People's Park (1969, sound)

is there now. It's been replaced by uh some asphalt and leveled off ground and some ruling class grass. You can tell it's ruling class grass because it's overly shiny and very very neat. And in order to understand how all this came down, the first thing you really have to understand is that uh Berkeley is a company town. It's run by the University of California very much the way Standard Oil runs uh Richmond or the way uh DuPont runs Wilmington or the way the automobile industry runs Detroit. And of course the university being a company town, the company's in pretty bad trouble. And the rulers of the company um like rulers everywhere completely incapable of understanding their own problems and have to blame their problems on outside agitators. And this area that we're standing in right here is a place that they said was where the outside agitators came from. It's the south campus area. And they they decided in 1966 that as long as this area remained that there would never be peace on the campus because um this area nurtured and uh uh this culture of resistance. It was Hippiesville I think is one of the way the chancellor put it in 1966 to the regions. So along with the uh with the uh city government here, the university destro decided to destroy this area. The way they destroyed it was um oh they used several tactics. The first thing the city government helped them out by sending pigs up and down the street right down there at Telegraph Avenue. They sent pigs up and down the street on Telegraph Avenue every night in groups of four harassing anyone who obviously came from the youth culture. not only anyone who came from the youth culture, but anyone who the university would judge not to belong in a nice university atmosphere like uh uh young black people or young working-class people. Now, there's a lot of young blacks and young working-class people around because down there around the corner over there is a place called McKinley High School. Now, McKinley High School is a continuation high school. And being a continuation high school, it's got a lot of blacks and a lot of uh a lot of working-class kids in it. And this really changed the character of the street and pissed off the university. So, one of the first things the university did was buy up the land that McKinley High School was on and forced the city school district to move this continuation high school down to the black area, right? Cuz that's like where a continuation high school belongs and to get the working-class kids and the young blacks off the avenue. But that wasn't enough. They really had to decide to destroy all the old homes in this area which house um uh this cultural resistance which house uh uh students, non- students, a lot of dropouts, a lot of people have been who have been kicked out of the university but have just decided to stay in Berkeley. Um, and in order to do that, they just went about declaring eminent domain and getting the the state to help them declare eminent domain and bought up a whole lot all these houses, bought up a lot of the land, and then just proceed to destroy it. They just like to destroy the homes. They've done that in lots of areas. Well, over about a year and a half ago, they did it to this block here. And this block here used to be a whole lot of old homes, which uh were mostly lived in by students and non- studentents and young people. young people who share this culture of resistance and um the university bought up the homes and uh immediately destroyed them and and let this block there wasn't a fence here and we're just this like dirty old um uh block, you know, just and it was used as a as an informal parking lot by people and um they let us stay there for over a year. Well, finally the people in this area uh realized that what was happening was that they were like about to be pushed into North Oakland. That this whole area was going to be turned into well the university had four kinds of plans. They were going to build parking lots. They were going to build dormitories even though they don't need any dormitories. The dormitories they have now are so oppressive that they're half empty. They're going to build um university buildings with offices. And they're going to build playing fields. And this whole area we're going to do all their expansion. And they weren't going to expand expand into the hills, right? That's where all the professors and all the upper middle class professionals live. They're going to expand down here, not even so much because they needed to expand, but because they wanted to wipe these people out and send them to North Oakland because they thought there would never be peace on that campus as long as we remain. That's true, by the way. Um so anyway, the people in this area um understood that finally understood that their survival depended upon um fighting back. So what they decided to do was um to reclaim this ground which had actually been taken from them to reclaim this ground by building a park. So one one Sunday afternoon uh some people raised some money from local merchants that during the week we uh passed out leaflets asking people not to park here and they didn't park here. Um we um and we went out and we bought some sod, some grass and we came in and we began to clean it up and uh and plant uh grass there. People's grass, not this ruling class grass. And um the first first couple weekends there only a few hundred people who worked, but after that it just caught. It was really magical. And by the third or fourth weekend, there were a couple thousand people on Sundays and always 10 or 15 people actually here in the park working. And it wasn't just like it started out uh um by people who represented the culture of resistance. But uh by the third or fourth weekend, it was all kinds of people, old people, young people, straight people, hippies, blacks, revolutionaries, um every every conceivable kind of American from this