March 1st, 2012, Day of Action and General Assembly: Strike, Occupy, Escalate

Students, workers, and community members in California have called for a day of action on March 1st, which the New York City All Students Assembly has endorsed. Those involved in the CUNY General Assembly also wish to support this call, but believe that it needs to have an explicit goal of escalating tactics–in particular, through strikes, occupations, and other activity directed at shutting down and transforming our universities and workplaces. Therefore, we call on the CUNY community to participate in the March 1st day of action and, in addition, to come together that evening for a General Assembly in order to further discuss, plan, and coordinate these actions.

On November 21st, 2011, the CUNY community attempted to peacefully protest the Board of Trustees; in response we were attacked with batons, some of us were arrested, and our demands were ignored. This is not the first time that the administration, with help from the NYPD, has attacked us for speaking out against a fundamentally oppressive system. The CUNY community has a long history of struggle–whether it be protesting against budget cuts and tuition increases, protesting against wars and the use of the school ranking system for the draft, or demanding open admissions to educate all the people of New York, including people of color–and the administration has tried to silence us every time. We look to these struggles for strength, but also recognize that we need to continue to be creative and engage in new forms of action.

It is in light of this political situation, the continued assault on an already broken educational system, and the ineffectiveness of our previous protest attempts that we call for this day of action in order to escalate our tactics and collectively take back control over our schools and lives.

To endorse, email: CUNYwidega@gmail.com

An Open Letter to the ‘All NYC Student Occupation’ from Autonomous CUNY Students

November 23rd, 2011

Dear All NYC Student Occupiers,

We an autonomous group of CUNY students who were in attendance at the events of November 21st at 90 Fifth Avenue, have a personal and collective responsibility to call upon the members of the ‘All City Student Occupation’ for their autonomous and collective actions, which had a detrimental effect on our hopes for mutual solidarity within the occupation. The following events did occur between the hours of 9:00pm and 8:00am:

1. A four hour-long General Assembly took place involving all city students during which proposals were consensed upon and lively and respectful dialogue took place about the politics of the occupied space.
2. Following the GA small groups of individuals began to hold meetings behind closed doors, no announcements were made as to what these meetings were about, if and or why they were not open to the general occupants.
3. Between the hours of 2:00am and 3:00am an emergency ‘General Assembly’ was announced by those attending the close door meeting, for which people were awaken and brought to a meeting space.
4. A person stood on top of the windowsill and introduced themselves as a lawyer. They began a fiery and emotionally charged speech by which we were informed that our ability to hold onto the occupied space was now in jeopardy because of legally binding fire codes of the building we were in.
5. This lawyer then declared that we had to immediately follow the instructions of the non-introduced and unknown decision making body who came to this tactical decision.
6. We were told that in the wake of police brutality against the Occupy Movement–in particular, the earlier confrontation of the NYPD and Baruch College campus police of CUNY student protesters at the public Board of Trustees hearing that was held at 5:00PM on 11/22/11, we needed to change the nature of the occupation immediately, so as to comply with the now mentioned fire codes and avoid police antagonism. This restriction included access of the space to the broader New York City community, number of occupants, and finally, the restriction of previously intended uses of the space resulting in 90 Fifth Avenue no longer resembling anything close to a political occupation.
7. We were told that all actions leading up to this decision were the most rational response of a few people ‘in the know’ who could act quickly and effectively during a time-sensitive moment of ‘crisis’. We are familiar with this tactic; however, as CUNY students, we were particularly disturbed by the use of scare tactics and tokenism of CUNY’s current place in the movement to achieve the desired proposal of cleaning out the space to reflect the fire code.
8. The CUNY representatives of the occupation were outraged to hear a level of consideration for our struggle used to strategically force the hand of the occupation in the favor of a small number of occupiers, who we felt had already made the decision as to how the situation would play out for the rest of the early morning.
9. Immediately following these orders, concerns rang out by mostly members of our CUNY contingency, who felt an incredible level of discomfort with what had just taken place and a demand for an actual General Assembly (consensus-driven facilitation and stack taker in all) to immediately occur to address these grievances.
10. What followed was one of the most disrespectful, antagonistic and aggressive General Assemblies that any of us had witnessed or been subject to before.
11. We the CUNY representatives of the occupation, as well as non-CUNY occupiers within the space, called into question the highly undemocratic nature of what appeared to be a shadow decision-making body within the ‘All City Student Occupation’. We demanded that other possible tactical options in response to the Fire Marshall visit be discussed, explored and consented upon. We demanded that our voices be listened to and accounted for amongst the rest of the occupiers.
12. Our voices were silenced, our concerns left unaccounted for, our reasoning for questioning what the decision making processes were villainized, our persons antagonized and the space surrounding our bodies yet again, reminded us that we were not safe.

