From Glassbead Collective:
Occupy Schools, Not Countries!
December 6, 2009
Last Tuesday Obama continued the policies of the previous administration by committing an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. The fact that an any war, especially such an unpopular one, can continue to escalate without massive social upheaval is a pathetic sign of the times. The politicians are still addicted to war, they still idiotically believe in the its myths: war for peace, the smart bomb, social order.The United States left may be so-duped but, but we know that as long there is State there will be constant War, and we must make it our own…
On Wednesday night about 50 New York City students gathered in Union Square outraged both by Obama’s escalation of war and the complacency of the anti-war left at its announcement. Chanting “1 2 3 4 We don’t want your fucking war! 2 4 6 8 Turn the war against the state!” we took the streets around 6:45 pm, walking uptown on Broadway into the heart of Manhattan’s tourist and shopping district.
The march had two targets: first, the United for Peace and Justice rally in Times Square, pathetically advertised as a candlelight vigil and Die-in. Playing dead is too close to the reality of the current anti-war movement in the United States, so we intended to wake up the liberals and bring them with us to our second target: the Rockefeller Center Christmas-tree lighting.
Chanting “while you’re shopping bombs are dropping!” the mob made it all the way to 42nd street with no police attention, but as soon as we penetrated Times Square a swarm of swine made two random arrests…
As we surrounded the sub-station the terrified cops called dozens of reinforcements. Responding to the spectacle many of the bored-looking liberals joined us as we continued to Rockefeller Center, but the area had already been well-barricaded and the terrified cops surrounded us as we approached 5th Avenue.
The element of surprise gone we made our way to the Midtown precinct to support our friends, who would later be charged with Resisting Arrest and Obstruction of Justice. (That night a journalist inquiring with the Police Department Public Relations bureau was given false information that they were only released with summonses.)
While the police attack caught us by surprise and effectively ended our momentum, this march proved a few things for the angry anti-authoritarian youth of New York. First, we can improvise loud and passionate resistence without the mediation of huge Troskyist/liberal front groups. UFPJ, ANSWER, Not in Our Name, etc are all failures, and their tactics have proven themselves irrelevant as they have faded away with the 2008 election. Although their leaders will constantly tell us that we must organize first, then fight, all this action needed was a few minutes of reaching out to our friends. They knew what do from there. Second, the police are terrified of any sort of disruption to tourism, shopping, and capitalist normality in general. We need to learn how to continue to exploit this without allowing their random attacks to slow us down. Next time, let’s attack first.
Photos from NYC solidarity march
November 20, 2009
Stories at NYC IMC / NYU News / New School Free Press / More photos
At night on 19 Nov., approximately 75 (non)students from the New School, NYU, CUNY, and other university-factories in NYC marched from Washington to Union Squares and back in a gesture of solidarity with the wave of occupations that has swept the University of California system in response to the 32% tuition hike, budget cuts, and the reproduction of students as consumer-commodities ready to work for spectacle-subjects. The march saw crazy hooligans hanging banners off of buildings; masked rogues scattering trashcans, newspaper boxes and plastic barricades across Fifth Avenue; sexy dancing throughout the streets an attempted occupation of a Parsons art party as well as the good ol’ 65 5th ave. Unfortunately, the fun ended when cops managed to pierce the motley mob, arresting two after beating them on the sidewalk. This was caught on film: watch here
The two arrested were taken to the 6th Precint in the West Village, where much of the crowd ended up at the end of the night, dancing and singing out front, distributing pamphlets and glow sticks, and remaining until the two walked free.
Until Next Time…
DEMAND NOTHING
OCCUPY EVERYTHING
New School Releases Stupid Report on April 10th Occupation
October 6, 2009
New School administrative chumps release their version of events of the reoccupation of 65 5th ave on April 10th, 2009.
Highlights:
- One banner read “April Fools, motherfucker.” Because the Occupation was on April 10, it is not clear what this banner was intended to suggest.
- The officer called on police Hazmat units to contain the trash can and the area around it, which was dyed red.
- In the period between approximately 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m., members of the occupying party, wearing hoods and masks, began appearing on the roof for different intervals of time. Reports indicate that during these intervals the occupants read a list of complaints regarding the University as well as manifestos criticizing the capitalist system.
