Letters
Oct 11th, 2008 by Take Back NYU!
From Groups
Petition from NYU’s Faculty Democracy (over 170 signatures):
As NYU faculty, we call on the Administration to reinstate those students who have been summarily suspended for their recent protest at Kimmel, pending proper hearings by NYU’s disciplinary board. If there is disciplinary action, it should follow—not precede—fair hearings, in which both sides are represented and the faculty consulted.
The Administration’s statement on the Kimmel occupation focused only on student misconduct, thereby failing to acknowledge that the protest took place in response to the Administration’s conduct of university business. We therefore call on the Administration to address the serious policy issues that the protest has now raised, by working with the faculty, students, and staff to establish a university-wide fiscal accountability committee. In these hard times, candor and transparency are essential, if NYU’s economic policies are not to cause more friction, misunderstanding, and civil disobedience.
Allegations of excessive use of force against the protesters should be investigated promptly by an independent university committee.
We view the Kimmel occupation as symptomatic of a deeper malady afflicting NYU: a lack of educational community. In such a community, students would not find it necessary to take over buildings to make their voices heard and their ideas respected.
NYU’s Graduate Student Association
On behalf of all the graduate students in the sociology department, the Graduate Student Association strongly urges the university administration to retract the suspensions and evictions of the members of Take Back NYU! who participated in the sit-in at Kimmel. Taking away access to food, shelter and education is a reprehensible response. The university’s reaction is unjustified and sidesteps the real issues that the sit-in made public on our campus. Many of the demands that were made by the students - including greater transparency in university budgeting so as to ensure socially responsible investing, the re-establishment of a graduate student teachers’ union, increased financial aid for low income students, and halted tuition hikes - were and are both just and pertinent to a more democratic university. Despite the legitimacy of the students’ concerns, the university administration moved at every turn to crush their initiative. While the students engaged in a non-violent sit-in, the administration refused to negotiate, called out dozens of NYPD officers who beat and pepper sprayed participants in a solidarity rally outside, and lied to the students and their supporters, all in an effort to avoid dialogue. Again, we insist that the university neither suspend nor evict the activist students and that they meet to discuss the demands that were raised through the sit-in.
Sincerely,
Graduate Student Association representing approximately 75 graduate students in the New York University Sociology Department
Law Students for Economic Justice and National Lawyers Guild – NYU Chapter
We write to express our solidarity with the Take Back NYU campaign and the students involved in the occupation of the Kimmel Center. As students of the New York University School of Law, we support the goals of transparency, student involvement in school governance, and socially responsible investment. Student voices currently have almost no power in the decision-making structure of the University, and student campaigns to encourage respect for human rights, fair labor contracts, and environmental justice have been ignored. Students should have a meaningful role in the decision-making process of the University.
Students have been attempting to engage the administration in dialogue about an array of serious concerns for years, with no response from the administration. This week, students took over space in the student center and held rallies in the street below in an effort to encourage the administration to take their voices and demands seriously. We are very disappointed at the administration’s response. Rather than engage in constructive dialogue with the students, the administration sought to end the action through threats, intimidation, and deception, and now seeks to discipline participants. We are particularly appalled by the use of police and security guards against students of the University and their supporters.
We call on the administration not to discipline the student protesters and to begin serious dialogue with the students about their demands. The structural flaws in NYU’s governance create ongoing frustration within the student body, and must be addressed responsibly.
Additionally, we ask for the administration’s assurance that legal observers be granted access to this protest and future protests that take place at NYU. We are deeply concerned that a group of Legal Observers from NYU School of Law’s chapter of the National Lawyers Guild was denied entry into the student center early on the morning of February 20, 2009. The students inside Kimmel requested National Lawyers Guild legal observers after the administration announced that students would be trespassing after 1 am and threatened to take action against them. When the trained legal observers arrived at Kimmel, they were denied entry by security guards and not allowed to speak to an administrator. Legal observers are routinely granted access to protests to act as objective witnesses of the interactions between the protesters and authorities. We are disturbed by the fact that the NYU administration did not want their actions recorded by trained Legal Observers, and ask that NYU administrators grant legal observers access to all protests on NYU campus for the security of all involved.
Concerned Students of Columbia University, New York City
We, as concerned students at Columbia University, stand in solidarity with the student occupiers of Kimmel Cafeteria this week as part of a campaign to Take Back NYU!
As students, we understand that university transparency, student representation in university decision making, collective bargaining rights for graduate students and all university workers, and tuition stabilization are neccesities, not privileges, especially as we all struggle through the current economic crisis.
As citizens of the world, we commend the attention you have drawn to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza by demanding scholarships for 13 Palestinian students, that NYU send excess supplies to Gaza, and that the university investigate its possible investments in the occupation of the Palestinian people.
With these actions, you inspire students around the world to stand up for justice and democracy in the university and beyond. By doing so, you continue the long tradition of vibrant, militant, and just student protest, a tradition that is alive today in the mass student protests in Italy and Greece, as well as in the recent student occupations at the New School, the University of Rochester, the University of Helsinki, and dozens of universities across the United Kingdom.
We are thus shocked and disgusted by the way the administration of New York University has responded to your non-violent protest and your just demands. The fact that the administration would not negotiate on such basic demands as tuition stabilization and budget disclosure shows how little
respect it has for its student body. The fact that it promised negotiations and then detained and suspended the students who left the liberated space to negotiate proves the extent to which this administration really is willing to operate in bad faith even against the interests of its own students.The fact that this administration has suspended the occupiers and removed them from university housing shows that it would rather un-democratically silence the voices of dissenting students than address their concerns.
We therefore demand that NYU:
1) Re-instate the student occupiers, free from any and all disciplinary procedures, and,
2) Fully meet all of the student occupiers’ original demands.To the brave student occupiers of Take Back NYU! we offer whatever support we can as you face the disciplinary process in the weeks and months to come. No matter what happens, your struggle will live on.
To the administration of New York University, we can only say that the world is watching you. You will not be let off the hook until you deal fairly with the student occupiers and their demands.
New School in Exile, New York City
Exiled in NYU: A communiqué from within the NYU occupation
At the dawn of the New School occupation last December, we wrote, “This is only the beginning.”
We weren’t joking.
We are now occupying the halls of NYU alongside their students. With our bodies and barricades, we continue to manifest ourselves as a force of interruption against the enforced passivity of the university.
This occupation arises at a time of economic turmoil. The current crisis of capital is no fluke; it is the result of the real social conditions in which we live. NYU, one of the largest property owners in New York City, is a clear perpetrator of the misery everyone now feels. It has no alibi, only vulnerabilities.
From the insurrection in Greece to the revolts of Eastern Europe, from the university occupations across England to the general uprising in Oakland, something is in air. We can’t name it, but we can all feel it.
Uncompromising, our power is growing. What has started as a singular strike against the structure of NYU’s form of domination will become a strike against the general logic of domination.
When we occupy spaces and liberate their use, we appropriate for ourselves the means of our very existence. We find each other here and now, in the midst of conflict and crisis, overturning every role we’re given, annulling every attempt to reconcile.
This is how we learn. This is how we fight.
In Exile,
Students of the New School
Feb 19th, 2009
Cambridge Gaza Solidarity campaign, UK
Dear Take Back NYU!,
We, the students of Cambridge Gaza Solidarity, are writing to express our support for your occupation. Faced with the deafening silence of our academic community concerning Israel’s action in Gaza; the Israeli blockade of Gaza; and the continued Israeli presence in Gaza and the West Bank, we felt compelled to take action.
