Before dawn Tuesday, more than 100 law enforcement officers in riot gear marched into Cal Poly Humboldt’s quarters with guns and batons.
They surrounded a small group of protesters – including a hairy man in a lime-green outfit – who were kneeling on the ground, holding hands, chanting native chants.
“Resistance is justified!” As soon as the officers informed them that they were being arrested, the crowd started shouting, then they were pulled up one by one and their hands were tied with zip ties.
The scene involved an extraordinary weeklong protest at this public university that has emerged as the strongest center of civil disobedience in California. Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza,
Students at major campuses in the state, including USC and Berkeley, have been in the news last week. But Cal Poly Humboldt is nestled on the grounds of a redwood forest in rural Northern California and is home to 5,976 Students play a large role at Arcata. Students engaged in more vigorous disruption, occupying an academic and administrative building, painting buildings with graffiti and twice forcing police to retreat.
Humboldt is one of the smallest and most isolated of the Cal State schools, a hub for students from rural towns and former logging communities on California’s far north coast and interior.
Yet people on campus understand why it has become such a tipping point.
Faculty leaders say activism is in the college’s DNA, noting that students and professors have practiced nonviolent civil disobedience for more than half a century – from the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s to the 1980s and 1990s. Till the forest protection movement of.
“People ask, ‘Well, why do they occupy? Why don’t they do what everyone else does and sit in a tent outside?’ said Anthony Silvaggio, chair of the sociology department.
“It’s because we’re Humboldt,” he said, noting that as a graduate student in 1997 he was arrested during the Headwaters Campaign to save the last remaining old-growth redwood forests. “We take up space! We have a rich history of occupying space and a long lineage of direct-action tactics.
After resisting several attempts by riot police to remove them from a building, students renamed it “Intifada Hall”. they wrote slogans Such as “land back”, “destroy all colonial walls” and “no pigs allowed” Up and down its corridors and wrote “Blood on your hands” on the wood-paneled walls of President Tom Jackson Jr.’s office.
They said they would not leave until the university disclosed all involvement and collaboration with Israel, severed all ties with Israeli universities, divested from companies “involved in the occupation of Palestine” and publicly Does not call for ceasefire. They also called for the dropping of any legal charges against the student organizers.
Jackson said Tuesday that it breaks my heart to see the arrests. “Unfortunately, serious criminal activity that crossed the line far beyond the level of protest placed the campus at continued risk.”
But some faculty and students rejected that statement, accusing administrators and officials of escalating a peaceful situation by bringing in riot police on the first evening of the occupation. They argue that closing the entire campus was unnecessary.
“These are the actions of conscientious individuals working to end genocide, not the actions of criminals,” the faculty union, the University chapter of the California Faculty Association, said in a statement.
One of the arrested activists, assistant professor Rouhollah Aghasaleh, vowed to reject any bonds and go on hunger strike until he and all his students are released.
“I refuse to accept the label of criminal for standing up for a moral cause.” he wrote in a statement before his arrest.
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At the heart of the confrontation is a dispute that extends beyond the Middle East to the question of how central activism is to the university’s mission.
Faculty leaders blamed Jackson, who became president in 2019 and oversaw the transformation of the university into a polytechnic. New designation will be created in 2022 The program was designed to increase lax enrollment with high-demand STEM education and research offerings.
Officials hope the changes will result in a better university. But critics accused Jackson of being out of sync with campus culture and failing to appreciate the university’s long history of environmental and social justice activism.
According to Silvagio, Jackson upset the faculty by saying, “We’re not here to train activists.”
Silvagio – who said he learned nonviolent civil disobedience tactics from his professors, who were active in protecting native forests – now teaches courses in community organizing and social movements.
He said last week was hardly the first occupation of a Humboldt campus building: In 2015, students occupied the university’s Native American Forum for a week in protest of the sudden firing of the then-chair of the Indian Natural Resources Sciences and Engineering program. Was.
At the time, the university president visited the protest site to speak to the students, praising their action as “a real demonstration of your commitment to student access, achievement and completion.”
“Look at our mission,” Silvagio said, pointing to the university. purpose and vision Statement, which is committed to being “a campus for seekers” above all else To improve the global human condition.” It is also committed to “partnering with indigenous communities to address the legacy of colonialism.”
Nevertheless, the occupation involved far greater disruption than in 2015. Supporters of the movement acknowledge that they have developed bolder tactics and become more willing to avoid rules and leaders over the past decade as movements like Black Lives Matter and others coalesced. Black block.
