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Support Students and Workers Protest: Wednesday Aprill 22ndPosted by menelik on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 (05:31:16) (523 reads) Support Students and Workers Protest: Wednesday Aprill 22nd Dear CUNY supporters of the Stella D'Oro strike: The strikers are picking up momentum and support and the company is feeling the pressure, even though there is no breakthrough yet. An exciting development is the link-up between the Stella strikers and CUNY students fighting tuition hikes and budget cuts. The PSC has been a strong supporter of the strike all along, but until now students have not been that active. No more! Please help build for a joint rally of CCNY students and Stella strikers this Wednesday, April 22: At City College, W. 137th/Convent Ave., from 2-4 pm, a walkout to protest tuition hikes. At the Stella D'Oro plant, W. 237th/Broadway, 4-6 pm, a rally to win the strikers' demands. At both sites Stella workers and CUNY students will join their voices and their struggles. This is a great development! After the CCNY rally students and workers will go together on the "protest train," the #1 train, to the Bronx plant. Even if students can't get to the rallies they should know about it. And do try to come yourself. It's not often that a moment like this arrives, where one feels something building that has the promise of being adequate to the moment. comments? |   | Score: 0
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Multimedia : "Just Say No" to Police Brutality Rally video now up! Posted by alvinjohnson on Sunday, April 19, 2009 (15:08:56) (582 reads) Video footage from the rally on Thursday April 16th against the actions of police and administrators at the New School. Video from the march is being uploaded now as well. We also have a special addition from another media student at the rally, thanks Richard! Video 1: Video 2: Read More... (1.58 KB) | comments? | | Multimedia | Score: 3
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Multimedia : New School ruckus leads to more arrests Posted by wdunleavy on Friday, April 17, 2009 (19:04:07) (676 reads) Today a public forum was held to discuss recent developments following the occupation in front of the 65 5th Avenue New School campus. Students, faculty, and activists voiced their concerns against New School president Bob Kerrey and expressed their disgust at the way the NYPD have handled themselves. Students shouted situationist-inspired slogans and jokes as the discussion moved towards civil disobedience, blocking traffic and taunting police. As the mob was dispersed by police it moved to Bob Kerrey's 11th street home until was was again moved and relocated to the site of the New School occupation last week. Marchers linked arms and blocked traffic until the police arrived and made several arrests. Again the crowd moved, this time to the site of the NYU occupation where Reverend Billy was scheduled to perform an exorcism on the NYU building. He held the attention of protesters for several minutes until some students with a megaphone began shouting at him to stop distracting attention from the actual demonstration. I'm not sure if he finished because the original march moved again to the Sixth Police Precinct to support those arrested in front of the New School building.    More photos in Read More link below... Read More... (1.17 KB) | comments? | | Multimedia | Score: 5
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Statement of Support from World Can't Wait Posted by Worldcantwait on Friday, April 17, 2009 (19:02:13) (406 reads) The New School Students’ Demands & Occupation Are Righteous; NYPD Assaults & Arrests Are Wrong The World Can’t Wait strongly condemns the NYPD’s vicious and unjustified physical assault on students at the New School, and the arrest of 22 demonstrators. We demand that charges against all of them be dropped immediately, and express our full solidarity and support for these New School resisters. Continued in Read More link below... Read More... (4.37 KB) | comments? | | Score: 0
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Open Letter on the Occupation from Nancy Fraser and Eli Zaretsky Posted by alvinjohnson on Friday, April 17, 2009 (17:45:40) (416 reads) April 15, 2009
Dear friends and colleagues, Quote:
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. Continued in Read More link below... Read More... (6.1 KB) | comments? | | Score: 0
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International Student Solidarity Statements with Occupation Posted by alvinjohnson on Thursday, April 16, 2009 (18:50:36) (436 reads) Quote:
We urge you to continue organising and mobilising yourselves. They aspire to intimidate us, to drive us back with fear, but we are fighting for too much to be stopped by something so basic. - Bologna Quote:
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 arrestes. - Rome LETTER 1 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. [continued in Read More link below...] LETTER 2 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 arrestes. [continued in Read More link below...] Read More... (3.49 KB) | comments? | | Score: 5
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Multimedia : RSU press conference on Police Violence - 4/15/09 Posted by alvinjohnson on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 (22:46:51) (549 reads) Radical Student Union organized Press Conference on April 15 to address violence towards students following the April 10 occupation of the New School. comments? | | Multimedia | Score: 5
