Although the People’s Library plans to hold a press conference tomorrow (Wednesday, April 10, at 11 AM, at 260 Madison Avenue) there is a great deal of attention on your library in the press tonight. So I wanted to round it up here and share how the story is shaping up in the media so far:
The New York Times opens with “As myriad court battles pitting the Occupy Wall Street movement against New York City agencies proceed, protesters claimed a victory on Tuesday, based not on how they were treated, but on how their books were mistreated.” read more…
The Atlantic reports “Fans of justice will be glad to hear that New York City will pay for all those books and all that media equipment that the police trashed when it famously raided the Occupy Wall Street camp on November 15, 2011.” read more…
Reuters reports “New York City has agreed to pay Occupy Wall Street protesters more than $100,000 for property damaged or lost when police cleared out their encampment in a downtown Manhattan park in 2011, according to court documents signed on Tuesday.” read more…
The Wall Street Journal uses the AP story and writes “There’s been a settlement in the lawsuit filed over the seizure of the Occupy Wall Street library at Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park.”read more…
The Village Voice says “In an agreement announced today, the City of New York will pay more than $365,000 to settle a lawsuit bought by people whose property was destroyed when the New York Police Department raided Zuccotti Park and evicted Occupy Wall Street on November 15, 2001.”read more…
Gawker writes that “Occupy Wall Street won a major legal battle earlier today when it agreed to a settlement from the city of New York that will pay the activist group over $230,000 in damages and legal fees. ” read more…
New York Magazine reports “New York City and Zuccotti Park owner Brookfield Properties have agreed to pay $366,700 to settle a lawsuit over the chaotic November 2011 police raid on the Occupy Wall Street encampment at the plaza. “read more…
Listen up, kids, this is important! Today we’re going to talk about grand juries. With a side of intellectual freedom.
Look, we’ve got three people — Matt Duran, Kteeo (Katherine Olejnik), and Leah-Lynn Plante — locked up for contempt out in Seattle, WA. They’ve all refused to testify before a grand jury.
Grand juries are one of the government’s shittiest tools for squishing dissent. They were originally intended as a way for individual citizens to bring a matter before their peers to make the government do something about it. Today, though, they are a way for the government to intimidate and punish people who make noise, without those people having any recourse. Folks get hauled into court, without having been accused of anything, and are asked a bunch of questions. They are not allowed to have an attorney with them, and the room is closed and what goes on is kept secret. They must answer the questions — the 5th Amendment, which otherwise protects us from having to testify against ourselves, does not apply. If they refuse to testify — a choice that is usually a good idea in cases of political repression — they may be jailed for up to six months for contempt, in order to coerce testimony. If after six months a person has not spoken, they can be sent back for another six months, et cetera, et cetera, until someone gives up. Remember, these folks have not even been accused, let alone convicted, of a crime in the first place. The point of a grand jury is for the government to figure out if there’s anything floating around that they can prosecute someone for.
Back on July 25, if you’ll recall, Plante and Duran were a couple of the folks in Oregon and Washington states who woke up to the early morning sounds of their doors being smashed in by federal officers. Their residences were searched by feds looking for, among other things, black clothes and anarchist literature. Yesterday, before Plante went back before the grand jury and again refused to testify, she wrote:
On the morning of July 25th, 2012, my life was turned upside down in a matter of hours. FBI agents from around Washington and Oregon and Joint Terrorism Task Force agents from Washington busted down the front door of my house with a battering ram, handcuffed my house mates and me at gunpoint, and held us hostage in our backyard while they read us a search warrant and ransacked our home. They said it was in connection to May Day vandalism that occurred in Seattle, Washington earlier this year.
