Saturday 21 February 2009

NYU Occupation Ends With Expulsions and Violence, St. Andrews and Manchester Still Going

The NYU Occupation has ended under outrageous circumstances. Participating students were evicted from their residences, while a few who were occupying the building were offered negotiations, then were instead taken away by security guards and served with explusion papers. No negotiations took place.

To complain about the underhanded quelling of this peaceful protest:
Contact NYU Housing to complain about student evictions:
Phone: 212-998-4600
email: housing@nyu.edu

Here is a short YouTube video covering the NYU Occupation, and here is a video where rallying students clashed with the police.

The Occupation has also put up a beautifully written statement on their website, which ends with the one word that perfectly encapsulates the sentiment of Take Back NYU!, as well as all the student occupations happening around the world: "Onward." Glad to hear it, and solidarity to everyone involved!

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The St. Andrews Occupation is going strong, having had what sounds like a friendly meeting with the Principal. Unfortunately, more negotiating will have to happen next week before a resolution will be reached, but at least the management seems keen to have a proper negotiation with the students of the occupation, which is more than can be said about too many of the other university managers.

Keep up to date with the St. Andrews Occupation at their blog.

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At 18 days, the Manchester Occupation is the longest-running of these student occupations so far. The management continues to ignore the demands of the occupying students, but as it can be read on their blog, the students are nowhere near giving up. They have called out for a demo to support the student occupation, to demand that the Chancellor listens to them, and to support the people of Gaza:

“Now 2 weeks on, University of Manchester students have occupied key buildings in the heart of the campus. The occupation has seen an unprecedented amount of support from students and academics alike most notably in an emergency general meeting in which over a thousand students attended to overwhelmingly support a motion to stand in solidarity with the people of Gaza. Entering their 18th day, the occupation is still strong in both numbers and spirit. The next focus is to pressure the university administration to accede to our reasonable demands but the arrogant and uncomprimising Vice Chancellor (send complaints to president@manchester.ac.uk) has failed to make any concessions for the student body claiming that the university cannot take a political position. But given the universities unethical investments in the arms trade, such an action is a political position. Notorious for his history at Melbourne University, he refused to engage in an open and just dialogue with the students of the occupation even threatening to take away the right to protest!
A DEMONSTRATION HAS BEEN CALLED TO DEMAND THE CHANCELLOR LISTEN TO US: FOR THE STUDENTS, FOR GAZA!”
** THE DEMO STARTS AT **
** MARCH 4TH 2PM @ MANCHESTER STUDENTS UNION **

Solidarity to the Manchester Occupation! Their spirit and dedication is an inspiration to all of us here at Sussex.