There have been 25 similar occupations in universities across the UK. In the last few days 4 occupations have begun that are still ongoing. We extend our solidarity to all students involved in the NYU occupation and to all those students in the United States who might be considering taking similar action. Although our occupation has ended, our campaign is continuing to grow and gain strength. We draw inspiration from your actions and hope you achieve your aims. If there is anything that we can do to help you please let us know.
A student movement on this scale has not been seen in this country for a generation. To see that students across the world are now taking action in solidarity with the people of Gaza is inspirational. We applaud your demands that annual scholarships be provided for thirteen Palestinian students, starting with the 2009/2010 academic year., and that the university donate all excess supplies and materials in an effort to rebuild the University of Gaza.
Our occupation was an extremely eye-opening experience. It became clear to us that the university authorities have no interest in genuine engagement with students, that the ‘democratic’ processes of the university are for the most part redundant and that there is very little transparency in the way the university operates.
For this reason we salute your demands for transparency, and for students to be represented on university committees. At Cambridge, we support the campaign for Cambridge University to adopt an Ethical Investment Policy and support your demand for the establishment of a student elected Socially Responsible Finance Committee that will be able to vote on University investment policy and for the disclosure of NYU’s endowment holdings, investment strategy, projected endowment growth, and persons, corporations and firms involved in the investment of the university’s endowment funds.
Locally in Cambridge, Cambridge University Press is firing 170 of its staff, despite making a continued profit. For this reason we salute your demand that NYU agrees to resume negotiations with the union for NYU graduate assistants, teaching assistants, and research assistants, and that NYU signs a contract guaranteeing fair labour practices for all NYU employees at home and abroad.
Stay strong and you will succeed. We are all with you.
Solidarity, greetings and encouragement from the Cambridge
Gaza Solidarity campaign.
Occupiers in University of Barcelona’s Main Building, Spain
Hola compañeros!
We are very glad to hear that students in New York are being active and standing up for their rights and for a better university. In Barcelona we have been occupying the main building of the University of Barcelona for 3 months today to protest against the mercantilization and progresive privitisation of higher education in Spain and Europe, the infamous “Bologna Process”. We hope that your occupation is successful and that it is an empowering experience for those of you involved. Your actions give us great hope in the power of ordinary young people around the world fighting against capitalism and the state. We hope to keep in touch with you via email and also through the forums of the “international student movement” to organise the Global Week of Action 2009. Below is our call to create international comisions:
CALL TO FORM INTERNATIONAL COMMISSIONS FOR THE INSURGENCE OF A NEW INTELLIGENCE!
For all those students interested in building an international network of thought and resistance, we would like to inform you that we have constituted an International Commission from an assembly of a squatted building against the Bolonia process in the University of Barcelona. The assembly was created from the need to communicate with other European student movements. We aim to be a base of support for the European and world wide student movement against our precarious existence that neo-liberalism imposes on our future, and the mercantilization of education locally and globally. We are organized with no hierarchies and are independent from political parties and syndicates. Our objectives are:
* To share and understand the different realities of autonomous and self-managed resistance that students are carrying out across Europe.
* To find the common ground between each movement and attempt to develop a shared critique and alternative.
* To start creating a network of European and International
contacts so as to create a Student International centered on the exchange of experiences and the coordination of joint actions.
* We invite all those who care for a free and self-organized culture and want to develop this international network with us to contact us via e-mail. We would also prompt you to start developing your own international workgroup so that we can start to establish links between groups and quick effective methods of communication.In the past few months and weeks the student movements in Spain, Italy, UK, Denmark, France and Greece have revolted with demonstrations and occupations, but we cannot do it alone, we must coordinate with each other and with the rest of the world.
For the insurgence of a new intelligence!
our blog: http://tancadaalacentral.wordpress.com/
Sarah Lawrence College students
Sarah Lawrence Students in Solidarity with NYU Protesters Call for End to Retaliation
Students at Sarah Lawrence College have been following the events at the Kimmel Center closely and with concern.
We protest NYU’s unwillingness to recognize the student protesters’ actions as legitimate, negotiate with the protesters, and fulfill the protesters’ demands. It is inappropriate when an institution of higher education trains its students to be scholars of conscience and action, yet reserves for itself the right to determine when and how “robust dialogue” occurs between “students, faculty, and administration”*. As critical thinkers, we have a difficult time reconciling NYU’s purported pedagogy of “commitment to free exchange of ideas, reasoned debate, and legitimate forms of protest” with the distinctly authoritarian actions of the administration in recent days*. We feel strongly that current and prospective NYU students, their parents, alums and the general public experience that same dissonance.
We demand that the participants in the student occupation be granted full amnesty and that there be no change in their status as enrolled students. In addition, we affirm the demands of the protesters and insist that the administration grant them in full.
As a Sarah Lawrence student, I stand in Solidarity with my peers at NYU during this time of extreme financial crisis and political upheaval, and strongly urge NYU to cooperate ethically with the critical mass and lifeblood of its institution.
Sincerely,
Erick A. Paulino
Sarah Lawrence College ‘11
St Andrews Solidarity with Palestine Campaign, Fife, Scotland
Dear Take Back NYU!,
We, the collected students of the St Andrews Solidarity with Palestine Campaign, are writing to express our outrage at the treatment of student occupiers by New York University and the violent handling of protesters by the NYPD.
Like thousands of students across Britain, we were appalled by the illegal bombing and land invasion of Gaza and the indiscriminate killing of civlians that resulted. At 25 British universities, students have occupied buildings in order to convince their Unis to both provide practical support for the people of Gaza in the face of the decimination of an entire educational infrastructure, and to cut ties with organisations linked to the Israeli military. Having occupied Lower & Upper College Halls here at St Andrews for nearly 3 days, we have so far been ‘politely’ asked on more than one occasion to leave the building; both times we have refused. We have been frustrated by some aspects of the relaying of our demands, but our frustration must be nothing compared to what you must be feeling after these events.
We are appalled by the use of night-sticks, pepper spray and tasers on the part of the police when dealing with demonstrators. What we have read suggests that your occupation has been largely peaceful and that the actions of the police were entirely unjustified. We are equally dismayed by the response of New York University to the protest. You were exercising your constitutional right to non-violent action, yet were dismissed by New York University as “dishonour[ing] NYU’s commitment to free exchange of ideas, reasoned debate, and legitimate forms of protest”. We believe it is disingenuous of Senior VP Lynne Brown to describe the protest as having ended peacefully, given student testimonies to the contrary.
Given the risks that you were faced with in carrying out this occupation, we would like to express our admiration for your perseverance. We believe that your case deserves to be heard, and will inform other British students involved in occupations. We will also be relaying our concerns to the NYU administration.
In solidarity,
St Andrews Solidarity with Palestine Campaign
Students for Social Democracy of Columbus State University in Columbus, GA
Students for Social Democracy of Columbus State University in Columbus, GA stands with your occupation. Don’t let up. You’re action is an inspiration and a model for future resistance.
Solidarity,
SSD, Columbus State University
CUNY Graduate Center Student Union, New York City
We, the students of the CUNY Graduate Center Student Union, extend our support and solidarity to Take Back NYU!’s occupation of the Kimmel Center at NYU. Your struggle to make your university a force for social justice, to open access to higher education to all, for student participation in decisions that affect them, and for institutional transparency and accountability, is our struggle as well. We assert that the purpose of education is to give people the tools to think and act for themselves and for the greater good of humanity. The NYU administration’s threats against the student occupiers are unacceptable and reveal their ignorance of the history of student struggles that have advanced the cause of social justice, including the student movements and occupations in support of civil rights, against the Vietnam war, and against South African apartheid. The values, goals and tradition of these movements are being carried forward by Take Back NYU!. Your occupation has inspired us and we are proud to stand with you.