However, we suspected that this was not really about broken windows. As if they had taken pointers from Orwell’s 1984, they took books, artwork and other various literature as “evidence” as well as many other personal belongings even though they seemed to know that nobody there was even in Seattle on May Day. While we know that knowledge is powerful, we suspected that nobody used rolled up copies of the Stumptown Wobbly to commit property damage. We saw this for what it was. They are trying to investigate anarchists and persecute them for their beliefs. This is a fishing expedition. This is a witch hunt. Since then, thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request, we have learned that this Grand jury was convened on March 2nd, 2012, two months before the May Day vandalism even took place…
As predicted, she was locked up after yesterday’s grand jury session. Matt has been imprisoned since September 13, including time in solitary confinement, and Kteeo since September 28. So, shit’s scary. But, we’re all in this together, and the best way to handle this is for us all to create and maintain a loving community and to take care of each other. Which is what grand jury resisters are doing, by they way — they are taking a hit for the rest of us. We should all be supporting these three, in word and deed, as much as we can, since they’re going so hard to protect our asses. Here’s some stuff you can do for Matt and Kteeo, and I’m sure there’ll be a similar round up for Leah shortly.
So, this is the Library blog, right? Let’s bring it back home. See up there where Leah writes about her house being searched? What did the feds take? Books, art. As many folks around the internet have noted, if the FBI came gunning into any of our houses they’d find black clothing and subversive literature.
Yo, feds, Senator McCarthy called, he wants his game plan back.
Aside from the 5th Amendment mentioned above, we are also supposed to be guaranteed rights of speech and press under the 1st Amendment, and the rights to free speech and assembly include freedom of association, as clarified by Supreme Court rulings. Now, I know some of us don’t truck with the idea of rights (Utah says, “The state can’t give you freedom, and the state can’t take it away. You’re born with it, like your eyes, like your ears. Freedom is something you assume, then you wait for someone to try to take it away. The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free.”), but it’s what we’ve got to work with right now.
And yet we have doors being busted down over books, and the printed word being taken away as evidence of… …something. That our three grand jury resisters hold certain political opinions, and know others with similar opinions, is enough to have gotten them into this spot in the first place. Librarians, our professional association has a lot to say about the 1st Amendment.
We’ve just come off of Banned Books Week. I hope you read something subversive! I always hope that, actually. I also hope that I don’t need to be too heavy-handed in drawing the lines between the FBI searching someone’s house for radical literature and the stuff we usually talk about when we talk about banned books. It is a matter of degree, rather than kind.
Clear your calendar and join us Friday, 10pm, September 28, 2012 at St. Marks Church for the opening night of a weekend full of events on behalf of 100,000 Poets for Change! The Poetry Project is hosting an open reading commemorating the Occupy Wall Street and the 100,000 Poets for Change communities. For those unfamiliar with 100tpc, September 29, 2012 marks the second annual global event of 100tpc, a grassroots organization that brings poets, artists and musicians (new this year) together to call for environmental, social, and political change, within the framework of peace and sustainability. The local focus is key to this global event as communities around the world raise their voices through concerts, readings, workshops, flash mobs and demonstrations that speak to the heart of their specific area of concerns, such as homelessness, ecocide, racism and censorship. This past year the Occupy Wall Street movement has been a major force diligently working for a better, more sustainable, more imaginative world, so it’s only natural that 100tpc and the poets of Occupy Wall Street join forces for the opening night of a weekend of 100tpc inspired readings (link to all the 100tpc readings happening in NYC).
In honor of the inventive spirit and the continual striving for inclusivity conducted by Occupiers this past year, the open-to-all who wish to participate reading at St. Marks Church will be held in an experimental way. The intent of this experiment is to break from the confines of routinely structured open mic nights. Instead of focusing the night on individuals confined to a time limit, the night aims to bring everyone in attendance together to create one, fantastic, long, meandering poem which encompasses everyone in attendance and focuses on the collective experience.
Upon arrival at St. Marks, poets will choose a word they feel an attachment to or a word that represents them or that they’re particularly fond of or think funny, etc – just pick a word! One word per person and one person per word (first come/ first pick). When choosing a word, please be mindful that you’re in a room full of people that also want to have a chance to read. Volunteers will ensure no one picks the same word and will prod anyone (the less imaginative poets seeking the limelight) that wants to pick a highly used word, to come up with another choice. (example words not to pick: and, or, is, the, it, your, my, a, no, yes, etc).
