UCD May 1, 2007: Day of Action

Organizing Groups Why May 1st? Schedule Planning Meetings How to Participate

UC Davis students are organizing for a day of action to take place on May 1, 2007. As a way of bringing attention to several important issues, UCD students are joining in solidarity and addressing the interconnectedness of campaigns being fought on campus. The event itself holds no political agenda or bias. The organizers of the event have diverse political beliefs and have agreed not to advocate any one in particular at the event.

The Day of Action is Adressing:
Protest to the War in Iraq
Support of Immigration Rights
Support of Workers
Protection of the Environment

End the war, end racism, support all workers, and protect the environment.

Understanding the connections between our individual conditions of life and the lives of people everywhere in the word allows us to come together and organize across all borders.

Organizing Groups

The following groups have been instrumental to-date in organizing the events for May 1^st. These groups are currently in the process of lining up speakers and solidifying an action agenda. Note that some individuals not affiliated with these groups are also involved.

• Davis Students Against War Resource
  

• Students Organizing for Change
  

• Amnesty International

The Davis Students Against War Resource are putting on a 3 day awareness event, the bulk of which is in collaboration with the other organizations on May Day.

Why May 1^st?

The first of May is known as May Day, and is celebrated in many other countries as various holidays, but primarily International Workers' Day. May 1^st in the US is the mostly unobserved holiday of Law Day and Loyalty Day.

May 1st is the 4th anniversary of Bush's speech in front of the "Mission Accomplished" banner. It is also a holiday that celebrates the working class who endure the brunt of the burden of war.

On May 1^st, 2006 there were huge protests by immigrant groups throughout California in response to proposed legislation (House of Representatives Bill 4437) targeting border control and illegal immigration. The problems faced then continue to persist.

The Walkout occuring on the UC Davis campus is part of a national student Anti-War effort demanding amnesty for all and an end to the immigration raids. We want all troops out of Iraq—now.

Schedule

Planning Meetings

To help organize for this event come to the next meeting, Wednesday, April 11 at 6:30 p.m at the Delta of Venus.

How to Participate

Direct Action:

To show your support of the campaigns, please wear a white T-shirt on May 1st.


If you are protesting the war in Iraq, please walk out of your 11:00 classes on May 1st. Please speak to your professor before the start of class to let them know that you are going to leave. Please also tell them your reasons, and invite your professors and fellow students to join you. At 11:30, please walk quietly out of your classroom, without a big commotion.

• Are they supposed to walk out at 11:00 or 11:30?

As you make your way to the Speeches being held on the quad, please try to gather friends or fellow students to join you.


Once at the quad, you will be able to meet with like-minded students. There will be posters and signs that you can use during the gathering.

The gathering at 12:00 is a collaborative effort to inform the student body of 4 important issues. If you have only heard or support one cause, please remain at the gathering and listen to what the other campaigns have to say. The purpose of the gathering is to spread knowledge and information, and by staying, you are a part of this process.

This gathering has the intent and purpose of sharing knowledge and spreading information. It is not meant to anger or insult, but to have the voices of the campaigners heard. Although we will be protesting injustice, we are focusing and postive movements towards the future. This is a peace-rally and a sit-in, not a mob of angry students. Please keep this in mind when participating.

Ideally, we (the organizers) would like to see the support of not only students, but professors and adminstrators as well. If you are interested in partaking in the rally and are concerned about missing class, please speak to your professors (sooner rather than later) about postponing work and quizzes, or perhaps canceling class altogether. This is not a terribly farfetched idea, and is most definetly worth a try. Remember to be respectful and avoid demands when requesting class time from your professor.

Comments:

Note: You must be logged in to add comments

To debate or talk about issues not directly related to the walkout, please use the talk page, or (even better), meet the person you're debating with at a local cafe!

