#OccupyCal turned out. Bigtime.
Check out the far more awesome picture in this late-night diary
#OccupyOakland marches in to Sproul Plaza
A couple thousand people are marching now (as of 4:00 PM) in Berkeley. Following a rally on Sproul Plaza where some fiery speeches were given (including one by Honest Chung, one of the students who was beaten a week ago by campus police), what seems like the entire plaza moved off into the street and headed towards downtown Berkeley.
They crossed Shattuck, Berkeley's main North-South street, then proceeded to march around the Berkeley High School. (This was extremely convenient for me, since one of the corners of the high school campus is only about a third of a mile from my house. I bailed there, watched the entire column march past, then headed home to write this up. Try Googling 'Bancroft Street, Berkeley, CA' for a map that will give you a good idea of the lay of the land. Sproul Plaza is where Telegraph Ave. begins, intersecting with Bancroft).
The chants as we marched were attuned to the Berkeley campus, e.g., "No Cuts, No Fees!", "Whose University? Our University?", and "Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Bergeneau Has Got To Go!" intermixed with the more usual "Banks Got Bailed Out. We Got Sold Out!" repertoire. (Bergeneau is the UC Berkeley Chancellor)
Watching the twitter feeds, I see that #OccupyOakland marchers are making their way up Telegraph Ave. towards Berkeley. I could see them arriving at Sproul Plaza to find the place almost vacant... There is supposed to be a General Assembly at five o'clock though, and Robert Reich will be speaking on the plaza sometime after 8:00 PM. Allie123 is on the march up from Oakland:
alyssa011968 Alyssa
#OccupyOakland marches to #OccupyCal cars honk like crazy as approach 51st street. Hard walk by & not get sandwich
One of the best signs I saw at the rally was
Beat Stanford, Not Students
Then, serendipitously as the march began, a banner was unfurled from the balcony of a building along Bancroft that read
Stanford is With UC Berkeley
which evoked huge cheers as it became visible to the marchers.
Berkeley Police were outstanding from what I saw. Neither interfering nor abandoning the march, helpfully blocking off cross streets as the long line of marchers crossed, and, where possible, directing cars onto alternative routes. If this were how all police conducted themselves instead of tear-gassing and batoning protesters, I suspect they would be better thought of.
There are twitter reports of a shooting on the Berkeley Campus at Haas Business School. Let it be noted that the Business school is nowhere near the plaza or the march.
KQED KQED
RT @kqednews: RT @dailycal: There's been no reported link between #OccupyCal protest & shooting at Haas School of Bus.
4:14 PM PT:
Update 11:03 a.m. KQED's Ana Tintocalis speaks to Alex Barnard, a first-year graduate student in sociology and spokesman for Occupy Cal.
"The message we're trying to get out is there isn't a lot of difference between the banks and the UC Regents," he says. "We have regents who sit on the boards of banks like Bank of America and Wells Fargo, and it's clear their interests are not ours; they have the interests of the 1% of the banks at heart. We want to change that and put pressure on them. If they started pressuring the legislators and voters to pass this Refund California initiative, this could really be transformative."
http://blogs.kqed.org/...
4:19 PM PT: Updates from the Daily Californian, A Campus Paper
4:14
Protestors have now returned to campus and are now past Mulford Hall.
4:13
“I think Occupy Cal is much younger. It’s much headier, ” said UC Berkeley alumnus Vita McDommel, who had stopped by Occupy Cal this morning before joining the Occupy Oakland march. “But I think the issues are definitely connected.”
3:46
Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates discusses ongoing march with bystander near city hall.
As the demonstrators approach Berkeley High School, its students look on.
3:32
The group of protesters are returning to Berkeley High School. Their chants continue.
Back on Sproul Plaza, one protester is playing the piano while others are reading books from library bookshelf. Incense fills the air.
http://www.dailycal.org/...
4:21 PM PT: Less than a mile away from the campus now.
alyssa011968 Alyssa
#OccupyOakland march ashby & tele campl.us/gNG6
4:27 PM PT: UC Davis Students #Occupy Administration Bldg.
Following a noontime rally, several hundred UC Davis students have packed the ground floor of the university's administration building.
The students were shouting, "No cuts, no fees! education must be free!"
http://www.sacbee.com/...
