A Series of Tubes

I went to get lunch near the bookstore and noticed that there was a trashcan in front of the Graduate Student Commons.  I thought “that’s odd”.  I then looked up and saw that above the door were people on the balcony of the Graduate student commons.  Reading the signs hanging from the balcony was followed by my forehead meeting my palm and then some head shaking.  I viewed the following scene (image from indymedia)

First there was tent University at UCSC.  That failed to achieve anything.  Then there was the treesit at UCSC.  The trees have been cut and construction of the building has started.  Now we have the occupation of the graduate student commons.  Obviously they don’t want the support of graduate student since this is a study area for graduate students and the location of where the graduate student alliance holds its regular meetings.

Can anyone tell me why they are there?  Here is the official statement from the people in the picture as distributed from a flier:

The situation at the university has become untenable. Workers are losing their jobs. Students are dropping out of school. The promise of a good life at the end of a university education is now an illusion.

Compared to the severity of the crisis, the solutions on offer are woefully inadequate. The time for pointless negotiations is over. But a single day of action, announced in advance, is not enough. Escalation is absolutely necessary.

It remains for the people to seize what is theirs.

OCCUPY CALIFORNIA.

A couple of things about this statement.  It states that pointless negotiations are over.  I’m guessing that there were no negotiations.  Ever.  Second.  I’ve been occupying California ever since I was born.  I’m Californian.  Third.  Of all the places to occupy, the graduate student commons is the worst.  Graduate students will not support this action at all.  It will piss them off.  The entire occupation is counter productive.  The reason for most of the direct actions is almost always to “raise awareness”.  Unfortunately the awareness that is raised is that the people in charge of the protests have no idea what they are doing or how to achieve anything positive.  All that is missing is a guy like this:

Just need to photoshop that go USA sign to say “End Capital” and put a facemask on him and presto…instant UCSC protester.

If you can stomach the ramblings of the protesters here is their manifesto/demands/blog:

http://occupyca.wordpress.com/

http://wewanteverything.wordpress.com/