BERKELEY: the New Student Revolt by Hal Draper
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BERKELEY: The New Student Revolt by Hal Draper Introduction by Mario Savio BERKELEY: The New Student Revolt by Hal Draper Introduction by Mario Savio Center for Socialist History PO Box 626 Alameda CA 94501 Tel: 510 601-6460 www.socialisthistory.org [email protected] ISBN 1453897852 EAN-13 9781453897850 Second Edition Editor: E Haberkern Copyright © 1965 by Hal Draper Introduction copyright © 1965 by Mario Savio All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: “An End to History” by Mario Savio, which originally appeared in Humanity, is reprinted by permission of the author. “The Free Speech Movement and Civil Rights” by Jack Weinberg copyright 1965 by Campus CORE is reprinted by permission of the author and Campus CORE. “On Mounting Political Action” by James Petras is printed by permission of the author. The following articles which appeared in the “FSM Newsletter” are reprinted by permission of the authors: “Catch-801" by Marvin Garson, “Freedom Is a Big Deal” by Barbara Garson, “How to Observe Law and Order” by Hal Draper. “The Regents” by Marvin Garson copyright 1965 by Marvin Garson is reprinted by permission of the author. “The Mind of Clark Kerr” by Hal Draper copyright 1965 by Hal Draper is reprinted by permission of the author. “The Campus and the Constitution” is reprinted by permission of the Berkeley-Albany chapter of the ACLU. CENTER FOR SOCIALIST HISTORY “... the reason for the repression of free speech at Berkeley, concurred in by the Governor and the Lieutenant Governor, is that the Berkeley campus has become like the coffee houses of pre-1956 Hungary, a major source of energy and leadership for one of the most powerful attempts to alter ‘existing social relationships’—the civil rights movement.”—The liberal democrat (Berkeley) “Improbably as it may have seemed to outsiders, events at the Berkeley campus ... constituted a small-scale but genuine revolution. Through continuous violation of university regulations, sit-ins, almost daily mass demonstrations, and finally a strike by students and teaching assistants, the authority of both the administration and the faculty had become virtually nonexistent by December.”—The Reporter “The legitimate authority of the university is being challenged and attacked in a revolutionary way.”—Chancellor Edward Strong “We cannot compromise with revolution, whether at the University or any other place.”—Governor Edmund G. Brown “... this minority managed to inflame one of the largest collections of young brains in the U.S., caused a shutdown of classes, brought 500 cops to Sproul Hall to make 782 arrests, got nearly 10,000 signatures on a petition to the Regents and won an endorsement of its demands from a pretty big majority of the faculty. How did they do it?”—Life (1) South entrance to Sproul Hall (2) Sproul Hall Plaza (3) Bancroft Strip (4) Wheeler Oak TO THE 800 The beginning is the most important part of the work Contents Introduction by Mario Savio 1 Foreword 9 1. "A New Generation of Students" 15 2. The Liberal Bureaucrat 18 3. Behind the Myth of Liberalization 19 4. The Myth: Two Showpieces 22 5. The Power Structure Triggers the Conflict 25 6. The Administration Clamps Off the Safety Valve 30 7. "What’s Intellectual About Collecting Money?" 32 8. The Clubs Fight Back 36 9. The First Sit-in and the Eight Suspensions 38 10. A Couple of Rebels 43 11. The Police-car Blockade Begins 44 12. Second Sit-in and the Greeks 48 13. Whose Law and Order? 52 14. "You Can’t Win!" 57 15. The Pact of October 2 62 16. Enter Redbaiting 67 17. The FSM Is Formed 71 18. Some Lessons in Good Faith 73 19. Standoff on "Free Speech" 78 20. Hidden Battle over Civil Rights 84 21. Return to Direct Action 91 22. The Regents Throw a Time Bomb 98 23. The Abortive Sit-in 103 24. Back to the Wars 108 25. The Big Sit-in 112 26. The Governor Calls the Cops 117 27. The Occupation by the Police 121 28. The Student Strike Starts 124 29. The Faculty and the Strike 128 30. The Administration Plans a Coup 135 31. Classic Drama in the Greek Theater 142 32. The FSM at the Peak 146 33. The Story of a Rumor 149 34. The Victory at the Academic Senate 150 Berkeley: The New Student Revolt 35. End of the Beginning 154 36. Before the Second Round 159 37. The "Restoration" Coup 163 38. The FSM in Crisis 168 39. Regents versus the University 172 40. Why? 177 41. The Non-I Radicals 184 42. "New Left" Balance Sheet 187 43. The "New Radicals" and the "Old Radicals" 192 VOICES FROM BERKELEY The Academic Senate’s Motions of December 8 203 Academic Freedom and Student Political Activity (From "A Suggestion for Dismissal") 204 An End to History by Mario Savio 207 The Free Speech Movement and Civil Rights by Jack Weinberg 