Choose a word that you’re pretty sure will be called. Chances are good no one will read a poem with the word glossolalia (meaning: fluent nonsense) in it, unfortunately. The word a poet chooses will be their key to read for the evening. Every time a poets’ word is read by another poet, the poet whose word was read will stand up, display their word, (which will signal the poet that was reading to stop and sit down) and then begin reading. The reading poet will continue until one of their words signals for another to begin. Please bring a range of poems and stretch that vocabulary, as every time your word is said you can/should read from a different poem or a different section of a poem already read from… the goal of the night is to get everyone reading fragments and pieces of work, with everyone’s work bleeding and melding into each others…. that said, a poet may only get one word in before the next reader begins or a poet may read 2 – 3 – 4 – 5(doubtful) poems before the next poet is signaled to begin. The amount of times and the length of time will entirely depend on the size of the crowd and words people read and chose. Hopefully this will create space for us to ruminate (in a fun and playful manner) on our interconnectedness, while we simultaneously create a completely original-communal body of work.
If someones word is never said, the poet can read a poem at the end of the night for our livestream cameras (up to three minutes// also let us know if you wish to not be filmed as we’ll have a special section of the room for you). Livestream cameras will be filming the night so people around the world can tune in. Eventually the night will be transcribed (unless a poet wishes their work be withdrawn), and the results will be posted here. However, if it’s getting late into the night and your word hasn’t been read, I’d encourage letting your neighbors know and would encourage people to create new poems as the night goes on with the words of those around you. Everyone should invest their energies into getting everyone multiple chances to add to the collective poem.
Also, as part of the night, I’m working on creating an installation of sorts, so the space has a nice feel and some decor to go along with the communal spirit we’ll hopefully all be embracing. I sent out an email to the Occupy Wall Street Poetry Anthology list serv (if you didn’t get it and want to be on the list serv please let me know – stephenjboyer@gmail{dot}com), asking poets to email me one photo of themselves or a photo that they feel represents themselves– I might use them as part of the nights installation (technology provided). So if you want a photo of yourself or one that represents you to be included in the installation (as long as everything comes together), then please email me a photo as soon as possible… I’m still accepting and hoping to receive more photos. Also on display the night of the 28th, will be a copy of the final version of the Occupy Wall Street Poetry Anthology, as well as the original versions that were in the park. A table will be set up as a communal poetry library/bookstore. Poets should bring copies of their work to give away, sell or trade (zines, chapbooks, whatever)!!! It’s up to the poet as to whether or not they want their contribution sold, shared, or for display purposes… whatever items a poet brings the night of, if it’s not gone by the end of the night please be prepared to take it home with you.
And finally! Volunteers are needed to make this night happen! All volunteers will be loved forever. And don’t worry– volunteers will fully be able to participate in the reading, so volunteers don’t have to worry about missing out on any part of the night. In fact, volunteers will have the honor of knowing they’re essential to making the night run smoothly. If you’re interested in helping with setting up the space the night of the 28th, or helping with livestream, or helping people pick/assign words upon entry, or looking after the book table (sales/distribution/ensuring books that aren’t to leave remain at the table) or if you’re available to help paint a few things a few days before the 28th or if you want to send me some ideas or moral support –please email me at stephenjboyer@gmail{dot}com.
St. Marks Church is located at 131 East 10th Street between 2nd and 3rd avenue in the East Village (google map). The reading starts at 10pm on September 28th and (crowd permitted) will run till around midnight… Really hope to see you there! And remember to wear something fun ‘cuz the night is going to be viewed by people from all over the world! There is an $8 suggested donation (helps support the Poetry Project), but no one will be turned away for lack of funds! Invite your friends! All are welcome.
And in case my explanation of the night is really confusing, here’s a more visual example of the way the night will proceed:
The following text excerpts are from the OWS Poetry Anthology -except for the second Adrienne Rich poem, which is from an article in The Nation. This was put together for example purposes only and isn’t intended to be an actual representation of the poets whose work was used.
Poet A (Adrienne Rich / chosen word is mother):
Ankles shackled
metalled and islanded
holding aloft a mirror, feral
lipstick, eye-liner
Poet B (Stephen Boyer / chosen word is eye-liner):
gazing into my crystal ball
Poet C (Jeffrey Grunthaner – chosen word is ball):
ad execs of the busyness where L-U-C-K’
s godly, & death’s even possible
by imbibing kitty emetics. O, the miser-
able remnants left on the aortic sidewalk!