In solidarity,
CUNY Graduate Center Student Union
New York City
The Ninth Floor Sitters, York University, Toronto, Canada
We are each of us a raindrop. Together, we can be an ocean.
Greetings and solidarity from the Ninth Floor Sitters at York University in Toronto.
We are a group of undergraduate and graduate students at York who held a sit-in outside our president’s office for 599 hours in December and January. This sit-in occurred during a strike by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Local 3903, which represents contract faculty, teaching assistants, graduate assistants, and research assistants. The strike, against the neoliberalization of our university, lasted 12 weeks. It was the longest university-sector strike in English-Canadian history, and it ended only when the Ontario government legislated the union back to work. The sit-in was in support of CUPE and in opposition to the university’s president, who was MIA during the strike.
Five hundred and ninety-nine hours is a long time, so we sat, slept, snored, played, worked, figured, outfigured, videoed, discussed, debated, decided, rained, flooded, romanced, and snuggled.
Congratulations on your occupation. We hope you flood NYU again. And that the rains spread.
Raindrops of the world unite!
Yours in the snuggle,
The Ninth Floor Sitters
Void Network, Athens, Greece
We are expressing our solidarity to your actions and you have to know that we will fight here for all of you as you fight for us there …We are happy that you can liberate your time and space and you can fight to take back your basic rights as students of university and human beings…As you stay in the belly of the capitalistic mega-machine, as you fight in the center of the elitist’s black darkness that pollutes the planet and destroys the cultures of this world, as you fight in the center of the Empire…you have to remember that we are millions of people out there in the planet that take part in you struggle, people in all different countries, in all different workplaces, in all different schools and universities…Keep your spirit in great enthusiasm!…Whenever we exist in action, whenever our actions
achieve visibility, thousands of new comrades appears in our side in all the planet, thousands of new visions comes from the collective mind to the streets of our cities! Keep the Fight! WE ARE WINNING!
University of Rochester Students for a Democratic Society, New York
I’m merely writing in to tell you of our support for your actions in solidarity with Gaza, and in your effort to democratize your university. I am from the University of Rocheter SDS and we had a sit-in two weeks ago in Solidarity with Gaza (taking much inspiration from the UK and New School occupations), and it was a success!
Fortunately, our administration was willing to negotiate, sending the Dean of Students out on a Friday night (from 10pm to midnight) to try and reach an agreement with us.
The old white men who run the universities of this country are scared of actions like yours, and I would like to say thank you for doing this. This continues to open up a range of possibilities for the
future of radical student activism, making the future look very bright! I believe three of my friends from Rochester have joined you.I wish you well!
Solidarity,
Eugene Brud, UR-SDS
Ken Keplinger, University of Maine
Just wanted you guys to know that there are a group of us at the University of Maine watching your videos and following closely your movement. Thank you for having the guts to do this, few here have the heart for such ideas to become actions.
Everyday the occupation goes on at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. our group is going to offer a few moments of silence for you before we begin meditation, so know we are thinking of you and we are all there in spirit with you!
peace and love, and stay safe
Ken Keplinger
DC Students for a Democratic Society, Virginia, Maryland, and DC
DC SDS is in solidarity with Take Back NYU! and all the students of NYU who are standing up for affordable, democratic, and socially responsible universities. We are inspired by this bold action and excited by the momentum that’s building in the student movement today. Hopefully, some members from DC SDS will be coming to NYU to support the occupation in person. From Greece to NYU, MAKE TOTAL DESTROY!
Love, DC SDS
University of Pennsylvania Students for a Democratic Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania SDS pledges solidarity and support for your continuing struggle for democracy and autonomy at NYU. Your occupation along with the student occupations around the world, are an inspiration to us as a new chapter and remind us of the tangible reality that student power can become. Writing from Philadelphia, the birthplace of liberty and independence in this nation, and in the spirit of peoplehood, your struggle reminds us that we are everywhere, and we are winning.
Radical Students Union Loyola Chicago, Illinois
Dear NYU Resister,
I adore you and wish you the best in your mission. My first reaction was disbelief, shock, intimidation. I ran to a meeting that had sprung up. We consisted of four courageous students, a mob of one cuartet.
How are the demands so involved? It’s the culmination of a two year movement. The demands represent a conglomeration of causes, each requiring implementation of your analysis, your values. The action relates itself with the unfolding of student movements around the world from the Grecians to the latest Palestinians. We do not know what it is that you want us to do but we ask you to spread your urge to us in Chicago and clarify your message to other students.
We want to unite with you in the cause and to beat the drums of worldwide take over in the name of greater justice, peace, equilibrium, and a new kind of power. Please give us the orientation. And what would be a way to create the agitation to shift consciousness in this setting, in this place, and in this reality?
We create the structures for a kind of network.
Signing out,
Radical Students Union Loyola Chicago
Franklin House, St. Charles, Missouri
Hey all, just letting you know that we are in solidarity with you. her eis some music from us for you to have while you are in there. When we get to New York in late march, we should collaborate on an action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-CRjjj0USE
yours in the struggle,
the franklin house
Columbia University Hunger Strikers and Organizers, New York City
February 19, 2009
We, the student activists who confronted our administration in the November 2007 hunger strike at Columbia University, stand in unequivocal solidarity with the Take Back NYU! Coalition’s occupation of Kimmel Hall. Your demands, including budget disclosure and student representation in the power structure of your own university, resonate with the on-going legacy of students who actively pursue a vision of justice in their schools.
When our friends put their bodies on the line in the November cold and abstained from food for ten days, they did so because they were guided by a burning conviction—that a university education is not something that should be passively consumed but actively produced and contested. From NYU to Columbia, from New School to England and Greece, a growing student movement is showing that our university administrations cannot trample over our rights and those of the communities around them.
To anyone who scorns or dismisses this movement as undemocratic or too radical, we ask you to consider why your fellow students have found it necessary to take bold action against your administration, which itself has not set in place the avenues for democratic participation. Their actions are creative, not destructive, and motivated by justice, not greed. There is no question that direct action is not mere political theater, but should motivate further dialogue on these issues, which call forth the very ideals of critical minds and civil engagement that underlie NYU’s academic foundation.
If the NYU administration is too cowardly and hides behind the nightsticks and handcuffs of the NYPD, it will prove their unwillingness to engage their own ideals and be challenged by the emerging minds they seek to foster.
As Frederick Douglass once said, “If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation…want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters…Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” We stand with you in mind, heart, soul, and fist.
–Columbia University Hunger Strikers and Organizers
Democratic Solidarity Committee, NYU, New York City
Democratic Solidarity Committee Supports Take Back NYU student occupation
As student members of the anti-Israeli apartheid Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions coalition campaign that is currently forming at NYU, we fully support and are participating in the Take Back NYU occupation of the Kimmel Center.
Since its completion in 2003, this so-called “student center” has been a fitting symbol for everything that is wrong with NYU. More of a citadel and platform for administrative offices, politicians, corporate mixers, and think-tank conferences, it is the least accessible to those who deserve it most: the students and workers of NYU. We have heard over and over again the NYU motto of “A Private University in the Public Service” and President John Sexton’s routine bad-faith posturing about “free exchange of ideas” as our college ideal. However, like every facet of NYU, Kimmel is organized around the key ideological principle of those who rule campus: this is an institution in the service of official society rather than the people who work and study here.
