MEDIA ROOTS — Pacifica Radio’s Flashpoints broadcast
sharp analyses of the Occupy Education ‘Fund Our Future’ rally in Sacramento on Monday, March 5, 2012. Although the
events included another impressive showing of nearly ten thousand protesters
demanding socioeconomic justice in fine U.S. tradition, the messaging
from the leaders on stage amounted to PR for the Wall Street Democrat Party (DP).
It seems the cooptation of the Occupy Movement (OM), previously resisted by OM General Assemblies, has found its way into the organising of this event’s stage line-up, which largely stuck to messages of supplication before an unresponsive State Legislature, padded with appearances from slick Democrats, such as Van Jones and Gavin Newsom.
Basically, these leaders want progressives to vote Democrat and enable the status quo. They will never admit the rigged two-party system, to which they subscribe, is what put us in this worsening sociopolitical disaster. The more revealing political struggles succeeded the daytime kabuki when the more determined protesters staying past the hyperbole were arrested for civil disobedience inside the Capitol building and others outside were driven off the grounds by hundreds of repressive cops in riot gear, and on horseback, violating their First Amendment, and human rights. Imagine if all those thousands could have shown the same determination to honour the real Occupy/Decolonize Movement and refused to comply with the state by witnessing the sunset instead of just cheering and jeering Wall Street Democrats in the sun.
Messina
***
FLASHPOINTS — “My name is Gavilan Molina. And you’re listening to Flashpoints. We’re broadcasting live from Sacramento, California, where the march for higher education happened today and it’s still going on with a massive gathering of, not only teachers and students, but also the unbelievable police military-style presence we’ve encountered today. And now, I’m gonna turn the microphones over to Steve Zeltzer who is here with the crew of Flashpoints, along with Falcón and Sabrina Jacobs, to bring you the latest with what’s happening here in Sacramento. Welcome, Steve.”
Steve Zeltzer (c. 0:45): “Thank you, Miguel. Well, today has been a very active day when thousands of students, five to ten thousand students and teachers, came to Sacramento to demand more funding for education, to demand the right to education. And what they found was, I would say, an unresponsive [California State] Assembly.
“We have some guests in the studio who are gonna talk about, not only the unwelcome that they got from the [California State] Legislature, but also the massive presence of police where 500 police now are surrounding the Capitol [building] and surrounding a group of about 200 students and other people. And they used horses against some of these people. And we’ll be talking about that.
“To frame this event, there was a rally today and thousands of students came from around the state in caravans and buses. There were marchers that marched all the way from San Francisco. And they rallied. And people continued to be here, about a couple hundred Occupiers. And, all of a sudden, the police came and said, ‘It’s time that you have to take down your signs.’ Now, these are not a [formal] protest, it’s not a [formal] rally. It’s people with signs, walking around.
“We have with us Kathleen Carroll, who is a fired [whistle-blower] State Attorney for the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. And, basically, I asked, as did others—and the ACLU was there—why is it illegal for a person to have a sign on the state capitol grounds. Kathy, can you give us some insight on that whole question?”
Kathleen Carroll (c. 2:11): “It’s absolutely outrageous what I saw today. This is very orchestrated. They, basically, were telling people that they couldn’t have signs. I was here at the State Capitol last year when there was a massive gathering of individuals in solidarity for the Wisconsin workers and their collective bargaining rights. People had signs all over the place, way into the evening, no CHP officers, no police presence.
“This is very political, the privatisation of public education. And they were in force, in riot gear. They had their billy clubs out. And they were ready to, basically, silence people. And it’s a complete violation of First Amendment rights. And it’s also treating protesters differently. Last year’s protest signs went into the evening. Today, they discriminated against people who were, basically, protesting, not just for education and higher ed, but also K through 12 and the access for all. And people had signs on their t-shirts; I didn’t see anyone pulling, ripping off t-shirts. But, apparently, they were deciding in very horrible fashion, scaring people, basically.”
Steve Zeltzer (c. 3:24): “We talked to [Democrat] Assemblyman Mark Leno, who was also there. You were at that discussion, Kathleen.”
Kathleen Carroll: “Yeah.”
Steve Zeltzer: “I asked him; does he agree that it’s illegal to carry a sign on the Capitol grounds? And what was his response, Kathleen?”
