Strength in numbers

On Thursday, Nov. 16, 20 student activists were forcibly removed from the University of California Regents meeting. The students came to protest the Regents' decision to end affirmative action programs in the UC system, and were kicked out because they insisted on talking about affirmative action, which was not on the Regents' agenda.

Once the activists were removed, the Regents went on with business as usual, behind closed doors.

The Regents, with the help of politicians like Pete Wilson, are trying to make it seem like affirmative action is an outmoded relic of past discrimination. The fact is discrimination still exists, and is getting worse. The median income for black households in 1992 was $544 for every $1000 received by white households, and women still earn only 60 percent of what men earn. To deny the need for affirmative action today is to deny that oppression against minorities and women exists.

Here at SF State, it seems that a large number of students support affirmative action. They understand that affirmative action programs in the California State University system are likely to be threatened once California starts to feel the impact of federal budget cuts. Remedial education here is already on the block, and tuition is likely to go up soon. Most students realize that the attacks on affirmative action are attempts to scapegoat women and minorities, and that divisions along racial and gender lines will only weaken us when it comes to fighting tuition hikes and program cuts.

And yet this campus has been largely inactive. The reason for this inactivity however, seems to be a lack of confidence, rather than apathy. Most students I have spoken to are angry about the way things are going but don't feel there is anything they can do to change them.

Students who want change should look to the 1960s and '70s for inspiration. Students active in the Civil Rights movement weren't much different from students today. They were able to win progressive reforms from liberal and conservative politicians alike because they turned out by the thousands for militant, multiracial-racial demonstrations.

While the militancy of the 1960s is much maligned these days, we owe it to ourselves to see how convenient this attitude is for Pete Wilson. Use the lessons of the past not just to hang onto affirmative action, but to build large demonstrations that can fight for more racial and gender equality. Students can help overturn the Regents decision and make sure that nothing similar happens at SF State by recognizing -- and exercising --the strength of their numbers.

Elizabeth Terzakis is a member of the International Socialist Organization.

[ Golden Gater Online November 21, 1995 ]

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