On December 9th, the students, staff and faculty of CSU Stanislaus gathered in the quad to voice their grievances against an administration that uses education as an opportunity to profit at the expense of the students. Throughout the course of the rally, attendees discussed the president's incompetence and effects the current wave of fee hikes and class cuts have had on our lives. It cannot be stressed enough that Shirvani and his administrative staff are not acting in the interests of students, teachers, and workers. Where we see an opportunity to make something out of ourselves, he sees an opportunity to increase the size of his wallet. And this is an approach that is being implemented more and more by those who control things. When the level of privatization in our society increases, the quality and depth of our lives decrease. When we take the time to look at the structures that operate around us, it is apparent that those that are set up to create profit for people like Shirvani are expected to be paid for by us, students and workers. They want us to pay for their crisis.
We should recognize something here: that unity creates power. Becoming aware of our role in this struggle is vital to keep up the momentum that gets things done. Coming together to act on our anger gives us a vehicle to realize our collective desires. What we accomplished today as an organized force was something that is not experienced by regular people in today's world: the creation of our own power. It is important to understand that by acting, and by acting with each other, even if we were present for different reasons, we can take back control of our lives.
With love and solidarity,
-Some students and workers from the Central Valley
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/12/09/18632023.php
-----------------------------
Today we found power. We found it in ourselves, and we found it in each other. We found it in our collective self on the quad of CSU Stanislaus. We found it again in MSR, when the administration hid behind the boys in blue rather than face us. And we found it once more when we got in.
Today, around 200 students, faculty, and staff walked out of their classes around 11:00 AM and met in the quad at CSU Stanislaus. After an hour-long rally, filled with speeches of discontent and enraging stories of the downward spiral of our university. 150 of us marched across campus to the Mary Stuart Rogers building (the administration building). Met with police barricades, we continued on towards the intersection of Geer Road and Monte Vista/University Way (arguably the busiest intersection in Turlock). After rallying there for fifteen minutes, we returned to the MSR building with 60 people to sit down in President Shirvani's office on the third floor around 1:00 PM. After another half an hour of discussion and wall-shaking chants, we left of our own accord.
Today was a victory. However, we are not without regrets. Today's numbers are unprecedented. This is likely the largest show of power the people of Turlock have ever manifested. At a university where normality consists not of radicals and hippies, but of nursing students and teachers, with no history of agitation or radical politics, we interrupted it, if only briefly.
That said: today we did not fulfill our desires. Today's action was rife with infighting and attempts at liberal remediation. Several individuals in particular showed up to the initial rally with the intention of co-opting the mass of students to their own goals of "speaking truth to power" and establishing a dialog with the administration, in stark contrast to the wishes of those assembled. We fell short of our potential when we refrained from storming Shirvani's office the first go-around, in fear of two police officers. We fell short when, at Geer and Monte Vista, we refrained from taking the streets, again for fear of police intervention. And we fell short when we allowed our energy to drain out in a matter of minutes after reaching Shirvani's office. Diminished already, with no support or resources to commence an occupation, and no direction or energy to escalate, those of us who remained in MSR filed out in the spectre of what could have happened today.
But in that spectre lies the possibility for so much more. We learned several lessons today. We have the power to organize in significant numbers, even on a CSU in the middle of the Central Valley. We are not alone in our discontent; everyone on our campus, at other CSUs, at the Community Colleges, and the UCs, everyone is feeling the effects of this crisis, and everyone is angry. We have broad faculty support. Even at CSU, we find ourselves faced with the leftist squanderers and student cops that our comrades at the UCs faced. It is a disservice to ourselves, and our desires, to allow such elements to remain within our ranks unannounced. Most importantly, we learned that we have the power to create the conditions in which we could act out our desires for our campus. Until next time.
Solidarity to SF State! Solidarity to Wheeler Hall! Solidarity to all of our comrades who are resisting at their campuses and workplaces across California and the world! We want to take a minute and especially shout out to our comrades who came from MJC today; towards the liberation of not only universities, but community colleges!
love,
a student from the valley
Extensive video coverage of the day's events: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDyi0_imGs0
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/12/09/18632022.php
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
Destroy all bullhorns//Attack all managers
"He recognized me, not because of my birth or my social function but because of my behavior." - Letters of Insurgents
Within the context of insurrection, it's not important how we look, or think, or even the things we say. The most important thing is what we do.
Having said that, I think the behavior of the Left within the last week of UC Strikes was absolutely disgusting. When I say 'student activist leader,' you say 'recuperation.' What essentially happened was the self-elected student leaders did more to police the struggle than any actual police did (minus the events that took place on Friday at UC Berkeley - I would say at that point the student leaders and the police were on par with each other). And this is, to understate the entire thing, a problem. The people with the bullhorns and megaphones that defused every situation are the douche bags that future students will be fighting against. The student politician-cops are the future Yudofs. Whose university? Not yours, assholes.
