When you get Columbia, when you get Paris, get the media, tell the world
what you're doing, what you're planning and why and how you're going to
do it, how they can help, keep the news going, steady, you've got 70
years of media influence (mass media) that you have to fight is a wall
that you have to break through, somehow, to reach the instinctive man
who struggles like a plant for light, for air // when you take over a
city, a campus, you take over the stations energy, water, transport,
forget to negotiate, forget how to negotiate, don't wait for De Gaulle
or Kirk to resign, they won't, you don't "protest" , fight a war, fight
to win, don't wait for it Johnson or Humphrey or Rockefeller to agree to
your terms, take what you need, "it's free because it's yours"
-Diane Di Prima, Revolutionary Letter #15
On April 23, 1968 hundreds of Columbia students occupied Hamilton Hall,
holding Provost Coleman hostage. In the following days, five campus
buildings were occupied. The sit-ins demanded Columbia halt a
construction project that would have helped gentrify Harlem, end a
secret CIA-funded research program, and grant amnesty to protesting
students. The occupations were finally ended on April 29, when the New
York City police raided the occupied buildings, resulting in
approximately seven hundred arrests. In response, faculty went on strike
and the campus was closed for the remainder of the semester. New squats
on campus and in the surrounding neighborhood sprung up in the following
weeks. Eventually the Columbia administration gave in to almost all of
the squatters' demands. What follows are some lessons from April 1968
that might be useful today, now that university occupations have
re-emerged as a tactic in the movement to stop the genocide in Gaza.
I. Occupies are effective because they are disruptive . The April 1968
sit-ins shut down the entire university for over a week. This forced the
administration to give in to the squatters' demands, even as the
movement faced repression.
II. An occupation must spread to survive. New buildings must be occupied
on campus, across the city and across the country. Surprise the enemy.
Strive for daily or even hourly successes, no matter how small. Maintain
the moral high ground at all costs - your moral edge.
III. Every occupation is a community. By interrupting the "normal" flow
of capitalist society, it makes room for something new to emerge. A
space is created to experiment with how we might live differently. Share
everything . Within the occupation, there is no individual property.
Break the barriers . Inside the occupation, social status and jobs are
meaningless.
"The point of Columbia in '68 was that if you were inside one of the
occupied buildings, you had the same power as anyone else. It didn't
matter who you were, what you studied, who your parents were, if you got
a scholarship or if you paid for yourself or if you weren't even a
student. None of these things mattered when it came to our daily lives
inside the (occupied) School of Mathematics. Everyone was equal..."
IV. All movements come face to face with the divisions of capitalist
society. This is even more true in squatting, as it is directly a
question of living together. But grappling with this limit can be done
in a way that contributes to the momentum of the movement rather than
devouring it. The 1968 occupations immediately confronted issues of race
and gender. Black and white students occupied separate buildings. But by
organizing themselves, black students contributed to the strength of the
entire movement. The determination and discipline of the black students
who occupied Hamilton Hall inspired the rest of the student occupiers to
become more determined. Within each occupation, efforts were made to
overcome the gendered division of labor. Guarding and cooking were done
by people of all sexes. The toilets were declassified.
V. The spread of occupied spaces requires space for the spread of
autonomous initiatives. Every trend in the movement will have to find
the confidence to organize and act. As new settlements opened in 1968,
each acquired its own distinct characteristics and culture. The
Mathematics building, for example, was known to be the most "militant"
and had the largest percentage of outsiders.
VI. Occupants draw strength from the specter of rebellion. The April
1968 sit-ins took place immediately after the "Big Week" of riots in
surrounding neighborhoods and cities across the country following the
assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Campus administrators, city
officials and the police department worried that any attempt to crack
down on the squats could lead to unrest in the surrounding
neighborhood-Harlem could invade Columbia. An occupation today will be
in a stronger position if it is similarly able to build and mobilize the
support of the surrounding neighborhood.
VII. So the first task is to open the campus to the community. Students
from other campuses, residents of the surrounding neighborhood and
external allies should be welcome. In April 1968, five hundred people
marched through the gate at 116th St & Broadway. The New York Police
backed down for fear of violent incidents breaking out. A similar tactic
may be necessary today.
