In solidarity with more than 40 college campuses nationwide, members of Occupy College Hill planned a general strike to begin at 10 a.m. today, asking members of the Brown community to "refuse to attend class, go to work and conduct business of any kind," according to a statement released by the group.
The strike is to support students from the University of California at Davis, who called for a general strike in response to a proposed 81 percent tuition increase and a highly publicized incident in which campus police used pepper spray on protesters at Occupy UC Davis last week.
Occupy College Hill aims to support UC Davis and also "to show that Brown students are not sheltered from these same conditions that hinder students across the country," said Ian Georgianna '15, one of the event's organizers. After the initial walk-out, the protesters plan to assemble on the Main Green and then march to the Rhode Island State House to present their views against privatizing public education.
Adam Thongsavat, president of the Associated Students of UC Davis, said it is important that students outside of his school recognize "the gravity of what happened" last week when campus police pepper sprayed Occupiers.
"It's incredibly encouraging," Thongsavat said, "to get all these emails and phone calls from literally across the nation and to know that other students are paying attention to what's going on on our campus."
