First week of classes went pretty well. I still can’t decide whether I want my second major to be Gender and Women Studies or American Studies; therefore, I don’t know which class I should drop.
Tuesday: I went to my first GA of the second semester. It was held on Sproul Hall and it was freezing outside. I want to be a medic but I am going to need to get street training first. It was nice to see the movement begin to shake off the winter hibernation.
Thursday (1/19/12): The Spring into Action rally was not that large but I met a few new people. The GA on Tuesday decided to occupy the Anthropology library in order to have the administration reconsider the cuts they have decided to make to the hours of the library (from 9-6pm to 12-5pm). Kiran and I went to the library at 3 and we heard Professor Cohen speak, who is an amazing source of knowledge. Then, the GA proceeded but it was very frustrating and difficult to sit through. (The BAMN people are very annoying and the Alex incident did not help measures). It was really nice that the faculty decided to stay with the protesters too and even the head of the chair of the antro department also spent the night. I just got news that the occupation ended today and the administration decided to restore the hours and hire more student and staff. The first success of occupy CAL in the second semester :)
Friday (1/20/12): Kiran and I went to Occupy Wall Street West at 5 pm in San Francisco. When we got there, the march was just about to begin. The group was the most diverse I have seen so far. We chanted all the way to an abandoned building, which the police had barricaded before the protesters got there. The police proceeded to pepper spray the protesters when they tried to get past them in order to get inside of the building. The group decided to continue marching instead of fighting with the police. While marching back, a group of anarchists (with their faces covered and wearing an entire black outfit) broke the windows of a Bentley shop, which caused some other protesters to get really angry. This is when the group heard that 10 people were able to get inside the building and everyone decided to go back. Once the group returned to the abandoned building, the anarchists got all the way to the top and they looked like ninjas. They drew their signs and even had a pirate flag. The reason that building was occupied was because the building use to be a medical clinic but the owners fired all of their employees and moved to the richer part of San Francisco so they could have richer customers. This meant that the poor people not only have to travel a lot farther but many lost their jobs. We decided to come home at 9 and were soaking wet by the time we reached our apartment. It was a great experience though.