area came and worked in the park. And they and it caught on because it was a very special experience for an American. It was a time when you were working and you actually believed in what you were doing, you know, like um people were building this park which they themselves were going to use. There was no boss, right? They weren't they weren't working around their home, but on the other hand, they weren't working for money, right? They weren't like uh going here and laboring and not giving a [ __ ] about what they were laboring over just so they could get some money and go buy something else. Wasn't like that at all. They were building a park. They were making the decisions about what should go in the park and there was no boss and they loved it. It was like a completely new experience for young people and old people alike and uh it was a very very joyous thing and um and people came and they built the park and and you can't really describe it to anybody who didn't see it. Uh it was just beautiful. The moment [Music] you [Music] moment people, let me get my instrument. [Music] Yes. Far. You see, I told you. [Music] Oh. [Music] All your [Music] baby the moment [Music] you the moment you left me. Oh yeah. Last week my life was so beautiful and so sweet. [Music] Oh baby [Music] You're not sharing with [Music] me. My whole [Music] world is the moment you left me. Do you like it better than other parks? Yes. Why? [Music] Because it's a people's park. I want to inform you that this property is private. It is posted. You are now trespassing. Chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley, Roger Hines, assured the community that he would not move against the park in the middle of the night. But at 3:00 in the morning on Thursday the 15th of May, 300 uniformed, fully equipped police occupied the park. And at 6:00, a fence was erected. To build the fence at 6:00 in the morning, the university hired a non-un construction firm to avoid paying overtime. Unless you leave, you will be arrested for trespassing. You all understand this? I'll read the trespassing sign to you. property of the regents of the University of California. No trespassing. Any equipment or other property left on these premises may be deemed abandoned. I'll repeat that last one. Any equipment or other property left on these premises may be deemed abandoned. Boundaries of this property is the east side uh the westerly curb of Bodic, the southerntherly curb of Haste, the northerly curb of Dwight Way. That same day, a rally was held on campus. The community had to decide what to do about the fence. If we ever win this thing, it is because we are making it more costly for the university to put up its fence than it is for them to take down their things. But we have to do that is maximize the cost to them, minimize the cost to us. So what that means is people be careful. Don't let those pigs beat the [ __ ] out of you. Don't let yourselves get arrested on felonies. Get down there and take the part. [Applause] Hey, take a break. This is exactly what it [Applause] did. We [Applause] want We want We want We want We are the [Applause] [Music] [Applause] heart. Hey, stop it. Hey. Hey, man. There. That's massive. Get [Applause] those yourself. [Music] [Laughter] [Applause] [Music] You look like you got to face water. Water [Applause] water every time. Four times. Hey Dave. Dave. Hey David. Come on back. The guy in the ground. [Applause] They're going to come this way. So ple your side, man. They're going to come out the side. They're going to come through. Policeman just shot somebody with a shotgun. They've got shotguns now and they're using them on people. Somebody was just shot with birdshot. He's running down the street holding his room in. Jesus Christ. All right. They're they're using guns now. Councilman Dabonis of the Berkeley City Council and we're out in front of the Bank of America here at the corner of Center and Shadic. What comment would you like to make, Mr.? Well, all I can say that this is a beautiful site. If you if these radicals want to fight with potter puck, fight them with potter puck. If they want to fight with clubs, fight them with clubs. If they want to fight with guns, fight them with guns. They've got to be curtailed. This is a this is a radical and a and an international conspiracy. We know it. This is a revolution, but they're not going to win it. Do you think that the uh Alama County Sheriff's deputies were justified in using Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. What would you do, young man? 40 40 people, 40 officers cornered by a thousand animals. They didn't have any tear gas bomb. They didn't have anything else left but buckshot. And wouldn't you use them? Why? I I commend them for it. Well, the one instance that I saw of a shooting and I did you did you see any shooting take place? I I saw one shooting whether I saw it or not. Uh and the shooting that I saw was simply an Alama County Sheriff's deputy shooting a boy who who was running down the street away from him so that he shot him in the back. But he didn't go after him. He didn't try to arrest him. He didn't try to pick him up or help him. He just left him there. Yeah, but you didn't see what happened before. No, that's true. I didn't He may well have All right, then. Don't judge it by the final. But he didn't shoot a gun. He didn't shoot a gun at at the man who shot a gun at Well, I don't care. I'll tell you one thing. If that man shot that kid, that kid had it coming. And that's it. That's right. That's right. And I hope you freak the the freaks around here. What if you were shot at go? Okay. Thank you very much, counsel. Thank you. speed. Four days later, James Rector died of his gunshot wounds. Alan Blanchard was blinded and a hundred other people were treated for bullet wounds. The regents had tried to intimidate the community. It didn't work. Despite the unleashing of the police arsenal, the people came back and the