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Bay Area IWW Joins in March 4th Events in Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco

By X344543.  Photo by Alan Benjamin & The Organizer; used by permission.

Thursday March 4th was an exciting and invigorating day of action as students and education workers from around the State of California walked out of schools and universities in protest of impending cuts to education budgets statewide. Students and teachers protested against the cutbacks, attacks on unions, and even against the systematic privatization of public education.

On March 4th the IWW set up a literature table at Frank Ogawa Plaza just outside of city Hall in downtown Oakland, which was the gathering point for students and teachers in western Alameda County. Beginning at Noon, thousands of teachers and students began pouring into the plaza as organizers, activists, students, and teachers spoke out against the impending cuts. IWW members marched in several different contingents (and many active members of the Bay Area GMB are teachers).

Bay Area IWW buyback recyclers spoke out publicly against the cutbacks in solidartity with the students and teachers. The largest contingent to arrive in Ogawal plaza (and one of the last) was the 1,000-plus strong UC Berkeley contingent who marched over six miles from the Berkeley campus to downtown Oakland.

Some of the IWW members later took BART (public transit) across the bay to San Francisco to join in a rally at Civic Center Plaza organized by teachers and students in the city.

Meanwhile, some of the more militant activists made a bold stand by taking over a very busy Interstate 880 and 980 freeway interchange near Oakland's Jack London Square. It's not certain whether or not any of these activists were IWW members, several of the demonstrators were arrested (and one unlucky activist was injured by a fall from the above-ground freeway overpass to the street level below)."