Poet D (Filip Marinovich – chosen word is sidewalk):
You lose everything except your S.U.V.
even your children all 8 of them murdered
8 infinity symbol stood up straight
8 double-headed lariat noose cut loose
I fit my Gemini heads through two yellow loops
flying through deep space to meet Mother
Poet A (Adrienne Rich – chosen word is mother):
Saw you walking barefoot
taking a long look
at the new moon’s
Poet E (Ama Birch – chosen word is moon):
Dear President,
Leader of the free world,
Remember who pays your rent
Is wisdom’s pearl.
White House
Turned Brown
Cherry blossom mouse
Cheering sound.
Chopper, Chopper.
Swirling winds.
Marker, Marker.
Light ray blends.
Eggs are laid on the lawns.
You must protect your pawns.
Peoples Library librarian, Bill Scott, recently did with Free Speech TV about the OWS library lawsuit. The story begins around the 7:15 mark; my interview kicks in around the 8:00 mark.
Tomorrow! I can barely contain myself. In the meantime, here’s DA Mom’s round-up of important information for tomorrow’s actions in New York City.
The May Day NYC website has a schedule of events, list of participating organizations, links to other locations’ actions, and other useful tidbits.
If you use Twitter, some of the hashtags to follow will be #MayDay, #M1NYC, #M1GS, #GeneralStrike, #99PKTS, #May1, #OWS, #MTA, #NYPD, #NYC. Tweeters who usually have good info include @OWSTactical, @DiceyTroop, @sabokitty, @OccupySteve, @_girlalex, @OWSBC, @PoweredByCats, @occutine, @TimCast, @OccupyWallSt, @OccupyWallStNYC. Your dear librarians tweet, as always, from @OWSLibrary.
Streamers work from two places, UStream and LiveStream. On UStream, try stopmotionsolo, pinkladies, timcast, occupiedair, or owsnyclive. On LiveStream, try owshdtv.
Enough of that. On to dressing and packing! It’s going to be a long day, the weather might not be great, there’s going to be a lot of long walks, and the cops are going to be heavy-handed. That said, some of your decisions can be made based on your risk level; if you’ll be in green zones all day you might dress differently than if you’ll be going red. A longer check-list is here. My advice:
Comfy, sturdy, water-proof or -resistant shoes, such as hiking boots.
Full-length pants.
A couple upper-body layers that are breathable & will still keep you warm if damp. I’ll be wearing light wool.
It might rain in the morning, consider a light rain coat that can be stuffed in a bag when the weather clears.
If you have the space, carry some clothes that allow you to khaki-flage or go civilian. Or, dress that way in the first place. For example, I might pack a blouse and a pair of loafers, and wear corduroys instead of jeans. That way I can look “normal” in a rush-hour crowd or look business-casual if I end up doing jail support later in the day.
Do not bring anything that you aren’t ok with loosing.
Do not wear contact lenses. Really.
Don’t wear earrings, necklaces, etc. that could be grabbed and ripped off.
Don’t wear makeup or put on lotion — pepper spray sticks to it.
Wear long hair so that it can’t easily be grabbed, such as in a bun.
Smaller bags, worn close to the body, are better. Harder to grab, and lighter.
Water and calorie-dense snacks (Clif Bars, nuts, dried fruit, pastries).
If you expect to be in yellow or red zones, consider a couple bandanas (mind the masking laws!), leather work gloves, air-tight goggles. Some of this stuff is really specific to the kinds of less-than-lethal weapons your local police force likes to use; for example, tear gas canisters are hot, so you need gloves to throw them back handle them, but aren’t a thing we’ve seen NYPD use. [By the way, canisters are easily dealt with by either putting a bucket over them or submersing them in water. Just saying.]
Cell phone & camera. Bring an extra battery and charging cables.
Carry a valid government-issued ID, if you have one. You don’t legally have to, but you might get out of jail faster.