We call upon the members of the ‘All City Student Occupation’ to heed your own words. In your Solidarity Statement to us, the students of CUNY, on Nov. 22nd, in reference to the Board of Trustees, you stated: “This appointed body is unaccountable, undemocratic, and therefore illegitimate” As well as the banner that hangs on the wall of our occupation that reads: “This is NOT a New School Occupation.” With this, we ask of you to redress your commitment to non-hierarchical, and participatory democratic based organization. We ask that you not defend the actions of aggressive and divisive individuals because they are autonomous, rather reclaim your responsibility to one another as a collective body. We ask that you acknowledge and take immediate efforts to address the deeply entrenched systems of privilege and oppression in the occupation that our buried in all of our hearts because we cannot escape our history. In the same way we must address our internalized racism, classism, ableism, sexism, heterosexism, trans and homophobia as well as other internalized systems of oppression and privilege, we must acknowledge that even in radical and thoughtful movements we still play out these same old systematic modes of behavior that are repressive and not in line with our own rhetoric.

We demand the implementation of an inclusive CUNY community caucus, a CUNY-led component of the safer spaces working group, as well as continuous direct action training devoted to ensuring the education of our community on the safety tactics that can be used in situations of (un)documentation of immigrant status, queer, trans and gender non-conforming people, women and other marginalized voices that make up our university. The prioritization of these realities should also be taken into account when implementing the ‘progressive stack’ process that is upheld during any General Assembly or working group meeting within the occupation. These physical efforts to achieve direct democracy and transparency within our space will ensure the return of our CUNY contigency for the remainder of the occupation and lend a significant hand in the overall success of the relocated All NYC Student Occupation at 2 w13th Street.

We believe in the power of our unity as a student movement in the context of the national and global movement at large, but more importantly we understand the weight of our failure when we turn against each other.

Another world is possible. Escalate your possibilities. Expand your unity. Let us decolonize our own occupations.

In Solidarity,

Autonomous CUNY Students

CUNY-Wide General Assembly

Sunday, Nov 27th, 3:00pm

Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/events/204277086315569/
Subways
#1 train to Broadway and 125th Street, then walk two blocks to St. Mary’s

A, B, C, D trains to St. Nicholas Avenue and 125th Street, then walk (or take the bus) three blocks to St. Mary’s

Buses on 125th Street
Bx 15, M60, M100, M101, M106

Buses on Amsterdam Avenue
M11, M100, M101

Buses on Broadway
M4, M5

Board of Trustees Protest and Police Brutality (11/21/11)

CUNY Faculty Statement of Support

We faculty members of The City University of New York (CUNY) would
like to express our solidarity with Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and the
nascent student movement it has helped galvanize at CUNY. We support
the movement’s stand against the structural inequalities that lead to
the concentration of power and wealth in the hands of the few and
against austerity measures taken during the recent economic downturn.
The costs of this crisis and current social order constitute a harsh
reality for many New Yorkers and especially CUNY students because our
student body has always been the 99%: working-class people of all
colors with a strong commitment to education and democracy. The
increasing tuition costs and growing debt burden foisted upon students
undermines not only CUNY’s institutional goals, but also our students’
very futures.

This is why we support the student strike organized by our students on
Thursday November 17, along with the protests on November 21 against
the prospect of tuition hikes to be decided on by the Board of
Trustees.

Please forward to other faculty. To sign the statement, write to
NSmith@gc.cuny.edu.

The Time for Action is Now!

The Time For Action Is Now (Occupy CUNY) from ivarad on Vimeo.

CUNY-Wide General Assembly

General Assemblies on other CUNY Campuses

General Assemblies are starting to develop across CUNY campuses. If you are helping to build a General Assembly on your campus and want to post information or minutes here, please contact the website administer or comment below: CUNYhunterGA@gmail.com

Letter to Chancellor Goldstein regarding the refusal to allow the General Assembly to happen in the Hunter Public Lobby

Sign the petition: http://www.signon.org/sign/rights-for-cuny-students

I feel compelled to inform you of the egregious denial of student rights that myself and about 50-60 other CUNY students experienced while attempting to hold the first CUNY General Assembly last Friday, October 12, at Hunter College in order to discuss issues that affect us all as students in this university system.