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I hate to ask, what is the benefit of this event? I don't see the relationship between the proposed actions and how is it to benefit these multifarious causes. Just curious, what is the relationship? Why walk out on that day? do we oppose the university? ~Davidpoole

• Ideally, professors and thus would join with immigrants and workers by canceling classes and going out to the rally themselves. I know this sounds completely idealistic for UC Davis since we're so apathetic and prefer to have professors who do research about social issues and don't incorporate any activism. this should be an observed holiday. there should be no school. but since there is, we will try to make a statement. while most profs and thus will not cancel classes we can still urge them to postpone midterms and homework assignments to create less intimidation for the walk-out. as for your question regarding May 1^st, the history behind May 1^st was explained and i don't see why you're questioning the action taking place on this date. as i stated, it is an international holiday and last year had national significance for the worker and immigrant movement. this is an important date and will have significance for the Davis community. (taken from comment on DP's userpage). —JessicaRockwell
  

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2007-04-07 09:23:00   For a protest to be effective, it has to focus on a specific issue. This thing sounds like it's targetting a dozen problems at once. —GeoffJohnson

• In the last four years, what was the most successful protest on campus as measured by number of students in attendance? I appreciate your comment. as a member of the UCD activist community your feedback is important to me.
  

• I would tend to think that you would want to measure success by the results the event brings about (Did it change opinion? Did it cause a change in action? etc.) and not simply the number of people who show up. Especially with such a convoluted event. With so many issues on the table, when people show up, you can no longer say we drew x people because of cause y. Unless you poll each person as to why they are there, you have no measure of success of any kind for each particular issue. -DavidGrundler
  

• Promotion for change requires a multi-pronged effort. The basic progression, from my viewpoint, is this: 1) awareness 2) education 3) critical thought. This process leads to a change that activists feel should happen. Rallies and days of action such as this promote awareness of issues in our society that need to be addressed. Ideally this would be followed up by programs to provide more information and educate those that are interested in learning more about the issues and finding out what they can do. Finally the process of critical thinking is necessary to consciously understand and apply those changes to society. Because this is such a long process it is difficult if not impossible to see the changes that occur because 1) people are impatient and have short term memory and 2) most students are only in school for 4 or 5 years. Also, because this day of action is only part of the process, it is difficult for different parties to judge the success of such an event. Arguably, noted commenters such as DavidGrundler and Davidpoole can be cited as accomplishments of such an event before it has even taken place. They have been made aware of issues, whether they agree with them or not, instead of remaining apathetic and unaware. Thus, the effectiveness and success of such an event is relative and depends on the assessor. —EricWu
  

• I agree. However, keep in mind that my awareness is from the involvement in the dialog here, and not from the event itself. Many of the students that may participate in the walk-out will not have been privy to the discussion herein. After KatieDavalos's comments on the talk page, I have a much better feeling about the intention behind the event. Hopefully, after their next planning meeting tomorrow, we will have more information in re: the event, and we can clean up this page with more details and a plan of action.
  

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2007-04-08 11:24:57   (UCD) May 1, 2007: I-Want-to-Bitch-so-Let's-Have-a-Day-for-it Day? —TusharRawat

• Ya what a-holes! Who wants to hear about poverty, inequality and war!? These people should just shut up! -JimSchwab
  

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2007-04-08 11:42:29   So what will direct action entail, or is this to be planned at the meeting? —DavidPoole

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2007-04-08 12:17:11   I do plan to walk. Today is a lovely day to take the dog for a walk, thanksyouverymuch. —KaiTing

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Nobody ever got anything done by walking, I plan to run. —DavidPoole

{How long is the meeting going to last, I want to come but will probably be thirty minutes late.} (Still Davepoole, sorry for any confusion. I am going to be on timeish it turns out. I wish to help you guys, though I am not a communist and outrightly oppose such a system, I still am quite concerned over more relevant actions which corrupt what should be a relatively pure capitalist system, the rule of law is not being upheld.)

-awesome! just stop by. if we're there, we're there. if not, talk to people at the delta! find out what events are going on there. you will find some cool people! —JessicaRockwell

Ok, what is your stance on mobility of labor? —JessicaRockwell


I believe that the people should be mobile by their own means? There are social problems that may exist, but that is not the job of the government to enforce social policy. But generally I believe that everyone should have equal rights under the rule of law to advance to a status or post in life that they feel is fit. As a capitalist, I have many reasons to attend this event still, for instance, illegal immigrants are hardly equal under current law. ~Davepoole


Wait, illegal immigrants under current law would be deported or have benefits cut in such a way that they wouldn't be equal to normal citizens. This is correct, but that's what happens when people break the law or are not citizens of a country that provides those benefits. How can you have equality and keep the law intact? —SteveOstrowski