Kathleen Carroll: “It was a little shocking. I’m not clear on whether he’s an attorney or not. I hope he is not because it’s embarrassing if he is. He basically said, ‘Well, whatever the law is. Whatever the law is.’
“He didn’t appear to understand what the law is or what the U.S. Constitution stands for. And I said to him, ‘Well, I’m an attorney and this is violating people’s free speech rights.’ And he said, ‘Well, I’m all for First Amendment rights.’ And I thought to myself, well, gosh, I hope so. Otherwise, he should maybe go to another country.”
Steve Zeltzer (c. 4:11): “So, we have an example here where [Leno] is a powerful leader in the State Assembly. And, apparently, the legislature’s more worried about a couple of hundred protesters than they are about the right to defend free speech. And that was what was going on this afternoon.
“And we will get some reports from inside the capitol there now. Hundreds of people who are doing a General Assembly on demand, on policies, and at six o’clock, apparently, they’re going to be ordered to leave and probably arrested. But I am concerned.
“We have with us some guests here. We have Nora Ramos, her daughter, Alondra, and Adolfo. And she has a story because she was here with her daughter and her son. What happened, Nora?”
Nora Ramos (c. 4:54): “What happened was that my daughter and my son were watching the protests. Everyone was carrying their signs. My daughter wasn’t doing anything. She had her sign on. And she was asking me, ‘Mommy, what’s going on?’ And I was explaining to her what was going on.
“Then a horse came at my daughter, almost stomped on her, and made her slip from the step.”
Alondra Ramos (c. 5:25): “First, they deported my dad. Then the governor wants to take my teachers away from their job. And then the police on the horse almost stomped me.”
Steve Zeltzer: “Nora, why don’t you talk about what happened to your husband or partner and one of the reasons why you came here to protest at the Capitol.”
Nora Ramos (c. 6:00): “My fiancé was working at a restaurant, a buffet, and he went to ask for his raise because he was only getting paid $7 dollars an hour instead of $8 dollars an hour. So, he went and tried to get his $8 dollars an hour, like everybody else. And, I guess, once they found out he was an undocumented citizen, what they did was call the patrol. And he thought it was the patron. And they came and picked him up and arrested him. And they went through S-Comm—and it’s called Secure Communities. So, he got arrested and taken to jail.”
Steve Zeltzer: “So, he was supporting you and your daughter and your son. And as a result of, basically, asking for a raise [was deported].
“We have a situation also in Pacific Steel in Berkeley where the workers refused to take concessions and lo and behold the INS is used to raid and arrest them. One brother is still trying to get a kidney transplant.
“So, here you have the police, not only attacking your husband and your family, but then the police on horseback are charging your daughter ‘cos she has a little sign. And how old is your daughter?”
Nora Ramos (c. 7:13): “She’s eight years old. On March 11th she’s gonna be nine years old. And I’m so proud of her. And I’ve always told her I am proud of my kids. All they want is their education. They don’t want their teachers to be, you know, gone.”
Steve Zeltzer: “What is happening in the school for your kids?”
Nora Ramos: “Well, they’re gonna get more pink slips, the teachers. So, it’s hard. My daughter can tell you.”
Steve Zeltzer: “What’s going on at school, Alondra?”
Alondra Ramos: “At school there’s nothing going on, but some kids are playing tag. And you know how the girls always say tag, you’re it? The boys pushed the teachers. I always tell the boys not to play tag or else they’re gonna take ‘em out of school because they pushed the other boys and then they get hurt. And then I’m scared that my teachers are not there anymore.”
Steve Zeltzer (c. 8:15): “Yeah. Okay, well, thank you for coming, Nora, and your daughter, Alondra. We didn’t get to talk to Adolfo. But it was a frightening thing. And we have more footage and interviews of that incident.
“But what you have now in the Capitol, for the audience, is an Orwellian situation, really, where you have like four or five hundred heavily armed police. They’ve got gas, grenade guns. They’re bringing in equipment from throughout the state. I guess you don’t have to worry about the highways anymore because half the Highway Patrol are probably here in Sacramento.
“I mean it seems like there’s millions of dollars for this militarisation, for the police, for the raids, when people—students and teachers and families—come for education.