211 We Want a University (FSM) 217 Are You All Right, Jack? (Graduate Coordinating Committee) 227 The Mind of Clark Kerr by Hal Draper 229 The Regents by Marvin Garson 250 On Mounting Political Action by James Petras 256 From the "FSM Newsletter" Do Not Fold, Bend, Mutilate or Spindle 260 Catch-801 (Marvin Garson) 261 Freedom Is a Big Deal (Barbara Garson) 262 How to Observe Law and Order (Hal Draper) 263 The Byrne Report to the Board of Regents 266 Student Political Activities and the Civil Rights Revolution (from "A Suggestion for Dismissal") 275 The Campus and the Constitution (Berkeley-Albany ACLU) 278 The Position of the FSM on Speech and Political Activity (FSM ) 281 Hal Draper, on the staff of the University of California Library since 1960, was a founder and editorial board member of the quarterly New Politics, and a former editor of the weekly Labor Action and the magazine New International; he was chairman of the Independent Socialist Committee, an educational enterprise. Mr. Draper has written a number of pamphlets and brochures in the field of socialist education. NOTE TO THE 2009 EDITION This is a reprint of the original 1965 edition. The original title was BERKELEY: THE NEW STUDENT REVOLT. While this revolt took place over 40 years ago we have decided to retain the original title. The aim is to reproduce an historical account. For the same reason we have not updated the biographical details used in the original. Introduction by Mario Savio There are many things that happened at Berkeley which will not be of interest to people elsewhere, and need not be; it is to be hoped that others will have their own problems to contend with, and will have interesting things of their own to do. Others should not have to get their experience second hand. But there are certain things that happened at Berkeley which it would be useful for people in other places to know about, as an aid in understanding themselves, as help to them in preparing revolts of their own. There were some things which made the Berkeley revolt peculiarly Berkeley’s, but other things made it a revolt among white middle-class youth that could happen at any state university. And it is the second set of factors which will probably be of most importance to people outside Berkeley. Why did it happen in Berkeley? The important question to ask, rather, is: why did it happen in Berkeley first? Because there are several universities in the East and Midwest where, since last semester, little home-grown revolts have flared up. Asking why it happened in Berkeley first is like asking why Negroes, and not Americans generally, are involved in securing access for all, to the good which America could provide for her people. This may seem strange to those who imagine America to be a virtual paradise except for certain groups, notably Negroes, who have been excluded. But this is a distortion. What oppresses the American Negro community is merely an exaggerated, grotesque version of what oppresses the rest of the country—and this is eminently true of the middle class, despite its affluence. In important ways the situation of students at Berkeley is an exaggerated representation of what is wrong with American higher education. The forces influencing students at Berkeley—not merely those resulting from participation in the university itself, but also those deriving from student involvement in politics —these forces are likewise exaggerations of the forces to which society subjects other university students in other parts of the country. So probably the reason it could happen here first is this: while the same influences are present elsewhere, there is no Berkeley: The New Student Revolt university (none that I know of, at all events) where these influences are present in as extreme a form as here in Berkeley. The influences upon students are of three main kinds: those deriving from personal history; “internal” problems resulting directly from being a student; and “external” problems deriving from after-class political activities. The external influences on students result primarily from involvement in the civil-rights movement, both in the Bay Area and in the South. The internal derive primarily from the style of the factory-like mass miseducation of which Clark Kerr is the leading ideologist. There are many impersonal universities in America; there is probably none more impersonal in its treatment of students than the University of California. There are students at many Northern universities deeply involved in the civil-rights movement; but there probably is no university outside the South where the effect of such involvement has been as great as it has been at Berkeley. One factor which helps explain the importance of civil rights here is the political character of the Bay Area.