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RSU Press Release- Statement on Police Brutality Posted by alvinjohnson on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 (16:53:45) (348 reads) For Immediate Release: April 15, 2009 The RSU will be hosting a press conference today April 15 outside 66 W. 12th St. at 2:00 p.m. The Radical Student Union (RSU) of The New School condemns the brutality used by the police - and, by extension, the administration - during last Friday's occupation of 65 5th Ave. The students exercising their right to political opposition should be immediately reinstated and the administration should do what it can to ensure that no legal action is taken against them. The initiation of violence by President Kerrey against unarmed students reveals a blatant disregard for the safety of the student body, extreme incompetence, and an unwillingness to calmly and critically assess any difficult situation. Furthermore, Kerrey's unilateral decision-making directly undermines the reforms made since December, and reveals that these efforts were a sham. For Kerrey to publicly compare the actions of the students to "terrorism" and for the NYPD to use the occupation as an opportunity to practice their counter-terrorism operations is shameful for our university and city. We call on the students, faculty, and administrators - specifically, the University Student Senate, Faculty Senate, and the Deans - to refuse to continue acknowledging Bob Kerrey's legitimacy as the President of The New School. We call on the Board of Trustees to remove President Kerrey from office immediately, and to begin an open and participatory process with students, faculty, and staff to pursue the creation of a self-managed university in which decision-making power is placed in the hands of the university community. comments? | | Score: 0
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Multimedia : Watch Now - Monday Emergency Campus Assembly Posted by alvinjohnson on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 (16:07:35) (804 reads) We have finally got the videos online from the Monday night Emergency Assembly held at the New School on April 13th. The videos are broken into four parts. Part 1 is the Intro and talk by the Interim Provost Tim Marshall, as well as statement from NSSR Dean and Dean's Council rep Michael Schober, David Howell from Graduate Faculty Senate, Student Senate President Peter Cummings and the moderator. Video 2 is University General Counsel Roy Moskowitz and student activists Geeti Das and Pat Korte. Parts 3-12 are the Open Mic speak out that featured students and faculty in discussion with administrators and others. You can also watch the entire playlist on YouTube by clicking right here. Video 1: You can watch Videos 2-12 here in the Read More link below... Read More... (2.38 KB) | 2 comments | | Multimedia | Score: 5
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An Open Letter to Julien J. Studley Posted by alvinjohnson on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 (23:26:52) (281 reads) An Open Letter to Julien J. Studley Dear Mr. Studley, I am writing as an individual concerned student, and sending this to the Provost, the Dean, and the University Student Senate as I have no idea how to get a letter to you directly. On Friday April 10th a building was occupied and protesters remained inside despite requests by police and security officers to leave. These actions were indisputably illegal but to me the violence of Friday's events was at the hands of the NYPD. Footage taken by journalists shows a student of our school being tackled to the ground and brutally beaten in return for saying, "Shame" to the policemen. He was then refused treatment until he was released on his own recognizance the next day, and still has wounds covering his face. Mr. Studley, the actions of the demonstrators outside were not illegal. They were not occupying the building, but exercising their right to assemble and their right to free speech by demonstrating peacefully outside the building. The student who was brutalised by the police engaged in no illegal or violent actions. Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, has stated publicly that the video footage raises "serious concerns", adding, "That is a violation of civil rights plain and simple." As a member of the New School community, I am appalled that such actions should have happened on campus, but what deeply saddens me is that neither you nor President Kerrey appear to care for the well-being of students who dissent, or take seriously the issue of civil rights violations at our school. If we have an administration that does not see fit to condemn outright such actions first and foremost in response to the events of the past weekend, then the New School is not the school I came here to attend. The video footage on Friday was the most depressing thing I have ever seen at this institution. I am deeply disappointed in my education and in the New School. Sincerely, Geeti Das PhD Student Department of Politics New School for Social Research 6 E 16th Street, 7th floor New York, NY 10003 comments? | | Score: 0
