First Person:
A Joyous Act of Civil Disobedience

UC Berkeley Tree-Sitters

GEORGE / Berkeley Daily Planet 18sep2007

EDITOR’S NOTE: This was sent to the Planet on Friday evening by a veteran of the Free Speech Movement, using a pseudonym for reasons which will be obvious.

	image source: 19sep2007 Also see YouTube: Confrontation at the Oak Grove 29aug2007

Three hours ago, I joined some other veterans of UC Berkeley’s Free Speech Movement in a show of support for Berkeley students who are fighting UC’s plans to tear down a wonderful stand of towering oaks to build a $150 million sports facility on an active faultline.

Half a dozen students spoke and then the microphone was passed to one of the first of the tree-sitters, a lithe young lady names Jessie, who was asked to say a few words. Jessie tried to speak but words wouldn’t come. Instead, she stood upright, clenching the microphone as her face began to tremble. She held the microphone—and the audience—in her grip for several emotional minutes before whispering quietly, “These trees saved me,” and stepping down.

FSM leader/author/teacher Michael Rossman recalled how the students of the 1960s faced the same unresponsive corporate UC administration tactics. He pointed out the importance of the oaks not only as an ecological keystone species but as an important link in the social ecology of the city—a grove dedicated to the memory of the fallen soldiers from World War I that became a place where students have gathered for generations to enjoy a riff, a tipple, and the serenity of nature close-at-hand. The grove became an important place for friends to gather and socialize and for individuals to settle for quiet contemplation. Rossman recalled how he ventured to the groves to read and study.

Rossman mentioned another infamous UC Berkeley fence—the one that was erected around People’s Park. And, making sure to note that he was in no way suggesting any form of direct action, Rossman recollected how one day buttons and fliers started to appear around town with a mysterious message. Nothing more than the words “People’s Park,” a date and a time. On that date and at that time, 3,000 people spontaneously walked to the park, surrounded the site and pulled the steel fence down with their bare hands. No one was hurt, the park was liberated and it remains an open space today.

At the end of the speech-making, 20-plus students—young men and women all wearing orange T-shirts reading “Free Speech” and “Free Trees”—announced that they were going to “exercise” their rights to free expression. “Are you ready to exercise?” the dynamic young spokeswoman announced and, to the surprise of the onlookers, the students suddenly turned, leaped over metal police barricades, sprinted to the hurricane fence and climbed over to join the “imprisoned” tree-dwellers.

It was a joyous act of civil disobedience that reminded us FSM vets of the afternoon we walked into Sproul Hall with Joan Baez, faced arrest and brought the university to a standstill.

Somewhat swept away by the students’ spontaneous and joyous act of defiance, I found myself also climbing over the barricade and jogging toward the fence. I figured it would be fitting for a representative from the FSM generation to support the students in full measure. So I clambered over the fence and joined them.

In the process, however, I punched two holes in my left hand as I swung over the sharp metal spikes atop the fence. After a minute inside, helping the students clean up the site, I notice that my hand (and my pants) were covered in blood where the fence had ripped my palm open. I had to beat a retreat. In the process of climbing back over the fence, I managed to punch another hole in my hand. Zachary Running Wolf patched me up at the scene.

As I climbed out (with the assistance of some members of the tree-sit support team) a reporter asked my name. I pointed out that, since I had technically just broken the law, I’d prefer not to give my name. He allowed me to use an alias and I chose “George.” What I failed to reveal was that I was not just some aging geezer with a bloodied hand, but I was an FSM vet, a former draft resister, a troop train protester, a Port Chicago vigiler and a tax rebel. And there was one last thing I should have told that reporter: Dang, but if felt good to break the law again!

The arrested students will appear at a hearing next month to answer to the trespassing charges. The hearing will take place on Oct. 15 at 9 a.m. in the Oakland Courthouse on 661 Washington St., Department 107.

source: 19sep2007

Burials Prompted First Tree-Sitter

RICHARD BRENNEMAN / Berkeley Daily Planet 18sep2007

Zachary Running Wolf, pointing to two little known UC documents, said that the university has admitted that the place where it plans to build its $125 million Student Athlete High Performance Center is a Native American burial ground.

“They want to build a gym where my ancestors are buried,” he said.

Running Wolf said he recently found the two short entries in the environmental impact report (EIR) the university assembled for its 2020 Long Range Development Plan—a plan that specifically excludes the stadium area projects.

Buried in that EIR’s public comments section are two paragraphs, one from a local historian and the other an unsigned response from the university—or rather Design Community Environment, the Berkeley company hired by university to prepare the document.

Richard Schwartz, a Berkeley author and amateur historian, notified the university that “there is a record of about 18 Indian burials unearthed when constructing the UC stadium. There would be many more still there.”

His e-mail pointed to the state archaeological records repository at Sonoma State University. Those documents are unavailable to the press and general public—a measure to protect burial sites from those who raid burials for bones and artifacts.

“UC Berkeley has conducted a records search at the Information Center and is aware of the burials you mentioned,” stated the university’s response.

The university has prepared an “archaeological site sensitivity map” of the area, and if “ground-disturbing” work is begun in highlighted areas and, the brief report added, “UC Berkeley will take appropriate steps to ensure any resources that may be present are properly treated in accordance with archaeological protection laws.”

“That proves there are burials here,” said Running Wolf. “Let them build their gym someplace else that isn’t over our graves. And it’s on the earthquake fault, too.”

The four-story, $125 million combination gym and office complex is planned adjacent to the stadium’s western wall, which would be seismically retrofitted before gym construction starts.

The stadium itself is literally split in half from end to end by the Hayward Fault, which federal geologists predict will be the source of the Bay Area’s next major earthquake.

The city and three different community organizations have sued to block construction pending completion of a new EIR for the complex of buildings the school plans in its southeast campus quadrant.

Those buildings were included in a second EIR approved by the UC Board of Regents last year.

For the City of Berkeley and neighbors, the key questions involve the impacts of the stadium area development stemming from construction and increased traffic of heavy trucks it will bring, as well as long-term effects from the growing demand on city infrastructure and the potential for enhanced dangers from earthquakes, wildfires and landslides in an area with limited access and narrow roads.

For environmental activists, concerns focus on the fate of a large stand of Coastal Live Oaks, some dating from before the stadium was built.

Running Wolf said the trees are important to him, as they are to many Native Americans. But it is the burials that are his main concern.

Leigh Jordan, coordinator of the Northwest Information Center for the California Historical Resources Information Center, located at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park—the office cited by Schwartz in his e-mail to the university—said she couldn’t comment on any burials at the site.

“I really can’t say anything, particularly about Native American sites,” she said.

The California Public Records Act, which gives public and press access to most official records of state and local governments, exempts information about archaeological sites, she said.

“Only landlords and participants in a project with a need to know” are able to access the information in the state files, she said.

A two-day court hearing starting Wednesday in Hayward will determine the fate of the lawsuit, and with it, the fate of any burials that may lay beneath the loamy soil at the foot of the oaks now occupied by the tree-sitters.

source: 19sep2007