MANIFESTO

TIME TO ACT

The 2000-2001 Financial Aid Application form contains provisions that require students to identify if they have registered with Selective Service (the draft) or have had a drug conviction. These provision are the result of federal policies which use the denial of financial aid as a means to attack people's basic rights.

The denial of financial aid to students is blatantly illegal and unconstitutional.

This denial of financial aid is a denial of constitutional guarantees of due process (US Constitution, Amendment VI). The government does not have to bring criminal charges or give defendants the opportunity to defend themselves in court over this matter.

The demand that students provide information about refusal to register for the draft is a denial of constitutional protections against self-incrimination (US Constitution, Amendment V).

The denial of Financial Aid is an ex post facto law (a violation of the US Constitution Article 1, Section 9). People are receiving enhanced penalties for actions they took prior to the enactment of those penalties.

Denial of financial aid is a violation of the equal protection clause of the US Constitution (14th Amendment). Financial aid is a right. All citizens pay taxes. All citizens have a right to the benefits derived from those taxes.

The denial of Financial Aid is a violation of the California Constitution's guarantee of right to privacy by requiring students to provide confidential information (California Constitution, Article I, section 1)).

All university officials are supposed to take an oath to uphold the Constitution. Article VI of the US Constitution states that the Constitution is the law of the land. Therefore, it is the duty of university officials to refuse to follow these blatantly unconstitutional regulations. "Just following orders" is never a justification for blindly following regulations.

To claim that the draft and drug prohibition are "the law" denies the fact that "the law" has been a tool of oppression in this country. Segregation was the law; internment of Japanese-Americans in World War Two was the law; bans on birth control and abortion were the law. Even today, the law in 18 states bans sex between consenting adults and is used to target homosexuals and political activists.

If this were earlier in this century, would we see university officials enforce segregation? Would we see university officials order Japanese-Americans into internment camps? Would we see university officials place women in jail for using birth control? We would have all stood up and resisted any attempt by the government to deny our fellow students' rights in all these cases--time to do the same today!

The current "leaders" of this country, notably Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich, did not serve in the military. And they have admitted to drug use. The denial of financial assistance to students is nothing more than a grotesque double standard.

The denial of financial aid to students is blatantly hypocritical. The overwhelming majority of crime in America is committed in the form of white-collar crime by the corporations, and civil and human rights violations by the government (http://home.earthlink.net/~jamiranda/corppage1.html). Yet corporate and government perpetrators are rarely arrested or imprisoned for their crimes. And the university does not exclude corporate criminals or human rights violators from access to the campus. The law is applied selectively, hypocritically, and in the interests of political demagoguery.

This is the old ruling class game of "divide and conquer". The objective is to play students off against each other. Who will be next? 18-20 year old drinkers? Protesters against the World Trade Organization? Students accused of being "gang" members under Proposition 21? Homosexuals who marry in violation of Proposition 22? Women who have abortions? Law abiding gun owners?

This denial of financial aid has to be seen in light of the growth of an increasingly repressive society: profile searches, curfews, increased surveillance; hysteria over drugs, gangs and terrorism; the spread of the prison-industrial complex and paramilitary SWAT teams; corporate mega-mergers which make a mockery of any kind of consumer choice; attacks on union organizers; the US embargo on Iraq which has killed upwards of 500,000 civilians; the ongoing US support for death squad government in Colombia.

All university officials are supposed to take an oath to uphold the Constitution of California. Yet university officials are not held accountable for any of their violations of the Bill of Rights, including violations of due process, right to privacy, and free speech. If students can be denied financial aid for "breaking the law", then public officials who conduct unconstitutional actions ought to be subject to similar sanctions. "Zero tolerance" needs to be applied to people in power, not students.

The primary threat to students is the government: youth curfews are a threat to students; profile are a threat to students; denial of financial aid is a threat to students; the draft is a threat to youth by targeting young men for involuntary servitude and possible death and dismemberment.

We hereby: