Minneapolis, MN – On Feb. 9, two simultaneous actions occurred on the University of Minnesota campus to demand racial justice and substantive diversity. The protesters’ eight demands can be found here: http://www.fightbacknews.org/2015/2/9/university-mn-students-start-sit-demands-targeting-institutionalized-oppression.

While scores of students rallied outside Morrill Hall, the University of Minnesota’s (UMN) administration building, and listened to speakers from the Department of African and African American Studies, the Social Justice minor, Black Lives Matter, Whose Diversity? and AFSCME 3800, 16 activists affiliated with Whose Diversity? slipped into the president’s office and began an occupation in Morrill Hall. After meeting with UMN President Eric Kaler and other top administrators and being given formal written responses to their eight demands, 13 of the 16 activists were arrested around 7:00 p.m. by the University of Minnesota Police Department (UMPD) on trespassing charges.

According to one of the activists, there were police present in Morrill Hall before the action even began. Both uniformed and plainclothes police appeared prepared for the occupation in advance, indicating a high level of surveillance of campus activists by both UMN administration and the UMPD. When Morrill Hall closed at 6:00 p.m., police gave students the option of leaving the building with citations or facing arrest.

The 13 activists arrested on trespassing charges were told by the UMPD that they are banned from entering Morrill Hall for one year, unless given explicit written permission in advance. While Whose Diversity? was able to bail the 13 out immediately, the activists were still held overnight in jail and weren’t released until 4:30 a.m. on Feb. 10. The court date for the activists is set at 8:30 a.m. on Feb. 24.

Beyond legal action, the 13 activists could face further political repression by the university administration. Last spring semester, 8 Whose Diversity? and Students for a Democratic Society members were given disciplinary letters by the Office of Student Conduct threatening them with punishment, including the threat of expulsion, for their actions in leading protests on campus.

Jesus Estrada-Perez, one of the 13 activists who occupied Morrill Hall, indicated that the next steps in the struggle for racial justice at UMN are to counter any attempts by the administration to spin portrayals of its actions and those of the protesters, and to hold the administration accountable to its promises. On this, Estrada-Perez stated, “The U is spreading tons of misinformation, but remember, as Assata Shakur said: ‘We have nothing to lose but our chains!’”

#MinneapolisMN #OppressedNationalities #StudentOccupation #AfricanAmerican #UniversityOfMinnesota #MorrilHall #WhoseDiversity

Milwaukee, WI – Over 1500 students and workers walked out Mar. 2 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in protest of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's plan to destroy public sector unions and slash funding for public education. Initiated by Milwaukee Students for a Democratic Society, the protest included a worker contingent of AFSCME, TAUWP and AFT union members. The protest took place on the National Day of Action to Defend Education.

The protest began at the UWM union where people chanted “Kill the bill” and “Tax the rich.” The protest then marched around campus, through streets and buildings and ended at a plaza on campus where speeches were delivered by union members and students.

“This is not only a job killer, this is a people killer,” stated AFSCME Local 82 President Gilbert Johnson. “We're not making a lot of money and these cuts will force us to make some tough decisions. This bill has got to be stopped at whatever cost.”

After the protest, student leaders met and decided to take it to the next level. Inspired by past university occupations held in California and New York, they declared an occupation of a theater building. Around 100 students arrived to the occupation.

“I helped organize this protest today because I'm afraid about the future of our educational system,” commented Mike Gold of SDS. “We'll do whatever it takes to save our school and defend campus workers.”

#MilwaukeeWI #Labor #StudentsForADemocraticSociety #SDS #StudentOccupation #UniversityOfWisconsinMilwaukee #CollectiveBargaining #GovernorScottWalker #Wisconsin #publicSectorUnions

February 20, 3:30 a.m. – Under a banner that read, “The Whole World is Watching,” fifty-four students, workers and concerned community members slept in the office of University of Wisconsin Chancellor, David Ward. They occupied the chief administrator's office to protest university links to sweatshop labor. The peaceful scene was shattered by the approach of over 60 police dressed in riot gear, with billy clubs at their side and tear gas rifles ready.

Four Days Earlier: Occupation Begins

The occupation of the chancellor's office started 4 days earlier, on February 16. Seven students entered the office, demanding a meeting with Chancellor David Ward to discuss the University's ties to sweatshop labor. A cop pulled the shades and locked the doors, isolating the seven from the 300 other demonstrators that had marched into the building.

Two hours later, six armed police officers entered the building carrying large bags of tools. Representatives of the protesters approached the police to find out what they were up to. The police responded with pepper gas. “They sprayed us without warning,” said one victim of the police violence.

As the cloud of pepper spray filled the hall, students and workers sat cross-legged and sang, “We Shall Not Be Moved.” The occupiers were determined to stay until the Chancellor addressed their demands.

