A Statement from the Occupiers
What They Wanted, What Went Wrong, and What Comes Next
Wednesday, November 30th, 2011
We are a group of students who acted to establish the occupation of the Study Center at 90 Fifth Ave. that began on Thursday, November 17. Our enthusiasm for the occupation was grounded in our ambitions to open an autonomous space in support of the Occupy movement, which recently had a hasty eviction from Zuccotti Park. We wanted to secure a base for connecting protests and struggles across the city, giving impetus for the further development of the burgeoning student movement. Our intention was to open a self-organized and non-institutional 24-hour space in which people could organize activities and teach-ins and discuss the current state and role of the higher education system. Moreover, we wanted to create an autonomous space to facilitate political debate and discussion, as well as have radical and experimental forms of education that were all-inclusive and open to the public.
Regardless of our personal beliefs, it became clear that the 90 Fifth Ave. occupation had not galvanized enough support from the wider community of students and stakeholders. Despite the many positive teach-ins, workshops and discussions the space had fostered in such a short time, the occupation unfortunately was becoming self-referential and trapped in a futile logistical effort to preserve a space soon to be lost, and lack of regard for outreach caused the occupation to drive away more people than it brought together. The focus on just maintaining the space itself as an occupation for occupation’s sake was the opposite of its founding intention. With our original political goals in mind, we supported the decision to accept the administration’s offer to move to the Kellen Gallery, which was approved by the GA on Tuesday, November 22. For us, the occupation should have ended that day. Although the limits of the space were apparent, we thought that the move to the gallery could give us the opportunity to work with more inclusive and experimental forms of action and debate, build a stronger connection with the Occupy movement, and contribute to the advancement of the student movement.
We condemn the vandalism of both the 90 Fifth Ave. Study Center and the Kellen Gallery. Let us be absolutely clear: We do not denounce the graffiti found at either space because we universally abhor graffiti or moralistically “draw the line” as ethical protesters, sick at the sight of damage to private property. NO: We denounce as “vandalism” what was a specific willful assault — not on the administration of the university, not on bourgeois property, and not on the workings of capital — but on the autonomy of the political space being shared and created by all participants of the occupation. The graffiti of the few did not liberate the space; on the contrary, it only made the space feel as if it belonged to those few and not to all of us. These “autonomous actions” of individuals’ scrawling on the walls amounted to empty tactics, not substantive politics. There is a clear distinction between articulating violence within a political cause and employing an empty tactic that results in clichéd aesthetic imitation of what the few think the revolutionary vanguard should look like. Despite the graffiti’s constant prevention of political debate, the few could not think past their own immediate satisfaction and failed to collectively develop a political movement.
We reject what rejects the possibility of doing politics productively.
We would like to see the development of a larger and more inclusive student movement, which focuses on concrete actions and political discussion rather than merely reinforcing ideological divisions. For this reason we would like to be part of a movement committed to both direct participation and real democracy.
A student movement is necessary because the system of higher education in the United States is a tool for the reproduction of race, gender and class inequalities, and hierarchically organized power relations. We are therefore interested in connecting a critique of the education system to a critique of capitalist social relations. We also think that the theoretical and practical critique of sexism and racism are and should be a fundamental part of the critique of capital.
We would like to work in strong coordination with the NYC All-Student Assembly. Our immediate goals are to support the student struggle against tuition hikes at CUNY, join the campaign against rising student debt, participate in protests against police brutality, support workers’ strikes in NYC, organize teach-ins and debates, and experiment with new and more inclusive forms of political action and discussion. For these reasons we support the March for Jobs and Economic Fairness on December 1 organized by NYC-CLC, the day of action against foreclosures organized by OWS on December 6, and the day of the Port Blockade organized by Occupy Oakland, Los Angeles, San Diego, Tacoma and Portland on December 12.
Finally, and this is our greatest hope: a nation-wide student movement and free education for all.
Signed,
Dan Boscov-Ellen
Hannes Charen
Aaron Jaffe
Sophie Lewis
Erin Schell
Kyle Stone
Brad Young
Regardless of our personal beliefs, it became clear that the 90 Fifth Ave. occupation had not galvanized enough support from the wider community of students and stakeholders. Despite the many positive teach-ins, workshops and discussions the space had fostered in such a short time, the occupation unfortunately was becoming self-referential and trapped in a futile logistical effort to preserve a space soon to be lost, and lack of regard for outreach caused the occupation to drive away more people than it brought together. The focus on just maintaining the space itself as an occupation for occupation’s sake was the opposite of its founding intention. With our original political goals in mind, we supported the decision to accept the administration’s offer to move to the Kellen Gallery, which was approved by the GA on Tuesday, November 22. For us, the occupation should have ended that day. Although the limits of the space were apparent, we thought that the move to the gallery could give us the opportunity to work with more inclusive and experimental forms of action and debate, build a stronger connection with the Occupy movement, and contribute to the advancement of the student movement.
We condemn the vandalism of both the 90 Fifth Ave. Study Center and the Kellen Gallery. Let us be absolutely clear: We do not denounce the graffiti found at either space because we universally abhor graffiti or moralistically “draw the line” as ethical protesters, sick at the sight of damage to private property. NO: We denounce as “vandalism” what was a specific willful assault — not on the administration of the university, not on bourgeois property, and not on the workings of capital — but on the autonomy of the political space being shared and created by all participants of the occupation. The graffiti of the few did not liberate the space; on the contrary, it only made the space feel as if it belonged to those few and not to all of us. These “autonomous actions” of individuals’ scrawling on the walls amounted to empty tactics, not substantive politics. There is a clear distinction between articulating violence within a political cause and employing an empty tactic that results in clichéd aesthetic imitation of what the few think the revolutionary vanguard should look like. Despite the graffiti’s constant prevention of political debate, the few could not think past their own immediate satisfaction and failed to collectively develop a political movement.
We reject what rejects the possibility of doing politics productively.
We would like to see the development of a larger and more inclusive student movement, which focuses on concrete actions and political discussion rather than merely reinforcing ideological divisions. For this reason we would like to be part of a movement committed to both direct participation and real democracy.
A student movement is necessary because the system of higher education in the United States is a tool for the reproduction of race, gender and class inequalities, and hierarchically organized power relations. We are therefore interested in connecting a critique of the education system to a critique of capitalist social relations. We also think that the theoretical and practical critique of sexism and racism are and should be a fundamental part of the critique of capital.
We would like to work in strong coordination with the NYC All-Student Assembly. Our immediate goals are to support the student struggle against tuition hikes at CUNY, join the campaign against rising student debt, participate in protests against police brutality, support workers’ strikes in NYC, organize teach-ins and debates, and experiment with new and more inclusive forms of political action and discussion. For these reasons we support the March for Jobs and Economic Fairness on December 1 organized by NYC-CLC, the day of action against foreclosures organized by OWS on December 6, and the day of the Port Blockade organized by Occupy Oakland, Los Angeles, San Diego, Tacoma and Portland on December 12.
Finally, and this is our greatest hope: a nation-wide student movement and free education for all.
Signed,
Dan Boscov-Ellen
Hannes Charen
Aaron Jaffe
Sophie Lewis
Erin Schell
Kyle Stone
Brad Young
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