Berkeley Marine Corps Recruiting Center protests
The Berkeley Marine Corps Recruiting Center protests began in September 2007 when a small group of protesters from Code Pink began periodically protesting in front of a United States Marine Corps Officer Selection Office located in Downtown Berkeley, California at 64 Shattuck Avenue by standing in front of the office holding banners and placing signs.
Code Pink continues to collect signatures to put a measure on the ballot to remove the recruiting center.
The school's previous policy required students to give permission for their contact information to be given to the military.
[6] On January 29, 2008, Code Pink began collecting the 5,000 signatures necessary to qualify a city measure for the ballot that would require public hearings before military recruiting offices could open near schools.
[6] On February 1, 2008, protesters from The World Can't Wait, chained themselves to the doorway of the recruiting office, blocking the entrance, and preventing people from moving in and out.
[10] The first motion, passed 8-1, gave anti-war protesters Code Pink a reserved parking space in front of the recruitment center and waived the normally required noise permits so they could operate their loud speaker.
[11][12][13] The motion stated that the United States had a history of "launching illegal, immoral and unprovoked wars of aggression" and that "military recruiters are salespeople known to lie to and seduce minors and young adults into contracting themselves into military service with false promises regarding jobs, job training, education and other benefits."
This motion was opposed by councilmembers Betty Olds, Kriss Worthington and Gordon Wozniak, representing Districts 6, 7 and 8 respectively.
[16] In response to the council's vote, on February 1, 2008 Senator Jim DeMint said that he would introduce legislation that would strip Berkeley of its $2,392,000 in federal funding.
[17] On February 6, 2008 Jim DeMint was joined by Saxby Chambliss, Tom Coburn, John Cornyn, James Inhofe, and David Vitter in the Senate to introduce the Semper Fi Act of 2008 which would strip federal funding from Berkeley.
[2] The bill strips $243,000 from the Chez Panisse Foundation which provides school lunches to children in Berkeley, and $975,000 allocated to build the Matsui Center for Politics and Public Service at the University of California, Berkeley which would have created an archive of Robert Matsui's papers and a new endowment.
[21] Republican Assemblyman Guy Houston of San Ramon announced that he will introduce legislation to withhold state transportation funds from Berkeley until they rescind their "war on the U.S. Marine Corps.
[2] Houston's bill failed to pass the California State Assembly Committee on Transportation by one vote.
The new letter written by Mayor Tom Bates and Council members Max Anderson, Linda Maio and Darryl Moore affirmed "the recruiters' right to locate in our city and the right of others to protest or support their presence."
The council allowed to stand a resolution to "applaud residents and organizations such as Code Pink for "[impeding], passively or actively" military recruiting.
[2] The group supporting Marine recruiting, Move America Forward, sent 3 tons of candy, cookies, hot cocoa, coffee and beef jerky to troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
While mostly a symbolic measure, the resolution nonetheless shows the historically anti-war campus voices support for the troops and adds pressure from Berkeley residents.
The PJC, the author of the January 2008 resolutions, is the most prolific and controversial of the 45 bodies that makes recommendations to the city council.
[35] However, anti-war protests organized by The World Can't Wait still continue at, and in the vicinity of, the Marine Corps Recruiting Center on Shattuck Avenue.