New School Benefit Gets Wild; 15 arrested
May 23, 2009
UPDATE:
15 were arrested last night, all but three have been released with non-criminal disorderly conduct charges
From Exquisite Corps – So there was a gigantic benefit show for the New School arrestees last night in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
As usual the philosophical-politico Manhattanite university crowd turned out, as well as a handful of strictly Brooklyn party types. The half-anarchist half-hipster crowd couldn’t help but appear reminiscent of a certain catastrophic scenario in recent memory. Around 1:30 AM police showed up outside the 210 Cook street building and unplugged the sound system.
To help push along the inquiry into the facts concerning the occupation of 65 Fifth Avenue on April 10th 2009, we are offering clear and direct responses to all the questions that the New School Investigation Committee is seeking to answer. We do hope this clears some things up.
On Tue, May 5, 2009 at 4:56 PM, Announce Announce <Announce@newschool.edu> wrote:
May 5, 2009
The Chair of the Board of Trustees and the Co-chairs of the Faculty Senate have agreed to form a Committee, to be convened by the Chairman of the Board, to conduct a detailed inquiry into the facts relating to the occupation of 65 Fifth Avenue on April 10, 2009 and subsequent events.
Among the questions we expect our report to inquire into are the following:
1. How was entry into 65 Fifth Avenue effected early in the morning of April 10?
Through the vortex.
2. How many persons entered the building at that time?
A risk of lobsters.
(a) How many were students or faculty of the University? How many were not connected with the University?
We are all connected to capital; the university is a capitalist enterprise; we are all connected to the university. QED
3. What was the stated purpose of the entry and how was that purpose communicated?
The effacement of law through an act of divine violence communicated through its very being(-out-of-time).
4. Did the persons entering the building threaten or cause physical harm to any persons or property in the building?
I remember when the property cried, torrents of saltwater down the gutters of law. “Respect my rights,” the doors sang. “Over my dead body,” whispered the epoxy. “But my texture!” the carpet chanted. “Be my lover,” the paint responded. A family of things, packed together in church. “Shhh! The sermon is about to start,” opened the gates.
The Thing’s Analysis of New School Reoccupation
May 4, 2009
From The Thing – the spring occupation tournament challenge:
Beautiful and hilarious banners (30pts) [1,2]
Crazy barricades and tons of chains (30pts)
Transform the uses of the space (10pts)
Dramatic rooftop reading of radical text (20pts) [1, txt]
Wild, inventive chants (30pts)
Solidarity means attack! (50pts) [1,2]
Total: 170pts
Lessons Learned
[ + ] Banners: DAMN THESE KIDS ARE CLEVER.
[ + ] Outside support is key. That was badass: [1,2,3]
[ – ] Despite their toughness, more was needed!
[ – ] Don’t expect your social role to lessen police reaction.
[ + ] You have to respond to “repression” with action, not self-victimization and whining.
Counterpunch: The Battle to Take Back the New School
April 22, 2009
“OCCUPY EVERYTHING”
The Battle to Take Back the New School
By BARUCHA CALAMITY PELLER
Owing to pending legal issues, as well as continuing intimidation from school administration towards student organizers, all the New School students are quoted anonymously in this article, at their request. CB.
“We occupied a university building, workers in Chicago occupied their factory, people facing foreclosures have refused to leave their homes. Occupation is not merely a tactic to get some demands met; it is a practical strategy for taking our lives back into our own hands. Let’s occupy everything until everything is ours.” – a student at the New School for Social Research, NY
On Friday, April 10, in the first lights of a cool Manhattan dawn, banging could be heard up to a block away from the four-story New School building at 65 5th Ave, and the sound of chains scraping against metal permeated the silent morning.
[editor’s note: Kerrey’s message is in normal font, the response is in bold]
Message from President Kerrey to the New School Community
A response to President Kerrey’s message to the New School Community
The past few weeks have seen increased protest actions on and off our campus. These demonstrations have involved many individuals outside of The New School community and the issues they protest vary. Among their concerns are the war in Iraq, Darfur, homelessness, and the economy.
