The Essential Mario Savio by Robert Cohen

Author:Robert Cohen
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780520283374
Publisher: University of California Press

Records of the Office of the Chancellor, University of California, Berkeley, CU-149, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, published by permission of Lynne Hollander Savio.

SPEECH AT FREE SPEECH MOVEMENT RALLY, SPROUL HALL STEPS

12 OCTOBER 1964

This FSM rally was designed to appeal for student and faculty support in pressing the UC administration to end its ban on political advocacy and to explain the first steps the FSM was taking in preparing for the imminent negotiations on the campus rules governing free speech. While no verbatim record of the rally exists, a detailed summary of the rally and Savio’s speech at it was made for UC vice president Earl Bolton by someone close enough to Bolton to have simply signed it with his first name, Bruce. The account conveys not only the content and tone of Savio’s speech and the rally itself—whose other speakers included Dusty Miller and Bettina Aptheker—but also the attitude of its author, who was clearly not enamored with the FSM. Thus the account of the rally opens, after offering an estimate of the crowd size at 250 to 300 students (and noting that the crowd’s “enthusiasm was no doubt tempered by the weather”), with the claim that “the crowd was largely made-up of the sandal set”—a caricatured beatnik image of the protesters that was common among the FSM’s detractors. The writer also was not well acquainted with most of the FSM’s leadership, referring to Bettina Aptheker as “Pettine.” But he did get Savio’s name right, and his account, despite some garbled sentences, conveys Savio’s critique of the administration accurately, even while reporting on it sarcastically.

Mario Savio (with his New York type accent): He attempted to place FSM in perspective, to tell what it stood for—free speech rights like those enjoyed on other state campuses (SF State figured prominently in all examples). Very dull. Then he asserted that the University has once again taken the initiative, and thus will give the general public, as well as other interested segments the feeling that it has gotten down to work on the issue, while the students merely mill-about in an emotional state. He further pointed out that a mire of University regulations exist concerning student political activity and free speech, and that many were contradictory, some dovetailed, etc. He said the regulations are bonds upon freedom of speech and freedom of expression because the people who are affected (students) cannot change them. He said the 14th Amendment is violated here. He said these new rules (new Communist speaker rule, 72 hour rules) are harassments.46

He stated that the Study Committee cannot be considered legitimate until it has been examined (as to structure, composition, frequency of meetings, method of decision-making, and strength of its recommendations), and then it will be decided whether FSM joins at all.47 He wants a Peaceful Settlement, that will give all three sides (students, faculty, and administration) peace and a settlement. He said at the present time the National Student Association is conducting an investigation of the ASUC since it is really only a tool of the administration and does not have its own voice.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.