Thursday, February 19, 2009

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

1 comment:

  1. The "general uprising" in Oakland was really a community action that was co-opted and ruined by White anarchists from other cities and communities. Not only did they wreck locally owned businesses, but they changed the meaning and importance of Oscar Grant's legacy to better suit their own agenda.

    So whose power are you proud of?
    The citizens who met and marched peacefully to bring justice to a tragic circumstance? Or the power of young "progressives" to force themselves on others without conscience?

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