New School Solidarity Statement with UC Santa Cruz

To the occupiers of UCSC,

We fellow workers and students from New York City stand in solidarity with those at UC Santa Cruz who have occupied their university against the cuts and austerity measures forced on them by capital and its bureaucrats.

Public services are some of the first gains to be rescinded when capital desperately thrashes out in an effort to valorize itself. As workers have been crowded out of their jobs, and as the failure of various financial machinations to alleviate this crisis has become clear, more have been heading back to school.  They have been burying their heads under even more debt with the hope of riding out the job scarcity and making themselves more attractive to employers.

As California’s universities reduce their enrollment by tens of thousands and simultaneously increase student fees and tuition, they are giving us a clear message: there is no escape from this turbulence.

So lets meet it head on.

UC Santa Cruz Occupied!

http://occupyca.wordpress.com/

http://wewanteverything.wordpress.com/2009/09/24/communique-from-an-absent-future/

We seek to push the university struggle to its limits.
Though we denounce the privatization of the university and its authoritarian system of governance, we do not seek structural reforms.  We demand not a free university but a free society.  A free university in the midst of a capitalist society is like a reading room in a prison; it serves only as a distraction from the misery of daily life. Instead we seek to channel the anger of the dispossessed students and workers into a declaration of war.

Solidarity message from La Sapienza University in Rome, Italy.

We, members of the Italian student movement who have been continuously mobilized since last autumn against the cycles of university reform, against an unstable job market and for a new student ‘welfare’, have passionately followed your action at the New School on April 10. We’ve been following your struggle for the resignation of President Kerry, guilty in our eyes of creating a corporate university administration who blatantly disregards the interests of the students and faculty, the core of the university. With the careful attention we pay to protest movements in other countries, we bared witness to the police repression and brutality that the university administration unleashed on its students. As we are all part of world-wide student struggles, we want to express our solidarity with your movement and all arrestees.

A few days beforehand, during the new school occupation in new york, performed to stand up against Bob Kerrey’s lack of financial and political transparency. The students of New York clashed with the violence ‘police’ reaction which militarized the campus and removed the occupiers by force. More than 20 students were put under arrest, and now are laden with judicial charges which in our eyes are heavy-handed.

Statement of Solidarity from the Comisión Internacional de la CAE in Barcelona

Dear Students of the New School in Exile,

I am writing from the Barcelona student movement against the implementation of the Bologna Process, representing the International Commission of the CAE (Student Assembly Coordinator for the assemblies of the four Public Universities of Barcelona), to demonstrate our solidarity with you following the brutal repression of your building occupation.

The sheer quantity of police and police vehicles, not to mention their methods of intimidation, has shocked and disgusted us. However, we must bear in mind that an action of this scale, surreal and out of proportion in contrast to the peacefully protesting students inside the building, shows the institutions’ true face. They are alarmed by the nature of our demands, by our organisation, by the connections we are making and the knowledge we are sharing. They repress us with their base brutality, the last cries of a dying beast, we fight back with the powerful creativity of our movements. They will always be on the defense, because we are the people and we are mobilising against their failing system.

“We Write from Paris”: a letter of solidarity from Nancy Fraser and Eli Zaretsky

Dear friends and colleagues,

We write from Paris, a city where protests, demonstrations, and yes, even building occupations are frequent occurrences; a city whose traditions of creative, robust forms of political expression we admire and one whose
inhabitants regularly manifest what seems to us a healthy dose of self-respect in objecting publicly and forcefully to demeaning and unjust conditions. Having breathed this atmosphere for many months now, we view recent events at the New School in a different light from that reflected in communications we have so far received.

Granted we are far away. And undoubtedly we miss many nuances. Nevertheless, having carefully read all the documents sent to us (student manifestoes, presidential memos, and communiqués from deans, provosts, trustees and individual professors), we can see no justification for the Administration’’s resort to police force against the occupiers of 65 Fifth Avenue. Furthermore, we are against proposals to condemn both sides. On the contrary, we urge the faculty to condemn the administration’’s action forthwith and to support the right of the demonstrators to their protest, regardless of our agreement or disagreement with their views and goals.

Graduate Faculty Student Senate Statement on Occupation

The Graduate Faculty Student Senate (GFSS) maintains:

The student body of the New School for Social Research has convened on this evening of April 13, 2009 because there is a undeniable need to respond to the events of April 10, 2009.

The force used by the NYPD against the students and unaffiliated protesters is unacceptable. The GFSS condemns the administration’s invitation to the absurd scale of police force on our campus, and the violence of last Friday.

Lang Faculty Executive Committee Statement on Occupation

The Lang Faculty Executive Committee offers the following statement as a contribution to discussion:

While a full picture of last Friday’s events at 65 5th avenue has yet to appear, the Executive Committee of the Lang Faculty offers the following points for discussion:

1. We state unequivocally that the use of force against persons on the New School campus is completely unacceptable. General staff, indeed all staff and officers, have the right to a safe working environment.

2. We question the decision to call on the NYPD as a first response to the occupation. What should have been the means of last resort was the first resort.

Economics Student Union Statement on Occupation

The Economics Student Union (ESU) at the New School for Social Research issues the following statement regarding the events of April 10, 2009:

We, the students of the Economics Department of the New School for Social Research, express solidarity with all individuals who occupied the 65 Fifth Avenue building on April 10 2009, who have been suspended from school because of their actions, and who were arrested and physically harmed by the brutality of the New York Police Department.

Setting the Record Straight: A Statement from the New School in Exile

Students Respond to New School Lies About Occupation

We would like to set the record straight about a few things.

In a series of messages to the New School community by President Bob Kerrey and others, the occupation of 65 5th Avenue on Friday, April 10th, is being painted as violent, and student protesters’ commitment to non-violent demonstration is being questioned. We can debate all day about rhetoric and what has been written by individual students ostensibly involved in the December occupation, or we can look at the actions themselves.

ACT-UAW Statement Regarding the April 10, 2009 Student Occupation of the New School

The part-time faculty union, ACT-UAW Local 7902 of the New School and NYU, is gravely concerned with the Kerrey administration’s harsh response to the New School students who recently occupied 65 Fifth Avenue, including a massive show of police force. President Kerrey’s statement about the protest focused only on allegations of student misconduct, ignoring the serious issues raised by the protesters. We call on the administration to immediately revoke the suspensions of students pending a full investigation of all allegations. The question should be asked why student dissatisfaction with the administration needs to be expressed in the occupation of a university building. In our view, this protest is symptomatic of the administration’s failure to foster a healthy and democratic educational community at the New School.