EPCC NEWS
Contact; Jerry Esguerra
Phone (818) 749-0272
Sept. 25, 2009

CALIFORNIA WIDE WALK OUT, THOUSANDS JOINED PROTESTS AGAINST CUT BACKS/ HIGHER TUITION FEES

Los Angeles- Thousands of youths, students, workers and academic personnel joined the California wide UC protests against state budget cuts, education cuts, new tuition fees in ten UC campus all over California, Thursday, September 24.

More than 5,000 joined the protest in the biggest rally in years in UC Berkeley in San Francisco, California up north. The protestors marched down the streets, disrupted traffic and boycott their classes.

In Los Angeles, UCLA, CSULB, CSULA and Los Angeles Community College became the center of protests. Thousands of professors and lectures together with workers and students joined hand and rallied in front of the Bruin Plaza in UCLA and at the Free Speech Zone at LACC in Vermont Ave.

The rallies and protests were all peaceful and raised hell against the cut backs and higher tuition fee leveled against the students. More lectures, forced furloughs and academic subjects were cut by the UC system to save money.

“ It’s a massacre. It’s an attack on ethnic minorities like us. Imagine, they phased out Tagalog classes and laid-off a lot of Tagalog teachers I the UC’s and the local colleges” an angry Tagalog teacher said.

Jerry Esguerra of the EPCC based in central Los Angeles lamented the fact that:“Lectures for Tagalog classes were cut all over the states. It is an insult that there are no Philippine Studies but now they are cutting more on ethic subjects like Filipinos and laying off lectures and tenured professors all over the state.”

The Echo Park Community Coalition (EPCC) supported the UC boycott and mass actions all over the state of California.

In Los Angeles, UCLA, CSULB, CSULA and Los Angeles Community College became the center of protests. Thousands of professors and lectures together with workers and students joined hand and rallied in front of the Bruin Plaza in UCLA and at the Free Speech Zone at LACC in Vermont Ave.

“ It’s a massacre. It’s an attack on ethnic minorities like us. Imagine, they phased out Tagalog classes and laid-off a lot of Tagalog teachers I the UC’s and the local colleges” an angry Tagalog teacher said.

Jerry Esguerra of the EPCC based in central Los Angeles lamented the fact that:“Lectures for Tagalog classes were cut all over the states. It is an insult that there are no Philippine Studies but now they are cutting more on ethic subjects like Filipinos and laying off lectures and tenured professors all over the state.”