MARCH 4TH NY
March 5, 2010
from takethecity:
-Walk-Out / Indoor demo at CUNY Hunter:
At 1pm students and supporters gathered on the 3rd floor of the 68th street campus. There was a large police presence inside and outside the building. Students attempted to move toward the upper part of the building to get more students to participate but were blocked by campus security. Scuffles broke out as students forced their way past a campus guard and took to the stairwells.
Word has it that, inside the building, the financial aid office had its windows broken, and the much hated security turnstiles at the entrance to the building were attacked and broken.
Before the demo, signs were posted up on the 3rd floor saying that the indoor demo would not be permitted but the simultaneous rally called by the International Socialist Organization (ISO) and others would be. There are also rumors that ‘Student Activists’ were warning other students via text message that unpaid agent provocateurs would be coming to Hunter to cause a riot (more on this when we get confirmation). A New School Student supporting the Hunter walkout was ejected from the building possibly after being pointed out by an ISO activist (there have been conflicting reports).
Students and allies marched through Hunter’s walkways, to the cheering of students standing by, many of whom joined in. The INDOOR DEMO proceeded to the 3rd floor:
The police were in full force blocking the escalators but at least 40 students broke through into the back stairwell and surged up the stairs, only to find yet more police on every single floor blocking every door.
While some ran through the building urging students to walk out of their classes, others began to urge people to leave the building and attend the rally outside. A few scuffles broke out between people involved in the walkout and those running the permitted rally. 3 or 4 individuals have supposedly been arrested inside of CUNY Hunter.
Eventually enough people were pushed out of the building by the police or by Organizers who wanted to have the rally and talk at the crowd:
someone in the crowd is trying to send a message to the speakers
More info soon…
-Brooklyn College:
Hundreds participated in a successful teach in that will hopefully build up to larger actions in the future.
– CUNY Graduate Center
about 30 Graduate Students (also adjunct professors) from the CUNY Grad Center arrived with allies at school this morning, to see five black cop cars parked in front of the building and the cafeteria filled with police. The students, however, were headed towards the elevators (the only means of entering the building), and filled them with their angry bodies, blocking entrance to the elevators while others spoke to people about the cuts, their shitty jobs, and encouraged folks to go to Hunter College. One of the elevators was boarded by a plainclothes police officer who shoved one of the students to the floor. He stayed in the elevator, harassing the students for their names and calling them cowards while the students hurled insults. He left the elevator only when the students exited to find support.
CUNY Grad Center Students also executed a banner drop, small but real (LUV U RIVERSIDE), with only more to come.
like a tiny purple patch of desire facing the empire state building
The Grad Students exited unscathed and immediately went to join the Hunter walkout.
– Centralized Rally
-There is currently a heavily policed and relatively small march making its way to the MTA hearings at F.I.T.
–SUNY Purchase is Occupied!
occupation still going, it needs support!
More to come,
The New School Reoccupied 