Mirroring broader trends in New York City, the administration has attempted to create what has been called “NYU Inc.”
Corporate NYU is a place where student free speech and association are routinely combated, where tuition is rising while the quality of student life is on a steady decline, where there is no financial transparency, where meaningful scholarships are few and far between, where for staff, graduate teachers, and adjunct faculty there is a race to the bottom in wages and working conditions, where the GSOC UAW local 2110 was smashed because it is the only legitimate representative of graduate teachers, where Washington Square Park is becoming the private property of NYU and long-time Village residents are evicted from their homes by one of the largest real estate owners in the city. Is this a university or a corporation?
It is no accident the NYU administration has enthusiastically supported Israeli apartheid. This is not only because NYU serves as a prominent speaking stage for Israeli politicians. It is so because John Sexton speaks of democracy and promoting the public good while vocally attacking the idea of divestment and academic boycott, most recently targeting the British University and College Union boycott of Israeli academic institutions. Sexton called it “a disavowal of the free exchange of ideas, antithetical to the values and tenets of institutions of advanced learning.” Needless to say, Palestinians under a racist system, with fewer or no political rights themselves, cannot take such “values” for granted.
The building of a study abroad program in Tel Aviv is only the most tangible example of such hypocritical commitments by the NYU administration. It is equally unsurprising that NYU is building a satellite campus in the United Arab Emirates, a dictatorship where the majority of workers have no citizenship rights at all. Perhaps John Sexton will next be lecturing the student and workers movements in the Middle East struggling against U.S.-backed dictatorships and corrupt neo-liberal elites.
Finally, we are very pleased that among the sit-in demands were those supporting NYU scholarships for Palestinians and donations to the Islamic University of Gaza, recently destroyed by the Israeli army. This is an important step in linking our struggles in the U.S., particularly among people of color and working people, with the struggles against apartheid as well as democratic struggles throughout the Middle East.
We call on people to support the Take Back NYU occupation of Kimmel and continue to support the Take Back NYU campaign, as well as the campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions at NYU.
Axis of Logic, Toronto, Canada; Boston, Massachusetts; and Caracas, Venezuela
Dear NYU Administration,
We are an international website based in Toronto, Boston and Caracas. We fully support the students who are occupying The Market Place at Kimmel and each of their demands. We are urging our readers throughout the world to support them. We urge you to listen to them and take their demands seriously. It is time for NYU to assume real leadership in higher education in the U.S. and review your war-related investments, investments that have an impact in the Middle East and your treatment of workers and students in this time of economic collapse. We also join these courageous students in their call for transparency in NYU endowment holdings. These students are not alone. Students are rising up around the world to oppose wars taking place in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. We also join their first demand of disciplinary and legal amnesty relative to this courageous and moral action they have taken. NYU should be proud of students like these who demonstrate their commitment to universal values. The world is changing. Get with the program!
For full display go to: http://www.axisoflogic.com
From the Axis of Logic Editorial Board
Les Blough, Editor
Boston & Caracas
No War But Dance War collective, Austin, Texas; Tacoma, Washington; and Olympia, Washington
In Solidarity… A Breakdown Is Approaching
We, of the No War But Dance War collective - Austin, Tacoma, and Olympia Affinity Groups, offer our support to the student occupiers of the Kimmel Center for University Life at New York University. We hope that all demands be met and that new demands arise perpetually.
Only by increasing the volume may we shimmy-shake our chains loose.
In solidarity,
the No War But Dance War collective
Austin, Tacoma, Olympia
Free Education for Everyone, Dublin, Ireland
Greetings Take Back NYU!,
Free Education for Everyone (FEE), an Irish grassroots campaign group fighting the introduction of college fees and cutbacks in third level education salutes your actions and sends our complete solidarity.
FEE formed in September 2008 in University College Dublin (UCD) as we felt there was a need for a genuine grassroots student movement to fight the re-introduction of fees. We now have groups in Trinity College Dublin (TCD),National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUIM), National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG), University College Cork (UCC) and the University of Limerick (UL).
Activists in FEE include members of the anarchist Workers Solidarity Movement (WSM), Socialist Workers Party (SWP), the Workers Party (WP), Ógra Shinn Féin (OSF) , Labour Youth (LY), Socialist Party (SP) and the 32 County Sovereignty Movement (32CSM) as well as many non political students. We work with the Student Unions in our colleges and the national Union of Student of
Ireland (USI) but we believe only a mass, grassroots student movement can defeat fees. As we state on website, “Lobbying or photo-stunts will not be sufficient”.We’ve been organised dozens of occupations, blockades of government politicians on our campuses, protests, pickets and sit-ins since September.
We wish you all the best in your struggle,University College Dublin (UCD) Free Education for Everyone (FEE).
Pluto Press, London, England
Occupations: Solidarity from occupations in the UK - good luck with winning your demands.
Solidarity from here at the Pluto Press in London. Good luck.
Owen
Congratulations on your well-planned and well-executed occupation, which is an excellent form of non-violent protest. We noted Caitlin’s involvement from the article in the Washington Square News. We imagine others of you involved in the Stop Killer Coke Campaign are deeply involved as well. We have posted numerous articles and sites on www.KillerCoke.org and we will be reporting on your activities in our newsletter to be released soon to the thousands of activists worldwide. Is there any action that you would like supporters to take? Emails to the president of the campus, etc.?
We appreciate that among the list of demands is “A reassessment of the recently lifted ban on Coca-Cola products.” We also appreciate the demand of “an in depth investigation of all investments in war and genocide profiteers, as well as companies profiting from the occupation of Palestinian territories.” We should note that Coke continues to operate in the Sudan and has paid fines for violating U.S. sanctions.Peace & Justice,Ray RogersCampaign to Stop Killer Coke/Corporate Campaign, Inc.
The University Of the West of the England Gaza Solidarity Occupation
Greetings from The University Of the West of the England Gaza Solidarity Occupation,
brothers, please see details of our occupation of a University Lecture theatre and Foyet.
http://uweoccupation.blogspot.com/we applaud your actions and wish you the best of luck in achieving your goals in especially Clause 8.
In Solidarity
UWE Gaza Solidarity
Northern Arizona University Peace & Justice
With the recent news of the NYU student takeover, we would like to express our solidarity with the brothers & sisters in New York who are part of the 2009 Kimmel Occupation.
Our hearts & minds are with you and all others that struggle daily to make this world a better place. Thank you.
From northern Arizona,
Peace, Love, Unity.Northern Arizona University Peace & Justice
New York City Labor Against the War
New York City Labor Against the War denounces the NYU administration’s attack on student protesters of Take Back NYU. The students demand that the university serve its student body through financial transparency and accountability.
They demand that the administration recognize the Graduate Student Organizing Committee/UAW Local 2110, and agree to fair labor contracts for all university employees.
They are particularly courageous in calling on NYU to support the people of Gaza and end University complicity with the Israeli apartheid regime — demands that parallel recent student protests at the University of Rochester, Hampshire College, and two dozen universities through the UK.
When the administration arrogantly ignored these concerns, protesters nonviolently occupied their student center, a direct action in the tradition of the civil rights, Vietnam antiwar and anti-apartheid
movements.The administration’s response has been typically deceitful and vindictive.
It called in the NYPD to attack protest rallies outside the building. It falsely agreed to negotiate, only to detain the students’ representatives. It forcibly removed other protesters — some of whom were assaulted by NYU security, and at least one of whom was arrested. It suspended eighteen protesters and evicted them from university residences.
