New School in NYC Occupied

By Ben Trott

Only two days after the nomination of Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education, and with ongoing student (and school pupil) protests taking place across Europe - most spectacularly in Greece - the New School for Social Research in New York City was yesterday occupied. The occupiers have cast their action not only in the context of the 'corporatization' of the university and the 'impoverishment of education', but the general crisis in housing, employment and elsewhere in New York.

The following is the full text of an email issued from the occupation.

From New York City:

We have just occupied New School University.

We liberate this space for ourselves, and all those who want to join us, for our general autonomous use. We take the university in explicit solidarity with those occupying the universities and streets in Greece, Italy, France and Spain.

This occupation begins as a response to specific conditions at the New School, the corporatization of the university and the impoverishment of education in general. However, it is not just this university but also New York City that is in crisis: in the next several months, thousands of us will be losing our jobs, while housing remains unaffordable and unavailable to many and the cost of living skyrockets.

So we stress that the general nature of these intolerable conditions exists across the spectrum of capitalist existence, in our universities and our cities, in all of our social relations. For this reason, what begins tonight at the New School cannot, and should not, be contained here.

Thus: with this occupation, we inaugurate a sequence of revolt in New York City and the United States, a coming wave of occupations, blockades, and strikes in this time of crisis.

Be assured, this is only the beginning,

With solidarity and love from New York to Greece,
To Italy, France and Spain,
To the coming insurrection.

- New School Occupation Committee