“Kathleen, what is the lesson of this? I mean Governor Brown and the Legislature are supposed to be defending justice in California, and free speech?”
Kathleen Carroll (c. 9:06): “They’re completely aligned with corporate interests. This is all about pushing Brown’s very regressive tax initiative. He wants to, basically, give his cronies more money, more of our tax dollars. And Wall Street is fleecing us, literally, fleecing us. They are purposely defunding K-12, community college, CSU, and UC. And it’s very, very blatant. And they should all be completely ashamed of themselves.”
Steve Zeltzer: “Okay. I wanna thank you, Kathleen.
“That was Kathleen Carroll. She’s now, apparently, the KPFA lawyer-in-residence. [laughs]
“And we were actually told the reason we are not doing this broadcast on the grounds of the State Capitol is that we were told that we were stealing the electricity. We had plugged into a plug on the grounds and three policemen came to us and said to us; did we have a permit to get this electricity because if we didn’t it was stealing from the electricity. We explained to them we were doing a broadcast for KPFA, that this was free speech radio. That we thought it was important that we be able to use the electricity to do this broadcast. They said, ‘No, no, no, you don’t have a permit. You’re not able to do this.’
“So, I raised the question about whether or not our electricity for the State of California is going to be used for the media, or at least people’s media.
“Also joining us, is Professor Mueller, who is a professor of music at San Francisco City College. And Professor Mueller has written a document connecting the dots about the privatisation of the community colleges and ALEC Exposed.
“One of the many protesters here said that they couldn’t afford to go to college anymore because of the increased fees at the community colleges in California. Maybe you can address that Professor Mueller.”
Professor Mueller (c. 10:54): “Yes. The ALEC group that I started—actually, because of the Wisconsin situation, a friend of mine said there was a Google thing online called ALEC Exposed. So, I started googling around and they’ve been planning this stuff for 30 years. There’s a real privatisation movement for higher ed now. K-12, they went after them; now, they’re after the community colleges.
“And our students are being—with what’s called the Student Success Task Force Recommendations, which was jammed through on a task force situation that was underwritten by both the Gates and the Lumina Foundations, who give major donations to ALEC. And, as a little sidebar, CFT, nationally, now has said we should not accept money from these forces because they’re in union-busting as well.
“One of the things that really concern me as well, about our task force recommendations, is that it makes what I call the Stepford student. There’s this prototypical student that’s going to come into the community colleges at about age 18, go full time, decide their life’s goal in about a year or semester—and not deviate—and then go to the four-year schools, do the same thing for two years—and not deviate. And then go out and get a good job, which there aren’t any. But, meanwhile, they’re being told they are to do this by taking out student loans.
“The College Conspiracy” addresses the student loan trap
“Now, the student loan trap is what I’ve become very interested in because having our students who are, many of them, working part-time and working their way through school, so as not to incur $50 to $150 thousand dollars worth of debt, now they’re being told, no, you won’t be allowed in the community colleges unless you’re full-time and you take out student loans.
“Now, the interesting part is, both, Lumina and Bill Gates group are very connected into the student loan industry, which is now running into the trillions of dollars.”
Steve Zeltzer (c. 13:09): “And this is a debt bubble, another debt bubble.”
Professor Mueller: “A huge debt bubble.”
Steve Zeltzer: “You have the over $1 trillion dollars of debt owed by students in the United States.”
Professor Mueller: “Yep.”
Steve Zeltzer: “And many of the students were there today. I interviewed many who said that they could not afford to give any more money and they owe a lot of money.
“We have, joining us as well, David Pond. He’s a fourth-year student at UC Berkeley, who also came to today. Welcome, to the show David.”
David Pond: “Thank you.”
Steve Zeltzer: “Why don’t you talk about why you came here today, David? And what issues do you think are critical for the students of UC?”
David Pond: “I came to today to really see democracy in action; and I was really disappointed with what I saw today.
“I was speaking out of the people’s microphone on the steps of the Capitol, which I found to be a hugely empowering experience. And I told everyone that democracy shouldn’t be confined to one day in November, that democracy should really happen everyday, everywhere, in America. And that was not what was going on.
“It was disappointing to say the least and terrifying at other times to confront a wall of men clad in black suits who don’t see you as a person and won’t look you in the eye.”
