Middlesex University: REOCCUPIED!
May 20, 2010
LONDON, England – After 12 days of occupying the Mansion building at the Trent Park campus, occupiers were forced to vacate the occupation on Saturday, May 15.
from saveMDXphil:
This evening [May 20] around 50 students and staff from half a dozen different programmes at Middlesex University’s School of Arts and Education occupied the library at Trent Park campus.
This building is full of books on philosophy, literature, art criticism, music and culture. These books – and the courses and departments associated with them – are severely endangered by management cuts. We are determined to preserve them.
The Campaign to Save Philosophy at Middlesex
Thursday 20 May 2010, 7:30pm
May 19, 2010, New York, NY —Wednesday, on the anniversary of Malcolm X’s birth, the community organization Picture the Homeless and its Housing Not Warehousing Coalition orchestrated three banner drops. Transgressing into vacant buildings in Brooklyn and East Harlem in the early morning, they dropped banners that read “Homes Not Shelters / Casas No Refugios,” and “Let Housing Bloom…berg.” After an afternoon community concert and rally in the Bronx, they marched to a Chase Bank, from which a third banner-drop read, “Chase: Give us Back Our City! Release Vacant Properties to House the Homeless!” The activists’ presence forced the bank to close-up an hour early.
The day of action comes soon after Mayor Bloomberg installed Seth Diamond as the new Homeless Services commissioner, bringing media and community attention to the administration’s entrenched policies as failed, counter-productive, and cruel towards struggling New Yorkers. The homeless-membership-led grassroots organization Picture the Homeless has long asserted that the many vacant buildings and lots in New York City are a great potential stock of properties to create truly-affordable housing for low-income New Yorkers. PTH is currently advocating for the pending city council legislation Intro 48, which would mandate that the City conduct and publicize an annual census of vacant properties.
The vacant buildings used for the banner-drops are located at 2106 Third Avenue between 115th and 116th Streets in Manhattan, and 24 Bartlett Street between Harrison and Throop Avenues in Brooklyn. The East Harlem building is currently owned by the Starwood Corporation, and has been vacant since 1985. The Brooklyn building has been vacant since 1979, and is held by JPMorgan Chase, the target of a PTH corporate campaign focused on transferring Chase’s vacant, un-used properties into a community land trust for housing for the homeless. The Chase branch the activists marched to is at 270 East 137th Street in Mott Haven.
PTH’s members, supporters, and community allies rallied Wednesday afternoon at Brook Park in the Bronx—not far from the PATH office, where families in need of emergency shelter go. Homeless members of PTH highlighted the citywide housing issues facing all community organizers these days. There were several performances, including by the Bronx-based hip-hop crew Rebel Diaz, and a fresh, full meal was served to all attendees.
PTH member and shelter resident Arvernetta Henry: “Commissioner Diamond needs to know that for people entering the shelter system—it’s horrifying what you go through. Children’s education and adults’ jobs being disrupted and disrespected, adults being told what time to go to bed… You get stuck in the system without the real programs any of us would need when we’re facing hard times. The city pays more to keep someone in shelter than the cost to rent an apartment! Everyone deserves their own space, the dignity to have your own home.”
PTH member Alease Lowe: “Today we are here for our direct action campaign—to lay claim to the housing we all so rightfully need and deserve. We need to end policies in this city that prioritize condos over communities, and a billion dollar shelter system over decent housing programs. Homelessness is not a crime, though we often face bogus ‘disorderly conduct’ tickets for no good reason. Housing is a human right. We’re putting pressure on JPMorgan Chase, which got $25 billion taxpayer handout—because they’re holding onto vacant buildings and lots around the city that are put to no use, while so many people here need a place to call home.”
On Malcolm X’s birthday, PTH members recalled his words: “I for one believe that if you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and the basic causes that produce it, they’ll create their own program, and when the people create a program, you get action.”