VIII. The future belongs to the brave. It is unclear whether a majority
of the campus or the city supported the sit-ins while they were
happening. But polls show a large majority in Columbia claimed to
support them in retrospect. No one wants to be on the wrong side of
history. But initiative is needed to overcome inertia. Boldness clears
away the clouds of confusion. Bold actions win support, even in retrospect.
IX. Form committees. Once you occupy a building, organize yourself
around practical tasks. In 1968, a defense committee built barricades
and coordinated the night guard shift. A liaison committee established
communication between the squatters and with the outside world.
"We had a system of wireless, citizen band wireless, as well as
telephone communications in every building, monitored by the university.
We had three polygraphs running continuously and there were people doing
nothing during the strike but relaying on the polygraph .And there was a
big sign on the wall, a phrase from someone in Berkeley, that said "five
students and a polygraph can do more damage to a university than an army".
X. Avoid endless meetings. Accounts of the Columbia occupations
emphasize that participants spent almost all of their time in
round-the-clock meetings. This was intended to ensure equal
participation and real communication. Recent experience has shown that
general meetings often demoralize and stifle initiative.
XI. This is just the beginning. A number of revolutionary organizations
emerged from the occupy movement of 1968. Pushing the university
struggle to its limits could similarly contribute to the production of a
complex of revolutionary forces in the city today.
XII. "Two, three, many Columbias". Then as now, it will take the opening
of new fronts and the deployment of increasingly disruptive tactics,
such as building occupations, to put the emergency brakes on the war
machine.
XIII. The sit-in movement in France the following month showed that,
under the right conditions, struggles within the university can spark a
much wider social explosion.
XIV. Smoke the president's cigars.
All power to the communities.
The proliferation of occupied spaces requires space for the
proliferation of autonomous initiatives. Every trend in the movement
will have to find the confidence to organize and act.
Source: First we take Columbia
Lessons from the April 1968 occupation movement
https://illwill.com/columbia
https://landandfreedom.gr/el/diethni/1594-first-take-columbia
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
what you're doing, what you're planning and why and how you're going to
do it, how they can help, keep the news going, steady, you've got 70
years of media influence (mass media) that you have to fight is a wall
that you have to break through, somehow, to reach the instinctive man
who struggles like a plant for light, for air // when you take over a
city, a campus, you take over the stations energy, water, transport,
forget to negotiate, forget how to negotiate, don't wait for De Gaulle
or Kirk to resign, they won't, you don't "protest" , fight a war, fight
to win, don't wait for it Johnson or Humphrey or Rockefeller to agree to
your terms, take what you need, "it's free because it's yours"
-Diane Di Prima, Revolutionary Letter #15
On April 23, 1968 hundreds of Columbia students occupied Hamilton Hall,
holding Provost Coleman hostage. In the following days, five campus
buildings were occupied. The sit-ins demanded Columbia halt a
construction project that would have helped gentrify Harlem, end a
secret CIA-funded research program, and grant amnesty to protesting
students. The occupations were finally ended on April 29, when the New
York City police raided the occupied buildings, resulting in
approximately seven hundred arrests. In response, faculty went on strike
and the campus was closed for the remainder of the semester. New squats
on campus and in the surrounding neighborhood sprung up in the following
weeks. Eventually the Columbia administration gave in to almost all of
the squatters' demands. What follows are some lessons from April 1968
that might be useful today, now that university occupations have
re-emerged as a tactic in the movement to stop the genocide in Gaza.
I. Occupies are effective because they are disruptive . The April 1968
sit-ins shut down the entire university for over a week. This forced the
administration to give in to the squatters' demands, even as the
movement faced repression.
II. An occupation must spread to survive. New buildings must be occupied
on campus, across the city and across the country. Surprise the enemy.
Strive for daily or even hourly successes, no matter how small. Maintain
the moral high ground at all costs - your moral edge.
III. Every occupation is a community. By interrupting the "normal" flow
of capitalist society, it makes room for something new to emerge. A
space is created to experiment with how we might live differently. Share
everything . Within the occupation, there is no individual property.