Hat tip to cooper888 from the comments.
4:29 PM PT: #Occupy Oakland almost there. Maybe seven or eight more blocks.
alyssa011968 Alyssa
#OccupyOakland here comes Oakland. We r in way #OccupyCal just passed Derby On Tele yfrog.com/kh271tgj
4:32 PM PT: Talked to allie123 on the phone. There's about 400-500 people in the march now. That will make for some spectacular entry onto Sproul Plaza!
They are now four blocks away.
4:34 PM PT: #OccupyWallStreet needs pizzas! http://twitter.com/...
4:38 PM PT: Great picture of Sproul Plaza early this morning.
4:39 PM PT:
4:32 Group of protestors has now rejoined those who remained at Sproul Plaza. An cheer can be heard from the crowd as those marching make their way through Sather Gate.
4:40 PM PT: #OccupyOakland arrives!
alyssa011968 Alyssa
#Occupyoakland is here #occupycal campl.us/gNHH
4:43 PM PT: From another liveblog:
4:43: March returning from downtown Berkeley; thousands of people re-entering the plaza. A couple hundred people coming up from Oakland, arriving now!
Well timed!
4:56 PM PT:
4:58 PM PT:
alyssa011968 Alyssa
#occupyoakland #occupycal handing out agenda for GA. Think it's starting campl.us/gNH4
5:02 PM PT: Children who link arms will be beaten!
5:29 PM PT: Livestreams.
http://globalrevolution.tv/...
http://www.livestream.com/...
5:32 PM PT: 5:20: GA is getting underway. We just had a reading of Mario Savio's famous speech about shutting down the machine. The chancellor has been sending laughable emails all week... today we got another, which indicates how terrified they are of our collective power:
To the Campus Community:
We all share the distress and anger at the State of California's disinvestment in public higher education.
IN THE SPIRIT OF TODAY'S DAY OF ACTION, I AM URGENTLY CALLING ON THE POLITICAL LEADERSHIP FROM SACRAMENTO TO COME TO CAMPUS TO ENGAGE WITH ME AND STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES IN A PUBLIC FORUM TO DEBATE THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC HIGHER EDUCATION.
The issues require bold action and time is short. I will inform you of the time and place as soon as possible.
Robert J. Birgeneau,
Chancellor
http://reclaimuc.blogspot.com/...
6:02 PM PT:
jaspergregory Jasper Gregory
'all your politicians are belong to corporations' Geek humor at #occupyCal @BoingBoing #ows yfrog.com/nx3gvgpj
7:17 PM PT: #OccupyOakland arrives.
7:19 PM PT:
abc7newsBayArea abc7newsBayArea
UC officials told #OccupyCal demonstrators no tents, but they said nothing about pianos, couches or dinosaurs. VIDEO
7:41 PM PT:
jaspergregory Jasper Gregory
#OccupyCal is voting whether to put up tents. My group is divided. #ows
22 minutes ago
7:57 PM PT: Livestream announces estimates 6,000 in Sproul Plaza, which seems far too high (but then, I'm not there). If there are even 2,000 there that would be an incredible showing.
8:15 PM PT: I think they just passed the proposal to try to establish the encampment tonight.
8:27 PM PT:
occupyoakland Occupy Oakland
Probably 5K here at #OccupyCal Robert Reich is about to give Mario Savio lecture #OccupyOakland #OccupySF #OWS
8:28 PM PT:
jaspergregory Jasper Gregory
Tents are going up right next to me on Sproul Plaza #OccupyCal
8:31 PM PT: Robert Reich about to speak. http://www.livestream.com/...
8:48 PM PT:
8:18 p.m.
The general assembly has voted to establish an encampment, which will begin with tents in the middle of the crowd in Sproul Plaza, which has now swelled to several thousand people. The vote passed with an overwhelming majority, with over 88.5 percent of participants voting in favor of setting up tents.
“Without tents, this assembly is a mere show,” said activist and graduate student instructor Amanda Armstrong.
9:21 PM PT: Reich is, indeed, finally speaking.
9:24 PM PT: "Where did all the money and resources go?"
9:30 PM PT: "Be patient with yourselves... The moral outrage came first."
9:34 PM PT: Reich hits a home run.
Reich for President.