DO NOT bring anything that can incriminate you or people connected to you. Weapons, drugs you don’t have a prescription for (bring a doctor’s note or prescription if you have legal drugs), your address book, etc. Delete interesting photos from your phone or camera. If you are arrested the cops will go through all your stuff very carefully.
There’re a few important phone numbers. These are New York City specific. The National Lawyers Guild (those are the folks in the green hats) is 212-679-6018. Jail Support Coordination is 774-257-4697. Medic dispatch is 917-727-8621. If you haven’t already committed the NLG number to memory, write it on yourself in Sharpie, somewhere that clothes and sweat won’t rub it off. I go with the inside of my calf. Especially if you will be in red zones, also consider writing an emergency contact number and medical info (blood type, allergies, etc) on your body, in case you get the shit beaten out of you. If you witness arrests, or are arrested yourself, call the NLG to report it. Try to get arrestees’ names, so that we can find them later at precincts and central booking. If not, give a good description, or at the very least a head-count. If someone near you is injured, yell “medic!” as loud as you can.
Lastly, we know that the cops are mostly a bunch of jerks who don’t like to uphold the law when it’s inconvenient to do so. Which means, while there are laws about where we can be and what we can do, it doesn’t mean we won’t be arrested for trying to do those supposedly legal things. Signs, standing on the sidewalk, running, dancing, saying mean things, et fucking cetera, have all gotten folks arrested lately. That said, there are some things you can do to decrease your chance of arrest, or at least give yourself a stronger case in court.
Know your rights! The NY Civil Liberties Union has a lot of information, but I’ll also sum it up for you. As we said at summer camp, this is a repeat-after-me song; as you read this paragraph, repeat the things you might have to say a few times out loud. If police stop you, ask, “Am I free to go?” If they say yes, leave; if they say no, ask “Am I being detained?” If they say no, leave; if they say yes, holler for legal and media. If cops try to search you, say, “I do not consent to this search.” They’ll probably still search you, but anything they find may not then be admissible in court. Of course, if they have a warrant, they can search you and it’ll be admissible, no matter what you say; in that case, demand to see the warrant, don’t let them bullshit you. This also applies if cops show up at your door. Do not let them in — don’t even open the door! — unless they show you a warrant with all the correct information on it. Other than the above, the only other thing you should ever say to a cop (or other law enforcement agent) is “I am going to remain silent; I would like to speak to a lawyer.” You can (and probably should) give them you name and address, but after that, shut up. Really, anything you say can and will be used against you, so zip it! As Safer Spaces said at GA on my first day at the occupation: rule number one, don’t talk to cops, rule number two, don’t talk to cops! You are allowed to video the cops, including any interactions you have with them. They won’t like it, but it’s legal and good idea.
A short word on horses — the NYPD likes to bring them out for crowd control on big action days. We may see some tomorrow. Horses are naturally disinclined to step on people, though some of that gets trained out of police mounts. So, if you’ve got some coming at you, and you can’t get out of the way, make yourself compact, cover your head, keep your limbs tucked in, and stay still.
So, I’ll see y’all in the morning. I plan to eat a good dinner, polish my boots, kiss one of my menfolk, and go to bed early. We’ve a long day ahead of us.
I love it when bits of information come together serendipitously. This morning the ALA sent me an email and a friend made a Facebook post, and now you all have a (potentially) useful blog post about…
PRIVACY ON THE INTERNET!
Anyhow, the ALA alerted me to Choose Privacy Week, being held May 1-7. They say,
We live in an age when knowledge is power. New technologies give us unprecedented access to information. They also facilitate surveillance, with the power to collect and mine personal information.
People enjoy the convenience of having information at their fingertips. But most people don’t realize the trade off. For example, citizens turn a blind eye to the fact that online searches create traceable records that make them vulnerable to questioning by the FBI, or that government agencies can track their phone calls, airline travel, online purchases, and more.
As political activists, we are probably a little more aware of these problems than the average citizenry, even if we don’t really know what to do about it. Since some of our comrades have started getting visits from the authorities, maybe we should lend the issue a little more thought.
Anyway, there’s this: DuckDuckGo. A librarian friend brought it to my attention this morning. It’s a search engine that claims to offer pretty good privacy (friend says, “No saved and reported searches, no IP addresses, no sent and stored cookies, and no ads. Plus it’s adorable.”). It also seems to return search results that are nearly as good as, if not as good as, Google’s.
Now, I don’t know how true these claims are, but my computer-y folks seem to think it’s pretty good — one programmer friend uses it as his default search tool, but notes that since large swaths of the rest of the internet uses Google Analytics or Ads, you still have to deal with being tracked from that end. A public librarian friend says she recommends it to patrons who are doing “sensative” or “potentially illegal” searching.
Anyway, I wanted to throw that out there and crowd-source a bit. If you’ve never heard of it, give it a whirl. Those who’ve used it, what do you think? And, does anyone know of other, similarly useful tools?
As many of you may have already heard The People’s Library in solidarity with Occupy Tucson recently launched an action called Operation Book Bomb Tucson. In response to the disgraceful decision of the Tucson Unified School District to end the ten-year old Mexican-American Studies program, and to ban books from the school curriculum The People’s Library is holding a series of teach-ins/book drives to support the Mexican-American community both in Tucson and throughout the U.S. We are collecting copies of the seven banned texts as well as Spanish language books, books on Mexican history, and books on Latino culture to ship out to the students and teachers of Tucson. We want to let the Mexican-American community know that we are not indifferent to their struggles, and to let the Tucson Unified School District know that a threat to educational freedom somewhere is a threat to educational freedom everywhere. Here is how you can help us.
We have received some generous donations of books from publishers throughout the U.S. including Arte Público Press, NYU Press, and The Southwest Organizing Project. Follow these links and you can ship us copies of the seven banned books to add to our book bomb. We want to ship as many copies of them as we can out to the students and teachers of Tucson. The first two books listed can be purchased at 50% off thanks to the good people at Arte Público. Just let them know you are purchasing books for Operation Book Bomb Tucson! We encourage you to support publishers and your local independent bookstores with your purchases, but if you need to shop elsewhere online, we’ve also provided some links to Powell’s Books. Click the links below to purchase any of the titles below.
Occupied America: A History of Chicanos by Rodolfo Acuña from Powell’s Books
All books can be shipped to:
The UPS Store
Re: Occupy Wall Street
Attn: The People’s Library/Operation Tucson
118A Fulton St. #205
New York, NY 10038
Additionally we will be holding book donation drives and teach-ins here in New York City. Our first book donation event will be held at the next Occupy Town Square on Sunday, February 26 in Tompkins Square Park from 11AM to 5PM.
Our second event will be held at Word Up Community Bookshop, 4157 Broadway @ 176th St in Washington Heights on Thursday, March 1, from 7PM-9PM featuring special guest speaker Chris Hedges. Please bring any books to these two events that you would like to donate to Operation Book Bomb Tucson. Keep those books coming and we will update you on our progress here. Thank you for supporting us and for supporting educational freedom everywhere.
For those of you unfamiliar with Hilarity, Hilarity is an awesome squat house in Oakland that has a long standing history of housing punk/anarchist/queer/radical folks. I’ve spent a few nights there: highlights were wild conversations, dumpster diving and coming home late to a garage full of folks sitting around watching the rats play in the trash. Ratz are nice. We all can coexist!
Whose house?
Our house!
Deep in the night
We’re popping the locks
We’re gonna take another one
That’s three on the block
The people say this neighborhood
Has gone to hell
Well we’re gonna build it back ourselves
Whose house?
Our house!
We’re showing the neighbors
That we’re fixing it up
We’ve introduced ourselves
And they know what’s up
And when we plant the garden
In that empty lot
We show ’em that we’re not all talk
Whose house?
Our house!
We’re fighting the fight
We know our rights
When people live together
They can organize
And when the cops come
To take us to jail
We say, “Can’t you see my name’s on the mail, officer?”
Whose house?
Our house!
They take us to court
We pack that room
It doesn’t really matter
What that judge rules
Cause we’ve been taking measures
To defend our home
Like MaCaulay in Home Alone
Have you wanted to get involved with Occupy, but not really a marcher? Too far away from an Occupation? Intimidated by crowds?