Steve Zeltzer (c. 14:22): “Was this your first time with that kind of experience, David?”
David Pond: “No. Last November, I took part in the activities on the UC Berkeley campus with Occupy Cal. And I spent a night just awake—kind of doing the same thing—on the steps of Sproul Hall, staring into the eyes of police officers who just didn’t really want me to be there saying things that they didn’t want to hear.”
Steve Zeltzer: “Kathleen, this whole militarisation of the police that’s been taking place, you have observed that today. And it seems like in the schools there’s no funding. They’re shutting down schools in Sacramento. They’re shutting down schools in San Jose. They’re shutting down schools in throughout the state. Yet, it seems to be there’s a large amount of funding for the police, the highway patrol, more military forces. Do you see a contradiction in this, Kathleen?”
Kathleen Carroll (c. 15:19): “Not for their plan of privatisation. It’s exactly what they’re doing. They’re purposely defunding education. The money is there, but instead of equitably funding public education, both K-12 and our CSU, community college, and UC system, they are giving it to companies like K12 Inc.
“They’re pushing hard for charter schools, for other online education companies. They’re, basically, aligned, again, with the corporate interests who are funding their campaign coffers. They are not caring about the public at large.”
Steve Zeltzer (c. 15:54): “Now, for our audience who don’t know, [Democrat] John Peréz—this is the Speaker of the Assembly. He’s the leader of the Assembly. He took money and supported Race to the Top legislation in California. And [Democrat] Darrell Steinberg supported Gloria [Romero] who [was] running for Superintendent of Education in California. She was in favour of more charter schools.
“It seems like you have two leaders of the State Legislature, representing the people of California, who are basically on the payroll or getting support from privatisers. So, how are you gonna get a real alternative, a real choice, if the very people that they are appealing to are taking money from these charter agencies, from the Gates Foundation, from the Broad Foundation, and these other privateers, basically?”
Kathleen Carroll (c. 16:47): “You’re absolutely not. It’s a very good point. [Democrat] Gloria Romero is the Chair for the Democrats for Education Reform [DFER]. And they are the large backers of privatisation of public education. You basically cannot be a Democrat anymore, unless you are independently wealthy or backed by DFER—Democrats for Education Reform—and she is the Chair of that.
“And EdVoice, here in California, is a very large political action committee that literally puts their money with the candidates who will be loyal to their agenda.”
Steve Zeltzer (c. 17:08): “We are here in Sacramento. This is Steve Zeltzer with Miguel Molina and our crew here.
“One of the things that’s going on in Sacramento—and most people outside of Sacramento are unaware of it—is that there’s a [Democrat] mayor here called Kevin Johnson, who, himself, is the owner of a charter school and has been charged in the past with sexual harassment of employees. And his wife, Michelle Rhee, was the Superintendent of Instruction in Washington—”
Kathleen Carroll: “She was the D.C. Chancellor.”
Steve Zeltzer: “D.C. Chancellor. She fired hundreds of teachers illegally. And she’s been getting, apparently, millions of dollars to organise to get pro-privatisation charter people on school boards throughout the [United] States.
“So, what is going on here in Sacramento?”
Kathleen Carroll (c. 18:07): [laughs] “Again, I’m just gonna—I feel like I’m repeating myself—but it’s very blatant. She has a non-profit called StudentsFirst. I should say that some of these non-profits—Broad, Gates Foundation, StudentsFirst—all these non-profits are dubious tax-exempt organisations. They are getting tax credits for doing this. So, on top of getting and tapping into public funds and tax dollars, they’re also not paying the same amount of taxes that you and I pay.
“This is really, again, purposeful defunding to privatise education just like our healthcare is. I mean we are one of the last developed countries in the entire world where healthcare is for profit. That’s disgusting. And, so, is the attempt now to privatise our public education system.”
Steve Zeltzer (c. 19:03): “The school chain that [Democrat Mayor Kevin Johnson] runs, the Hope Academy—what exactly is the Hope Academy?”
Kathleen Carroll: “It’s the St. HOPE Academy. And, essentially, that itself is not a school. He has a couple charter schools involved in that. But they have commercial real estate development.