When we were in front of California Hall, and students were demanding to get inside and occupy the space, it was the left that took hold of the bullhorn and proceeded to direct everyone to sit down and "vote" on what to do next. Those that wanted to escalate conflict were accused of not showing solidarity with the rest of those present. The same woman that took over the bullhorn also stopped people from rushing Yudof's office when there was a spontaneous march then sit-in on Monday in Oakland. When we were in Berkeley City College calling for the occupation of everything, it was the left that told us to 'shut the fuck up' because we were going to 'alienate everyone from the movement.' Ironically this alienated those that are more radical from the movement. But I suppose the so-called leaders don't care too much about that, because hooligans are too hard to manage. Even more ironic than this, however, was on Friday when banners held by regular students read 'OCCUPY EVERYTHING.'
Calls for solidarity and struggle are not enough. Especially in the current social-economic situation that is plaguing the world. Simply yelling isn't going to accomplish shit. Space needs to be occupied, and the roles of education and the university within capital, and within a truly free society, need to be questioned (do we even need a particular space and time to learn? Shouldn't learning be a natural, fluid, and enjoyable process that is indistinguishable from the time we spend growing?). There needs to be a showing of solidarity between people wanting to employ different tactics in order to create a cohesive movement that is actually capable of fighting back. The struggle against those in power needs to extend beyond the university, to the workplace and to the home. To see this situation as merely a single issue is to be blind. The connections between capital and the economic crisis and the university to need to be made apparent. The role of the police needs to be seen for what it is: to protect the interests of the ruling class, at the expense of workers, students, and teachers.
The role of the left needs to be taken into account, too. Those that wish to manage are wanna-be celebrities. They feed on attention, and get off on control. Activism is management, and management is death. This is the time for students to take away control of the struggle from the rulers as well as those within the movement that want control.
Destroy all bullhorns//Attack all managers
Within the context of insurrection, it's not important how we look, or think, or even the things we say. The most important thing is what we do.
Having said that, I think the behavior of the Left within the last week of UC Strikes was absolutely disgusting. When I say 'student activist leader,' you say 'recuperation.' What essentially happened was the self-elected student leaders did more to police the struggle than any actual police did (minus the events that took place on Friday at UC Berkeley - I would say at that point the student leaders and the police were on par with each other). And this is, to understate the entire thing, a problem. The people with the bullhorns and megaphones that defused every situation are the douche bags that future students will be fighting against. The student politician-cops are the future Yudofs. Whose university? Not yours, assholes.
When we were in front of California Hall, and students were demanding to get inside and occupy the space, it was the left that took hold of the bullhorn and proceeded to direct everyone to sit down and "vote" on what to do next. Those that wanted to escalate conflict were accused of not showing solidarity with the rest of those present. The same woman that took over the bullhorn also stopped people from rushing Yudof's office when there was a spontaneous march then sit-in on Monday in Oakland. When we were in Berkeley City College calling for the occupation of everything, it was the left that told us to 'shut the fuck up' because we were going to 'alienate everyone from the movement.' Ironically this alienated those that are more radical from the movement. But I suppose the so-called leaders don't care too much about that, because hooligans are too hard to manage. Even more ironic than this, however, was on Friday when banners held by regular students read 'OCCUPY EVERYTHING.'
Calls for solidarity and struggle are not enough. Especially in the current social-economic situation that is plaguing the world. Simply yelling isn't going to accomplish shit. Space needs to be occupied, and the roles of education and the university within capital, and within a truly free society, need to be questioned (do we even need a particular space and time to learn? Shouldn't learning be a natural, fluid, and enjoyable process that is indistinguishable from the time we spend growing?). There needs to be a showing of solidarity between people wanting to employ different tactics in order to create a cohesive movement that is actually capable of fighting back. The struggle against those in power needs to extend beyond the university, to the workplace and to the home. To see this situation as merely a single issue is to be blind. The connections between capital and the economic crisis and the university to need to be made apparent. The role of the police needs to be seen for what it is: to protect the interests of the ruling class, at the expense of workers, students, and teachers.
The role of the left needs to be taken into account, too. Those that wish to manage are wanna-be celebrities. They feed on attention, and get off on control. Activism is management, and management is death. This is the time for students to take away control of the struggle from the rulers as well as those within the movement that want control.
Destroy all bullhorns//Attack all managers
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
Clever title
I spent the last two days fighting off the flu. I basically did nothing but watch tv, and, being the first time I've watched tv in a long while, I realized how fucking boring that shit is. Surely, the people that spend their waking hours outside of work in front of the tv find it to be at the very least unfulfilling?
