The New School In Exile

The New School In Exile: Protests

Bob Kerrey, Jesse Helms and artistic censorship
Posted by kara on Friday, December 18, 2009 (19:49:33) (231 reads)

A diligent researcher sent us the following, and we thought the NSIE community would find it of interest. This is a story of Bob Kerrey over twenty years ago, and his attempts to censor freedom of expression and attack artistic expression while a Senator.

The controversy surrounded a piece of art known as the "Piss Christ" and a letter from Jesse Helms, Bob Kerrey and others, appealing to the Senate in 1989 to stopping funding controversial artists, which lead to a long controversy resulting in severe decreases in the public support for arts in US in the following years. This had been a highly public controversy and a fairly famous public affair. The interesting thing for New Schoolers is that, among the Senators who signed Jesse Helms letter was Bob Kerry. This means that the current president of the New School was effectively collaborating with a right wing fundamentalists and bigot in order to censor the artistic expression in his political past.

To learn more about the controversy, check out Richard Bolton's Culture Wars: Documents from the Recent Controversies in the Arts, New York: New Press. 1992.

Hat tip to k for this info.

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Sit-ins planned for NYC insurance criminals offices Tuesday!
Posted by tribalscribal on Monday, September 28, 2009 (14:25:34) (364 reads)

We all know the American health care system is broken and that our nation deserves
much better. Despite a national debate on health care - real reform is in jeopardy.

The insurance companies are spending millions to confuse and scare the public to
keep us from ending their grip on our health and our money. With tea bagger town
hall protestors and the right-wing noise machine on one side and elected officials
from both parties putting insurance industry profits ahead of the necessity of the
people, the defenders of the status quo are winning. We can't let that happen. It's
time to take the fight to the real villain in the health care debate. It's time for
a campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience to turn the tide.

On September 29th in New York City, the Mobilization for Health Care for All is
launching a campaign of "Patients Not Profit" sit-ins at insurance company offices
to demand an end to a system that profits by denying people care and puts insurance
company bureaucrats between doctors and patients. We want the real "public option":
improved Medicare for All, a national single payer plan that cuts out the profit and
puts patients first.

The private health insurance companies are the real death panels in America. They
make billions in profit and millions for their CEOs while millions of Americans have
no health insurance and over 45,000 die every year because they can't get the care
they need. That's more than 120 people dying every day.

So beginning on September 29th in New York City, and continuing in Chicago on
October 8th and in cities across the country on October 15th, over 100 people will
put our bodies on the line to challenge the real death panels. We will enter the
offices of the major insurance companies and demand that they cover the care they
are denying to their members. We won't leave until they do - or we're arrested.
Visit www.MobilizeforHealthCare.org and sign up.

Just like the lunch counter sit-ins in the civil rights movement did for
segregation, our sit-ins can make it impossible for the United States to ignore how
outrageous the status quo of private insurance is. We want to save the lives of some
of the people who are being denied critical care today but we know we can save
countless lives in the years to come by putting a spotlight on just why our system
is broken and how urgently we need fundamental change -- a national health program
funded by a single payer.

It only takes a small group of people to do a sit-in in your community, but our
actions can inspire every American who has been abused by the insurance companies
and believes it's time for real reform to stand up and fight for it. If you are a
patient who has been denied care, sign up and let us know. If a friend, neighbor or
relative has been denied care urge them to contact us. This campaign of nonviolent
civil disobedience will continue until the insurance companies no longer stand
between the American people and the health care that is our right.

Already, patients in need of care, nurses, doctors, and people just like you are
signing up to be one of the 100 ordinary but courageous people who will launch this
battle to end private health insurance abuse and win health care for all. Join us!
We can't wait any longer - every day more people die because of the insurance
company death panels. Now is the time to do whatever it takes to win this fight once
and for all.

Sign up to sit in and join the battle today at www.mobilizeforhealthcare.org.

Peace,

Katherine Robbins
Healthcare-NOW!

Kevin Zeese
Prosperity Agenda

Kai Newkirk
Center for the Working Poor

The Mobilization for Health Care for All is a nonviolent campaign initiated by
Healthcare-NOW!, Prosperity Agenda, and the Center for the Working Poor.

ProsperityAgenda.US is a project of Campaign for Fresh Air and Clean Politics

Campaign for Fresh Air and Clean Politics
2842 N. Calvert St.
Baltimore, MD 21218

http://www.prosperityagenda.us
http://freshaircleanpolitics.net

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New School Anarchists shut down Homeland Security Event
Posted by alvinjohnson on Friday, September 25, 2009 (05:07:08) (538 reads)

This just in from the New School wire...

The New School was founded by anti-fascist scholars and we like to think on this day we did some justice to their legacy.

Today we shut down the Securing New York and the Nation: The Creation of the Department of Homeland Security event at the New School in solidarity with prisoners of the Green Scare, the victims of the War on Terror, prisoners everywhere, undocumented immigrants, and the anti-capitalists currently acting against the G20 in Pittsburgh. Tom Ridge was the first Secretary of Bush's Department of Homeland Security, formed in the jingoistic days following 9/11. As Department Secretary, Ridge was responsible for and complicit in the torture of detainees, the entrapment and harsh imprisonment of eco-activists such as Daniel Mcgowan and Eric Mcdavid, brutal raids on immigrant communities, the political manipulation of terror alerts, and countless other abuses. The youth of this nation have had the misfortune of growing up under 8 years of the Bush Administration, and we will not tolerate the presence of one of its central henchman in our community.

