Free Speech Free Trees Student Coalition
About Us
On Friday, September 14th, 2007, a new students’ campaign debuted in the heart of UC Berkeley, the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement. The Free Speech Free Trees Student Coalition launched a nonviolent direct action in support of both the sacred Memorial Oak Grove and the right to free speech. A reported 34 students - and one member of the original 1964 Free Speech Movement - climbed a fence that the University of California has placed around the grove, a barrier that blockades both people and wildlife from accessing this beloved urban forest, and cuts off food, water, and basic needs for tree-sitters who have lived in the trees for over nine months.
While in the grove, students cleaned up the grove, delivered food and water to the tree-sitters, danced, meditated, threw around a football, and in general did whatever they wanted to do - which is their right. Having committed civil disobedience and being willing to accept the consequences, twenty students were arrested and cited for trespassing.
For more info on the long-running Save the Oaks campaign,