Police dismantle Berkeley's Occupy Cal tents

CC Liu, Pat Macpherson (Wisdom Quarterly)
Sproul Plaza, massive student gathering at UC Berkeley (CTV.ca/AP/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Police dismantle Occupy Cal tents, camps elsewhere remain quiet

(SJMN) While Occupy Movement camps around the San Francisco Bay Area were relatively quiet overnight, police in riot gear cleared out tents at UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza, the center of the 1960's student Free Speech Movement. The same location is becoming the West Coast center of the Occupy Wall Street cum Occupy College Movement. The separate more exclusive University of California system, already facing massive hikes, has reacted by Occupying UCLA starting today. More coverage

• "Occupy" Movement Spreads to Campuses
  

  (UCLA) An article in Tuesday's LA Times about California college students supporting the Occupy Wall Street movement referenced a protest and outdoor... More
• The Daily Bruin: Occupy UCLA protest starts

Meanwhile in England, "Occupy the Stock Exchange" (occupylsx.org) and Occupy London rage. Demonstrators are asking British police one question: "Who do you serve?" In the USA, Occupy Wall Street is reanimating larger than ever. Police tried to set up barricades protesters moved aside then panicked when vinegar fell on them; they demanded to be rushed to the hospital (to get hazard pay and a day off while on overtime). Police in Long Beach (Los Angeles) pepper sprayed hapless students protesting a crippling 9% tuition hike on Cal State University students.

• [1,000+] gather for OLA/Union march; Occupy Cal raided
• Dozens of Occupy protesters arrested at bank sit-in
• Occupy Cal draws thousands: Supporters crowd Sproul
  
• Police clear Occupy Cal encampment (again)
• Occupy Cal makes history at UC Berkeley
• Occupy Cal - The Daily Californian

Occupy Colleges: Berkeley or Penn State

Occupycolleges.org, Wisdom Quarterly, Occupy Cal, Occupy Together

History in the making: Students lock arms as violent police in riot gear move in to beat them in front of Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley campus, Nov. 9 (AP/Ben Margot).

"There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come."
- French writer Victor Hugo

Penn State and Berkeley: A Tale of Two Protests

On Wednesday night, two proud universities saw student demonstrations that spiraled into violence [one by police, the other by footballers]. On the campus of Penn... More

Stand up by sitting down: A peaceful movement for peace and justice. Violence for peace and justice has never worked. Because change comes from within, we have to "be the change we want to see in the world."

"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."

- Sixties student leader Mario Savio

Occupy Cal (Berkeley) tents on the famous free speech zone of Sproul Plaza surrounded by supporters. Students and faculty staged a walk-out at Occupy SFSU (San Francisco State Univ.) as well protesting budget cuts and fee hikes. Students gathered at UC Davis to protest police brutality and tuition hikes (Occupy Together).

It's not true. But since the New York Times (the most visible manifestation of State propaganda) says it is, people believe it:

Occupy Wall Street protesters shifting to college campuses
Malia Wollan and Elizabeth A. Harris (Nov. 14, 2011)
BERKELEY, California - Goodbye, city park, hello, college green[?] As city officials around the country move to disband Occupy Wall Street encampments amid growing concerns over health and public safety, protesters have begun to erect more tents on college campuses [which was happening long before any camp got disbanded]. “We are trying to... More

• The Nation begins student articles
• Pledge of Nonviolence (ahimsa)
• Become a student journalist
  

A New Student Youth Movement?
UC Berkeley students Caroline and Aaron (Wisdom Quarterly)
Is it true? Is the police state re-turning this into a student protest movement? Look what it did the last time. No, this is not a "youth" movement. This is ALL of us now -- parents, whistleblowers, teachers, labor, monastics, the 99.9%!

What happened in the Sixties when the US war machine was attacking Vietnam (and secretly bombing Cambodia, Laos, and anyone else who stood in its way) was student bulldozing.

War is a way of life at the CIA, Pentagon, and Corporate-Military Complex. This is more true at home than on foreign soil. We are the ones being monitored, controlled, and deprived of rights.

But like fish in a bowl, we are unaware of the water most of the time. Yet it becomes clear when our MIC (military-industrial complex) is annihilating others. What it does it does in the "storm trooper" style of that famous would-be world empire: The jack boots are the same, the insignia a little different, full of badges, batons, and black outfits.