“And the Maloof Brothers and Sacramento Bee, which is our newspaper here, are funding partners for St. HOPE Academy. And, right now, there’s a very contested issue that’s going on here in the city with the arena plan—”
Steve Zeltzer: “We need more arenas. That was obviously the solution for education in California.”
Kathleen Carroll: “They’re basically attempting to put the city on the hook for a close to $300 million dollar entertainment complex in the old railroad area. And there’s gonna be a City Council meeting on that next Tuesday, which is likely to pass because he, essentially, wants mayoral control just like Bloomberg did, so he could control—he doesn’t have any resistance from Council members. So, he can control the schools. He can control what happens with the money.”
Flashpoints speaks with demonstrators at the Sacramento Capitol.
Steve Zeltzer (c. 49:43): “Okay, and that was some commentary from the participants, very knowledgeable participants, out there today. These students are becoming educated. And they are getting angrier and angrier about the disparity of wealth in California.
“One of the issues that came up was the issue of the tax initiatives. There are two tax initiatives supported by student, faculty, and unions are the Millionaires Tax and also the Oil Extraction Tax to tax the depletion of oil and put that money into education. It will raise about $3.5 million dollars. And there’s an effort to get signatures. They still have not qualified either of those initiatives.
“Kathleen, when we were discussing this afternoon with [Democrat] Assemblyman Mark Leno, he said that he is against the Millionaires Tax. Why don’t you relay what [he said]? I was kind of surprised about his comments about that.”
Kathleen Carroll (c. 50:33): “I don’t know if I remember, specifically, what he said about the tax initiative. But, again, as we just heard on the ground by a very articulate young person, there’re billionaires out there who are literally fleecing the taxpayers. The money is there; it’s just being siphoned off to make the rich richer and have the gap between the haves and have-nots wider.
“The systemic problem is the government officials we have in office have aligned themselves, not with the public at large, but with the few people who are very wealthy who line their campaign coffers. And that is something that we have to work at stopping. And I guess we only do that through a recall election, unfortunately. They’re not gonna voluntarily step down because they get to have mansions as well and fancy cars and fun parties to go to at the taxpayers’ expense, and trips and what not. They’re certainly not going to voluntarily resign.
“We absolutely cannot give them another dime of our tax money. They have shown time and time again what they do with it. And they don’t help us.”
Steve Zeltzer (c. 51:47): “Now, one of the issues that also has come up is the unequal provision of education for people, particularly Blacks and Latinos are not getting equal treatment as far as education in the privatisation of education. How does that take place?”
Kathleen Carroll (c. 52:03): “Well, what is happening—and I’m first gonna start with the K-12 education arena—is, essentially, charter schools are competing [for] the same funds. So, if you picture a pot of money that is our education budget and you have 95% of the 6 million student population taking money out of the pot and another 5% taking money out of the pot, and it keeps growing. And that 5% becomes 6%. And then it becomes 7%. And then it becomes 8%. And soon it’ll become 10%. Well, there’s less and less money in that pot for the rest of the population and it becomes incredibly inequitable.
“There’s a California Supreme Court case on this. It’s actually a trilogy of cases. It’s Serrano vs. Priest; and it says that California education is a fundamental right and that there shall be equitable, equal access, to a quality education. And that is definitely not happening. And it’s becoming worse. It’s becoming more inequitable.”
Steve Zeltzer (c. 53:06): “In [Democrat Governor] Brown’s proposal, as well as his tax initiative, but in his budget proposal he proposes an additional 15% increase in charter schools in California. And he sets aside a large amount of money for his tax initiative to charter schools, specifically, in his tax initiative.
“Why would the California Teachers Association give money and support [Democrat] Governor Brown’s initiative, which is actually gonna increase the number of charters and put public school teachers out of work? It seems strange that they would put their own members out of work supporting a budget proposal that actually increases charter schools in California.”
Kathleen Carroll: “Well, from reading Dr. Diane Ravitch’s book [The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education], one of her associates, Dr. Kenneth Libby, who is now a doctorate, basically, went through the Gates Foundation’s 1099 tax filings and found that the NEA and the AFT, both unions were paid off to stay ‘neutral’ on the issue of charters, on the issue of merit pay, and the issue of tenure. And when you say CTA, it’s not just all CTA; we’re not talking about members. We’re talking about the high-level officials that have been on the take, that are getting money to basically further this agenda. And they are probably getting very high salaries and getting paid bonuses and what not. We don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes.