Do you support the right to read and abhor censorship?
We’ve got the action for you.
The Tucson Unified School District has dismantled its Mexican-American Studies program and removed the books used in that program from the classrooms of the district. Teachers and students have vehemently protested this move, including a student-led walkout and an Ethnic Studies School, arranged on the symbolically important 100th day of school. The day when the state counts heads to determine funding.
This is where you come in. Acting in solidarity with OccupyTucson and the students, parents, and teachers of the Tucson Unified School District we are going send copies of the banned texts to Tucson for distribution. Lots of copies. As many copies as we can find and buy. We respect the rights of authors and publishers, so all copies will be completely legally purchased though an independent bookseller or directly from the publisher. Donations of the these texts are, of course, welcomed.
We’ll be collecting funds via the WePay link on this page. Any amount will be gladly welcomed and all donations will go toward the purchase of books or shipping books.
The repression of the history of resistance, of what Howard Zinn called People’s History, is an old tactic in the class war. Hide what previous generations accomplished, hide the fact of genuine social change in the past, and you hinder the possibility of social progress today. The young people and their teachers in Tucson have spoken loud and clear. They want to know that history and they want those books. Let’s send them some.
Sisters and Brothers, I greet you in the Name of Our Lord and in the bonds of common friendship and struggle from my homeland of South Africa. I know of your own challenges and of this appeal to Trinity Church for the shelter of a new home and I am with you! May God bless this appeal of yours and may the good people of that noble parish heed your plea, if not for ease of access, then at least for a stay on any violence or arrests.
Yours is a voice for the world not just the neighborhood of Duarte Park. Injustice, unfairness, and the strangle hold of greed which has beset humanity in our times must be answered with a resounding, “No!” You are that answer. I write this to you not many miles away from the houses of the poor in my country. It pains me despite all the progress we have made. You see, the heartbeat of what you are asking for–that those who have too much must wake up to the cries of their brothers and sisters who have so little–beats in me and all South Africans who believe in justice.
Trinity Church is an esteemed and valued old friend of mine; from the earliest days when I was a young Deacon. Theirs was the consistent and supportive voice I heard when no one else supported me or our beloved brother Nelson Mandela. That is why it is especially painful for me to hear of the impasse you are experiencing with the parish. I appeal to them to find a way to help you. I appeal to them to embrace the higher calling of Our Lord Jesus Christ–which they live so well in all other ways–but now to do so in this instance…can we not rearrange our affairs for justice sake? Just as history watched as South Africa was reborn in promise and fairness so it is watching you now.
In closing, be assured of my thoughts and prayers, they are with you at this very hour.
The OWS Poetry Anthology has again been updated… It’s massive! It’s a marathon of poetry! 100 pages added!
THE WORLD HAS A POETIC SPIRIT! IT’S BEING RADICALLY UNLEASHED! THERE IS A COMMUNITY OF THE SPIRIT! AND IT WANTS YOU TO JOIN IT! AND FEEL THE DELIGHT OF WALKING IN THE NOISY STREET! AND BEING THE NOISE! DRINK ALL YOUR PASSION AND BE A DISGRACE! FOR THE WORLD HAS A POETIC SPIRIT! NOW JOIN IT!
THIS WEEK’S WRITING PROMPT: Watch OWS video’s on youtube that show police brutality. Spend a half hour in silent reflection. As you reflect, calmly send radiant energy to people the world over that have been victims of police brutality. Then write a poem to a police officer! Dedicate poems to Robert Hass or anyone you know that has been a victim of police brutality.
does your arm tire
as you swing your
baton into the thud
of my flesh and bone
and you hear me
scream out in pain
when you crack
my ribs and jab
my soft belly
do you feel like a
job well done when
you pin me on the
ground and harness
my wrists like a
rodeo cowboy
hogties cattle
no matter that
we are both looked
down upon by those
on their balconies
of glass and steel
who laugh and joke
as they spread caviar
on fancy crackers
that will never pass
our lips
while you choke me
knock me down
look at how they
raise their flutes
of exquisite champagne
sparkling in the sun
blinding you with
their cold brilliance
and empty nods
of approval
CUNY Public Safety Officers taking up arms against students and faculty.