On the 22st day (May 14th) of the University of Puerto Rico student strike: The situation in Puerto Rico has intensified. Over the last few days the university students have demonstrated heroic & militant resistance. Yesterday, at a huge assembly of students at the PR Convention Center, students overwhelmingly decided to to step up the 22-day takeover/strike at the University of PR despite intimidation & harassment attempts by the university administration.
The colonial government has responded with intolerance and repressive police tactics. On this day the riot police squad was mobilized against the students! Water has been cut off to the Rio Piedras campus, the campus dorms have been evacuated, and folks have been arrested for simply trying to pass water & food through the fences to the striking students.
The father of a striking student who was bringing food and water was beaten and then arrested.
Fortunately, the blockade was broken when hundreds of professors, parents, and supporters began to arrive with water and bags of food, which they successfully tossed over the fence and over the heads of the cops, unable to stop them in front of the TV cameras. In the face of this repression, hundreds of parents, workers, community leaders and concerned have joined the picket lines (at all the island campuses) to protect the striking students.
Later in the day, José Pérez, a disabled graduate student who has won the love and respect of the entire striking community for his militancy and dedication, was badly beaten, dragged on the floor, and arrested for “aggression” when he attempted to re-enter the campus, after leaving momentarily to take care of personal affairs. Professors and fellow students who tried to come to his aid were doused in pepper spray. Two more students have been also been arrested for unknown reasons.
This afternoon, the workers unions of Puerto Rico have announced a general strike (work stoppage) for Tuesday May 18th in unity with the student movement and to denounce the confrontational politics of the colonial government of PR.
A call has been made to all people & workers to mobilize in unity with the students at all the various UPR campuses on the island.
In NYC, the Network in Support of the Workers of PR CALLS for ALL TO DENOUNCE THE REPRESSIVE GOVERNMENT AND FOR SOLIDARITY WITH THE STRUGGLE OF WORKERS AND STUDENTS OF UPR.
Join the NYC Protest!
Tue May 18,
5:30PM
at the Offices of the PR colonial Government (PRFAA)
135 West 50 (between 6th and 7th Ave)
700 students storm TUSD in Arizona
May 15, 2010
Meeting canceled after 700+ students walk out of classes and blockade TUSD headquarters. Fifteen arrested during occupation of Arizona state building
Breaking: On Tuesday, May 11 Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed HB2281, a bill that legally prohibits ethnic studies programs from Arizona public schools, equating such classes with sedition and removing state funding from districts that offer them.
On the morning of May 12th state superintendent Tom Horne, who for years has advocated eliminating ethnic studies, tried to hold a meeting with Tucson Unified School District officials to discuss the district’s curriculum. Rumors began circulating around 10:00 a.m. among Jr. high and high school students that Horne was in Tucson to immediately “pull the plug” on their classes.
In response, more than 700 spontaneously walked-out of their classes, with participants from Rincon, Cholla, Tucson and Pueblo high schools. Students then marched to TUSD headquarters and proceeded to surround the building and blockade the entrances to prevent Horne from entering. Shortly thereafter, school district officials canceled their meeting, claiming that Horne, who is running for state Attorney General, had turned it into “a political event”.
After learning that the meeting was canceled, about 200 among those gathered left TUSD and marched through downtown Tucson to the Arizona state building, where Horne was scheduled to hold a press conference at 2pm. More than a hundred entered and occupied the building lobby, and fifteen were ultimately arrested for refusing to leave.
In addition to HB2281, student demonstrators spoke out against SB1070 and SB1097, a bill that would force school districts to check the legal status of all students and eliminate public funding for those undocumented. A statement was circulated at the rally encouraging others around the country to engage in protests and direct action on Friday, May 14 in solidarity with students in Arizona.
See also: SB1070: Battle at the Grassroots
UPR locks its students inside, blocks supplies
May 14, 2010
For immediate diffusion. We exhort all groups, organizations, platforms, unions and all the student movements worldwide to publish this communication and spread it by all possible ways. Our human and civil rights are being threatened.
Thank you.