Anway, I started reading Marx's Capital vol I. Looking forward to getting more into it. And I'm hoping it'll give me a better foundation for when I start actively reading Debord. I'm part way into the first chapter of Capital, and despite the language he uses, a lot of it is comprised of fairly simple concepts that seem like common sense to me. The thing that stuck out the most is that idea that a thing that is produced is made valuable by the amount of labor put into it, relative to the average rate of production. I found a pretty cool series of lecture videos by a professor who taught Capital for like 40 years or something like that. Here's the link:
http://davidharvey.org/2008/06/getting-started/
A friend and I are starting a zine. The goal is to ultimately foster a social movement that is healthy and able to fight/defend it's self. Or at least create dialogue for those interested in how to do this. Hope it's not too bro for you hippies.
Much love
Anway, I started reading Marx's Capital vol I. Looking forward to getting more into it. And I'm hoping it'll give me a better foundation for when I start actively reading Debord. I'm part way into the first chapter of Capital, and despite the language he uses, a lot of it is comprised of fairly simple concepts that seem like common sense to me. The thing that stuck out the most is that idea that a thing that is produced is made valuable by the amount of labor put into it, relative to the average rate of production. I found a pretty cool series of lecture videos by a professor who taught Capital for like 40 years or something like that. Here's the link:
http://davidharvey.org/2008/06/getting-started/
A friend and I are starting a zine. The goal is to ultimately foster a social movement that is healthy and able to fight/defend it's self. Or at least create dialogue for those interested in how to do this. Hope it's not too bro for you hippies.
Much love
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Why did you go to work? Because I had to
I'm tired. Tired of work. Tired of being depressed. Especially being depressed from work. When I get home from work, I have to struggle to stay awake. If I fall asleep too early, I will wake up in the middle of the night and be up all night. It is thoroughly depressing how much sway my job has on my life. It is depressing working five days a week, and only living for two.
I've come to view work as the most oppressive and mentally distressing element of class society.
Work is totally and completely unavoidable, unless you're lucky enough to have been born to rich parents. Work is the foundation of our world, and this is indicative of how horrible and fucked up things are. Our daily and weekly lives are built entirely around work, rather than around our families, or our friends. The things that keep us going, or make us happy are set to the side. How many parents truly know who their kids are? If this depressing reality sets in, you are loaded up on chemicals, and told to go back to work. Every person on antidepressants knows there is something wrong with their lives. But are we given the space to look at what's wrong? Of course not. Depression is not a disease; it is a symptom.
We will always, as long as the bourgeoisie exist, have our labor stolen from us in the name of their profit. We will always, as long as work exists, have our lives stolen from us.
I've come to view work as the most oppressive and mentally distressing element of class society.
Work is totally and completely unavoidable, unless you're lucky enough to have been born to rich parents. Work is the foundation of our world, and this is indicative of how horrible and fucked up things are. Our daily and weekly lives are built entirely around work, rather than around our families, or our friends. The things that keep us going, or make us happy are set to the side. How many parents truly know who their kids are? If this depressing reality sets in, you are loaded up on chemicals, and told to go back to work. Every person on antidepressants knows there is something wrong with their lives. But are we given the space to look at what's wrong? Of course not. Depression is not a disease; it is a symptom.
We will always, as long as the bourgeoisie exist, have our labor stolen from us in the name of their profit. We will always, as long as work exists, have our lives stolen from us.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Life in ruins
I had originally intended to create a blog to put my thoughts into writing. So that I could analyze it, have others analyze it, get better at articulating the things I believe, and hopefully find some sort of growth through all of it. However, now that I have gotten around to actually making it, other things have cropped up in my life, some new, some old, that have slightly changed the direction of this shit.
I have come to a new chapter in my life. Summer is over, friends are leaving me (perhaps some for good - although I certainly hope not), and I have found a new job. It seems that new segments in my life are always accompanied by hard bouts of depression. Depression is something that has been weighing my life down for several years, culminating in serious suicidal thoughts and antidepressants last summer. I hope that because of the recent changes in my life, I can use this blog as not only a therapeutic medium, but also as a place for me to write about things in my life and mind in the chance that they resonate with other people.
Bare with me. This is new.
I have come to a new chapter in my life. Summer is over, friends are leaving me (perhaps some for good - although I certainly hope not), and I have found a new job. It seems that new segments in my life are always accompanied by hard bouts of depression. Depression is something that has been weighing my life down for several years, culminating in serious suicidal thoughts and antidepressants last summer. I hope that because of the recent changes in my life, I can use this blog as not only a therapeutic medium, but also as a place for me to write about things in my life and mind in the chance that they resonate with other people.
Bare with me. This is new.
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