We are proud of these students’ protest and refusal to be silenced. NYU administration must immediately:
1. Rescind suspensions, dorm evictions and all other disciplinary action.
2. Drop all criminal charges.
3. Meet the students’ demands.
University Group En Clave ROJA
Internationalist greetings to all students in struggle of NYU
From University Group En Clave ROJA from Argentina, we send our greetings and support to NYU fighting students who have occupated NYU. All over the World student movement begins to arise not only defending public education and knowledge, but also saying that “capitalists have to pay for the crisis”
Last months we have seen how Greek youth rebelled against antipopular plans of Karamanlis governmet. He’ve seen French students raising against Sarkozy plans. We have seen how Spanish, German, Italian and all UE students rebell and organice against Bolonia plan. Today we’re also see how New York students fight for the defense of their Rights.
International economy crisis that travels every country in the World, puts on the agenda students organization and struggle, not only in defense of education, but also in defense of workers and exploited all over the World. Student movement has to be close to workers and and common people from French Antilles, who have being holding a general strike for four weeks; closet o people from Gaza against Israel massacre; closet o workers al over the World who are being fired from
their Jobs because of the capitalist bankruptcy.En Clave ROJA fight for shaping a student movement democratically auto-organized, anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist, who getting back French May and Argentinian Cordobazo, join working class and oppressed from all the world, to fight against governments and companies and claiming that capitalists pay for the crisis.
¡Long live the struggle of students from New York and around the World!
¡Capitalists have to pay for the crisis!En Clave ROJA – Argentina
www.enclaveroja.org.arVersión español:
Saludo internacionalista a los estudiantes en lucha de la Universidad de Nueva York
Desde la Agrupación Universitaria En Clave ROJA de Argentina, enviamos nuestro saludo y apoyo a los estudiantes de Nueva York en lucha que han tomado durante más de 40 horas la universidad.
En diferentes países del mundo el movimiento estudiantil comienza a levantarse no solo en defensa de la educación pública y el conocimiento, sino para que “la crisis la paguen los capitalistas”.
Los últimos meses hemos visto como la juventud griega se rebeló contra los planes antipopulares del gobierno de Karamanlis. Hemos visto como los estudiantes franceses se rebelaron contra los planes de Sarkozy. Hemos visto como los estudiantes de España, Alemania, Italia y toda Europa se rebelan y organizan contra el plan Bolonia. Hoy también vemos como los estudiantes de Nueva York se rebelan por la defensa de sus derechos.
La crisis económica internacional que recorre todo los países del mundo, pone a la orden del día la organización y lucha estudiantil, no solo en defensa de la educación, sino en defensa de los trabajadores y explotados de todo el mundo. El movimiento estudiantil debe estar junto a los trabajadores y el pueblo de las Antillas francesas que hace cuatro semanas realizan una huelga general; junto al pueblo de Gaza frente a la masacre del Estado de Israel; junto a los trabajadores de todo el mundo que son despedidos de sus trabajos por la bancarrota capitalista.
Desde En Clave ROJA luchamos por construir un movimiento estudiantil autoorganizado democráticamente, anticapitalista y antiimperialista, y que retomando las banderas del Mayo francés y el Cordobazo argentino se una junto a la clase obrera y los explotados del mundo, para enfrentar a los gobiernos y las patronales y para que la crisis la paguen los capitalistas.
¡Viva la lucha de los estudiantes de Nueva York y todo el mundo!
¡Que la crisis la paguen los capitalistas!En Clave ROJA – Argentina
www.enclaveroja.org.ar
From Individuals
Maia Ramnath, Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow for Global Histories, Draper Program, NYU
Dear President Sexton,
I am writing in support of the students currently occupying the Kimmel center, and in recognition of the urgency and justice of many of the demands of the Take Back NYU coalition. I was present last night during the celebratory launch of the occupation, and witness also to the peaceful gathering outside the building.
None of these issues is new; the same questions of financial accountability, transparency, fair labor practices, and social justice in use of university resources have facing the NYU community for years. What does it say that it takes a spectacularly “disruptive” action to focus serious attention upon them? I applaud also the students’ conscientious move to place immediate issues in relation a larger world context. If a university does what we say it is supposed to, how could they possibly do otherwise?
As a member of the faculty of the Draper Interdisciplinary Program in Humanities and Social Thought, and a GSAS alumna, I am committed to the belief that education is an active, collaborative process of better understanding and responsibly engaging in the world, in the interest of a more just global society. Therefore I urge you to take seriously the students’ demands and to engage in good faith dialogue with them, not merely as a symbolic gesture but in the interest in taking concrete, substantive steps toward positive change in our institution.
For the ideal of solidarity among students, grad students/graduate employees, faculty, staff and all NYU workers,
Maia Ramnath
Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow for Global Histories, Draper Program
New York University
14 University Place
New York, NY 10003
Noam Chomsky, MIT
I would like to express my support for the actions of the students who are calling on their universities to end their participation in the brutal oppression of Palestinians by divesting from corporations that particpate in and profit from these crimes, in violation of international and US law.
Noam Chomsky
From a “Former NYU Instructor”:
Dear TakeBackNYU: I support you and your cause. I was an adjunct instructor at NYU for seven years and quit my position in disgust.
My department rented classroom space in a sub-standard bldg. We frequently didn’t have heat during the winter months. I was appalled that my students were paying an enormous amount of money for tuition, yet this was the learning space we were given: Sitting in class through January and February wearing our coats, hats and gloves.
As an adjunct, I was treated horribly by my department head. The consistent unspoken message from day one was: “There are hundreds of other instructors in this city waiting for your job. Bring up your issues or those of any of your students and we’ll replace you tom’w.”
In retrospect, I realize I was foolish to expect NYU to exhibit any integrity in the way it treated me or my students. I accepted my position believing that NYU was an institution of higher learning. It is not. It is a corporation. Students are a commodity to be processed through its system as quickly as possible and at the highest possible profit margin.
I strongly encourage (a) any prospective students to look elsewhere if they want a real education (b) alumni to direct their money to other charitable causes (c) any instructors considering teaching at NYU to redirect their job search to institutions that respect their faculty and students.
Again, I salute you, courageous members of TakeBackNYU.
Lisa Fithian
To the Students and Supporters Who Took Back NYU!
Greetings and solidarity! The struggle for justice is only won, when people like you are willing to put your bodies on the line and sacrifice your liberty for the greater good. You make us all proud!
The University’s reaction and the violence of the police against you is an indication of just how powerful you are. Your original demands of budget disclosure, endowment disclosure, and placing a student on NYU’s Board of Trustees are fair and just. While you may not have achieved all of your goals in this occupation, your long-term strategy, your ongoing commitment to nonviolent direct action and your creative energy and passion have exposed NYU and brought the worlds’ attention to its doors.
As the University chooses to continue its repression through the disciplinary process as opposed to negotiations that might have actually resolved these disputes, I hope you remember all of those who came before you.
Those who worked to abolish slavery and to win the right for women to vote; those who struggled in the fields and those who sat down at the lunch counters. Those who took over their campuses to end the Vietnam war and those who shutdown nuclear power plants or blocked their federal buildings to protest the US war in Central America.
Remember those who crossed the line to end apartheid in South Africa and those who fought for funding against AIDS. Remember those who struggled to save the rainforest and the indigenous people who have retaken their land. Remember those like Rachel Cory who gave her life so that Palestine might live. You are part of this rich history, this legacy of resistance, this struggle for a new world rooted in equality, peace and justice.
