):

http://socialistorganizer.org/thousands-rally-to-save-ccsf/

Thousands Rally to Save CCSF

In a lively and raucous day of action, an estimated crowd of 2,000 students, faculty, and community members marched and rallied to call on S.F. City Hall to take action to save City College of San Francisco.

After campus walkouts and a march through the Mission District, protesters briefly occupied the City Hall lobby. One Mission High School student, Natalie Ibarra, spoke to the crowd: “We need to save public education. High school students like me need City College.” The protesters demanded that the city’s elected representatives implement the “3 Point Plan to Save CCSF”: ensure that Prop A funds are used as voters intended, advance the funds to CCSF, call for an end to the ACCJC sanctions against CCSF. The mayor and supervisors remained conspicuously absent — and politically silent.

The afternoon rally was marked by the passion of the diverse speakers and ralliers. Large contingents of Spanish and Chinese ESL classes participated, as well as dozens of disabled students; many of these non-credit classes are on the chopping block. CCSF student Lalo Gonzalez noted that, “When billions are spent on prisons, wars, bank bailouts, it is not difficult to realize that the crisis is not one of budgets or resources — but of priorities.”

Board of Trustee dissident Chris Jackson denounced the administration and Board of Trustees for imposing unnecessary cuts. Debby Pope from the Chicago Teachers Union passed on to the rally the lessons of their massive strike last fall. Various union and community leaders took the mic, demonstrating the growing breadth of support for the movement. Save CCSF gave City Hall a one-month ultimatum to meet its demands and pledged to return on April 17.

The March 14 action was an important step forward. All participants came away energized for the coming battles. Yet the struggle will not be won easily. The administration continues its full-steam-ahead austerity agenda. To win will require mobilizing tens of thousands of people and ramping up our actions to tactics such as strikes and occupations.

More media links: CBS - Examiner -  ABC - KTVU - KQED - Video from Inside City Hall - Pt 2.