UC Davis Chancellor Katehi’s past: police repression in Greece, FBI spying in the US

From World Socialist Web Site: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/nov2011/kate-n28.shtml

By Jack Hood

28 November 2011

The pepper spraying of peaceful student protesters at the University of California, Davis has become a focal point for national outrage over the police repression of demonstrations against social inequality.

The police action was ordered by UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, who was acting on behalf of the UC Regents and the Democratic Party-controlled political establishment in California, which is determined to enforce a new round of drastic tuition increases on students. Katehi has spent the past week and a half defending herself against demands for her resignation, while making half-hearted attempts to distance herself from the police violence.

However, Katehi’s claims of innocence in the matter are belied by her past. She has played a major role in developing repressive measures against students protesting austerity measures and is a prime example of the growing nexus between corporate CEOs, academic administrators and the police-intelligence apparatus.

Katehi’s has been involved with police crackdowns in her home country of Greece, is one of 20 administrators involved in a national FBI network aimed at monitoring “anti-U.S.” activities on college campuses, and has overseen an administration-run campus infiltration program.

At a rally of students last Monday, Katehi made a backhanded reference to the suppression of Greek students during an uprising against the military junta in 1973. “There is a plaque out there that speaks about 17 of November in 1973, and I was there. And I don’t want to forget that, so I hope I will have a better opportunity to work with you, to meet you, to get to know you,” Katehi announced.

Aside from its hypocrisy, this reference contains an implicit threat. Katehi, as part of a team of bankers, speculators, and administrators, has worked to bring police back onto Greek university campuses after a nearly 30-year ban on such activity.

Continue reading at: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/nov2011/kate-n28.shtml