Never let them tell you, you were wrong. Never let them tell you, your actions and sacrifice was for naught. Your success cannot be measured by their words, it will be measured by our hearts and by the minds you have reached through this occupation. NYU does not understand the power of our spirit, the power of truth, the power of action, the power of the people to rise up again and again and again.
You are leading the most recent wave. So know that all of us out here who believe another world is possible that we are with you, we are watching and we add our energy to your call! To NYU– stop disciplining and start negotiating! To the students.Take Back NYU and keep the movement moving!
in peace and solidarity,
Lisa Fithian
Michael Letwin, Former President, Assn. of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW Local 2325
To NYU Administration:
I am writing to express my support for the student occupation of the Kimmel Marketplace that has been occurring since Wednesday night. They will not leave the building until their demands are met.
The Take Back NYU! campaign has been a constant presence on campus for two years, attempting to voice their demands through all means available. Their demands, though many and varied, are united by the desire to empower students to take part in the governance of their University.
Thus far, the NYU administration has refused to address their presence or their request to negotiate. The administration’s failure to address the students’ demands reflects the fundamental factors behind the demands themselves - the lack of democracy, transparency, and student say in how their administration is run.
I urge the NYU administration to immediately negotiate with the its students.
Michael Letwin
Former President, Assn. of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW Local 2325
Lisa Maya Knauer, Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Dear President Sexton and NYU Administrators,
As an NYU alumna (GSAS 2005), I am extremely ashamed of the actions of the university administration regarding the student protestors at Kimmel. As a full-time faculty member who is also concerned with issues of university transparency, and has been frustrated by the peremptory actions of my own university administration, I applaud the students’ initiative and many of their demands as they are focused on issues of university governance. I am especially disturbed at the university’s manipulative and deceitful actions by holding out the carrot of negotiations — and then slapping the student negotiators with the stick of dismissal. The university’s decision to suspend students smacks of police state tactics. Instead of treating this matter through the normal disciplinary procedures, the university has carried out a pre-emptive strike and suspended students without regard to due process. At a minimum, the students should be re-instated, moved back into their dorms and given their rights to due process through the appropriate university disciplinary hearings.
Of course, this action does not come as a complete surprise. Unfortunately NYU has a long history of opacity regarding its internal operations and belligerence towards student activism. I was an organizer of the graduate students union, GSOC-NYU, during my time at NYU, and remember well the university’s efforts to prevent the union from succeeding. A few years later, when GSOC went on strike because the university would not negotiate a new contract, I watched with dismay as the university used strong-arm tactics to effectively break the graduate union.
I urge you to change course, to reinstate the students, and to proceed through normal disciplinary channels.
Sincerely,
Lisa Maya Knauer
Assistant Professor, Anthropology
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Vince Libasci, NYU
Hey TBNYU!
I’m a fellow NYU student in solidarity. I’ve been talking with other interested students who passionately call for change and we feel this is just the beginning. The lies of the NYU Admin, and the violence used against our peaceful protest will not stop us and will not be tolerated. We feel the next step is to disrupt NYU’s machinations and show them to their face we will not be abated.
We need to get these ideas out, spread the word, and show that this is just the beginning. They can’t tell us to back down quietly when they won’t even negotiate. Get back to me and we can work out logistics. There is a huge support base here at NYU and around the city, don’t let them intimidate us!
Vince Libasci
Claire Lewis, Gallatin, NYU, Class of ‘10
Ms. Brown,
Your statement grossly misrepresents the facts and I think you know it. I think the University’s response to this peaceful protest has been absolutely despicable. To not only suspend students but render some homeless, without first going through the disciplinary procedure is cruelly disproportionate to the nature of the alleged “violations” and quite obviously unfair.
I hope you realize two things. First, the whole world is watching, and you look terrible. I’m currently studying in China, and foreign classmates saw the articles in the NYTimes and all were horrified at the administration’s response. “I thought your country was a place where students were *encouraged* to voice dissent with peaceful civil disobedience…” (this coming from some students who were alive during the Tiananmen Square massacre). If we’re trying to build a global university, we need to be very careful about our reputation abroad. We had an opportunity to show that we are a school where passionate debate and peaceful protest is encouraged, where administrators care about students concerns, where students don’t have to occupy a building in order to get a meeting with the higher ups. Over the past few days, you have irreparably damaged our image.
Second, your response proves exactly WHY organizations like Take Back NYU!, that seek to empower students and give us back our say in things, are needed so badly at NYU. Take Back NYU! went through all of the “legitimate forms of protest”, gathered petitions and student group support, wrote letters and emails, attended town halls, even elected a Senator to the University Senate on a Take Back NYU! platform, and were at best, ignored, and at worst, belittled and mocked by President Sexton and other administrators. Despite some students’ philosophical issues with the occupation, Take Back NYU!’s primary demands of budget/endowment disclosure and student representation on the board are not unreasonable, and have wide student support. When the administration so flagrantly disregards students concerns and opinions, it says a lot about what kind of institution this is.
I urge you to rescind the disciplinary measures and grant all students involved full amnesty. If not for the sake of some of the brightest, most passionate students at NYU (whom you will be proud to call NYU alumni when they go on to be leaders in their communities and careers after graduating), then for the sake of our school’s reputation.
When the students reclaimed NYU, I was proud to say I go to NYU. After your response, I’m ashamed to be an NYU student.
Sincerely,
Claire Lewis
Gallatin ‘10
Evan Baker Smith, Cornell University ‘08
Take Back NYU, thank you for your courage. We support you with revolutionary love.
Historical Memory. Too often we succumb to the historical amnesia that ideological state apparatuses (news and entertainment media, schools, the academy, etc.) shower us with. The 1950s were perhaps the most reactionary decade in US history, yet the 1960s were revolutionary - the globe over. Let us reclaim our historical memory. We understand your action as laying required groundwork for radical action to come.
Transnational resistance. Transnational capitalism - which rather apparently continues to fail us - requires transnational networks of resistance that act at the community level (the old adage: think globally, act locally). We admire your praxis.
New Millennium Movement to Free Labor. We acknowledge that just because you are NYU students does not mean that you are fed a silver spoon. Many “elite” universities leave their alumni with tens/ hundreds of thousands of dollars in both public and private debt, making us New Millennium Indentured Servants. As a Cornell alum, I understand that many of us leave the ivory tower forced to work for an exploitative and oppressive economic regime. We should not let ourselves be made to feel guilty for our hard work and luck - especially when we are fighting our local fight in solidarity with a transnational movement to free our labor and minds.
Lastly, as a NYC public school teacher, thank you for your action. The neo-liberalization of institutions of learning makes them increasingly inaccessible for many young members of our communities - not against the interests the government, either. Our struggles is are one.
Congratulations Take Back NYU,
Evan Baker Smith
Cornell University ‘08
NYC Department of Education
Jen, York University, Canada
Thank you for this message. Students and workers at York University in Canada just finished a 85 day strike which shut down our university. We were ordered back to work by our government and do not have a contract. It is humiliating, but at least we feel although we are part of a global movement to fight the managerial bureaucracy that runs universities.
In solidarity,
Jen
Anthony C. Alessandrini, Assistant Professor of English, Kingsborough Community College-City University of New York
Dear President Sexton:
I write in support of the non-violent and creative actions of the students who are (as I write this) currently occupying the Kimmel Center for University Life. As an educator, I recognize the justice of their demands, and find a great deal of hope in the fact that these demands include feelings of concern for larger issues of social justice, as well as feelings of solidarity for their fellow students in other parts of the world, in particular Palestinian students living under occupation. The issues that they raise in their demands are precisely the sorts of issues that universities should be addressing, and so while some might view the actions of the students to be “disruptive” of campus life, in
fact, they are completely in step with what the goals of a university should be: to inspire inquiry and concern for the wider world.As someone who was a graduate student in the program in Near Eastern Studies at NYU from 2002 to 2004, I also recognize that many of the students’ demands (especially those involving financial accountability, labor issues, and the use of university resources) are similar to those that NYU students have been demanding for years. It is time for NYU, as an institution, to finally see the light, and to begin to yield to these completely reasonable demands for financial accountability and socially
responsible investment, of the sort that is second nature at many similar institutions throughout the world.I am heartened to hear of the actions of these students, and was very impressed by their articulations of their demands. At the very least, they deserve to be taken seriously as interlocutors; they should not be the object of police actions or institutional punishment. I hope that NYU will at last begin to listen to their demands, and take steps towards becoming the sort of institution that it has the potential to become. I am in full support of and in solidarity with the students’ actions, and hope that these students will be seen for what they are: a credit to their university.
Sincerely,
Anthony C. Alessandrini
Assistant Professor of English
Kingsborough Community College-City University of New York
Daisy Torres, Cornell University alum
Hi,
I felt compelled to email the group as I saw the audio and then read some of the posts. Be careful. I was involved in a sit-in at Cornell in 2005. It used to be commonplace at Cornell. It was the first sit-in at the university since 9-11. I did not expect Ithaca P.D. to come into the building. Initially we had interaction with just CU P.D. We had students outside supporting us and keeping an eye that things didn’t get out of hand with the police. The group of 8 would have been taken downtown but tons of students laid out on the pavement and blocked the police cars in.I would advise to be careful during the night. I worry for you all that NYPD will bust into the place.
Don’t lose hope.
Best wishes!Cuidense/take care,
Daisy Torres ‘05
Cornell University
American student, St Andrews University, Scotland
Hey
I’m an American student at St Andrews Uni in Scotland, and, as you know, we are currently under occupation. We would just like to send you a statement of support and hopefully establish some kind of contact. Good luck!! Hope to talk to you very soon! There are some admins here right now, haha, so we may have some bad news very soon. Later!
In solidarity,
Occupying Students
Geeti, New School, NYC
Good on you! Keep fighting the good fight; we are in solidarity with you at the New School.
Zach, Graduate Student Organizing Committee, NYU
I spent six months of my life walking a picket line in front of bobst library. You’ve taken the struggle inside. Like many other GSOC folks I’m inspired by your courage and your vision and will do everything i can to stand in solidarity with the struggle you have initiated.
Erich Fromm, New School
What better time then now, to take back what’s been ours all along?
In solidarity.
An exile
Neal Resnikoff, NYU School of Education, 1957; Betty Alfini, NYU Washington Square, 1958
Good demands. Best to you in the struggle. –Neal Resnikoff, NYU School of Education, 1957; Betty Alfini, NYU Washington Square, 1958.
Aidan, Hampshire College, Massachusetts
I’m writing as a student at Hampshire College who was involved in our successful campaign to divest from corporations involved in the Israeli Occupation of Palestine.
I’m heartened by your courage, and wish all of you well in this endeavour. I will be writing letters to the admin in support, and hope that something good comes of your actions.
in solidarity :: aidan
Roy, Brooklyn College
theyoungvote.com as well as the students at Brooklyn College stand in solidarity.
Michael Letwin, New York City Labor Against the War
New York City Labor Against the War stands with you. Free Palestine!
Alexanderia socialist students, Egypt
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 tyranny!
Alex, Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University stands with you in solidarity! We have nearly identical problems with our admin/board/faculty/student relations. I can’t speak to my classmates opinion on the Middle East, but I support you in your global endeavors-at least personally. Stay strong!
luv from CWRU
Keith Hammond, University of Glasgow, Scotland
Hi …
I am an academic here in Scotland. Wonderful news that you have occupied …
All the very best of wishes from Scotland,
Keith (Hammond)
Lecturer in Philosophy
Faculty of Education
Thomas Thielemann, Germany
I took part in University occupation in Hamburg (Germany) in 1968.We fought for similar reasons concerning a conservative structure ofthe universityin that days.Then we spreaded our fight against the vietnam war, and began to learnwhat’s capitalism is all about. The youth people like you may start again to understandthe real reasons of the actual worldwide crisis of capitalism.Your demands or more transparency concerning the university budget and the administrationar justified. I raccomand you http://vimeo.com/1962208Hope your fight will be successfulsolidarityThomas Thielemann
Ali Abunimah
I just wanted to send a message of solidarity and support to you and your colleagues. I admire your courage, as well as the breadth and inclusiveness of your political demands. Students once were, and you are making them again, the conscience of the society.YoursAli Abunimah
Erin, NYU alum
*You* are the people who make me proud to be an NYU alum! Thank you for your courage and your efforts to make the world a better place! Good luck! Take Back NYU!
Erin
P.S. Who should we be contacting besides Sexton?
Joel, NYU alum
I’m an alum, class of 2005, who was involved in the Kick Coke campaign, GSOC student support, anti-war organizing and various other campaigns to piss off John Sexton and company.I’ve been emailing with a group of folks who were all in SCRC, earth matters and other groups who would like to stop by over the weekend. We’d like to bring food, or whatever you need. Anything specific? Will we be able to get through to you guys? I imagine the security situation is pretty tight. Please give me a call.Solidarity,Joel
Alex Grosskurth, Educator, Montgomery County Community College, Blue Bell, Pennsylvania
Dear Administrators,I have recently learned about efforts by NYU students to attain a greater say in the issues which affect them at your school, such as democratic governance, transparency and responsible investment. As a fellow educator, I urge you to listen to these students’ needs and demands. We must operate on the basis of respect and democracy. Failing an environment where that is possible, these students are making their voices heard.Please meet with them TODAY and NEGOTIATE with them on their demands. For the future health of your school and community, it is the absolute least you can do.Thank you,SincerelyAlex Grosskurth, EducatorMontgomery County Community CollegeBlue Bell, PA
Chris, NYU Graduate Student
I’m a grad student in Creative Writing and one of the organizers in Democratic Solidarity Committee, a Palestine solidarity student group that is part of a currently forming student coalition around Israeli divestment. Clara Green is in our group, and we’re working with a number of SCRC/Take Back NYU kids in this new coalition as well. We obviously support the Kimmel occupation and just put a statement of solidarity on our blog: dscnyu.blogspot.com. Feel free to post this on the Take Back NYU site if you wish. Good luck with the sit-in - we’ll be outside at the midnight rally tonight.Chris
hey guys, I am a graduate student in the MCC program at steinhardt. Thank you so much for doing this, you guys are amazing. whats the situation like there in regards to food, fuel etc? do you guys have access to anything, or do you need goods? i can help by bringing you guys energy fuel…
in solidarity ,
neshani
Eric Drooker, NYC artist
Wish I was there with you.
I’m pleased that [you are] not allowing school to get in the way of [your] education.I’m happy that students are finally standing up to NYU, an institution which has had a devastating effect on my neighborhood. I’m also pleased that attention is being drawn to the current situation in Gaza, another place dear to my heart.
As Fred Douglass said, “Power cedes nothing without demand.”
