Friday, November 20, 2009

Occupy!

I will admit to not initially paying as much attention to the current student struggles as they may have warranted. Often times, student struggle is a progressive ghetto with a fast track to bourgeois liberalism.


Some very exciting and unprecedented things are happening in the entire UC system and world in relation to radical student struggle against the privatization of education as well as capital in general.

The main tactics implored are demand-less student, faculty, and worker occupations of spaces on campus.
These occupations have either looked like the ones at the New School in New York City in the spring and the UCSC Graduate student commons occupation on Sept 24th (i.e. a hard locked down occupation by a smaller number of people) or the "european style soft occupation" like the ones blooming all through out Europe right now - a mass number of people literally taking over a space, keeping the doors open and free flowing, but always having enough people inside so it cannot be broken up.

This method of direct action has become exactly what it should be: a necessary component of a bigger struggle, realized and actualized by a large not necessarily radical majority.
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During the UC Berkeley Strike, Doug Gilbert was targeted specifically as an anarchist.
Upon leaving the rally, police on bicycles followed him down Telegraph Avenue. Inside of a local restaurant, police violently confronted two comrades, before proceeding to the back of the establishment and arresting Doug while in the restroom. Berkeley CopWatch filmed the arrest. When they asked police what this comrade was being arrested for, the pigs responded “he can tell you later.”
One of the supposed progressive student organizers pointed him out to the UC Police.
Doug G., is now sitting in jail with two felony charges and $15,000 bail for "inciting a riot".

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A major issue regarding our educational system is what the universities do with tuition money. Instead of putting
it towards instruction, they use tuition as collateral bonds for construction projects and as a way to get really good interest rates.



Major thanks go out to Bryan for all the info and links. Stay strong!

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