Break the barriers . Inside the occupation, social status and jobs are
meaningless.
"The point of Columbia in '68 was that if you were inside one of the
occupied buildings, you had the same power as anyone else. It didn't
matter who you were, what you studied, who your parents were, if you got
a scholarship or if you paid for yourself or if you weren't even a
student. None of these things mattered when it came to our daily lives
inside the (occupied) School of Mathematics. Everyone was equal..."
IV. All movements come face to face with the divisions of capitalist
society. This is even more true in squatting, as it is directly a
question of living together. But grappling with this limit can be done
in a way that contributes to the momentum of the movement rather than
devouring it. The 1968 occupations immediately confronted issues of race
and gender. Black and white students occupied separate buildings. But by
organizing themselves, black students contributed to the strength of the
entire movement. The determination and discipline of the black students
who occupied Hamilton Hall inspired the rest of the student occupiers to
become more determined. Within each occupation, efforts were made to
overcome the gendered division of labor. Guarding and cooking were done
by people of all sexes. The toilets were declassified.
V. The spread of occupied spaces requires space for the spread of
autonomous initiatives. Every trend in the movement will have to find
the confidence to organize and act. As new settlements opened in 1968,
each acquired its own distinct characteristics and culture. The
Mathematics building, for example, was known to be the most "militant"
and had the largest percentage of outsiders.
VI. Occupants draw strength from the specter of rebellion. The April
1968 sit-ins took place immediately after the "Big Week" of riots in
surrounding neighborhoods and cities across the country following the
assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Campus administrators, city
officials and the police department worried that any attempt to crack
down on the squats could lead to unrest in the surrounding
neighborhood-Harlem could invade Columbia. An occupation today will be
in a stronger position if it is similarly able to build and mobilize the
support of the surrounding neighborhood.
VII. So the first task is to open the campus to the community. Students
from other campuses, residents of the surrounding neighborhood and
external allies should be welcome. In April 1968, five hundred people
marched through the gate at 116th St & Broadway. The New York Police
backed down for fear of violent incidents breaking out. A similar tactic
may be necessary today.
VIII. The future belongs to the brave. It is unclear whether a majority
of the campus or the city supported the sit-ins while they were
happening. But polls show a large majority in Columbia claimed to
support them in retrospect. No one wants to be on the wrong side of
history. But initiative is needed to overcome inertia. Boldness clears
away the clouds of confusion. Bold actions win support, even in retrospect.
IX. Form committees. Once you occupy a building, organize yourself
around practical tasks. In 1968, a defense committee built barricades
and coordinated the night guard shift. A liaison committee established
communication between the squatters and with the outside world.
"We had a system of wireless, citizen band wireless, as well as
telephone communications in every building, monitored by the university.
We had three polygraphs running continuously and there were people doing
nothing during the strike but relaying on the polygraph .And there was a
big sign on the wall, a phrase from someone in Berkeley, that said "five
students and a polygraph can do more damage to a university than an army".
X. Avoid endless meetings. Accounts of the Columbia occupations
emphasize that participants spent almost all of their time in
round-the-clock meetings. This was intended to ensure equal
participation and real communication. Recent experience has shown that
general meetings often demoralize and stifle initiative.
XI. This is just the beginning. A number of revolutionary organizations
emerged from the occupy movement of 1968. Pushing the university
struggle to its limits could similarly contribute to the production of a
complex of revolutionary forces in the city today.
XII. "Two, three, many Columbias". Then as now, it will take the opening
of new fronts and the deployment of increasingly disruptive tactics,
such as building occupations, to put the emergency brakes on the war
machine.
XIII. The sit-in movement in France the following month showed that,
under the right conditions, struggles within the university can spark a
much wider social explosion.
XIV. Smoke the president's cigars.
All power to the communities.
The proliferation of occupied spaces requires space for the
proliferation of autonomous initiatives. Every trend in the movement
will have to find the confidence to organize and act.
Source: First we take Columbia
Lessons from the April 1968 occupation movement
https://illwill.com/columbia
https://landandfreedom.gr/el/diethni/1594-first-take-columbia
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten