Third World Strike at 40 http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_11911233
By Kelly Rayburn and Kristin Bender Oakland Tribune Posted: 03/20/2009 BERKELEY - Sign up for courses such as African-American Life and Culture in the United States or Native American Economic Development at UC Berkeley nowadays and you don't have to confront the National Guard or worry about being taken away to jail or kicked out of school. It wasn't always so. This month marks the 40th anniversary of UC Berkeley's Third World Strike, the nearly two-month campaign by four ethnic student groups and their allies that transformed education at the university, and helped spread ethnic studies programs to colleges and universities across the country. "In 1969 out of the thousands courses that Berkeley offered, there were only a few dealing with race," said retired ethnic studies professor Ling-chi Wang. "Today if you take a look at the same catalog you will see 400 to 500 courses dealing with race. It makes me very proud of Berkeley and proud of what our department has been able to accomplish." The anniversary has been marked by a number of events at the campus over the past week and will culminate today with a Third World Liberation Front anniversary dinner in the Multicultural Center on the Berkeley campus. The Berkeley Third World Strike is often overshadowed by the campus's Free Speech Movement earlier in the decade or the later fight over People's Park. And the strike, which began in January 1969, came months after the more famous or infamous strike at San Francisco State University. But it has its place in Berkeley history. It forced the university to create an ethnic studies program and ushered in community-based teaching that played a role in creating some of the East Bay's lasting service institutions. It started when four UC Berkeley student groups the Afro-American Studies Union, Mexican-American Student Confederation, Native American Students United and Asian-American Political Alliance joined forces to create the Third World Liberation Front, or TWLF. They openly discussed a strike, and on the eve of the strike The New York Times reported that Chancellor Roger Heyns hoping to avoid what he called the "agonies of San Francisco State" issued a 10-page statement detailing steps the Berkeley administration had taken to help minority and disadvantaged students. At the time UC Berkeley, while more diverse than other top-level universities, was still more than 60 percent white. The strike began with picket lines at main entrances of the campus, and the student groups involved soon found allies in some faculty and teaching assistants who were willing to honor the strike by holding classes off campus. "There were many, many movements going on at the time," said Douglas Daniels, a graduate student and teaching assistant at the time. "So it made sense the civil rights movement would come to campus." Student strikers were met with resistance over their tactics and their goals. Some faculty members were suspect of granting ethnic studies the same status as physics or English or history. But at the time, strike participants said, there was a woeful lack of educational opportunities for minority students looking to learn about their own histories or cultures. One example: Floyd Huen, a Berkeley graduate student in 1969, said when a faculty member and a group of students put together an elective course, Asian-American Studies 100X, one of the books they wanted to use, "America is in the Heart" by Carlos Bulosan, was out of print. The students took an edition out of Bancroft Library and, ignoring copyright laws, photocopied it for use in the class. The book is now widely available in print. Amazon can deliver it in two days. Demonstrators were met with stiff resistance from law enforcement and police used mace and tear gas to control the crowds. "There was a lot of pressure on the university to not give into the demands, and be pretty hardball with us," Huen said. "But we were organized, and were tactically smart. Nobody was out to get anybody killed." Skirmishes between police and protesters were frequent, however. Then-Gov. Ronald Reagan sent the National Guard to campus days before the Academic Senate voted overwhelmingly in support of an interim Department of Ethnic Studies. LaNada War Jack, chair of Native American Students United, who later participated in the Native American occupation of Alcatraz, said it is difficult to identify a turning point but believes many were swayed upon seeing how striking students were treated by authorities. And the struggle did not end with the Academic Senate's vote, or four days later on March 7 when then-University President Charles Hitch approved the Department of Ethnic Studies for the fall quarter of 1969. As Wang put it: "We came into being after a very violent strike. The agreement by the campus was not greeted with open arms." Veterans of the 1969 Third World Strike spread out across the country. Daniels is a professor of black studies and history at UC Santa Barbara. War Jack lives on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in Idaho. Huen, now married to Oakland City Councilmember Jean Quan, who also participated in the strike, is a physician at the Over 60 Health Center in Berkeley. Claudia Valdivieso, who organized some of the anniversary events, graduated with a degree in ethnic studies in December 2008. The 23-year-old Berkeley woman is from Ecuador and said she tried other majors but wasn't able to "connect with my community." "In ethnic studies, I found community and was able to relate because we had the same goals and the same kind of aim," she said. She did end up getting a double major in political science because she hopes to go to law school. -- Reach Kelly Rayburn at 510-208-6435. Reach Kristin Bender at <mailto:kben...@bayareanewsgroup.com>kben...@bayareanewsgroup.com. -- Third World Strike January 1969 -- The Afro-American Studies Union, Mexican-American Student Confederation, Native American Students United and Asian-American Political Alliance join forces to create the Third World Liberation Front, or TWLF, at UC Berkeley and publicly discuss the possibility of a strike. Jan. 22 -- The Third World Strike begins with picket lines at major entrances of the campus. Jan. 28 -- Outside law enforcement brought onto campus for the first time to protect classroom activities from disruption. Jan. 30 -- Police arrest picketing students and the university announces that disciplinary action will be taken against students violating campus regulations. Feb. 3 -- The Academic Senate condemns "disruptive and violent" tactics of striking students but urges support for a department of Afro-American Studies and the possibility of a College of Ethnic Studies. Feb. 19 -- Police use mace on campus for the first time to control strikes. Feb. 20 -- Police use tear gas for the first time to disperse students. Violent confrontations between students and police result, with two police cars overturned. Feb. 27 -- Then-Gov. Ronald Reagan sends the National Guard to campus. March 3 -- Administration announced more than 150 students have been arrested, with 36 suspended. March 4 -- Academic Senate votes 550-4 in support of interim Department of Ethnic Studies. March 7 -- University President Charles Hitch approves Department of Ethnic Studies for fall quarter in 1969. 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