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Graduate Faculty Student Senate Statement on Occupation Posted by alvinjohnson on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 (16:14:15) (340 reads) 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. The GFSS demands an independent judiciary committee form through the Faculty and Student Senates to investigate the events of April 10, and the administration's role in the NYPD's response. We cannot trust the administration's press statements. We demand that all academic disciplinary action regarding the New School participants in the occupation of April 10 be suspended until this committee has convened and issued a report. We demand transparency in the disciplinary proceedings. The standing committee on demonstrations is convened for a purpose and has a mandate that has not been met. The administration's failure to consult the committee suggests it is a vestigial appendage of the bureaucracy meant to pacify complaints rather than address legitimate concerns. A process to overhaul this committee and the University's demonstration guidelines must begin through the Faculty and Student Senates. The actions of the administration undermine the progress it is supposed to have made since December. By failing to consult the Provost's office, New School President Bob Kerrey has reneged on the promises of change he agreed to in the Minimum Requirements document, and betrayed its spirit of inclusive decision making. This constitutes a con rmation that the current administration still has no commitment to transparency, accountability, or democracy. We call on the Board of Trustees to hold Kerrey accountable. Kerrey's conflation of terrorism and the events of September 11, 2001 with the occupation on April 10, 2009 is unacceptable fear-mongering, and is a palpable threat to the large foreign-national population of New School students. We demand an apology from Bob Kerrey, and that he repudiate his statement. We ask the Faculty Senate to consider this statement, which carries the weight of the NSSR student body, and that they issue a statement to be combined with this one, as well any other student statements, to be released as a joint student-faculty statement. We urge you to join us in restating the vote of no con dence of December 2008. Best regards, The Graduate Faculty Student Senate The New School for Social Research New York, NY comments? | | Score: 5
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ACT-UAW Local 7902 Statement on Occupation Posted by alvinjohnson on Monday, April 13, 2009 (18:31:41) (352 reads) 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. comments? | | Score: 0
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Lang Faculty Executive Committee Statement on Occupation Posted by alvinjohnson on Monday, April 13, 2009 (18:29:50) (351 reads) 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. 3. We condemn the now well documented use of excessive force by the NYPD and the attempt to deny said use of force by the NYPD. 4. We support students' right to free speech and assembly. We support the right of students to be involved in the process of the governance of their own education. But this support stops short of unprincipled acts of illegality and violence. 5. We maintain that New School students involved in the occupation deserve a fair hearing and due process before action is taken against them by the university. 6. We believe that significant progress has been made by New School faculty and students, in negotiations with the Executive branch of university, and on a wide range of issues. We enjoin all parties of the university to maintain a constructive dialogue within the reform process of this great institution. comments? | | Score: 0
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Economics Student Union Statement on Occupation Posted by alvinjohnson on Monday, April 13, 2009 (18:28:55) (430 reads) 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. We believe in the legitimacy of this protest and we agree with its premises: the inadequacy of the current President Bob Kerrey and Vice-President James Murtha to lead The New School, as stated in the no-confidence vote by Senior Faculty members in December 2008. We protest forcefully against the President's misrepresentation and exaggeration of the events of April 10, as circulated internally within the New School mailing lists and as reported to the media. We protest against the President's calling in of the New York City Police Department in response to a peaceful demonstration, his escalation of the situation, and his refusal to negotiate directly with the occupiers. We condemn the brutal repression methods adopted by the NYPD, after having been called in by President Kerrey, the result of which is the silencing of voices of disagreement within the University. We believe in the spirit of dissent that gave birth to The New School, and we are not willing to tolerate such an abusive exercise of power which stands in clear contradiction to the University's founding principles and ongoing mission. For these reasons, we call on the administration to immediately revoke the suspensions of our fellow students and pursue the dismissal of all criminal charges against all individuals involved in the occupation. We urge the Trustees of the University to distance themselves from the violence perpetrated by the NYPD. We request that the Interim Provost and Faculty Senate begin an immediate independent investigation into the handling and approval of police force by the senior administration. comments? | | Score: 0
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Students Respond to New School Lies About Occupation Posted by alvinjohnson on Monday, April 13, 2009 (18:14:00) (994 reads) 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. On Friday, protesters entered a building, peacefully escorted a maintenance worker off the premises, and barricaded themselves inside, refusing to comply with the NYPD's demands that they leave, until several hours later when they opened the locks at the request of the NYPD. The NYPD's own footage shows that when the police entered the building the protesters were sitting peacefully on the floor in the lobby. They allowed themselves to be handcuffed one by one, not resisting arrest in any way. Allegations that the protesters "broke into" the building are false, the only serious damage to property was committed by the police when they broke through