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<font size=3>South Puget Sound IMC Wed, 04/21/2010<br><br>
<a href="http://southpugetsoundimc.org/node/138" eudora="autourl">
http://southpugetsoundimc.org/node/138<br><br>
</a>On Thursday April 8, students, workers, and instructors welcomed
an<br>
unfamiliar face to a publicly advertised meeting for a campus-wide
strike<br>
May 3rd. A woman who identified herself simply as “Tani"
described<br>
herself as an "alum" of UW still paying back student loans who
was<br>
passionate about the cuts. She also said that her father worked with
Waste<br>
Management and she was in the meeting to find out what the May 3rd
strike<br>
committee was involved in with regards to the Teamsters' recent call for
a<br>
strike. "Tani" actively participated in the planning meeting
for a<br>
large-scale action demanding immigrant and worker justice, student
access<br>
to UW, and smaller class sizes and writing center to improve
education.<br>
The following week, however, student activists accidently bumped
into<br>
“Tani” again—this time, though, as Officer Tanesha van Leuven of the
UWPD.<br>
We have reason to believe that Tani was sent by the University of<br>
Washington to spy on the meeting.<br><br>
The University of Washington has made police infiltration and
intimidation<br>
its primary tactic for retaliation in the ongoing battle against<br>
privatization at UW. In the Fall and Winter of 2009, immigrant
workers<br>
faced continuous harassment from the UWPD for talking with other
workers<br>
about their working conditions, clearly violating labor law.
That<br>
September, two women of color journalists and activists—a childcare
worker<br>
and a pre-nursing student—were arrested after interviewing immigrant
women<br>
workers during their break time about the challenges they face in
the<br>
workplace. With layoffs and arbitrary shift changes being enforced
by<br>
custodial services, many workers have experienced inhumane amounts
of<br>
extra work and speed up. UWPD officers also often harass
students who<br>
choose to organize within on-campus registered student organizations
while<br>
they are handing out flyers, or even just walking on campus going to<br>
class. For example, last Tuesday, while passing out flyers and
talking<br>
with students, two women graduate students were approached by a bike<br>
officer of the UWPD who told them “I wish I could arrest people for
no<br>
reason.” These attacks, the violence perpetrated against activists
in<br>
Seattle, Portland, and Olympia, the increase in police killing of
unarmed<br>
people of color, and now the covert infiltration of a student group
by<br>
UWPD raise serious and alarming questions about possible violence
and<br>
surveillance against students and workers at the hands of the
University<br>
and its police force.<br><br>
Since June of 2009, workers, students, and community members have
been<br>
fighting against lay-offs of immigrant workers, increases in tuition
that<br>
exclude working students and students of color, cuts to quality
education,<br>
and an ongoing process of privatization that favors revenue for some
at<br>
the top of the university, while taking funds away from students and<br>
workers. While the university’s state budget continues to be cut,
the<br>
reality is this cut is less than 3% of the total UW budget. In fact,
most<br>
of the budget shortfall—$469 million—came from the university's
risky<br>
investments, NOT from the cuts from the state. Since 2004, the UW
Treasury<br>
has been investing in hedge funds, and hiking tuition, from $4968 in
2003<br>
to $8800 in 2010, to back up these investments should they default.
Rather<br>
than cutting from the top, and changing its spending focuses, the<br>
university continues to perpetuate the myth that tuition hikes go
toward<br>
ameliorating the state cuts.<br><br>
On March 4th, while over 700 students and workers were protesting
budget<br>
cuts on and off campus, and many more were protesting across the
country,<br>
the UW met with the UAW 4121, Academic Student Employees (ASE’s),<br>
bargaining team to start contract negotiations. At this meeting,
the UW<br>
told UAW negotiators that because they opposed a tuition increase bill
in<br>
the legislature in February, the University would retaliate against
all<br>
ASE’s by taking away lay-off protections, increasing healthcare
premiums,<br>
and firing all tutors and writing center instructors, among other<br>
take-aways. Many UAW members are pushing their elected
representatives to<br>
call a strike, which was already authorized by membership, to begin
the<br>
first day after contract negotiations if the University continues to<br>
bargain in bad faith. The May 3rd student strike was planned
to<br>
correspond with this day, and to support custodians and other state<br>
workers facing cuts.<br><br>
Through its actions, the University PD has shown itself to be<br>
unaccountable to students and the UW community. It does, however, do
the<br>
work of controlling student movements on behalf of the UW
administration.<br>
The UWPD and the UW administration seek to curtail organizing by
workers<br>
and students, but they will not succeed.<br><br>
<br>
UW Group: Officer Went Undercover To Infiltrate Meeting<br><br>
<a href="http://www.kirotv.com/news/23213738/detail.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.kirotv.com/news/23213738/detail.html<br><br>
</a>Posted: 6:12 pm PDT April 20, 2010Updated: 6:45 pm PDT April 20,
2010<br>
SEATTLE -- Some students are angry after a University of Washington
police<br>
officer went undercover and attended a meeting of students planning
a<br>
campus-wide strike.<br><br>
The group, UW Student Worker Coalition, said it publicly advertised
the<br>
meeting that was held last Thursday to talk about planning the strike
on<br>
May 3.<br><br>
According to a news release from the group, the planning meeting was for
a<br>
“large-scale action demanding immigrant and worker justice, student
access<br>
to UW, and smaller class sizes and a writing center to improve
education.”<br><br>
Students who attended the meeting said they welcomed an unfamiliar face,
a<br>
woman who called herself "Tani."<br><br>
“Who introduced herself as an alumni of the school, who had a lot of<br>
student loans, who has a father who is a teamster,” said graduate
student<br>
Jacob Greenberg.<br><br>
Greenberg said the officer was dressed in street clothes and
involved<br>
herself in the planning.<br><br>
"She was trying to advocate that students stay out of the way of
blocking<br>
any sort of entrances on campus," Greenberg said.<br><br>
Days after the meeting, other students who'd been at the meeting
spotted<br>
the woman out of street clothes and in her UW police uniform.<br><br>
Police said the woman is Officer Tanesha Van Leuven, and the UW
police<br>
command staff defends what she did.<br><br>
"We saw that they were having an open meeting and we sent an officer
in<br>
plain clothes,” said Cmdr. Jerome Solomon.<br><br>
When KIRO 7 reporter Karen O’ Leary asked, “She didn't identify herself
as<br>
a police officer?”<br><br>
“No, I don’t believe she did,” Solomon said.<br><br>
He said the police were trying to get information from the group, the
same<br>
group that had organized a large protest against budget cuts on March
4.<br><br>
"We have an obligation to obtain as much information that we
possibly can<br>
so we can ensure the rights of the protests and the rights of the<br>
students, staff and faculty," Solomon said.<br><br>
He said police did nothing wrong, but some students disagree.<br><br>
“If I was in that position, I would be upset because it's an abridge
of<br>
trust,” said student Christopher Teeny.<br><br>
Matt Hamilton was at that meeting and was distributing fliers
Tuesday<br>
about the upcoming protest.<br><br>
"It was an open meeting because we have nothing to hide and we
want<br>
maximum participation from all members of campus, but the one group
that<br>
we do not want there is the police because they have a history on
this<br>
campus of harassing student activists,” Hamilton said.<br><br>
A spokesperson for UW administrators said he was not aware of the
incident<br>
and that it’s not the school’s policy to have police attend meetings<br>
without identifying who they are. He also said it was an error in
judgment<br>
on the police chief’s part.<br><br>
He also said administrators plan to meet with the police on Wednesday
to<br>
discuss the incident.<br><br>
<br>
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