To be honest, this invitation was no surprise, as Kerrey and Ridge are both politicians with close ties to both the intelligence community and the military-industrial complex. Ridge and Kerrey both actively argued in favor of the war in Iraq. Ridge and Kerrey are both complicit in the harassment of fellow activists, Ridge for the Green Scare, and Kerrey for his involvement in the National Security Higher Education Advisory Board which aims to harass college activists. Early this year, Kerrey admitted to asking NYPD to follow New School activists opposed to his administration, and on April 10th Kerrey asked the NYPD to lock-up 19 of our classmates for protesting his administration. They received Misdemeanor and Felony charges that are still not settled. We will never forget or forgive the actions of either of these scumbags, and want to hold them accountable. There is no discourse that will lessen our rage.

At 9:00 AM, cellphones began to ring and continued to ring for 5 minutes. As the crowd grew frustrated, Kerrey was forced to stop his anecdote about the good old days of the Bush Administration. As tension grew, we began to announce ourselves as opponents to the event, calling out Bob and Tom as the fascists they are, reminding them of our imprisoned friends, their complicity in torture and war, and refusing to leave. After a few minutes of this Kerrey asked for civility, and in a desperate bid to regain control asked for a question from a student. The question for Ridge was: "Do you feel that your willingness to sentence to death more than 200 prisoners during your term as Pennsylvania governor bore any relation to President Bush's decision to name you secretary of Homeland Security?"

Despite the calming protesters and Ridges attempt to answer the question, it was enough for Kerrey to conclude that the talk could not continue. A large section of the audience applauded, and the neo-conservatives invaders of the New School skulked out in anger (and back to the sewers from which they came). Not a single one of Ridge's books were sold. The entire meeting lasted about 25 minutes, but if Kerrey did not pull it so early we had plenty more planned. And we still do.

-Students for Destruction of State
New School Cadre

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G-20 Resistance Demands Free and Emancipating Education for All
Posted by alvinjohnson on Friday, September 25, 2009 (04:58:13) (446 reads)

Another update from the student G20 front!

STUDENTS AND YOUTH G-20 RESISTANCE DEMANDS 'FREE AND EMANCIPATING EDUCATION FOR ALL'

Local and regional young people are converging this week in Pittsburgh to oppose the G-20 summit and demand accessible education as a human right.

In addition to participating as a student and youth contingent in marches and actions organized by Bail Out the People, Bash Back!, Pittsburgh G20 Resistance Project, Three Rivers Climate Convergence, and the Thomas Merton Center, a coalition of student and youth groups have created their own messaging and demands for facing down the G-20 leaders. In solidarity with young people around the world, they are demanding key revolutionary changes for society.

Continued in Read More link...

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Tom Ridge speech disrupted at New School
Posted by alvinjohnson on Friday, September 25, 2009 (04:47:07) (709 reads)

Early on Thursday morning (9/24) a small group of students at the New School disrupted a talk being given by former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge.

The event was a talk on Homeland Security and New York security, and was organized jointly by Milano and the Center for New York City Affairs, and moderated by New School President Bob Kerrey. Students reportedly disrupted the question and answer session after Ridge's talk, accusing him of abuses and torture under his watch at the Dept. of Homeland Security, as well as the largest number of death row executions in PA history--224--as governor there.

Reactions to the protests were mixed, with some in the university claiming the disruption was childish or offensive, while others claimed Tom Ridge being at the New School was itself an offense against the school. The Provost and Deans Council at the school released a statement later that day condemning the violations of free speech by protesters, and calling for the need to discuss free speech and protest at the New School.

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California students up the ante for education
Posted by alvinjohnson on Friday, September 25, 2009 (04:24:08) (289 reads)

In case you haven't been watching, California is blowing up right now on the student political front, and student have escalated protests tactics on campus there now as well, even pointing to our struggle here at the New School.

Quote:

Occupation is a tactic for escalating struggles, a tactic recently used at the Chicago Windows and Doors factory and at the New School in New York City. It can happen throughout California too. As undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and staff, we call on everyone at the UC to support this occupation by continuing the walkouts and strikes into tomorrow, the next day, and for the indefinite future. We call on the people of California to occupy and escalate.

You can read more about recent protests over plans to raise tuition and cut funding and staff, as well as how students are responding there. Seems like it's not just New York that the air or resistance is growing in strength. We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in CA struggling for a better education.

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NEW SCHOOL BENEFIT INCITES MINI BUSHWICK RIOT
Posted by wdunleavy on Monday, May 25, 2009 (16:56:28) (1197 reads)

So there was a gigantic benefit show for the New School arestees tonight in Bushwick.

As usual the philosophical-politico Manhattanite university crowd turned out, as well as a handful of strictly Brooklyn party types. The half-anarchist half-hipster crowd couldn't help but appear reminiscent of a certain catastrophic scenario in recent memory. Around 1:30 AM police showed up outside the 210 Cook street building and unplugged the sound system.

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Multimedia : CATASTROPHE! video just released
Posted by RebeldeNY on Thursday, May 07, 2009 (18:00:45) (539 reads)

A new video has been released from the CATASTROPHE! action in early April, you can check it out right here.

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