In solidarity,
Humanities Action Comitee,
University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus
PS: an overview of the latest developments is available here. + video
—————————————————————-
HUMANITIES ACTION COMITEE
TO STUDENTS AND CIVILIANS WORLDWIDE
STATE OF PUERTO RICO LOCKS STUDENTS INSIDE UPR
Just yesterday, May 13th, the students of the Rio Piedras’ campus of University of Puerto Rico ratified the 22 day strike with an evident majority of votes in favor at a General Assembly that was proposed and organized by the institution’s own administration. Today that same administration backed with full government support have intensified and reinforced their represive schemes against the student movement stepping over our constitutional right to protest. We condemn rector Ana Guadalupe’s decision to activate the police forces against us and we reiterate yesterday’s vote demanding her resignation as well as president Jose Ramón De la Torre’s. Since 4am there has been heavy police presence around the campus; different police units have been brought to guard all possible entrances and to restrict access of students and those in solidarity.
We wish to publicly alert the national and international media that up until now they have prohibited not only the entrance of civilians, but also and more alarming, the entry of food donations and supplies needed by the hundreds of students that are currently occupying the campus. The students that reside on campus are being forced to move out and are being threatened with the nonrenewal of housing contracts. We also expect water and electricity on campus to be cut off by 1:00pm.
We exhort all students, professors, workers and civilians; every member of every community, to surround the university gates as they have done themselves. We exhort everybody’s presence here today; we need everyone’s solidarity and support if we are to endure this struggle. We want to let the administration know that their attempts to intimidate have been not only represive but exagerated and unnecesary. We will not allow that the democracy the university’s administration proclaims to practice be arbitrary and partial. Those who participated in the General Student’s Assembly yesterday, experienced a real democratic process in action. The assembly is sovereign and in assembly we voted to continue the strike. We are here to defend the right of all puertorican students to a public education and here we will remain until the administration decides to cooperate and negotiate.
We need everyone’s solidarity and support. Ten out of the eleven campuses that make up the UPR system have declared themselves on strike. All are participating of the same struggle. The same struggle being fought all over the World.
United we stand, divided we fall.
Humanities Action Comitee,
University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus
Middlesex Occupation Extended
May 6, 2010
From http://savemdxphil.com/:
Statement from the student occupation at Middlesex University
The student occupation at Middlesex University now covers the entire Mansion Building at Trent Park campus. The occupation was extended earlier this evening in light of continued management refusal to meet us and discuss our opposition to their plans to shut down Middlesex’s world-renowned philosophy department.
Our occupation is in protest at this abrupt, unjustified and unacceptable decision. We want it reversed. Students have been occupying the executive boardroom at Trent Park since yesterday morning. Today, management again refused to meet our representatives or enter discussions with the students affected by their decision to close the philosophy programme.
We affirm that the university is a site for education, not for profit. It belongs to the people who study, teach and work here, not to those who view the institution as a mere instrument for making money or for furthering their careers. As such, we see the extension of our occupation as a restoration of the university to what it should be, and a reversal of what it has become.
We invite everyone to come and visit the occupied Mansion Building at Trent Park and show their solidarity – not just with our campaign, but with all other struggles against education cuts. We view our occupation as an integral part of a wider movement of student protest, and we are proud to have representatives of these other campaigns with us.
We want this site to become an open hub of culture, politics, thought and creativity. We will be organising a cultural programme and a philosophy teach-in, details of which will be released shortly. Everyone who supports our vision and struggle is welcome here.
More information about how the origins of the occupation here.