regents needed every source available. The National Guard was called in. Under the direction of the police, the guards set up Bivwac, established checkpoints, and turned Berkeley into an armed camp. The scene was not unfamiliar. Watts, Detroit, Wilmington, Newark, hundreds of other communities, except for one difference. This one was white. The rulers of this country have never sherked from using the military when their control is challenged. It was used extensively during the hard labor struggles of the 30s and in the past few years in the black community. Since it is the blacks feeling their oppression most intensely who consistently strike back. Black communities are like company towns run almost solely by outside interests. But what of the white communities? The myths of the nature of private property have exploded in the face of every worker who has spent 20 years paying off a mortgage who is neck high in debt consuming on credit. The myths of local control have been shattered by every cop who clubs a worker on a picket line. Berkeley is no exception. Through the university, it is the private property of some of the largest corporations in America. What they don't own, the state takes by eminent domain and sells to them. This is at the heart of our fight for the park, at the heart of a strike, and is at the heart of community control of police and school issues. There is no private property, only corporate property. The University of California knows this well. It functions to gain, aid, and protect those who own the land. The regents who exercise total control over the university make sure that this function is served. The 16 governorappointed regions represent a broad spectrum of economic interests with heavy emphasis on agriculture. California leads the nation in total cash farm income of almost $4 billion per year. Their market value reaches $16 billion per year. One out of three jobs in California is dependent on agriculture or related industry. Three regions alone hold 20% of Orange County, 285,000 acres of Kern and LA counties, and large areas of Coachella. These areas are at the heart of the grape boycott. Land holdings don't end with grapes. Hunt Wesson Foods, Delmonte Corporation, Western Fruit Growers Sales Corporation, New Hall Food and Farming Company, the Irvine Foundation. These cover almost every major cash crop in the state. In 1967, Governor Rean appointed Alan Grant, president of California State Board of Agriculture, which automatically makes him a regent. Grant is also the president of California Farm Bureau Federation whose terrorist arm, the Associated Farmers, has brutalized small farmers and laborers alike in the interests of the large growers for 50 years. Grant is the industry's major spokesman against the Delena grape strike. The power of the board of regents ranges far beyond agra business. Edward Carter's directorships other than Delmoni include AT&T, Pacific Mutual Life Insurance, Southern California Edison, Stanford Research Institute. Morton Simon owns McCall's, Readers Digest, and Canada Dry. Edwin Paulie is a director of Western Airlines and chairman of Poly Petroleums, which continues to destroy Santa Barbara channels and tidelands. His holdings in Mexico are extensive. Poly Pan-American Petroleum holds three contracts with Petrolos Mexico, an organ of the Mexican government. This is what private property is in America. Control for the few, debt for the many. On Memorial Day, after 20 days of fighting, 50,000 people marched in Berkeley in support of the park. It was the largest march that Berkeley had ever seen, and because of its nonviolent nature, was thought by many to be a success. But the march had originally been called to tear down the fence. Instead, it was like a funeral procession passing by for one last look at the body. People pinned flowers on the same police who are willing to kill to protect corporate property. Militancy and an understanding of the past 20 days had left the movement. And when the march was over, so was the fight for the land. A fight for a park or a traffic light or a hot breakfast for children can seem small and insignificant. It is for the wealthy people in the Berkeley Hills who were given $42,000 by the city council for a park four blocks from a state park. But when oppressed people fight for even these things, the basic contradiction of ruler versus ruled is revealed. The fight for the park is important not only because it is needed, but because the community reclaimed the land the university stole from it. We know who owns the land and its wealth and to what ends they will go to keep it. The same month that James Rector was killed, seven black students were shot to death in South Carolina. Last spring, only six miles from Berkeley, Dick Jones was killed by a scab truck during the Standard Oil Strike in Richmond. The same men who ripped off the park are trying to rip off community after community and country after country. The number of political prisoners grows each day. The Prescidio 27, the Panther 21, Loiete de Laarasa, Susan Parker in jail for refusing to testify before a grand jury. And everyone in struggle today are fighting the same enemy. But we feel weak and isolated because they have the guns, they have the courts, and they have the prisons. We are weak and isolated when we fight alone. But all over the world, people are coming together for strength and defense. People's parks have been built in New York, Chicago, and Madison. Campus after campus closes down. There have been more Wildcat strikes in the past few years than in the last 20. The United Black Brothers in New Jersey, the League of Revolutionary Black Workers in Detroit, and Black Panther Caucuses and locals all over the country are organizing, fighting, and growing. And more and more young white workers are walking out with them. Militant white caucuses have formed at United Auto Workers. We're rising up together and we're rising up angry.