If Only There Was Such A Thing As Outside
March 5, 2010
Oh how lovely it is to be accused of causing all the fantastic actions at the CUNY Hunter rally on March 4th! If only we were such a large, nebulous conspiratorial varmint army. If only we were all privileged white boys! If only the Hunter organizers weren’t all ISO trots and maoists claiming to speak for everyone! If only there was such thing as outside.
We’re reposting the following response to such accusations, from takethecity and a facebook critique. Let the shit-storm begin!
————–
The issue in this debate is not inside/outside agitators, or oppressed/less oppressed — these are disguises for the real issue: the conflict between those who are angry and those who want to control other people’s anger.
1. there were “outside agitators”, and that is a good thing. it is a good thing because
a. it is everyone’s struggle, and everyone wants to work together to fight it. this is how we are strong.In the coming months, we will see more cuts, more police, and more struggles uniting us.
b. thus, there are no real ‘outside agitators.’ This label is specifically designed to i) deny that any hunter student/faculty/staff could be critical of hunter and want to see it attacked and taken over and ii) paint everyone who did something “undesireable” as coming from the “outside”.
c. to clarify: those who came in from outside hunter were not only from “New School” and “NYU” but workers from around the city and other CUNY schools.
d. Conservatives are famous for using the term “outside agitators”.
e. in the new school and nyu occupations, everyone at those schools accused the occupiers of being outside agitators.
we challenge the opponents: what is bad or wrong about non-hunter students/faculty/staff participating? don’t you want the “WORKERS OF THE WORLD TO UNITE”?!?!?!!!
2. it was not only “outside agitators” who escalated tactics.
a. “they varmits” (see the “Hunter Word” blog post from Owen Hill) was in large part HUNTER STUDENTS. In california, they varmits are occupying universities.
3. the ISO and other manipulative, authoritarian organizers killed the potential, the momentum of the event.
a. at every juncture, they pushed to destory the indoor demo: during organizing meetings, when we were on the 3rd floor, when we were walking through the building.
b. they told people not to go back inside the school once they were outside, even though most students in the crowd wanted to.
c. they smothered the dance music and the chants in order to continue to lecture the crowd, even though people were sick of being talked at and wanted to chant and dance.
4. The ISO and other manipulative leftists with their newspapers co-opt the activity done by others, while trying to smother people’s anger and desire to act when it arises.
5. The ISO are happy to call out people who do not accept their scripted perspective. They malign those who don’t dogmatically agree with their ‘idea of the movement’ and they call security and cops on them. They defuse anger and the power of students and workers.
written by: students/workers from at least 4 different schools and 24 different jobs. (including hunter, assholes)
The New School Reoccupied 
March 5, 2010 at 6:01 pm
Long live Reoccupied!
The letter from the Hunter College activists was pathetic and boring.
We should not play into the game of activist points, however, as when we signed the response “students/workers from at least 4 different schools and 24 different jobs. (including hunter, assholes)”
This is the game of liberals, determining how many points we get -how “legitimate” we are – according to our level of diversity. By the rules of this game, if we were a collective of LGBTQ Native Americans from Queens, would we be given “space” to control a demo if the content of our “agitation” was the usual leftist-activist tripe?
Huffing and puffing anarchists, pacifists, “non-violent” agitators, and activists can debate themselves into annihilation about who has more oppression points as they sit in a big circle inside the claustrophobic walls of their ubiquitous infoshop.
We must stick to “there is no outside,” because it is true. We are the ones who are angry, not the ones who want to control others’ anger.
Long live the side of history!
March 6, 2010 at 2:38 am
[…] accused of being the ‘outside agitators’ responsible for damage to Hunter released this statement… The issue in this debate is not inside/outside agitators, or oppressed/less oppressed — these are […]