Also, if you haven’t yet, please sign the petition here against the decision to shut down all philosophy programmes at Middlesex University:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-middlesex-philosophy/sign.html
And join the Facebook group if you support this cause:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=119102561449990
Finally, for continued updates:
San Fransisco Anti-fa needs your help
May 6, 2010
Today the two anti-fa arrested for their participation in this year’s May Day demonstration were arraigned in a San Francisco court. During their arraignment, the astronomically large previously set bail of $200,000 was reduced but the State took this opportunity to also announce its plan to attach Hate Crime enhancements to their charges (bitter irony always seems to have juridical origins). The bourgeois media, the police, and the Nazis have once again shown they have no problems working together to criminalize those who struggle. At this point, the movement here in the states has been stretched thin due to the bulk of arrests that resulted from an unprecedented and exciting year of May Day actions and thus comrades in the Bay Area need everyone’s help to secure the release of the two imprisoned anti-fascists. Immediate solidarity and support is needed and should be demonstrated incessantly because it affirms and expands who we are, what we do, and if we struggle together, what we can become.
Please send money to the paypal for the arrested comrades:
paypal@freemfone.org
Solidarity is the weapon of the People!
more information: http://anarchistnews.org/?q=node/11240
Middlesex University OCCUPIED!
May 4, 2010
From EAN:
Students and lecturers at Middlesex University (Trent Campus), campaigning to stop the closure of the philosophy department, were stood up by their Dean this morning – and took matters into their own hands. Some students are staging a sit-in in the corridor outside the Dean’s office, others have locked themselves inside, demanding that the Dean turn up and face his accusers. The proposed closure of Middlesex Philosophy has provoked wide outrage and gained a significant profile in the press. The occupiers need our support: send messages of solidarity to 07799156481.
The campaign has also agreed to send a delegation to the UCU strike demo in Central London tomorrow, starting at 1pm in front of the King’s College picket lines, Strand WC2.
A message from their Facebook solidarity group (Click the link and send your damn solidarity, already!):
The cops went in at one of the gates of the UPR Rio Piedras campus and bashed heads. Around 30 wounded, including a reporter. They’ve retreated. No real reason stated, and the “officers” had no badges on display. A line of professors later stepped in between the cops and the students. According to the Non-confrontation Policy that both parties (students/protesters and the State) have followed for years, police are not supposed to enter the UPR. Of course, with this reactionary government we’ve seen that nothing is respected.
Defend Capital?
May 3, 2010
Reactionary news blog Gothamist has posted a new video from the May Day action at which several corporate storefronts, including American Apparel, got their windows smashed. In the video, a hip looking dude (possibly an American Apparel Loss Prevention Officer) gets punched in the face while calling the police on the march. Hilarity ensues.
The video is made by a group called “Defend Capital.” A commenter by the same name left this reply on the article:
On May 1, the police arrested 5 persons of seemingly anarchist descent on suspicion of hooliganism after 3 patrons of the SoHo American Apparel bravely responded to a broken window by threatening to “fuck everyone up” and then just calling the cops. We were those brave patrons. This is a call to defend capital.
This is a call to all of my well tanned, gym going, condo owning/leasing brothers and sisters to defend the stores we love from a rising tide of anticapitalism. To all wall street analysts, advertising professionals, celebrities, journalists of a certain caliber, famous chefs, legacies, and confused members of the middle class. Do you want your luxurious lifestyle to go away? Your Gaps and American Apparels? Your iPhones and iPads? Do you want to be equal to the guy who makes your latte?
No?
Then Defend Capital!
Cause thats what these anarchist or communist or whatever the fuck they are punks want.
So Defend Capital from gross crust punks that are always ruining my day by asking me for change when I try to hang out on St. Marks. Defend capital from shoplifters and worker sabotage (snitch on your coworkers!). Defend Capital from student protesters, insurgents, taliban, Al qaeda and all the other terrorist assholes on teh news. Defend Capital from its own youth, who’ve learned to hate it so passionately. But most of all Defend Capital from those who have none.
– Defend Capital
Video from Santa Cruz May Day black bloc
May 3, 2010
SF: Abandoned school occupied on May Day
May 3, 2010
Poorly-written article by the SF Examiner:
After a few hundred Black Bloc anarchists marched around different parts of the city to commemorate May Day, a.k.a. International Workers’ Day, some of them broke into an abandoned school near the intersection of 16th and Mission streets and occupied it.
