We have had news this week about a plan from far-right racists to speak and the end of the month at CAL, eg University of California at Berkeley FREE SPEECH WEEK event.
On Sept 15 Brian Schatz wrote:
A veritable who’s who of far-right fascist stars such as Pamela Geller, Mike Cernovich and Erik Prince are slated to join Milo Yiannopoulos, Ann Coulter and former White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon at UC Berkeley later this month for “Free Speech Week,” event organizers say.
The lineup’s release Thursday comes as university officials say student organizers have failed to provide the paperwork necessary for the event to go forward. Past events featuring planned appearances by Yiannopoulos and Coulter have been marred by violence from demonstrators.
"We still have plenty of surprises coming though!”
However Campus spokesman Dan Mogulof said the Berkeley Patriot student group that’s working with Yiannopoulos has yet to sign contracts with the campus venues to host the speakers.
After that first article I noted to myself I really doubt that it will happen at all.
And then today we hear, Unpaid deposits, no-show speakers expose racist pro-Trump conference as a total sham Don't be fooled by the latest stunt from the so-called "Free Speech Movement.
According to officials at UC Berkeley, the organizers of the so-called “Free Speech Week” have missed three separate deadlines and failed to provide payments and sign contracts necessary to confirm event space on campus. It’s also unclear if they actually booked the speakers they said they did.
Campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof said the organizers behind the event, including the odious Milo Yiannopoulos and Berkeley’s conservative student publication, The Berkeley Patriot, missed the original August 11 deadline, when they were supposed to sign a contract to reserve rooms and security for the scheduled speakers. They also missed an August 18 deadline, when the contract and associated payment were due.
Now I do not doubt that this group of people could not or would not follow the rules set out to them for participating in FREE SPEECH WEEK …. but as an attendee of the VERY FIRST FreeSpeechWeek, I beg to differ as to the reason they failed.
WIKI has a good precise of the actual events of that time. WIKI: Free Speech Movement It was a massive, long-lasting student protest which took place during the 1964–65 academic year on the campus of CAL, Berkeley.
With the participation of thousands of students, the Free Speech Movement was the first mass civil disobedience in college campus of the United States during 1960s.[1][5][6][9] Students insisted that the university administration lift the ban of on-campus political activities and acknowledge the students' right to free speech and academic freedom.
Then September 14, 1964, Dean Katherine Towle announced that existing University regulations prohibiting advocacy of political causes or candidates,
Jack Weinberg and sit-in[edit]
On October 1, 1964, former graduate student Jack Weinberg was sitting at the CORE table. He refused to show his identification to the campus police and was arrested. There was a spontaneous movement of students to surround the police car in which he was to be transported. The police car remained there for 32 hours, all while Weinberg was inside it. At one point, there may have been 3,000 students around the car. The car was used as a speaker's podium and a continuous public discussion was held which continued until the charges against Weinberg were dropped.[13]
This is when most of us started asking each other…. what the heck is going on. I had been going to classes walking around the rallies till then. I remember reading in the Daily Cal a background explanation, and said to myself.. WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE DONT HAVE THE RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH ON CAMPUS?
So when the FREE SPEECH MOVEMENT began, my mother, a staunch Republican, asked What Was Going On up there at CAL and I said I ‘didn’t really know’, … but I had been paying much more attention.
On December 2, between 1,500 and 4,000 students went into Sproul Hall as a last resort in order to re-open negotiations with the administration on the subject of restrictions on political speech and action on campus.[13] …
On the steps of Sproul Hall, Mario Savio[4] gave a famous speech:
... But we're a bunch of raw materials that don't mean to be — have any process upon us. Don't mean to be made into any product! Don't mean — Don't mean to end up being bought by some clients of the University, be they the government, be they industry, be they organized labor, be they anyone! We're human beings! ... There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious — makes you so sick at heart — that you can't take part. You can't even passively take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.[14]
At midnight, Alameda County deputy district attorney Edwin Meese III telephoned Governor Edmund Brown Sr., asking for authority to proceed with a mass arrest. Shortly after 2 a.m. on December 4, 1964, police cordoned off the building, and at 3:30 a.m. began the arrest. Close to 800 students were arrested,[13]
Aftermath[edit]
After much disturbance, the University officials slowly backed down. By January 3, 1965, the new acting chancellor, Martin Meyerson (who had replaced the resigned Edward Strong), ……...established provisional rules for political activity on the Berkeley campus. He designated the Sproul Hall steps an open discussion area during certain hours of the day and permitting tables. This applied to the entire student political spectrum, not just the liberal elements that drove the Free Speech Movement.[15]
….. and it has continued up to this day. The tables are there every day 20=50 of them, more when a campus election is near.
AS FOR MILO and his crew coming to speak during the week, I don’t particularly care as I know the administration and campus police are very able to handle any disturbances. FREE SPEECH is just that speaking freely on SPROUL steps. …. BUT NOT A SOUL HAS TO LISTEN TO THEM. In fact, interaction is not allowed during the speeches. ….
My current preference for a response to this type of Right Wing Hate Speech was developed as a member of #LGBTQAllies. It took us years to develop what turned out to be the perfect storm response to HATE SPEECH on Corners (which is every American’s right).
Westboro Baptist Church family of lawyers developed their GOD HATES FAGS routine as a money making proposition entirely. They would throw loud protests and if they were interefered with they would sue for their 1st Amendment rights to speak. Always won and made money with it.
Some Some did want to ‘protest’ and the best way turned out to 1) surround them with silent people, but it was difficult for some not to interact.participants. So next we just held our own PeacePeaceand Love demonstrations on an ‘opposite street corner’ .. I remember when the one at #Monterey CA garnered over 200.
For them we now have a permanent physical response. Across the street from the WBC Planting Peace Org purchased a house. and painted it into RAINBOW HOUSE…
ALSO … Since the current UC President Janet Napolitano has filed a lawsuit defending DACA. See UC President , Janet #Napolitano sue to save DACA program she created
I would like the response at Berkeley to be a counter protest, if it is possible. I envision a ‘flash mob’ FIESTA in Lower Plaza with Mariachies, Dancers and Taco Trucks…