the front entrance. So in what way were the protesters supposed to have been violent? The only instance of "violence" cited by Bob Kerrey is a scuffle with a security officer who was trying to open a door from the outside and reportedly hurt his leg as it got caught in the door when the protesters shut it. Any injury he incurred was accidental and unintended. Kerry released a statement that this man went to the emergency room at Saint Vincent's. The implication of Kerry's statement is that the man was seriously injured and admitted to the hospital. This is false. Witnesses saw this man walking and running around the area for the entire morning and the New School Free Press reports that Saint Vincent's has no record of him ever being admitted. The official response to the occupation, on the other hand, was in no way peaceful. The use of pepper spray against those inside the building when they attempted to leave was violent. Forcibly clearing student supporters from the surrounding streets was violent. Footage on the New York Times website shows, and eyewitnesses have described, one protester being wrestled to the ground, and another, who appears only to be speaking to the NYPD, being jumped on by several police officers and screaming as he was held down and brutally beaten. This protester, a New School student, sustained concussion and serious wounds to his head and face that were only treated when he was released from jail the following day. Apparently, the peaceful occupation of a building by a small number of people warranted the massive spectacle of police violence we witnessed on Friday, with entire streets blocked off, more than 100 police vehicles on the scene, and riot police being called in. Bob Kerrey has stated that the occupation could not be handled by New School security and that the NYPD needed to be called in. He argued that because the occupation was illegal, it was not a demonstration. Although the Demonstrations Policy is ostensibly meant to "protect the rights of demonstrators", Kerrey decided that the occupation could not be considered a demonstration and was "not political", despite explicit indications to the contrary on the occupation banners and blog. On what grounds did he determine this? Who gets to decide what is or is not a demonstration? Were other members of the university administration, such as the Provost, consulted, or was this a unilateral Executive decision? And even if those who occupied the building were not considered demonstrators, what about the violations of the rights of those who were demonstrating in solidarity outside the building? The demonstrations policy states that "absolutely no form of physical violence or intimidation can be tolerated" on the part of demonstrators. But mobilizing the massive repressive apparatus of the riot police (or massacring an entire village in Vietnam) are apparently okay. As for the action itself, people have claimed that the intent was unclear. This is baffling. The banners and the blog and the "Occupation FAQ" that were circulated that morning made it explicit—even though the action spoke for itself. The purpose of an occupation is to occupy. To fill a space, to change its use, to reclaim it. There is no space in the New School right now that could reasonably be called a student space—one that doesn't need to be reserved, that meets students' needs, where students can freely express themselves peacefully, or that they can even decorate. Occupation as a tactic is not antithetical to efforts for reform within the university. On the contrary, this action was a response to the lack of truly democratic outlets for effecting change within the university that we have seen since the December occupation. The changes that have been presented have minimally satisfied the need for immediate democratic process within the university—minor concessions such as these simply serve to quell student and faculty grievances rather than solving them. And these changes have been accompanied by policies and actions on the part of the administration to intimidate protesters and dissenters into silence. This occupation if anything is reinvigorating a critical discussion of change at the university and the need for Kerrey's removal. Whatever your views on tactics may be, it is still necessary to reflect on what led people to this in the first place. What are students to do when there is no avenue on campus for expression without being threatened if the administration doesn't like what you're saying? A peaceful teach-in a few weeks ago was taken over by security guards and students were threatened with expulsion and arrest, even though no classes were disturbed and no exits were blocked. Our Demonstration Guidelines, suddenly dusted off in the wake of the first occupation, are an insult to anyone's intelligence. To have to apply for a permit to hold a peaceful demonstration makes a mockery of what a demonstration is. Any demonstration so circumscribed is a lamentable excuse for a protest. To argue that the police violence was necessary is to argue that the course of Friday's events was inevitable. We are not so lacking in imagination. Imagine, instead, if the NYPD had not been called in; if protesters had been allowed to stay in the space and open the doors and let others in; if 65 5th Avenue, instead of sitting empty and taunting us with all that unused space while the administration keeps changing its mind as to what to do with it, had become, however briefly, a space where students could meet and gather and study and celebrate and make art together. Better yet, imagine a university in which students didn't have to fight for these things in the first place. comments? | | Score: 0
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