Police arrest 80 protesters at UC Santa Cruz after tense standoff

Police attacked and arrested members of UAW 4811, grad student/teachers at the University of California campus in Santa Cruz for demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.

Last Friday former ILWU President Brian McWilliams, the last socialist president of ILWU, James Curtis and I were at the union rally in Santa Cruz expressing solidarity with the protesters.

I emphasized that these demonstrations at Universities are not “clashes” with police. They are police attacking and arresting those peacefully protesting the war in Gaza. I explained that in the Big Strike in 1934 cops killed 2 strikers which provoked a general strike in San Francisco and that ILWU Local 10 bans police from membership in our union. Brian spoke on his trip to Palestine and how he saw first hand Israeli repression of Palestinians.