“This school is sitting empty, they’re not using it while we have so many homeless people on the streets. Why doesn’t the city let the homeless stay here?” said one anarchists, who refused to give his name.
San Francisco police, who’d been tracking the march from the beginning, responded by closing off Mission Street between 15th and 16th streets, then clearing the sidewalks of both bystanders and anarchists.
The anarchists locked the gates behind them. They’d come with various items that clearly showed this was not a spur-of-the-moment action but instead had some amount of planning behind it.
After a standoff and negotiations between them and the police that lasted about two hours, the anarchists either voluntarily removed themselves from the property or were arrested and forcibly removed.
A police commander at the scene said 11 people were arrested.
Happy May Day
May 2, 2010
Greece:Massive anarchist demonstrations country wide. Lots of information, pictures and videos at Occupied London
Asheville, North Carolina: Dozens of store windows attacked by a black bloc. Article
New York Around noon, several Banks, ATMs, and American Apparel, and several other corporate storefronts on Broadway were attacked by a breakaway march dozens strong. Police swarmed the rally as it approached Union Square, arresting 5 individuals at random while the rest dispersed safely.
Santa Cruz: A torch-lit dance party hundreds strong took the streets of Downtown Santa Cruz, attacking a police car that attempted to crash the party. By the time more police arrived, several expensive “hipster” stores, corporate chain stores, and bourgeois shops that cater to tourists had their windows smashed.
San Francisco: A notorious Nazi was beaten up by a group of Anti-fascists counter-protesting a labor/immigrants rights rally.
Germany:Thousands of anti-authoritarians, police, and Nazis clash throughout the country. >Some more information here.
Macau, China: Police are attacked after attempting to suppress “rowdy” workers demanding expanded labor rights. Article. Pictures.
Victoria, BC: Police station attacked.
Zurich:Police use water cannon to disperse riots against bonuses for bankers. Article
May Day 2010: Attack SB1070 and prisons everywhere
April 29, 2010
From Anarchist News:
By Marek A. Edelman
Let us not be melodramatic or ironic, SB1070 is some fascist shit. For years now ICE has been rounding up our fellow workers, stealing them from their families, children, and communities, often regardless of their immigration status. In 2009, 380,000 people were detained in 350 facilities, and the roundups continue. Detainees are held for months, even years, in conditions often worse than prisons built for “citizens” (although many who are “legally” in the US end up there anyway). Along the US-Mexico border, defense contractors have built massive walls at the safest crossing points, forcing migrant workers to make perilous desert crossings. Many [Editor’s note: hundreds a year] will not make it alive.
This was all true before next week, and now matters are significantly worse. SB1070 will require this Gestapo-like behavior from all law enforcement in Arizona. It gives racist pigs the opportunity to round up whomever they please, for any reason, whenever they want, and turn them over to ICE where they will be, essentially, disappeared.
As anarchists we are aware of the extreme racism that exists in our culture, and that all legislation increases the power of the state, so we are not surprised at the extreme violence and hatred that SB1070 represents, but that does not mean we are not OUTRAGED. More than ever, it is time to attack* ICE, defense contractors, racist organizations who are pushing for this legislation nation-wide, and the politicians who support it all.
This is just the latest step in the expansion of the police state. Let us not forget the Anarchists currently in CMUs alongside unknown hundreds of Arab-Americans locked up without evidence since September 11th.
As one Anarchist News commenter said: “Arizona is now free game for ANY kind of resistance, this ‘Germany in ’36’ shit ain’t gonna fly here. And unlike most of the time when ‘anarchists attack’, I think there’ll be more support for us than usual. It. Is. On.” But we cannot limit our scope to Arizona. Those who support and profit from SB1070 are everywhere. It is time to research, conspire, and act.
