| Third World Votes - 'Strike Wednesday' |
| Daily Cal, January 20, 1969 |
| Third World groups voted yesterday to strike all classes at the University beginning Wednesday. After a closed meeting which strained the seating capacity of 155 Dwinelle, representatives of the 500 Third World Students present announced a news conference for 11 am this morning at which they will present their list of demands. They also announced that a Third World strike convocation had been called for today, to last from 8 am to 4 pm in Wheeler Hall. In a leaflet directed to |
| approved a proposal for a Black Studies program, but the AASU felt the proposal was unacceptable. Friday the AASU voted to strike today, and on Saturday they were joined in their demand by the Asian American Political Alliance. However, at yesterday's meeting, the Third World groups decided not to strike until Wednesday. Once this was decided the Mexican American Student Confederation voted to support the strike and the demands, thus bringing unanimity to the campus Third World Movement. |
| The TWLF Strike Preface by Harvey Dong (AAPA) In 1968-69, African American, Asian American, Chicano and Native American students at San Francisco State University and the University of California, Berkeley organized campus coalitions known as the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF). Each led student strikes demanding establishment of Third World Colleges each with departments teaching Asian American, african American, Chicano and Native American Studies. The significance of the these strikes was twofold: first, minority students were able to unite in solidarity against institutional racism; and secondly, the strikes won concessions from both universities in the formation of ethnic studies programs which have been in the forefront of academic change. The concept of the "Third World" provided a common basis of unity for the TWLF student activists. The term identified parallel colonial and racial experiences of minorities throughout US history. Examples of common racial oppression included: genocide of the native Indians, enslavement of Africans, colonization of Chicanos in the Southwest, and passage of asian immigration exclusion laws. This past was linked with the history of Western colonization in Third World countries of asia, Africa and Latin America. Contemporary international movements for independence and self-determination in those locales were viewed as related to the demands of US Third World minorities for political power. These international movements provided legitimacy and inspiration for the students. Strike tactics involved informational picketing, blocking of campus entrances, mass rallies and teach-ins. Popular support was often met with repression in the form of police arrests, teargas and campus disciplinary actions. Police mutual assistance pacts enabled the rapid formations of riot squads dispatched from throughout the Bay area. During the fall and spring semesters of 1968-69, hundreds of students were arrested at SF State, including more than 450 in one sweep alone. Similarly, over 155 students were arrested in the UC Berkeley strike which lasted the entire winter quarter of 1969. In the last two weeks of the dispute, the UC campus witnessed the stationing of National Guard troops to maintain martial law. Establishment of ethnic studies programs has been one of the chief legacies of the strike. These programs have expanded nationally in over 250 universities, colleges and high schools. Both UC Berkeley and SF State University provide undergraduate and graduate degree programs. |
| TWLF Demands 1. Establishment of a Third World College with four departments: African American Studies, Chicano Studies, Asian American Studies and Native American Studies, and other departments as other Third World groups emerge. 2. Minority persons be appointed to administrative, faculty, and staff positions at all levels in all campus units; 3. Admission, financial aid, and academic assistance for minority students; Work-study positions for minority students in minority communities and on high school campuses. 4. Control of all minority-related programs on campus. 5. No disciplinary action against student strikers. |
| In December 1968 Letters & Sciences eliminated the community involvement program, field work, and student participation components of the Black Studies program. In protest the AASU announced the need for direct action, including a possible strike. The AASU asked MASC and the AAPA to support them. MASC was reluctant to join in the strike. Generally speaking, prior to this time minorities didn’t go around backing each other up. Blacks didn’t join the grape boycott or picket Safeway stores. Chicanos didn’t march for Black civil rights and on campus we were competing for Educational Opportunity slots. And, despite their large numbers on campus, we didn't know much about Asian Americans except that they "kept to themselves and were non-confrontational," an erroneous perception that would change during the course of the strike. MASC was unwilling to be seen in a "supporting" role as Chicanos were at SF State. The perception we had of the strike there was that it was a Black Student Union strike supported by the TWLF, the TWLF being the other minority groups on campus. For us, at this time, this perception was an important factor because we were struggling to get the media to focus on our own movement. At our meetings Ysidro argued that Chicanos had to do their own thing. My position was that we had to join the strike to avoid looking like sell-outs. I proposed that we condition our participation on the formation of a single organization called the Third World Liberation Front modeled after the TWLF at SF State, and that it be structured to assure equality among the member groups. The Asian Americans also had a condition for joining the strike. They wanted a College of Third World Studies instead of Department of Ethnic Studies. This was a cleverly disguised proposal to make ethnic studies equal to Letters and Sciences and free to establish its own traditions. An agreement was reached. The strike would be called by the TWLF. There would be a Central Committee which would have two members from each group. We also agreed to rotate the leadership. This meant that at each press conference or interview a different member of the central committee would speak for the TWLF. At this meeting we met Richard Aoki and other Asian American radicals. Ysidro and I were convinced that with their participation the strike would succeed. |
| "Afro Americans, Asians, Chicanos, (and) Native Americans, the Third World Liberation Front explained the convocatrion would serve to inform people and let them decide for themselves whether to join the strike. The Strike has loomed as a possibility since the Afro American Student Union issued a statement condemning the university administration for its delay in implementing a relevant Black Studies Program Tuesday evening. On Wednesday the Executive Committee of the College of Letters and Sciences |