• Occupy Cal makes Occupy history at Berkeley
  
• Occupy protesters move to California universities
• Occupy California (UC Santa Cruz - San Francisco)
  
• Occupy Affiliated ReFund California march on Cal State
• Occupy protesters move to California universities
• Latest developments in the Occupy protests in places...
• VIDEOS: Police, unprovoked, beat Berkeley students
  

• Bay Area Occupy Blog: Occupy Cal takes field trip to SF
  
• Live Blog: Scene calms at Cal; more details from SF raid
  
• Police shoot armed man at UC Berkeley's business school
  
• Occupy Cal protesters vote to pitch tents
  
• Occupy Oakland protester could be deported
  
• VIDEOS: Police clash with Berkeley protesters, Nov. 9th
  
• Occupy Oakland protesters to join Occupy Cal action
  
• Peaceful raid on Oakland tent city likely not the end
  
• Occupy Oakland: Police outnumber protesters at plaza
  
• 'Occupy Martinez' debuts outside Shell refinery
  
• BART reopens 12th St. station after Oakland police raid
  
• Occupy Oakland gets third eviction notice

WEBCAST: Truth Behind War on Afghanistan

On the 10th Anniversary of the US war, an underground activist tells the real story of the Occupation and Afghan Resistance

Reena, a member of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), will address American audiences via live video stream.

• Download the flyer here
• RSVP for the event on Facebook

AWM Co-Director and KPFK’s Uprising radio show host Sonali Kolhatkar will lead the conversation with Reena via video streaming in front of a live audience. The event will be webcast live on AWM’s website. Questions will be drawn from the in-person audience and the online audience via Facebook.

• WHEN: Friday, Oct. 7, 2011 7:00 pm PST/10:00 pm EST
• WHERE: Creveling Lounge (CC Bldg., 2nd floor) Pasadena City College campus, Pasadena, California or afghanwomensmission.org.
• WHAT: Open to the public. Entrance is free.

If you are unable to attend this event, you can watch a live webcast of the entire event on this website! Click here to find out the time of the webcast in your city.

Organized in collaboration with PCC’s Students for Social Justice. KPFK is a media sponsor. More

Dharma Punx at USC (video)

Againstthestream.org

Noah Levine, son of Buddhist author Stephen Levine and founder of "Against the Stream: Buddhist Meditation Society," speaks on Buddhism to Univ. of Southern California students.

Following the trend of many self-destructive youths, Noah Levine's search for meaning in Los Angeles -- a city of lost angels -- first led him to punk rock, drugs, drinking, and dissatisfaction. Fortunately, however, his search did not end there.

• Hollywood Center
• Santa Monica Center
  

Having clearly realized the uselessness of drugs and violence from time spent in jail, while his parents and their friends became some of the most prominent Buddhists and meditators in the country, Noah looked for positive ways to channel his rebellion against what he saw as society's lies.

Author of Dharma Punx and Against the Stream, and most recently The Heart of the Revolution, Levine is now a Buddhist teacher, meditation instructor, author, and counselor.

He came to USC in 2009 and talked about how he channeled his anger and energy into the practice of Buddhism to awaken his natural wisdom and compassion. The program was sponsored by the USC Office of Religious Life, in association with USC Spectrum.

• Learn more about USC
• USC Office of Religious Life
• Learn more about USC Spectrum
• AgainstTheStream.org
  

Buddhism on Campus "Wakes Up"

Carlin Green, Wisdom Quarterly, US.wkup.org, Plumvillage.org, UK.wkup.org

I'm quite busy as school starts again. My personal experience with insight-meditation scholar-practitioner Sayalay Susila is brief but has really impacted me. I met her a month before the vipassana retreat she conducted at The Bhavana Society, West Virginia. I was at her public talks around Washington, DC. Somehow I ended up being the youngest person in attendance.

Later, when I was asking Sister Susila a question, she instead asked me my age. She told me it was inspiring to her to see someone so young practicing and wanting to learn about the Dharma.

us.wkup.org (indiegogo.com)

Honestly, I have no groundbreaking insights, no inspiring anecdotes, no moving stories of dazzling lights in absorption. I'm just eager to learn, and I was in the right place at the right time to meet a Buddhist nun who knows so much.

It was beneficial for me to attend Buddhist talks in public libraries staring at Mark Twain and a raft of magazines about dieting and cooking, dating and being happy, economic news and war. It was beneficial because she spoke about things never heard before -- the "Exposition of the Elements" (Dhātuvibhanga Sutta) and the Five Aggregates in her talks.

• The Buddha's Exposition of the Elements
  

These two topics formed the basis of the insight-meditation (vipassana) instructions she gave us during the retreat, so I was glad I had been familiarized with them beforehand. If I could encourage others to hear such thing, what a change it might make in the country. But I'm only in college; what can I do?

Something To Do: Waking Up
What should we do when we feel overwhelmed by despair, despair coming from inside of us and despair about the world's situation? How can we find the energy, the strength to do something about it?

Together, there is a way (True Dedication/Vimeo)

Speaking at Plum Village in 2011, Thay uses the Buddha's own life to encourage us. Youth, let's nourish ourselves with the joyful energy of sisterhood/brotherhood and the strength of a clear aspiration to do something helpful.

• VIDEO: See the full talk at Plum Village Online Monastery