Friendly reminder on this labor day: Campus cops are central to university administrations’ efforts to suppress labor strikes and free speech.

Campus policing has repeatedly delegitimized demands for a living wage, forcing university workers to accept extractive and exploitative working conditions.

When @payusmoreucsc led a wildcat strike for a COLA earlier this year, UCSC spent at least $5.7 million on the police presence at the picket line: about 1/4 of the funds needed for an annual COLA for all UCSC graduate students.

They mobilized an ‘emergency’ police presence, bringing 40 UCPD officers to Santa Cruz from eight other campuses. Cross-campus mobilization is standard: UCPD has statewide jurisdiction to aid in UC land seizure and property protection.

These UCPD officers, aided by other law enforcement agencies, forcibly arrested 18 demonstrators. (They even call this shared repression "mutual aid," maybe bc they're terrible, maybe bc they know the power of real mutual aid")

Students received the following treatment: blunt-force trauma and a concussion; a gash to the forehead; hair yanked out of their head, a broken finger. https://twitter.com/i/status/1227836241124573184

As the strike spread from UCSC to other campuses, UC police chiefs exchanged information alerting each other of the fact and monitored campuses for solidarity demos. https://twitter.com/willparrishca/status/1302024226757435393

All this because graduate students refused their exploitation and demanded to be paid enough to live where they work.

As @ucftp faculty organizer @touchfaith argues: “When you send cops to a protest, you're not only sending a message to those protesting; you're sending a message to those who aren't: that those protesting threaten safety.”

“...Cops wage the PR campaign in advance: workers demanding a living wage become associated w/violence. Cops, on- & off-campus, are at the heart of producing low- and no-wage work in higher ed.” https://twitter.com/touchfaith/status/1300885251846070272

So whenever uni admins ask, "But how are we going to afford a COLA?" Just tell them: "By abolishing the UCPD." Happy labor day to all our comrades.