The meeting began around 4pm by the black sculpture outside of the West Building, immediately it began to rain.  We decided to take cover by the windows of the bookstore, but as soon as we were comfortable there (sitting on the floor), the entire ground became wet with runoff, and again we decided to move, this time indoors to the public lobby of Hunter West.  One young woman went before the group to inform security that we were coming in to get out of the rain, she was first informed that only Hunter students would be allowed to enter, which didn’t make any sense since any CUNY student is allowed to enter any CUNY campus, then a Hunter student attempted to enter and he was denied access.  At that point, I observed the first young woman speaking with a man in plain clothes inside, I entered the building and listened as she excoriated him for denying her access since she was a third generation CUNY student.  After her exchange, I introduced myself to this man as a graduate student from Hunter and also as a NY State Court Officer by presenting my badge and ID.  I asked him on what grounds he was denying CUNY students the right to use a public lobby in a facility that they pay for.  He answered that he would not allow us to enter because he wouldn’t allow us to be a disruption.  In response, I said that if it was a Wednsday and there were 100 people in the lobby and 100 people past the turnstiles with people coming and going that it would be loud in here, and we weren’t going to be loud. If we were inside then only one person would need to speak at a time because we would be indoors and everyone would be able to hear.  He repeated his original sentiment that he would not allow us to be a disruption.  I then asked him for his name and title, which he said was Lou Mader, The Head Of Public Safety and Relations.  I thanked him for his time, and I went back outside where the GA was underway, except it was being conducted right in front of the doors, so Mr. Mader who is in charge of all the safety of the campus preferred to have us block the entrance and exit way, potentially causing a fire hazard than allow us indoors of a building that we pay tuition to use.

I have researched Hunters website on Public Safety and I read the  Rules and Regulations for the maintenance of public order pursuit to article 129A of the education law.  It states, “The tradition of the university as a sanctuary of academic freedom and center of informed discussion is an honored one, to be guarded vigilantly. The basic significance of that sanctuary lies in the protection of intellectual freedoms; the rights of professors to teach, of scholars to engage in the advancement of knowledge, of students to learn and to express their views, free from external pressures or interference. These freedoms can flourish only in an atmosphere of mutual respect, civility and trust among teachers and students, only when members of the university community are willing to accept self-restraint and reciprocity as the condition upon which they share in its intellectual autonomy.

Academic freedom and the sanctuary of the university campus extend to all who share these aims and responsibilities. They cannot be invoked by those who would subordinate intellectual freedom to political ends, or who violate the norms of conduct established to protect that freedom. Against such offenders the university has the right, and indeed the obligation, to defend itself. We accordingly announce the following rules and regulations to be in effect at each of our colleges which are to be administered in accordance with the requirements of due process as provided in the bylaws of The City University of New York:

1.  A member of the academic community shall not intentionally obstruct and/or forcibly prevent others from the exercise of their rights. Nor shall he/she interfere with the institutions educational process or facilities, or the rights of those who wish to avail themselves of any of the institution s instructional, personal, administrative, recreational, and community services.

2.  Individuals are liable for failure to comply with lawful directions issued by representatives of the university/college when they are acting in their official capacities. Members of the academic community are required to show their identification cards when requested to do so by an official of the college.

3.  Each member of the academic community or an invited guest has the right to advocate his position without having to fear abuse, physical, verbal, or otherwise from others supporting conflicting points of view. Members of the academic community and other persons on the college grounds, shall not use language or take actions reasonably likely to provoke or encourage physical violence by demonstrators, those demonstrated against or spectators.”

Clearly, our academic freedom was denied, as well as our rightful access to our campus facilities.  I urge you, Chancellor, to address this egregious violation of your students rights–students that pay your salary, students that are upset with many issues regarding their education and subsequent livelihood.  This–happening–is only a microcosm of an awakening that is occurring around the world.  We expect more students to attend each General Assembly, and for it to take hold in all CUNY schools.  Please listen to your students grievances, please help us create a better CUNY system that gives credence to those that help to sustain it through their tuition.  Thank you for taking the time to read this letter of vital importance.

Sincerely,

Shane Strassberg

Anthropology Graduate Student

Hunter College

USMC

Semper Fidelis

The Call For a General Assembly

Students at Hunter, one of the CUNY schools, called for a Hunter General Assembly on 10/06/11. That weekend the proposal was brought to the All-City assembly organized by Occupy Wall St. where is was decided to have a CUNY-wide general assembly instead of a Hunter-specific one. The assembly was open to all CUNY students, workers, adjuncts, community members and allies.

Minutes of the General Assembly will be posted.

Contact: CUNYhunterGA@gmail.com