Medical Committee For Human Rights (sound)

1968, after years of work for relevant change within the administrative structure, the Black Students Union and Third World Liberation Front, with support from the American Federation of Teachers, called a strike. The trustees and campus officials consistently denied the existence of any problems raised by minority students. When the problems became overwhelming, the BSU and TWLF struck to press for the acceptance of 15 necessary demands. The demands are designed so that uh if a student does come to San Francisco State College, when he finishes, he will go into his community and he will become part of the solution rather than part of the problem. >> [applause] [screaming] >> JUST DO WHAT IS RIGHT. >> [music] >> Do what is in your heart and what you know is right. Not black or white. >> protest, the power structure responded in the best interest of academic freedom. >> [music] [music] >> From the first days of the strike, many students were beaten and not arrested. Those who were arrested were systematically refused medical treatment unless dripping blood from obvious lacerations. Some students who were thrown into paddy wagons without a mark on them emerged bleeding, stuporous, and with broken bones. At this point, the BSU, TWLF, and AFT asked the Medical Committee for Human Rights to provide medical assistance on the campus. The Medical Committee for Human Rights, MCHR, a national organization of doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals, has been responding to community cries for medical assistance since the civil rights movement in the early 1960s. We know that during any confrontation between protesters and our establishment, violence is apt to occur. The Bay Area MCHR had been organized to provide medical care during civil disorder since no city agency was prepared to offer such a necessary service. We organized a large-scale operation to provide first aid to the injured parties at San Francisco State. We had previously negotiated with the San Francisco Police Department and the Department of Public Health to recognize our efforts to treat the injured. MCHR had been assured by them that we would not be hampered in providing emergency care to injured persons. We stressed that we were medically neutral and willing to treat any person who was injured. Our committee voted overwhelmingly in favor of joining the San Francisco community by being present at San Francisco State. >> The magnitude and the impact of this coalition, I think, can very visibly be seen when one considers the fact that on November 6th, when the strike was started, we moved through the campus and shut it down with less than 700 people. Today, almost 3 months later, we are in the process of finalizing the first coalition between student teachers and workers in the history of this country. Doctors and nurses from the medical committee began by training volunteer students who knew first aid to be able to respond effectively in the face of hostile police action. Training stressed first aid treatment of scalp lacerations, skull fracture, crush injury to the chest, and chemical burns of the skin and eyes secondary to mace. All of these injuries were repeatedly seen during the strike. In addition to the campus students, physicians, nurses, and medical students from the Bay Area were present to coordinate and deliver on the spot treatment. All MCHR medics were clearly identifiable, wearing white coats with MCHR arm bands. But the education that they would have us as third world students accept is designed not for us to unite with the working people, black, brown, and yellow working peoples in the communities, the struggle to change the conditions that exist, but rather to train us to be the EOC technicians, doctors, lawyers, etc., who will go back out in the community to help maintain the status quo. Dr. Carlton Goodlett, prominent black physician and MCHR member, spoke at rallies, stressing freedom of assembly without police harassment. He was one of many prominent minority leaders who recognized the justice of the demands and the importance of the strike to the minority community. I Akawa brings them [music] out here. He says he likes to watch them. It's like a roller coaster ride. >> [music] >> How much more [ __ ] can you eat? And hear that it's a liberal educational treat. [music] How much more you eat? How much more can you eat? How much more ass can you kiss? Kiss Akawa's ass up there in [music] class. He's not even here. >> [music] >> I AKAWA, WHERE ARE YOU? I AKAWA, WHERE ARE YOU? Where are [music] you? Unite, unite, unite. It's time to unite. [ __ ] of the world, unite. That's you and me. [music] You and me. Are you free? Are you an alienated anti-establishment [music] liberated freak? Beatnik hippies, communist [music] agitators, handful of dissident radical rebel FUCKED-UP STUDENTS EVERYWHERE. GOT HAIR. YOU ALL GOT HAIR. GO AROUND HERE. BOW DOWN. GO TO CLASS. YOU GOT TO LEARN THE ACADEMIC WAY. THEY'RE KISS HIGHER COLLEGE GO KISS HIS ASS. THAT'S WHAT THEY'RE TEACHING IN CLASS. THEN COME WITH US. LET'S GO. COME ON. LET'S GO. EINSTEIN COME ON. LET'S GO. EINSTEIN, THE BLUE MEANIES ARE LOOSE. The blue meanies are those. They're coming after us. You and me, sons of liberty. Don't be a blue meanie, too. Don't be a meanie, too. >> [music] >> There are so many meanies. They're everywhere. Now, there he is >> [music] >> coming IN BY AIR. MOVE IT. MOVE IT OUT. KEEP MOVING. KEEP MOVING. KEEP MOVING. WALK OUT. KEEP MOVING. WALK OUT. KEEP MOVING. WALK OUT. WALK OUT. KEEP MOVING. QUIETLY. ALL RIGHT, let's go. Move them again. Despite the prior assurance of the police that we would not be prevented from treating the injured, our doctors and medics became primary targets for police brutality. Not only were the injured left lying on the ground bleeding, but doctors and medics were clubbed and beaten viciously as they gave first aid. In addition to the physical attacks, nurses were threatened in sexual terms by policemen. It became obvious at San Francisco State that establishment forces were trying to kill the legitimate protest by terrorizing as many strikers as possible. Any doctor who would try to treat the injured was therefore an enemy of the establishment and as dangerous as the strike itself. Each day that the striking students, uh, teachers, and other supporters come to San Francisco State campus to show their support and to show their, uh, show their beliefs and the principles which are governing the strike, they are confronted by, uh, funny Ronnie Reagan's prostitutes with guns on their hips. And the reason they they wear these guns on their hips is they're determined to at least carry out some type of educational process. And the educational process that they are trying to teach us is that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Repression is the disease. It is spreading in epidemic proportions. We ask you to use your professional skills in the struggle against racism and exploitation in our society.