"Justice Is A Constant Struggle"
By John Michael Lee
National Lawyers Guild Los Angeles Newsletter (Fall edition)
Mike Lee is an attorney with 31Yrs in PD office and
past president of the N.L.G. - Southern CA chapter
If ever the continuity of the battle for justice and equality is
doubted, one need only to look at the history of California State university
at Northridge. In the 1960's, then known as San Fernando Valley State
College, the campus was the center of a long forgotten, but well organized
movement to open up California college campuses to non-white students.
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), MECHA, the Black Student Union, and
other student and faculty groups organized and demonstrated. Over 350
arrests of members of the faculty and students, months of demonstrations, a
building occupation, and the resultant first felony arrests and convictions
of university students in the United States, resulted in the first ethnic
studies full academic departments in the State of California, and among the
first in the whole nation.
The National Lawyer's Guild played a large part in the defense of those
350 plus students and teachers. Documented in the film "Storm at Valley
State", the history of that struggle disappeared in the daily development
and operation of those departments, and the growth of the diversity of the
campus, such that it has been recognized as one of the most diverse in the
country by various national accreditation associations.
With the growth of the right, and the anti-ethnic studies sentiment
such as reflected in recent Arizona lawmaking, the protection of that
diversity has come under attack. This is best reflected in the faculty
budget cuts and rising student tuition, affecting most minority students at
the University, many from working class backgrounds and poorer communities.
White students from the surrounding local communities are also affected, as
tuition rises every semester.
The issue exploded on the campus again on March 4th of this year, with
a massive demonstration, organized by the faculty union, but supported and
built by several student organizations, including the Black Student's Union,
and MECHA, in unity with several budget and tuition oriented student groups.
All recognizing that these budget problems will first destroy the ethnic
balance on the campus, and then drive even poor white students out of the
academic experience as well.
Literally thousands of people showed for the demonstration (estimated
3000 by reliable sources), as a part of a state wide call at several
locations, overwhelming the expectations of the school authorities and
police. The students and faculty, supported by local high school teachers,
and students from local Junior Colleges such as Pierce College and Valley
College flowed into the streets, and sat in at major intersections for over
two hours. Surprisingly, though at rush hour, the motorists honked and
cheered the demonstrators, in support. Film of the event showed few upset by
the delays.
At the final sit-in, on Reseda Boulevard, the police mustered more
support, drawing from LAPD units originally sent to Pershing Square for
another union organized budget cut protest and demonstration, another part
of the state wide mobilization, originally expected to be larger than the
San Fernando Valley action at CSUN. Prior to their arrival, the campus
police from several state universities, and the CHP provided crowd control.
At no time were the demonstrators accused of any act of vandalism or damage
to person or property.
With the arrival of the LAPD, the university police made their move,
with LAPD and CHP support. They arrested student leaders and then assaulted
the remaining demonstrators, resulting in the breaking of the upper arm of a
70+ year old female faculty member. The campus police then had the audacity
to arrest and charge one of her fellow demonstrators with assault, as he
stepped in to help her, and blame the injury on the demonstrators! The city
attorney filed the charge without ever obtaining any statement from the
alleged victim. In press interviews, she told of the police breaking her
arm, and thanked the students for intervening or she might have been killed,
as she suffers from heart ailments. She tells of the student taking the
brunt of the police charge in an attempt to protect her. In effect, we have
an assault case where the victim denies the assault, but the case was filed
anyway! Obviously, the Office of the City Attorney chose to file to protect
the police from civil liability.
The arrests served to galvanize the various student groups, one of
which contacted a Guild member, and several Guild members volunteered to
coordinate a legal defense and assist their on-campus organizing. With the
new semester, they sprang into immediate action with several on-campus
demonstrations, culminating in their "unauthorized" joining in the formal
University Freshman Orientation Day welcoming procession,by falling in
behind the gowned and robed faculty procession entering the arena. In bold
orange prisoners garb, with blank white masks, they marched into the arena
followed by dozens of demonstrators with signs and banners condemning the
university complicity in the arrests and the radical budget cuts and tuition
increases proposed for this year.
The guerilla theatre group marched right in front of the stage with
all the assembled faculty and administrators and turned to face the incoming
class, while one demonstrator approached a startled president of the
university, to present her with a demand to drop the cases and fight tuition
increases. All of this in front of a unsuspecting and awestruck freshmen
group. What a welcome to higher education, Activist Style!! The prisoners
stood in full view of the freshman class, the president, and the assembled
faculty and administrators throughout the program, with the sign carrying
students surrounding them, and then marched out after the president spoke
her welcoming address, a brief address at that.
Unique to this case, two of the volunteer attorneys, Herb Weiss and
John-Michael Lee, were organizers and defendants in the original
demonstrations and building takeover in 1968. History indeed goes in
circles. Cynthia Anderson-Barker, Carolyn Park, and Colleen Flynn round out
the defense team, presently in the discovery phase, with photos and video
available which largely discredits the police reports and versions of the
events of March 4th.
The City Attorney of Los Angeles,Carmen Trutinich (SP?) has joined
Lestor Maddox, Sheriff Jim Clark, George Wallace, and others, and has
declared that he will stop any civil disobedience, and will punish civil
rights or other non-violent demonstrations with long jail sentences. He has
offered the five defendants plea bargains of 90 or more days in jail, and
has personally injected himself into filing and prosecution decision making.
All defendants are student leaders with no criminal records, and there was
no property damage or physical injury brought about by any students on that
day.
Again, the Guild hopes to play an important role in protecting free
speech and the right to demonstrate. The City Attorney made similar
statements and offers in the Dream Act, and Arizona Law protests, and other
political arrests, and has delayed filings until he can call press
conferences to announce his intentions. He has publically compared them to
Laker Game rioters who set fires and destroyed property, and has indicated
that he believes demonstrators at CSUN were paid to demonstrate. It is
important that we organize a city wide coalition to stop this premeditated
repression of progressive movements, while organizing within
church, political party, labor, and other mass organizations, or they will
face the same repression. In the end, the electorate must be informed and
encouraged to reject this city attorney in the next election. He won office
as an unknown, with a bad opponent, and listed himself as an environmental
attorney on the ballot. He forgot to mention that he defended environmental
violations, big oil, and other clients charged with polluting our local
environment. Hardly the attorney we want to control civil and first
amendment rights in this city.
***
From: Frank Dorrel
You Are Invited to the Los Angeles Premiere of the Award Winning Documentary
Film
ReGENERATION
Written & Directed by Phillip Montgomery
Narrated by Ryan Gosling
Featuring
Noam Chomsky, Amy Goodman, Howard Zinn,
Andrew Bacevich, Michael Albert, Mos Def & Others
Wednesday, December 1st - 8:00 PM
The Historic Egyptian Theater
Artivist Film Festival
6712 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood 90028
The film will be presented as the opening night film of the Artivist Film
Festival: www.artivist.com
ReGENERATION explores the causes behind the widespread cynicism and apathy
in today's youth
towards social and political causes and what they must do to take their
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TICKETS ARE FREE AT:
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To learn more about the film visit: www.regeneration-themovie.com
Watch Film Trailer at:
www.regeneration-themovie.com/trailer.html
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