Consisting of academic student employees, graduate student researchers, postdoctoral researchers and employees, associate instructors and teaching assistants, and spanning from San Diego to Davis, academic workers are not backing down to the University of California (UC) system.

They are demanding that the United Auto Workers represent them and bargain for a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). “The $54,000, it would be a significant cost-of-living adjustment and it would be an amount that would lift most of us out of rent burden,” said Galen Liang, a graduate student instructor at UCB. The adjustment is a necessity for these workers across California as the cost of living continues to rise and their wages do not. Liang states, “We are living in a private housing market, where rates at other campuses can change so drastically.”

They used UC San Diego’s rent as an example, where the university-owned graduate housing rent goes up 100% every two years. Delena Ngo, an academic worker from Yale, who was there in solidarity with the UC strikes, confirms, “There’s just no housing anywhere, now.” The proposition from the UC system lacked other substantial benefits like childcare services and affordable healthcare, especially for those entering their workforce. “The UC should make sure that we have enough to live and get adequate housing,” states Ngo.

At a pre-bargaining caucus, the UAW union discussed dropping COLA from their bargaining demands with the UC. Academic worker strikes erupted across California, a demonstration of the rank-and-file workers’ frustrations with their union and employer. Conor Jackson, a head steward for UAW Local 2865, responds, “First step is raise everyone’s pay, right now, to a livable wage and also, make sure that we have annual increases that are commensurate with the change in the cost of living over time. So, our current proposal for both units is a 7% general range adjustment each year.”

Sean Malloy, professor at UC Merced, states “Given the cost of inflation, 7% isn't even keeping up with it,” echoing the dissatisfaction the academic workers have with these potential contracts. Leadership in UAW 2865 made promises to incorporate COLA as a demand in two years, but the academic workers have not remained silent as an integral demand is threatened to be discarded. “Just because we are treated so horribly and we were paid so little in the past, literally below poverty wages, doesn’t mean that we should normalize that circumstance and situation and we should demand more,” stated Galen Liang.

The workers know they are the ones to decide their demands, and they are prepared for months-long strikes to hold their leaders responsible. Liang adds, “Only through collective action can we really change the direction of how things are going.”

The workers’ demand living wages (adjusted for inflation), inclusive childcare programs, extensive parental benefits, and affordable healthcare for all academic researchers and workers.

With the growing strikes and demands for living wages, those picketing are hopeful for the futures of unions and workers’ rights. “For the first time in my adult life, I’ve seen a growth of union activity, rather than a shrinkage,” Sean Malloy said, “We’re now seeing both increased membership and militancy, as well.”

As of the week of December 4, the postdoctoral researchers are voting to ratify their contract. The Student Researchers United bargaining team made a new proposal to the UC, which lowers the $54,000 stipend to $43,000. Many academic workers are dissatisfied with the new potential contract; they will continue with the statewide strikes against the UC system until their demands are met.

#BerkeleyCA #UnitedAutoWorkers #UniversityOfCalifornia #Strikes

Berkeley, CA – I just heard about the passing of Yuri Kochiyama from my father, another Nisei (second generation Japanese American) political activist, who lives in Berkeley about a mile from where Yuri was living. I didn’t know Yuri well, having only met her once when we were both attending the same program in the Asian American community. Nevertheless, she was the single most prominent individual Asian American activist of the 20th century and her life and politics pioneered the Asian American movement born in the late 1960s.

Yuri and her husband Bill moved to Harlem in New York City in 1960 and became involved in the growing civil rights movement. She came to know African American revolutionary Malcolm X and her image of kneeling beside the mortally wounded Malcolm in 1964 was highlighted in LIFE magazine photos. Yuri’s identification with Malcolm and the broader Black Liberation Movement blazed the path for a generation of younger Asian American activists. The first revolutionary Asian American organization that I joined, the I Wor Kuen, was directly inspired by the Black Panther Party and began with a very similar political program in 1969.

Yuri also spoke out against the U.S. war in Vietnam. She pointed out the connection between the racism in U.S. imperialist wars in the Third World and the national oppression that African Americans, Puerto Ricans and others were facing here in the U.S. This perspective had broad appeal among oppressed nationalities here, leading to protests such as the 1970 Chicano Moratorium against the war in Los Angeles in 1970, as well as the African Liberation Support Committee and solidarity work among African Americans to support the national liberation movements in Africa in the 1970s.

Yuri was also involved in the 1980s movement among Japanese Americans for redress (an official government apology) and reparations (monetary compensation) for the 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent put into concentration and prison camps during World War II. Yuri’s own father, Seiichi Nakahara, was arrested the day of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and was denied medicines. He died within days, and the rest of Yuri’s family was sent to the Santa Anita Assembly Center, where they had to live in horse stall, and were eventually sent to a concentration camp in Jerome, Arkansas.

