• Defend free speech for supporters of the Palestinian struggle!
• Drop all criminal or Code of Conduct charges against pro‐Palestine protesters and remove all administrators responsible for police repression of pro‐Palestinian speech!
• Support the pro‐Palestine student defendant-intervenors’ inclusion as co‐defendants to defeat the pro-Trump Brandeis Center’s lawsuit against UC Berkeley!
• Defeat UC Regent Jay Sures’ Censorship Proposal: Defend freedom of speech and academic freedom for faculty, staff and students in the University of California!

>The pro‐Trump Brandeis Center has filed a lawsuit against UC Berkeley and the University of California (UC) system to deny free speech for students, faculty, and organizations who oppose Israel’s ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and who support the Palestinian struggle. Pro‐Palestinian students are filing a motion to intervene into the case as co‐defendants with the UC system to defend free speech rights for pro‐Palestine students, faculty, and student organizations.

>University of California Regent Jay Sures’ proposal to ban political speech by faculty, departments, and staff on UC websites and other official UC channels flies in the face of the University of California’s mission. It is a dangerous attack that will have a chilling effect on free speech, free expression, and academic freedom across the UC System.

>UC Regent Sures’ proposal was openly acknowledged in the January 2024 UC Regents meeting as being a way to censor speech on the issue of Palestine/Israel. The proposal is set to be discussed and potentially voted on at the next UC Regents meeting in March. UC students, alumni, and the broader communities surrounding our campuses must take a stand to oppose this kind of censorship and repression of speech and academic freedom by UC Regent Sures’ resolution.

>With the increasing privatization of higher education, there have been increasing attacks on the right of free speech on campuses across the country as campus administrations allow their policies to be dictated by big corporate and alumni donors. An academic atmosphere where the UC Regents and campus administrations get to determine what is acceptable speech is the definition of censorship. This would set a negative precedent for public and private educational institutions nationwide.

>Across the country, students, student organizations, faculty, and even whole school districts are facing targeted censorship and repression over speech. Over 50 universities and other school systems, including but not limited to: San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), Yale, Brown, Temple, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), and UW‐Madison are being investigated by the Department of Education over pro‐Palestine statements, education, and protest action.

>The activity on the part of the supporters of the Palestinian struggle is part of an international movement of millions against the ongoing genocide in Gaza being committed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) with the aid of the U.S. government and military.

>The University of California is a public institution and, as such, must defend the broadest freedoms for all students, staff, and faculty. The ability of faculty, departments, students, and staff to express their views on UC websites and other public platforms is a matter of the independence of the faculty, departments, students, and the pursuit of their intellectual activity in a public institution.

>The University of California campuses have been home to the great social issues of our time, including UC Berkeley’s free speech movement. UC Regent Sures’ proposal is an attack on this proud tradition

Therefore, we the undersigned:

1. Demand no criminal charges or Code of Conduct charges against any pro-Palestine protesters.
2. Demand all administrators responsible for police repression of pro‐Palestinian speech to resign or be removed.
3. Call on the UC Regents to support the pro‐Palestinian student‐defendant intervenors to be included as co‐defendants to defeat the pro‐Trump Brandeis Center’s lawsuit against UC Berkeley.
4. Oppose UC Regent Jay Sures’ proposal to censor UC faculty and students and defend the right to free speech and academic freedom in support of the Palestinian struggle for all UC students, student organizations, faculty, and staff.
5. Oppose all forms of Islamophobia, anti‐Semitism, other forms of bigotry, ethnic‐cleansing, and genocide.

 

 

 

 

 

Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN)  

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