UW T-shirts, sweatshirts and other logo apparel are made in sweatshops. The University receives millions of dollars each year from this exploitation. The protesters' demands, focused around the monitoring of factory conditions where UW logo apparel is made, came out of five years of coalition work between students, unions and the community.

Over one year ago, the administration agreed to pull out of contracts with clothing companies that didn't provide a living wage, give out locations of their factories, or provide guarantees against the exploitation of women in these factories. As of the deadline on February 12, none of these conditions were met.

The occupiers also demanded that the University pull out of the corporate-controlled Fair Labor Association (FLA), and fully affiliate with the Worker's Rights Consortium (WRC). The Worker's Rights Consortium is a monitoring group that focuses on the right of workers to organize, and on developing relationships with worker groups where the clothes are made.

By 8:00 p.m., February 16, Ward bowed to community pressure, saying that the UW would stop participation in the FLA, becoming the second university in the country to make this move. Two days later Ward announced the UW's “provisional” membership in the WRC, but the protesters wanted an explicit commitment to worker's rights. They vowed to stay until such a commitment was made. Ward made it clear that the protesters would be allowed to stay through Monday.

54 Arrests

Chancellor Ward broke his promise. The riot cops entered Bascom Hall early Sunday morning, February 20. Despite the intimidation tactics, the crowd of sixty, including seven protesters locked to each other with U-shaped bicycle locks, was in good spirits.

As the police counted down five minutes before they would start arresting people, the crowd sang “Strangers in the Night” and “I Feel Good.” Police, attempting to remove people from the office, applied pain holds. By 5:30 a.m., only the seven protesters U-locked by the neck remained in the office. The police said that they had no experience with the U-lock tactic, and were unsure how to remove them. One protester who was U-locked stated, “It was horrifying, they had to put wet towels on our heads to prevent the sparks from starting us on fire.”

By Sunday night, at 9:00 p.m., all 54 protesters were out of jail, some after being kept in isolation.

The occupation was the biggest civil disobedience on the UW campus since 1971. The community has vowed to keep pressure on the administration to end its ties to sweatshop labor.

#MadisonWI #News #StudentOccupation #WorkersAndGlobalization #AntiSweatshop

The student movement has continued to push forward, taking New York University by storm with an occupation of around 80 students in the Kimmel Center. After two years of preparation, the coalition Take Back NYU! occupied the building for two days, Feb. 18. Students outwitted police to the very end, with a couple dozen moving out to the Kimmel balcony when police raided their space. Student leaders now face suspension, but they have vowed to continue the struggle.

NYU occupier Maria Lewis described the reason for the occupation in Let Them Talk: “Students came together…really feeling like we wanted a more transparent and accountable democratic university. There’s very little transparency at NYU.” The Take Back NYU! Coalition started as a way to unify over 20 student organizations on the issues of democracy, accessible education, divestment from Israel and opposing U.S. wars and occupations. After two years of writing letters and lobbying the administration through the student senate, the occupation began.

The list of demands from Take Back NYU! includes full compensation for all employees whose jobs were disrupted during the course of the occupation, public release of NYU’s investments, labor rights for student workers and all NYU employees, a Socially Responsible Finance Committee, annual scholarships for 13 Palestinian students, a NYU donation to rebuild the University of Gaza and tuition stabilization for all students. The most pressing demand was the immediate investigation of university war profiteering, particularly in the case of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Students barricaded themselves into the third floor area while 500 supporters cheered outside in solidarity. Students used the balcony to proclaim their occupation and list their demands. The entire Kimmel Center building was shut down for two days.

During the occupation, solidarity letters poured in from across the nation. Chapters of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), whose national media working group facilitated media work during the occupation, vigorously supported the takeover. “We support the demands by Take Back NYU! and SDS in their effort to oppose U.S. imperialism and the military-academic complex,” one statement from UNC-Asheville SDS reads.

On Feb. 20, students announced from the balcony that they received word from NYU President Sexton that they were ready to negotiate face to face. For two days Sexton and the university administration continued to be silent to their demands. In an act of ugly deceit by President Sexton, 25 riot cops burst into the Kimmel Center and cornered the remaining students. 18 students were suspended for a week. The university is barring them from campus and participating in student organizations. They also imposed a period of disciplinary probation for the remainder of the semester. A recent Take Back NYU! statements declares, “We might be suspended for the moment, but NYU’s actions have made even more clear the necessity for democracy, transparency, accountability and respect for human rights.”

This latest student occupation came after two other successful occupations by the Radical Student Union at New School University and SDS at the University of Rochester. Internationally, there has been a flurry of occupations in Britain and throughout Europe in the past two months since the U.S.-backed Israeli invasion of Gaza. Student activist groups like Take Back NYU! and SDS continue to press forward the struggle to democratize universities and oppose U.S. wars and occupations.

#NewYorkNY #StudentsForADemocraticSociety #StudentOccupation #TakeBackNYU