Media are picking up the story of the violent attack on students and faculty inside a CUNY campus last night and a petition is up calling for the Chancellor of CUNY to resign. boingboing covers it here. Chronical of Higher Education covers the story here. The NYT cityroom blog covers the events here and reports that when officers began attacking, students on higher floors dropped books on the police from above. In light of recent events, I can’t think of a more appropriate response considering:
CUNY Public Safety took up arms against students and faculty.
CUNY students and faculty were denied entry into a meeting about tuition raises.
CUNY students and faculty were arrested on CUNY grounds for peacefully protesting.
This event makes me question why CUNY has a police force and who do they work for? I work at CUNY, inside the Mina Rees Library, (though not for the library) and I interact with CUNY Public Safety officers every day. I’ve watched them save the life of one of my colleagues. I’ve taken First Aid classes from them. In my workplace, they have been part of the CUNY family. But now, CUNY has ordered them to take up batons against students and the officers at Baruch have complied.
A faculty statement against this violent response to nonviolent protesters went up last night. But this egregious attack on freedom of expression and student’s rights demands more. This demands an immediate response from all students, faculty and staff of CUNY and all educational institutions in solidarity with the students and faculty who were arrested last night and in solidarity with the students who were pepper-sprayed at UC Davis. They have seized our books, they have told us we can’t make music or read poetry, or assemble in the public plaza and have conversations, and now they are attacking us inside the universities across the country.
CUNY Public Safety Officers taking up arms against students and faculty.
The CUNY Public Safety officers cannot and must not be used as a tool to prevent free speech. To take action, you can call the office of the CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein at 212-794-5311 or email him at chancellor@cuny.edu. The President of Baruch College is Mitchel B. Wallerstein and he can be reached at 646-312-3310 or email president@baruch.cuny.edu. The following points come from the Faculty statement, and can be used as a suggestion when you call and email:
Deplore any use of violence against nonviolent student protesters, anywhere.
Call upon the CUNY administration to support and engage respectfully with those students, educators, and community members who are working to open up spaces for protest, dissent, and discussion.
Declare that the use of any violence whatsoever against nonviolent student protesters will never be tolerated at CUNY.
Insist that administrators at both the CUNY-wide level and at individual campuses not call upon any outside police forces, including the New York City Police Department, or any other city, state, or federal law enforcement agencies, in order to disperse students who are engaged in nonviolent protests.
CUNY Public Safety Officers taking up arms against students and faculty.
CUNY is the nation’s largest urban public university system and consists of 23 educational institutions here in New York City. In the past, CUNY was literally the People’s University, offering open and tuition-free education to the poor and working class. However since 1975, CUNY has charged tuition and has increasingly made admission and attendance more and more difficult. The CUNY Board of Trustees has repeatedly voted to increase tuition, making access to this public institution more difficult. Campuses that used to be open to all have installed security barriers and turnstiles, and partnerships with corporations are privatizing this public educational space. At the very first CUNY General Assembly, held at Hunter College – CUNY Public Safety officers were ordered to deny entry to CUNY and Hunter students, faculty and staff who sought to enter the building and have a peaceful meeting, even though they all had proper ID. This denial of entry was based entirely on the political character of their speech. This disturbing trend at CUNY must be stopped before the people lose their university completely.
The 11/15/11 eviction of #OccupyWallStreet from Liberty Plaza involved attacks on free speech beyond the destruction of our library and silencing of the occupiers voices. The New York Press Club is calling for an investigation into press suppression during the eviction:
“The Bloomberg administration appears to have made a conscious decision to exclude the press from Tuesday’s Zuccotti Park purge. If true, the New York Press Club strongly condemns what would seem to be a strategic decision to cloak potentially volatile police activity from public view.
While attempting to reach the scene, a number of reporters were shoved away and several were arrested in areas distant from the park itself. Police reportedly did not acknowledge the journalistic status of those reporters even after identities were clearly established.
Occupy Wall Street Library 