Editorial: UC students must protest in unity, with purpose

By this point we probably sound like a broken record, and we certainly feel like one.

UCLA was home to yet another protest on March 4 that suffered from the same ills the previous handful had.

Once again students chose to stand up for their education by ditching class. Faculty and staff did the same by refusing to educate.

Once again a group formed in Bruin Plaza and unintentionally showed that they lacked a unified cause by rallying against several issues at once.

Once again the mob marched to Murphy Hall with a list of unrealistic demands that were more emotionally charged than rational.

Now this editorial board is ““ once again ““ left wondering what all this ruckus really accomplished.

Credit should be given to organizers for thinking on a larger scale and involving the state and entire nation in this rally. However, for protesting to be effective, support must pour out in the tens of thousands, not hundreds. Such protest must grip the country as marches on Washington did in the era of Civil Rights.

But the larger scale of this protest only magnified its flaws. The rally demonstrated that too many issues are being conflated and protested simultaneously to effectively solve any one problem at all. A cohesive narrative has yet to emerge.

What once was a unified protest against a 32 percent fee increase has now devolved into a protest about the war in Iraq, racism and affirmative action.

While such links may exist on paper, such assertions are tangential and wrest attention away from the central issue of fee increases.

The same can be said of students rallying for diversity in the University of California. The march came two days after an alarming racism protest filled with verbal harassment and physical entrapment.

This board condemns protesters’ overly aggressive fliering and use of accusatory language that persisted throughout March 2. Hate breeds more hate, and such emotions spilled over to the protest where several speakers continued advocating for diversity.

Certainly campus diversity is of critical importance, but bringing the topic into the discussion served only to dilute and confuse the message.

In order for any amount of positive change to occur, this board believes that all members of the UC community must stand together, united, under a single and central issue. Lack of organization, strong leadership and a variety of important but differing interests has rendered each of these protests largely ineffective.

This editorial board clings to the hope that the next time we address a protest in this space, we will be writing about the impact it had on making a difference.

We must learn from our mistakes, not repeat them.