Comments on: Statement of Non-Violence and Abstention from Property Destruction

By: Of Secret Meetings and Meager Eating: My Final Thoughts On The Kimmel Occupation | NYU Local

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 02:09:30 +0000

[...] let’s take a look at some key lines of the original non-violence/no property damage statement. We do not intend any harm or damage to any living beings or to private property, and strongly [...]

By: Democratic Education Blog » Student Action at NYU

Democratic Education Blog » Student Action at NYU — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 16:54:32 +0000

[...] and ends - While at first the NYU students declared a commitment to non-violence and no destruction of property, they later revised the property clause in order to [...]

By: student in solidarity

student in solidarity — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:07:53 +0000

All power to the students and workers.
And good for you for making voluntary agreements (the foundation of any democratic free collective community) and asking people who join you to honor and respect them. To be blunt, property destruction (not it’s not violence, just frequently counterproductive and what police agents try to get us to do), attempts at fighting cops and the individualist refusal to make or honor groups agreements about what tactics make sense to groups has led to the dramatic decline of mass direct actions in the United States.

By: RR

RR — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 01:18:07 +0000

Get some Guy Fawkes masks!

By: ...

... — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:58:58 +0000

first of all: in complete solidarity with you (from a grad school in chicago)! I salute your direct action, and wish you courage to endure.

that said, i must say agree with point #5 made above ^^. i think it is a mistake to even run together the two issues of a) oppressing people, violently or otherwise and b) destruction of private property.
destruction of property that has been privatized and (in many cases) serves the interest of capitalist accumulation and exploitation is in certain cases a very important tool of resistance.

i concur with the above sentiment that you consider revising your perspective on the political importance of private property.

By: Next Left Notes (NLN)

Next Left Notes (NLN) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:30:43 +0000

[...] students have also released a “Statement of Non-Violence and Abstention from Property Destruction” that reads in [...]

By: free2resist

free2resist — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:47:37 +0000

Quote: I also stand against all forms of fundamentalisms and please realize that your position on nonviolence IS fundamentalist and therefore “oppressive.”

Bravo!

By: nonviolence supports the state

nonviolence supports the state — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:40:39 +0000

While I agree with most of your statement, I strongly urge you to rethink your take on private property and violence… I think it is quite skewed to construe property damage as violence and destructiveness. To frame anything not explicitly articulated under the tenets of “non-violence” as necessarily a form of “violence” is itself a deployment of a violent dimorphous logic, an “either you are with us or against us” form of thinking, such as that of George Bush’s crusade, that amounts to its own form of pacifist fundamentalist pathology… To be clear, the proposition of any binary position as a root principle is one of the most violent acts constitutive of a Eurocentric, colonial episteme of which you, for all your well intentioned statements, have yet to untangle yourself from. I stand with you when you say you are against “oppression of any form” but I also stand against all forms of fundamentalisms and please realize that your position on nonviolence IS fundamentalist and therefore “oppressive.”

By: Jingles

Jingles — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:02:08 +0000

I was somewhat unintentionally involved in the New School occupation last December and I saw a great opportunity pass through clumsy hands. Too often, as per my experience, students push for reactions from authority figures instead of launching pro-community offensives. At New School, the protests quickly shifted into a student/security brawl, and at that moment they may have garnered some attention, but the group lost the respect of their fellow students. Radical student groups must pose an alternative to the chaos that these protests can invoke.
There are plenty creative options for this protest. Projects such as painting a mural in the occupied territory (maybe the Tisch students can help), organize performances in Washington Square (ask the theater kids), distribute poems and literature in the park (get the writers to do it), and get musicians to play protest songs (someone’s gotta be able to play guitar). The protests must involve all NYU students from each corner of the academic institution in order to better represent the needs of all students through creative means. We must spawn new ideas, create diaologue, create bonds, create opportunity.

By: Alexanderia socialist students

Alexanderia socialist students — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 06:45:26 +0000

VIVA the Struggle of the Students…the hearts of the socialist students in Alexanderia University in Egypt is with u…. Power to the people.. and down with tyranty