This movement not only won redress and reparations from the federal government in the late 1980s, but also paved the way for Japanese American solidarity with and support for Arab Americans and American Muslims targeted by the U.S. government after Sept. 11, 2001. Yuri was again a pioneer in this solidarity effort, organizing Japanese Americans to join Iranian Americans following the 1979 revolution in Iran to combat the growing anti-Iranian sentiment in the U.S.

Masao Suzuki is a long time activist in the San José, California Japanese American community and chair of the Joint Nationalities Commission of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO).

#BerkeleyCA #Remembrances #AsianNationalities #AfricanAmerican #YuriKochiyama #IWorKuen #MalcolmX #obituary

Berkeley, CA – Long time antiwar activist Iwao Lewis Suzuki was awarded the Clifford I. Uyeda Peace and Humanitarian award at the Day of Remembrance program in San Francisco, California on February 19, 2012. Dr. Clifford Uyeda was a long-time Japanese American community activist who championed redress and reparations for Japanese Americans incarcerated in U.S. concentration camps during World War II. He also publicized the almost 300 Japanese Americans who refused the military draft during World War II because their families were in concentration camps and spent on average two years in prison each for their courageous stand. Dr. Uyeda also worked to educate people about the atrocities committed by the Japanese Imperial Army during their occupation of China, including the Rape of Nanking. Fight Back! interviewed Mr. Suzuki at his home in Berkeley after the Day of Remembrance program.

Fight Back!: Would you like to tell our readers what you told the audience at the Day of Remembrance event in San Francisco when you received the Clifford Uyeda Peace and Humanitarian award?

Iwao Lewis Suzuki: I tried to say three things. First, that our country, the United States, is the only country that has used atomic weapons. We need to raise our voices to say that atomic bombs should never be used again. No More Hiroshimas! No More Nagasakis! (1)

Second, the United States should withdraw our military from Iraq and Afghanistan. U.S. troops are not there to liberate people, they are an occupying force.

Third, the Okinawan people’s movement to have U.S. military bases withdrawn from Okinawa is very strong. The United States should withdraw all of its military bases from Okinawa.(2)

Editors notes:

(1) The United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6th and August 9th, 1945. Hundreds of thousand of civilians were massacred, mainly women, children, and the elderly. Under the U.S. military occupation of Japan, it was against the law to give out information about the atomic bombings.

(2) The United States has a number of military bases on the island nation of Okinawa, which is part of Japan. Over two-thirds of all U.S. military forces in Japan are on these islands, which have only 1% of Japan’s population and ½ of 1% of Japan’s land area.

#BerkeleyCA #AntiwarMovement #AsianNationalities #JapaneseAmericanInternment #DayOfRemembrance #NuclearWeapons #Nagasaki #Hiroshima #IwaoLewisSuzuki #ExecutiveOrder9066

Berkeley, CA – On Aug. 14, artist Iwao Lewis Suzuki was inducted into the La Peña Cultural Center Community Hall of Fame, which recognizes cultural activism for social change. Previous inductees into the Community Hall of Fame include Dolores Huerta, Victor Jara, Linda Tillery and Angela Davis.

More than 50 people attended the reception at La Peña in Berkeley where Mr. Suzuki was inducted. The reception featured dozens of paintings, posters and other works of Mr. Suzuki that are now on exhibit at the center. Paul Chin of La Peña began the short program by explaining that the cultural center began in the 1970s in response to the U.S.-backed military coup in Chile on Sept. 11, 1973. This coup overthrew the elected government of socialist Salvador Allende and thousands of revolutionaries and progressives, including President Allende, were killed by the military.

Laura Ruiz, also of La Peña, gave a brief biography of Mr. Suzuki, including his art schooling in Los Angeles, New York and Oakland, some of the artistic awards his paintings had won and his service on the Berkeley Arts Commission. “La Peña,” she said, “was inducting Lewis Suzuki into the Hall of Fame for his spirit of social activism.”

Finally, Mr. Suzuki spoke briefly. He thanked those who worked and volunteered at La Peña, saying that they will change society. “We are the richest country in the world,” said Mr. Suzuki, “but there are many people who can’t get health care or who can’t afford to pay for college.” He added, “Let’s get out of Iraq and Afghanistan. One day we will have peace, where U.S. troops are not overseas and we can have freedom throughout the world.”

The La Peña award followed earlier recognition of Mr. Suzuki for his art and activism. In January of 2010 the City of Berkeley honored Mr. Suzuki, and then in May of 2010 the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), awarded Mr. Suzuki an honorary membership for his life of political activism.

Masao Suzuki is a regular contributor to Fight Back! Newspaper and the son of Iwao Lewis Suzuki.

#BerkeleyCA #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #frso #LaPeñaCulturalCenter #IwaoLewisSuzuki