I think this video strikingly demonstrates why education, and colleges in general, are dangerous to the 1%. You can practically watch the movement build before your eyes, employing disciplined nonviolent methods against brutal tactics of paramilitary policing. First you see the pepper spraying of students sitting calmly on the ground with linked arms, on their own campus. Standing onlookers react with disbelief, then a long chorus of strong, repeated "Shame!" Many opportunities to examine the faces of the police for signs of shame; little evidence of that, imo. Many looked wary.
Just about the time I thought the crowd might switch to, "The whole word is watching!" the cameraperson stepped back and showed a sea of other cameras recording events on Nov. 18, 2011. at UC Davis. Then a mic check initiated a statement to the police that they were being given a moment to just go without anyone "bothering" them. And they started to back away! The chant then became a resounding "You can go!" that kept up until they, in fact, went. Cacophony of cheering, whoops and whistles, an announcement for the time and place of the next action (Monday! noon!) and then the roar of "Join our strike! Join our strike!" with delight in their own collective power tangible.
UC Davis is the ag college of the state system, traditionally, and I suppose it is only fitting that its current students assume a leading role in the movement of the 99% who understand that Earth is our home, and there is none other. Corporate control of the food supply, and the concomitant forced dependence on petroleum for our food supply, will become the central facts of 21st century survival. That's why in Maine small farmers operating under local food control ordinances are being harassed by the state, for selling unauthorized milk.
We are all Farmer Brown.
As each brutality is unleashed against students, farmers, veterans, little old ladies, legal observers, journalists, it both swells the ranks of activists in that segment, and reveals the ugly hand of your tax funded police state.
The demand to bring our war $$ home does not mean, bring weapons home from Iraq to attack people domestically. Our vast prison for-profit system and localized brutal policing have targeted segments of the population for years. Those are not social programs that we demand our hard earned tax dollars be used to fund.
Can taxpayers finally get outraged enough when they see that their city always seem to have enough money for pepper spray, tear gas, assault weapons, LRAD, and a gazillion hours of overtime -- but not enough for people's needs?
Needs like an authentic education, learning to collaborate nonviolently, perhaps to produce food for the future of the 99%...