Keep up the good work, girl.
xxxEric
Michael Lewtin, New York City Labor Against the War
To: NYU President John Sexton; John Beckman, NYU Spokesperson; Office
of the Provost; Office of the Vice PresidentNew York City Labor Against the War denounces in the strongest possible terms the NYU administration’s deceitful and vindictive treatment of student protesters who occupied the Kimmel Center.
The administration falsely agreed to negotiate, only to detain and suspend the students’ representatives. It then forcibly removed the remaining protesters — some of whom were assaulted by NYU security — and evicted them from their dorm rooms.
These students’ nonviolent protest rightly demanded that NYU serve its student body, and that the University be financially transparent and accountable. It is particularly honorable that they demand that NYU support the people of Gaza and end all University complicity with the Israeli apartheid regime.
Their action is in the finest tradition of the civil rights, Vietnam antiwar and anti-apartheid movements. We are very proud of them.
We therefore join in demanding that NYU administration immediately:
1. Rescind suspensions, housing evictions and all other disciplinary action against the student protesters.
2. Meet the students’ demands.
Michael Letwin
Co-Convener, New York City Labor Against the War; Former President, Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW Local 2325
Anonymous, via infoshop
Dear members of Take Back NYU and other occupiers of space,
Is it cliche to begin with a quote from crimethinc? At this point, I don’t care. I’ve always thought if someone could say it better than I could, I may as well acknowledge that. When I read this morning, to my dismay, that the occupation was over, and none of your demands had been met, this quote from Expect Resistance came to mind…
“Why measure the value of any undertaking by its consequences alone? If a revolutionary effort does not succeed in immediately transfiguring the cosmos, that doesn’t mean it was a waste of time…The point is always what is happening: the process, not the product, the means, not some overriding end- that, for a few minutes or years, something beautiful is happening.”
And it’s true. I’ve thought a lot about what these types of actions mean, and maybe sometimes the victory lies in the fight itself. The idea is that in our side of the “barricades”, we can see the world we’d like to live in, at least partially. Don’t let anyone tell you that you’ve failed. You’ll see your victory in the people you’ve inspired to stand together, by standing together yourselves. You’ll see it in more student occupations that are sure to follow this one. Increasing the viability of student occupations as a tactic in the US is certainly a victory in itself. And, Solidarity means attack, so you’ll see it in the streets of DC on March 19th & 21st, as well as April 24-26th. Because it doesn’t matter if its against war, against the IMF and World Bank or against tuition hikes and war profiteering, its all the same fight.
Thanks to everyone involved in the occupation, you’ll learn the true meaning of your success in the time ahead. Until then…
With Love and Solidarity,
An inspired onlookerStatement of Solidarity
We, as the Political Science Society at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Canada, express our solidarity with fellow students at NYU. TakeBackNYU has been instrumental in showing that a mobilized and united student populace is crucial in administering effective change in the draconian policies of Universities. The demands made by TakeBackNYU are not radical; rather, they are retaliatory measures for heightened transparency in response to institutional repression. Fair Labour practices and budgetary transparency should be cornerstones and primary concerns not only among the students, but for any University. A mass mobilization of students in this capacity has not occurred since the 1960’s and it is a shining example that if students are united for a cause, anything can be accomplished. The action initiated by your coalition is but a snowflake which has the possibility to snowball into an avalanche. The time has come for students not only at NYU, but students on the international stage to coalesce and make your voice heard. In an era of decreased student participation it is imperative that we; the future of the world, unite. The violent response to peaceful occupation of students at NYU is reminiscent of an earlier time within the United States when dissenting opinions were not tolerated. The Kwantlen Political Science Society applauds your courage and demands and stands with you in resistance to a system that has been inherently unfair to the student demographic for too long. This is but the first step down a long road to democratic reform.
In Solidarity,
Secretary of KPSS, Bhupinder Mandair
Kwantlen Political Science Society
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Surrey, British Columbia
Canada
Dear NYU occupiers,
Revolution USA would like to offer our solidarity with the student occupation. We unconditionally support the current increase in student activism, from Britain to the USA. We condemn the university administration and police’s strong arm removal of protesters from the Kimmel Center cafeteria. This is not the first occupation to have suffered police brutality; occupiers at Nottingham University in Britain were dragged out like dogs. Even as we speak there are talks of other occupations across the United States and we would like to offer some demands and recommendations:
* A new radical student union independent of the administration and State; based on grassroots actions, and self-financing. These unions must practice democratic procedure and offer an anti-capitalist critique of the current system, i.e., education as a right not a privilege, the cancellation of student debt, etc.
* National student organizing committees, where representatives from occupied universities meet and discuss national actions. This cannot exist in this movement alone, it must be a permanent feature of the American student movement. In France students use this structure to great success, for example around the CPE laws in 2006, where students and radical youth defeated what would have been an oppressive law.
* For American universities to twin with universities in Gaza, e.g., the Islamic university that was leveled by Israeli fighter jets.
* A student controlled body on every university campus in the United States that can oversee divestment from corporations who conduct business with Israel, and have a say in how tuition dollars are spent. Your money, your school! You should know how it is spent.
REVOLUTION USA notes and applauds the NYU occupation for the being the first to recognize the state of higher education in the United States, and the military action in Gaza. It is of up most importance for students across the world to understand the bigger picture: that global capitalism is responsible for your hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debt as well as the murder and exploitation of millions world wide.
Comradely,
REVOLUTION USA
Dear Students and Supporters of Take Back NYU!:
We, the members of Students for Justice in Palestine at The George Washington University would like to express our support and solidarity in your courageous act of peaceful resistance to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza . We sincerely commend the attention you have drawn to the Palestinian plight and find inspiration to continue the struggle against the illegal occupation of Palestine at our own campus.
We are shocked and alarmed by the way the NYU faculty has responded to your peaceful protest and demands for justice. Your suspension and the failure of NYU to address your concerns shows a troubling disregard for the university to democratically deal with a peaceful movement for basic human rights.
We stand with you all in solidarity and urge NYU to re-instate and free you all from disciplinary action and fully meet your fair demands. We offer whatever support we can and assure you all that we, and people all around the world, will continue the struggle for a Free Palestine.
In Solidarity and Peace,
Students for Justice in Palestine at The George Washington University
Hello, guys
My name is Yevgeniy. I study at the American University Central Asia (AUCA). That’s in Kyrgyzstan, which is in Central Asia.
Our university is considered an affiliation of the Indiana University.
Although we have some similarities with our Big brother, internal laws are different.
For example, we did not have a trade union until recently. In 2008 fall semester our local teachers had their pay inexplicably cut. And a number of foreign teachers, most of them from US, had their pay package decreased also inexplicably.
The university journalists were not welcome at the meeting held this February. The meeting was organized by the Trade Union representatives to deal issues with the administration.
We are not aware of the university’s budget. We don’t even know how Student Senate is spending its budgetary money. Access to get any pertinent information was repeatedly denied by both the administration and Student Senate.
I appear to be editing the independet newsletter together with another guy. WE are sophomores of Journalism Department. Recently our articles denouncing such a policy conducted by the Student Senate was attacked by the latter and they sued us. It’s gonna be a university trial with a plaintiff being the Student Senate and Student Coordinator on Saturday.
We express our solidarity with your movement and ask your support to us. You inspired us and encourage to act actively to demand fiscal transparency of both bodies.
We want to see university and the Senate’s budget.
We urgently need your assistance in terms of what we should do. Because it’s difficult to push at the AUCA. We have an email: auca. challenge@gmail.com