Mr. Kerrey is quite confused. The direct concerns are Kerrey and Murtha and their characteristic lack of tact, understanding and ability to run a university. This includes, but is not limited to the brutality shown by the NYPD on April 10, Mr. Kerrey’s support for the Iraq War and the pressures of the economic downturn on the New School Student body (and students as a whole). Is it so unreasonable to think that students who care about such things are only self-interested and thus would not be concerned about homelessness and the genocide in Darfur? I think not. However, Kerrey seems to forget the part of Thursday’s actions when the rally (predominantly students of The New School, joined in solidarity by students from other NYC Universities) stood outside his home and reminded him that they want him to leave.
OCCUPY EVERYTHING
DROP THE CHARGES, OCCUPY AGAIN
OCCUPY AGAIN, AGAIN AND AGAIN
A, ANTI, ANTICAPITALISTA
ABOLISH TIME
NEGATE NEGATION
OPEN UP THE VORTEX, LET US IN
WE DESTROY THE PRESENT, WE COME FROM THE FUTURE
OFF THE SIDEWALKS, INTO THE FUTURE
WHOSE TIME? OUR TIME!
HEY HEY, HO HO, BOB KERREY’S GOT TO GO
THE WHOLE SPECTACLE IS WATCHING
ABOLISH EXCHANGE-VALUE
FROM NEW YORK TO GREECE, FUCK THE POLICE
NEGATE, NEGATE, NEGATE THE PRESENT STATE
Kerrey Resigns, Miller Welcomed into Fold
April 20, 2009
We concede a loss in the ongoing struggle of the administration and the collaborationists versus the anarcho-anarchists, who recently referred to themselves as revolutionary time-sperm attempting to wiggle from the withered urethra of the present into the magnetic egg of the future – a transcendence they claim would threaten the gilded totality of domination. Bob Kerrey has resigned. His final statement reflected the small victory of our enemies: “I am a redundant entity. Additionally, I am a redundant entity.”
We regret his departure. As a parting gift, we have bestowed unto him the body of a heavily armed Jesus Christ nailed to a painting that depicts a decapitated student washed up on a beach and handcuffed to a painting, as well as a partial collection of Steven Seagal’s action films on VHS.
Off the sidewalk, into the FUTURE!
April 17, 2009
HOLY SHITBALLS! What the fuck happened last night at the New School?
New School in Exile: Video | Photos
Hundreds of people at the anti-police brutality rally at the 55 w13th st New School building, dozens in Bob Kerrey masks, speaker after speaker condeming the NYPD and the New School’s violent response to the occupation, absurd revolutionaries challenging everyone to OCCUPY EVERYTHING! ABOLISH TIME! and NEGATE NEGATION. The crowd gets pumped and takes the street in front of the building, screaming at the top of their lungs against the structures of abusive authority that surround them – including the numerous undercover cops and new school-hired private security teams, as well as the FBI, TARU units, and other violent state-sanctioned gangs like them present. The atmosphere becomes raucous and the joy and fear of everyone surges. DROP THE CHARGES, OCCUPY AGAIN they say.
Rally at the New School Against Police Brutality, Thurs 6pm
April 16, 2009
Join New School students, faculty and supporters in a rally at 6pm this Thursday @ 55 W. 13th St. to denounce police violence towards New School students, as well as the unchecked power of the New School President and senior administration. See this New York Times article for reports and videos of police actions on 14th street last Friday, April 10th.
The rally will feature student speakers directly impacted by police violence, a chance to refute administration and police lies about student violence, and more details about the occupation and next steps.
The rally will be held outside of 55 W. 13th street (corner of 6th avenue) at 6pm Thursday April 16th.
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
Student Action Defense Committee
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
11:40am – 5:00pm
Lang Courtyard, 66 w.12th st
“We take police brutality sitting down”
Shocked, terrified, or just plain pissed off about the administration’s use of the NYPD during a student protest? Horrified at the wanton acts of police brutality perpetrated on our campus? So speak up! We’re having a sit-in in the Lang courtyard on Wednesday. We’ll have some street theater, some food, maybe some music (anybody have an old-school boombox?). This is about facilitating open discussion among the student body, as well as a demonstration against NYPD presence at student protests. If they kick us out of the courtyard, we move to the streets!
Lang Faculty Executive Committee Statement on Occupation
April 14, 2009
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
April 14, 2009
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.
The New School Reoccupied 
