Press Kit for May 9 Rally at UCLA
Hi, and thanks for covering this press conference. On this page, you can find helpful information, links, and contacts to help you get the full picture for your story. A livestream of today's rally and press conference is being provided courtesy of Sebastian Cazares via Instagram.
UCLA faculty have called this press conference to announce three key demands to the UCLA administration:
1. Resignation of UCLA Chancellor Block
2. All Legal Charges Dropped and Full Amnesty
3. Full Disclosure of all UCLA Investments and Divestment from Military Weapons Companies
You're here, presumably, because you are already aware of the violent attacks and mass arrests the UCLA administration enabled and unleashed on its academic community. On May 1, the day after the UCLA administration and LAPD stood by as students were brutally attacked for over four hours by outside agitators, 1,093 faculty and staff across the UC system released a letter to UCLA Chancellor Gene Block decrying his administration's failure: "You abandoned UCLA students, leaving them to protect themselves from chemical weapons and de-escalate the situation on their own." The letter urged the administration to not take police action against students. That night, the UCLA administration unleashed hundreds of police in riot gear on peacefully protesting students, who arrested over 200 faculty, staff, students. The resulting outrage and has galvanized a broad range of actions across the university.
Dozens of UCLA departments, institutes, and affiliate groups have issued statements condemning the administration's actions. You can read the full text of these letters here, as well as many links to coverage of relevant recent events. On Friday, the Academic Senate will hold a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Gene Block.
At the time of this rally, the UC academic worker union (UAW 4811) has filed an Unfair Labor Practice and called a strike authorization vote to be held May 13-15. This union represents the 48,000 graduate workers, post-docs, and academic researchers of the UC system. If this vote goes through, these workers will go on strike, including the roughly 4,000 academic workers at UCLA. Graduate workers at UCLA do the majority of grading for courses. With only a month left in the quarter, the strike would seriously threaten the UCLA's administration's ability to strong-arm the community through the charade of graduation-as-usual.
Faculty at UCLA are not yet unionized, but following UAW 4811's call for a strike vote, many are also planning to join a work stoppage. In the two days since it began collecting signatories, over 800 faculty and staff members have already signed a pledge that they will not pick up struck labor, and will likely undertake their own strike if their demands are not met. 595 of these signatures are from UCLA. UCLA has roughly 6,585 full-time faculty, not including medical residents and interns. This means that in only two days, almost 10% of faculty are threatening a work stoppage, with the movement rapidly spreading.
If you'd like to get faculty comment for your story, you can contact Hannah Appel (hannah.chadeayne@gmail.com) and Matt Barreto (matt.barreto@gmail.com). If you'd like to get graduate worker comment, you can contact Thalia Urtman (organize@uclarnf.org). If you'd like to get comment from UCLA faculty and staff who were arrested, or who were present during the violent attacks of April 30, you can contact Danielle Carr (daniellejudithzolacarr@gmail.com). For updates on the Academic Senate's vote of no confidence in the administration, you can contact Bharat Venkat (bvenkat@gmail.com). These contacts can connect you to more sources.
The press release for today's rally is below:
Over 800 UC Faculty and Staff Issue Three Demands to the University Administration
In response to the terrible calamities from April 30 to May 2 on the UCLA campus, over 800 faculty and staff throughout the University of California system have signed a letter with three demands:
1. We demand that UCLA Chancellor Block resign immediately, and ask the UCLA Academic Senate and UC-AFT to pursue a vote of no confidence. We further demand that the next Chancellor of UCLA commits to upholding the full free speech and assembly rights of students, faculty and staff.
2. We demand that UCLA to recommend all legal charges be dropped and grant full amnesty to all students, staff, and faculty who were involved in the encampment and peaceful protest, as well as subsequent and ongoing arrests of UCLA affiliates. No UCLA persons should face any disciplinary actions or non-renewal of employment for participating in or supporting the protest encampment and subsequent protests.
3. We demand that UCLA issue a report within 30 days to fully disclose all investments so that students may understand how the university prioritizes their finances, and we call on UCLA to divest from all military weapons production companies and supporting systems, in dialogue with the demands of the student protestors.
We will not stand by as our students are assaulted and silenced. We are closely following the UAW Graduate Student Academic Worker plans to vote on a strike. Following a vote for a strike, those of us who are senate faculty will not perform any struck labor in Spring 2024. Independently, we are coordinating within our large group the possibility to withhold our own labor until these three demands are met. We remain committed to protecting our students’ safety and their right to protest, assemble, and speak freely.