Hanukkah starts tonight, but the real festival of lights was last night, as 103 women - 34 members, hospital workers, graduate students, and fifteen undergraduates participated in a historic candlelit civil disobedience to highlight the gendered segmentations and segregations of Yale's job structure, and what this means for education and work at Yale.

The 15 UOCistas and MEChistas, like Julie Gonzales, Ana Munoz, and Erin Scharff - to name a few -- who participated in the CD, led the entire crowd in chants like "!Que Viven Las Mujeres!" Helena Herring, one irreducible part of an irreducible trio of incredible freshwomen organizers, was quoted by the AP:

"I may eventually decide to go into grad school and it's really hard
to raise a family there," said Helena Herring, an 18-year-old Yale
freshman. "A lot of people here are on welfare. That is insane. That
is not acceptable."

Jenny Carillo, a psychology graduate student, said that her two children are on HUSKY because Yale won't give grad students health care coverage for dependents.

"The graduate school neglects to provide for my family," she said. "The state should use the money that I'm getting for failing schools in Connecticut."

There were so many women participating in the action -- blocking the street in the shape of the woman ankh-symbol, and shouting "Hey hey, Ho Ho, Patriarchy's Got to Go" -- that the police had to keep people on the busses and continue blocking the street while they waited fro more vehicles to arrive. We stood on piles of snow outside the bus windows, screaming and shouting and waving at our sisters in the busses and singing the lyrics to solidarity forever, which my extreme state of excitement actually made me forget. Last night's action was among the most powerful I've seen.

Much respect to all the workers and students who put themselves on the line.

Much respect especially to JCG, CMDeLaA, AF-V, EJ, AM, HH, ML, PR, LMB, EAS, MF, and the other undergraduates who stood up for change last night.  ¶ 12:40 PM