“There is no organization or leader,” Silvagio said. “When these directionless movements happen, your property will be destroyed, vandalism will happen. This is the natural order of businesses these days.”
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The occupation of Cal Poly Humboldt began on April 22. When students arrived at Siemens Hall, an academic building that includes the office of the university president along with sleeping bags, board games, and decks of cards. They blocked the entrance with chairs and tables and put up a banner that read, “Stop the Genocide.”
Students plan to stage a peaceful sit-in at the president’s office to protest Israel’s actions in Gaza, said a 23-year-old student from San Jose, who asked to be known only as “Mango” because he feared retaliation. Was afraid of. Transgender indigenous students started praying, he said, and then the police came and started beating.
The university gave a separate account, saying that students and teachers had to be evacuated as protesters disrupted classes and damaged university property. The university said that in addition to defacing the building with graffiti, protesters blocked entrances and elevators by erecting tents and in some places locked doors using chains and zip ties, violating fire codes and “inside poses extreme security threats to the people of
Video Photos taken from inside showed protesters blocking law enforcement from entering, a police officer hitting a protester with a baton, and a protester hitting an officer’s helmet with an empty five-gallon water jug – a The scene quickly went viral, inspiring “jug of justice” memes with the phrase “betray the police.”
Three students were arrested. Citing security concerns, officials announced First the campus was strictly closed until final Wednesday, then Sunday, and eventually for the rest of the semester.
Hundreds of students living on campus were told they could leave their hostels only if they had a valid reason and could be charged with trespassing.
Aaron Donaldson, lecturer in the Department of Communications and secretary of the faculty union, said students who tried to leave campus to get groceries reported confrontations with police. He had 50 outlines to grade, but he couldn’t go get them for fear of arrest.
After another standoff on Friday – police moved in to enforce the dispersal order that evening, students protested and police eventually retreated – the university again condemned the activists, claiming the occupation has “nothing to do with free speech or freedom of inquiry.”
But the administration said it would “continue to talk to anyone willing to have a productive and respectful dialogue.”
In a gesture of goodwill, the occupants moved out of Siemens Hall on Sunday, vacated the building and transferred their occupation to an outdoor space.
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By Monday afternoon, the tree-lined campus with dazzling views of Humboldt Bay was almost deserted, giving it the feel of a true summer camp.
Activists in pink, brown and white furry outfits were milling around outside the main administration building and the quad, surrounded by chairs, tables, trash cans and barricade fencing.
After a faculty teaching about Ableism, a march took place, followed by a Passover Seder. As some people ate the matzo, others shouted: “From the river to the sea.”
As dusk fell, some activists donned goggles and helmets, carried makeshift shields, played tambourines and played drums as they prepared for another standoff with law enforcement.
Just after 9:30 pm, a patrol car drove through the complex, broadcasting a recorded message urging protesters to disperse immediately. If they do not disperse, the protesters may face rubber bullets and chemical spray.
“Out of the police precinct!” The crowd chanted in unison.
Barred from entering the campus, several teachers gathered on the street outside, saying they wanted to witness what was happening to their students.
Sociology professor Dominic Corva said he blamed the president of Cal Poly Humboldt for creating the conditions that led to the standoff.
“This (university) has a president… who is completely contrary to the culture and pedagogy of the university,” Corva said. “His actions have escalated the situation.”
Jackson could not be reached for comment Tuesday. But in a statement, he said: “Our focus the entire time has been to do what we could to protect the safety of everyone involved, and we were very patient and very disciplined about that.”
Donaldson said the standoff between activists and administrators reinforced some key lessons from the social advocacy class he taught this semester: Direct democracy, he said, is fundamentally about nonviolence and is never convenient. ; The point is to interrupt and say, “Wait, we need to talk and pay attention.”
For Rick Toledo, 32, a student organizer on campus who did not occupy the building but supported the movement, the biggest concern Tuesday morning was raising $10,000 per person for bail.
There were some conflicts among activists over strategy and the value of the graffiti, Toledo said. But during the occupation, they tried to build consensus and develop some rules.
“When you have different ideologies and there are no strict guidelines, it’s natural for clashes to happen,” said Toledo.
Moving forward, Toledo hopes activists can develop guidelines before reoccupation.
“The movement cannot end here,” he said. “There is a lot of pain in Palestine. What the students have done is huge and we need to maintain that momentum.