The Importance of May Day
Since May 2006 Hispanic-Americans and their allies have marched by the millions across the country. Their solidarity inspires us, but marching is not enough. Demonstrations are not meant to show the dedicated size of an electorate contingency, but are meant to threaten or actualize physical resistance to capitalism, the state, and the police. Mass-movement organizations will pacify crowds at every turn, attempting to control our anger and suppress direct action. A full scale riot almost broke out at the Arizona Capitol Building after Governor Jan Brewer signed the bill into law, video shows police unable to control the crowd, but the peace police did their job for them.
We must make efforts to end the recuperation of May Day— an international day of struggle– by leftist organizations and political parties. Two ideas on how to do this:
1. Show up to your area’s main march in black, agitate, and break-off. Head towards a target. There are some listed below.
2. After/before/instead of the march create an affinity group and attack the target on your own.
Start talking to your friends and comrades today. Find a target near you. See you in the streets. Read the rest of this entry »
18,000 students in New Jersey walkout after Budget Cuts
April 28, 2010
From The New York Times:
It was a silent call to arms: an easy-to-overlook message urging New Jersey students to take a stand against the budget cuts that threaten class sizes and choices as well as after-school activities. But some 18,000 students accepted the invitation posted last month on Facebook, the social media site better known for publicizing parties and sporting events. And on Tuesday many of them — and many others — walked out of class in one of the largest grass-roots demonstrations to hit New Jersey in years.
Michelle Ryan Lauto, 18, a college freshman, joined students who walked out of High Tech High School in Bergen County. It was Ms. Lauto’s Facebook message urging students to take a stand against budget cuts that led to the protests around the state. “All I did was make a Facebook page,” she said. “Anyone who has an opinion could do that and have their opinion heard.”
The largest turnout was in Newark, where thousands of students from various high schools converged on City Hall.
The protest disrupted classroom routines and standardized testing in some of the state’s biggest and best-known school districts, offering a real-life civics lesson that unfolded on lawns, sidewalks, parking lots and football fields.
The mass walkouts were inspired by Michelle Ryan Lauto, an 18-year-old aspiring actress and a college freshman, and came a week after voters rejected 58 percent of school district budgets put to a vote across the state (not all districts have a direct budget vote). Read the rest of this entry »
Details on Friday’s action at UPR
April 26, 2010
From PR Daily Sun:
University of Puerto Rico students successfully, and almost without a significant incident, paralyzed academic and administrative operations at the Río Piedras campus Wednesday after university officials had vowed to keep the institution open.
A group of several dozen students who had stayed within campus premises since Tuesday night joined others coming into the campus on Wednesday morning and successfully locked the gate on Barbosa Avenue as early as 6:00 am.
At the gate five or six university guardsmen had tried to stop the students in a kind of tug o’ war with them to control the gate. In the melee some of the guardsmen and students were crushed between one another and exchanged some blows. Meanwhile, several others were pepper sprayed in a confusing incident.
Twenty minutes later the same group of students had crossed the campus and locked UPR’s main gate at Ponce de León Avenue without incident.
“By insisting in keeping the gates open the administration is trying to provoke a confrontation,” said Student Negotiating Committee member Adriana Mulero, who Wednesday morning called the first of the two days stoppage “a success.”
“They [university officials] expected we would come around 4:00 am to close the campus main gate. Instead, we took refuge at the university itself – the way it is meant to be – last night and this morning proceeded to close the gate on Barbosa Avenue,” explained Mulero, also a member of the Public Education Student Defense Committee.
Mulero informed the students had organized themselves to occupy the UPR “from within while avoiding confrontation.”
But for UPR’s Interim Chancellor Ana Guadalupe far from avoiding confrontation, the students had provoked it.
In a last minute press conference Guadalupe announced that as of 9:45 Wednesday morning she had decreed an indefinite academic and administrative recess for the Río Piedras Campus.
“It is my responsibility to provide a peaceful and quiet atmosphere for classes and other campus activities to take place, where students, professors and employees can fulfill their tasks,” Said Guadalupe.
