Friday, May 11th 2007
Hunger strike to stop a nuclear UC
Today as I was going to a review for my Roman archeology class I saw some people sitting near Wheeler with some signs. They were “fasting for a nuclear free UC.” Their signs directed me to ucnuclearfree.org. As if it is not enough to see their signs and people who looked like they descended from the trees, they have a blog at nonukeshungerstrike.blogspot.com. According to their blog, 41 people statewide are on a hunger strike to stop the UC’s involvement with nuclear weapons. Beetle has some commentary here.
I do not remember seeing a continued hunger strike like this in my time at Berkeley so it will be fun to watch, except I have 5 finals and get to move in the next week.
I don’t understand how the protesters think pushing nuclear research out of the UC will help create a better situation. Nuclear weapons research will occur. If it is not at the public institute of the University of California, then it will be at private corporations that are less open and accessible to the public. There is also the relevance of the issue. The last time a nuclear weapon was used to attack another nation was over sixty years ago.
Unfortunately, I do not have pictures of this. My hard drive died last week and I have not been able to restore internet to my computer or reinstall the photograph downloader yet. I will post some pictures if I get them before the strike is over.
The labs already are privatized. Both are run by LLC corporations with Bechtel in leadership position. UC is a junior partner. In fact, it’s more accurate to say that the UC Regents co-manage the labs. The university (its faculty, staff and students) have virtually no say in what goes on there.
Comment by Darwin — 5/16/2007 @ 2:57 pm