1968: S.F State students strike for Black Studies

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Staff: Paul Colvin, May May Gong, David Kirschner, Hayden Perry, Socialist Action (ISSN 0747-4237) is published monthly for $8 per year Francisco, CA 94110. Second-class postage is paid at San Francisco, CalPOSTMASTER: Send address changes to Socialist RATES: For one year (12 issues)—U.S. 2nd Class: $8, Ist Class: $12;

Canada and Mexico 2nd Class: $12, 1st Class: $15; All other countries 2nd Class: $15, 1st Class: $30. (Canada money orders or checks should be in 2 SOCIALIST ACTION NOVEMBER 1988 The word "STRIKE!" stands up in two-inch letters across the masthead of the Golden Gater. The Oct. 4 issue of the newspaper, published by students at San Francisco State University, AcTion Editor: ALAN BENJAMIN Asst. Editors: MICHAEL SCHREIBER JOE RYAN Kwame M.A. Somburu, Sylvia Weinstein.

Business Manager: KATHY SANDS St., No. 308, San Francisco, CA 94110.

U.S. dollars.)

Signed articles do not necessarily represent commemorates a student strike on this campus that captured headlines around the country 20 years ago.

Incredibly, the Golden Gater seems to look back on the 1968 strike with shame. "During the 1968 strike," the editors emphasize, "the entire educational process on this campus was under siege for more than four months."

I showed this editorial to several people who had participated in the strike. "It was a state of siege by the 'tac squad,' not by the students," one former strike activist replied. " A thousand cops swarmed onto campus every day. They held the campus."

Another participant agreed. "Well before the strike began, she told me, "the police shock troops would come out to Closing date:

Oct. 30, 1988 Action, 3435 Army views of Socialist Action. campus almost every day, march to the hut occupied by the Black Student Union (BSU), and drag students out to the police station. Several students and teachers who tried to interfere with the arrests were severely beaten.

Black studies

She explained, "For some time, the Black students had been agitating for Black studies classes and for Black teachers. This was unheard of at the time. The administration refused to listen. Finally, the BSU decided that it had had enough of police attacks. It called a strike."

Soon afterward, socialist groups met with the BSU. On the suggestion of the socialists, a leaflet was put out to explain to the majority of the student body the need for a Black studies program and what could be done to win it.

Mass rallies of thousands of students were organized. The student strikers were soon joined on the picket line by teachers and classified workers, who were fighting for union recognition. The teachers' strike brought a larger layer of off-campus trade unionists into the struggle.

Oil workers' support

"At that time," a participant told me, "oil workers who were on strike across the bay had just been attacked by the police. Jake Jacobs, president of the union local, said on TV that he could now understand it wasn't the students at S.F. State who were violent, but the cops."

"Right away, we got on the phone to Jake Jacobs," she continued. "Soon, a contingent of oil workers came onto campus and spoke in support of the student struggle. Then S.F. State students, in turn, went up to Martinez and helped the oil workers on their picket lines."

After four months, the administration finally agreed to discuss the BSU's demands. But it refused to withdraw the fabricated charges that were lodged against over 700 students who had been arrested.

Thanks to the painstaking efforts of many students, parents, and other volunteers who served on the defense committee, most of the defendants were freed. But some students were sentenced to three or four months in jail.

The strike at San Francisco State was the longest student strike in the nation. It was the first time in recent decades that portions of the labor movement were drawn into a student struggle. In the end, the strikers were able to win the first Ethnic Studies Department in the country.

The Golden Gater notwithstanding, students at S.F. State can be proud of their predecessors.