“But, clearly, they probably foresee a charter school union/teacher association. I mean, all they care about is making money. They don’t care about anything else.”
Steve Zeltzer (c. 54:37): “That was Kathleen Carroll. She’s an attorney. She was fired by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing because she was a whistleblower and she exposed the corruption and nepotism in the commission. Unfortunately, action has not been taken against that commission for its practices. And, again, it continues its business as usual. And it’s under personal control of [Democrat] Governor Brown.
“Miguel, we just reached her that the horses have been withdrawn. Apparently, they decided to withdraw the horses. So, there’re no longer these horses surrounding the protesters there.”
Miguel ‘Gavilan’ Molina (c. 55:08): “The protesters, you’re right, Steve. But the columns of the different law enforcement agencies are out there.
“And people don’t know this, but in Sacramento—at least the Capitol area—doesn’t have a police force. So, they bring in the California Highway Patrol. And there were hundreds.
“My question is: California Highway Patrol has no training at all in crowd control, being in urban centres with masses of people, and here they are. And maybe not on their motorcycles, but they were on their horses. And they were out of control. But that’s the state that we find ourselves in.
“California has always been the, kind of, ‘stage’ for the rest of the country. And what’s happening here in California, the rest of the country better take a hard look. We are losing our state to corporate, military, and police. It’s a shame, you know? Freedom? We were driven out of the Capitol grounds. You know? Where we pay taxes! I pay taxes, state taxes, federal taxes. We were driven off of those grounds. And you, yourself, I mean, the horses, it was unbelievable. And here we are in the ‘land of the free,’ ‘freedom of speech,’ ‘freedom of the press.’ Today, freedom died in Sacramento.”
Steve Zeltzer (c. 56:23): “Okay. I want to thank you, Miguel.
“And it was frightening, especially, for this little girl [Alondra] that we had in today.”
Miguel ‘Gavilan’ Molina: “She was traumatised. I mean when I saw her out there she was shaking; she was in tears. I mean a small child. And these horses weren’t your regular thoroughbreds or riding horses. These were work horses that have a particular name; that are used. You know? We see them all pulling the Budweiser alcohol wagon. Those are huge. To have those animals around people and, especially, children, families, that, in itself, is a violation.”
Steve Zeltzer: “And this was a peaceful action. People were coming to say we want more money for education. We want equitable rights for education. We want our children to have the right to have education. And this is the reaction of the politicians, the [Democrat] Governor, to peaceful participation of students, of other people?”
Kathleen Carroll (c. 57:14): “We shouldn’t have to ask. This is—what you said—a right. We shouldn’t be asking in the first place. But because our governmental officials have decided to break the law with impunity, here we are today. And it is a sad day; I agree.”
Miguel ‘Gavilan’ Molina: “Well, thank you, Steve and everyone here today for this incredible action we took part in. And I’m gonna wrap it up. Any last words, Steve?”
Steve Zeltzer: “Well, I think that this has to continue, as one of the students said, this is just the beginning. They cannot just go away because it’s a constant struggle. They have to continue to organise. OccupyEd.org is gonna continue to organise. One rally, one occupation, as we saw in Wisconsin doesn’t change it. Even if there are hundreds of thousands of people involved. It’s a system problem.
“So, I want to thank our audience, thank our guests here today. The struggle continues. And we will fight to get the story out—the real story of what’s going on in Sacramento and the future of young people, the future of public education, and teachers in California. So, thank you for joining us.”
Miguel ‘Gavilan’ Molina (c. 58:12): “Thank you so much. This is Miguel ‘Gavilan’ Molina. This wraps it up for Flashpoints. Now, we send it back to Frank Sterling in the studios.”
Frank T. Sterling, Jr.: “And that wraps it up for another edition of Flashpoints. Thanks to everyone for tuning in. Thanks to Sabrina Jacobs for production assistance, Falcón Molina, Miguel Molina, Steve Zeltzer, and everyone else that helped with this broadcast. Sara Lafleur, thank you, too. And we’ll see you next time.”
Transcript by Felipe Messina for Media Roots
Photo by Flickr user Dream Activist
***