“Up until the violent incident where 19 security officers were pepper sprayed and assaulted with pipes, pieces of wood with nails [sticking out], chains and other objects, in a clear violation of the demonstrators commitment to uphold the no confrontation policy, we see no alternative other than the indefinite academic and administrative recess,” added the Chancellor.
Questioned how many of the UPR police had been beaten and injured Guadalupe said that all 19 officers had been injured. But reports from several journalists covering the incident all agreed that no more than six university guardsmen had been involved in the incident that took place at the gate on Barbosa Avenue and that only two of them had exchanged blows with the students. Press reports of the incident also specify that it was one of the guardsmen who pepper sprayed the crowd but that the wind had carried the irritating substance towards his fellow officers.
Guadalupe insisted that the number of injured officers had been 19 but declined to offer any evidence on the subject while assuring that “all evidence will be presented in due time.”
Act of provocation
Despite the lack of official information Secretary of State and acting Governor, Kenneth McClintock, authorized Police Superintendent José Figueroa Sancha to assist university authorities by “taking control of the campus’ outer perimeter.” Police presence, including that of the Tactical Operations Division (riot squad) members, would later prove to be interpreted as an act of provocation in what had been until then a relatively calm student demonstration.
The chancellor said her decision could be reversed only if the striking students agreed to adhere to the no confrontation policy, which will entail free access to the institution, no interruption of the classes or administrative activities.
Guadalupe had scheduled a meeting for 3:00 pm Wednesday with the demonstrating students and the negotiating committee to discuss her proposals and theirs. Like UPR president José R. De La Torre, Guadalupe said she has always been open to negotiate and would meet with the negotiating committee even if they are not official student representatives as described in the institution’s rules and regulations.
The chancellor did not commit herself to accept any of the students’ proposals but assured she would consider those over which she has authority to decide.
Nevertheless, the chancellor’s offer didn’t surprise the students.
“Her announcement is but a confirmation of our victory. She had said that campus operations would be as usual but we have clearly demonstrated that was not so,” General Student Council president Gabriel Laborde.
“I think that one of the first items in the agenda is for her to recognize those 16 committee members are legitimate student representatives …” added Laborde.
After “winning” their first day in battle the students refused to leave the campus even though their stoppage seemed to turn “academic” since the chancellor had announced and indefinite recess for the campus. The demonstrators’ persistence prompted the administration to present a legal action against them at the San Juan Judiciary Center.
The injunction submitted by the university administration requested the court order the students to desist from their actions interfering with access to campus grounds. Superior Court Judge José Negrón, who reviewed the recourse Wednesday afternoon, reserved his decision on the injunction and as of Wednesday night had not yet filed it.
By nightfall, UPR students, still in control of the campus’ gates had a standoff with members of the riot squad. The incident which spurred tension on both sides of the UPR’s main gate started when a student leader was denied access to the premises by a group of students. The argument escalated into a struggle for control of the gate.
Minutes later a riot squad platoon lined up in front of the gate with their batons at hand and ready. Their presence provoked the students’ ire, who immediately took to the gate and started yelling insults at the officers.
The situation took almost an hour of intense negotiations between Police brass and Puerto Rican University Professors Association members before the riot squad retired from the gate.
An undetermined number of students decided to stay inside the campus for the night while others left. It was unclear whether the demonstrations would continued today or be postponed until classes resume next week or later.
Riots begin after SB1070 is signed into law
April 26, 2010
These videos show a fast-moving and unfortunately a quickly-contained moment of unrest at a peaceful protest outside the capitol building in Phoenix. A Neo-Nazi/Minuteman type and the cops defending him were under attack by the crowd, most of whom had just legally been made second-class citizens based on the color of their skin. The eruption of rage was calmed by peace police (who should probably just join the force already). Note that the videos are titled “Mexicans” riot because they are uploaded to Youtube by racist fucks; obviously there are many nationalities rioting in the video.
The Phoenix Class War Council reports on more actions resisting SB7010 including a lockdown and statewide walkouts involving thousands of high school and college students.
The New School Reoccupied 