A Series of Tubes

UCSC administration has done nothing to get rid of the occupiers at the graduate student commons.  Why is this?  There are many reasons:

First:  The previous large scale protest at UCSC, the treesit, ended more than a year after it started.  The goals of the treesitters diverged as factions within the treesit attempted to control the message and direction of the treesit.  Eventually only an extremely small group was left in charge, to the point where only one treesitter was found in the trees when the University removed them.  Waiting until the numbers thin, because they eventually do, is currently the UC strategy for dealing with this type of situation.

Second:  The occupiers are in the graduate student commons.  Claiming that building instead of an Administrative building means that the Administrators are not affected at all by their actions.  It is the perfect place to put an occupation.  Not only do they not affect the Administration, the occupation gets a portion of the student body, grad students, to oppose their actions right from the start.  What graduate student would support a protest that is currently trashing the Graduate Student Commons and has no realistic agenda?  This action will bring graduate student sympathy to the Occupiers opposition: the UCSC Administration. By prolonging the occupation the Administration will only collect more graduate student sympathy, so why intervene against this great PR tool?

Third:  This is the most important and probably the strongest reason that no police crackdown has occurred.  There are budget cuts, layoffs, furloughs, and strikes happening in the UC system.  In this struggle it is most advantageous for the Administration if the face of their opposition is not workers with Families and bills to pay.  It is way better if their opposition is a disorganized group of Anarchists and Communists.  The Administration can blame the vandalism and increased cost of a police presence for layoffs and cuts that they had already planned on making.  If the public face of Administrative opposition has frat like dance parties and is trashing a building they don’t care about, why lift a finger? Hell, the Administration should publicize the occupation and elevate its status so that Unions and workers get sidelined. When the loss of livelihood of workers is at stake, public support of the Administration will plummet. When the struggle is framed as between the Administration and the circus show that is the GSC Occupation, the public will support the Administration.  The UC Administrators are in desperate need of sympathy in a time where they are cutting Jobs.  Fighting the occupation gives them the sympathy they desire and at the same time draws attention away from actual labor issues. It is a PR gold mine for the UC that they would be stupid to stop.

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Trying to fix the UC system would require more transparency in the budgeting system.  This is currently being attempted through a process completely foreign to the Occupiers.  The process is called representative democracy:

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Here is my tounge in cheek post I put on indybay to one of the various communique the Occupiers had:

I am an administrator at UCSC. I just wanted to thank the Occupiers for their great work and to keep up morale and their action. Normally we have to worry that the public will support Labor Unions when we lay off and furlough large swaths of workers, but thanks to the Occupiers, that is not much of an issue. The Occupation provides us with a great side show that allows us to sideline the needs of workers. We have had a large showering of support in our opposition to the Occupation, from grad students, staff, faculty, and members of the community. Many of them have wonderfully forgotten about our layoffs and instead their attention is drawn to your very public occupation. Support for our policies were at an all time low, but you provided us with a PR boost in our most desperate hour. Thank you thank you thank you. I suggest you have more dance parties as they help us to delegitimize the concerns of actual workers. You could try and occupy other student spaces: The bike coop is nearby. The ARC Center houses support services for transfer students, first time college students, and disabled students. Those elitists have it coming to them (I heard people there calling you capitalist pigs. Are you going to take that?). Have we mentioned how mad we would be if you occupied the Kresge coop. My face would be red with anger then. Remember your slogan: Occupy everything!

Hugs and kisses.
The Administration