Angry White Kid

NYU refuses to negotiate

And they're also not letting security eat.

The only offer NYU has come up with in the face of the Kimmel Center occupation was that they'd agree to negotiations at 5PM today, but only if students left Kimmel by 4PM. Since it's after 4PM and the occupation is still going, you can guess what the students' response was.

At 5PM there will be a press conference in front of Kimmel Center. Come out and/or spread the word.

There's also now a sample letter and adminstration email addresses for people to use to express their support for the occupation and its demands.

NYU Occupied!

Demonstration in support of the NYU occupation:

Thursday, 12:15 PM
In front of Kimmel Student Center
60 Washington Square South, Manhattan, NYC

Since 10pm Wednesday night the third floor of the Kimmel Student Center at New York University has been occupied by more than 70 NYU and non-NYU students. Originally present for the first few hours of the occupation I had to leave for personal reasons, but it is still going strong and spirits are very high.  It was recently announced the head of NYU university relations has cut his vacation short and is flying back home.  They're clearly worried.

This is in direct solidarity with the many occupations occurring recently across the globe, from Greece to Britain to the New School and the University of Rochester.

There are 13 demands relating to NYU investments in war profiteers and occupation, the cost of tuition, the lack of transparency and the lack of respect for NYU workers.

See the full list of demands here. See live streaming video from the occupation here.

Help out and spread the word by:

• Come support the occupation!
• Send a letter to the administration in solidarity
• Send an e-mail to your professors, peers, listservs, facebook groups you name it! Tell the world.
• Have your parent write a letter or e-mail to the university
• Print the following demands and distribute them far and wide!

Uncritical Exuberance? Judith Butler's take on Obama

I really appreciate this essay by Judith Butler on the election of Obama and the salient points she makes. Since I couldn't find it online, I've decided to post it in full.

Uncritical Exuberance?
Judith Butler

Very few of us are immune to the exhilaration of this time.  My friends on the left write to me that they feel something akin to "redemption" or that "the country has been returned to us" or that "we finally have one of us in the White House."  Of course, like them, I discover myself feeling overwhelmed with disbelief and excitement throughout the day, since the thought of having the regime of George W. Bush over and gone is an enormous relief. And the thought of Obama, a thoughtful and progressive black candidate, shifts the historical ground, and we feel that cataclysm as it produces a new terrain.  But let us try to think carefully about the shifted terrain, although we cannot fully know its contours at this time.  The election of Barack Obama is historically significant in ways that are yet to be gauged, but it is not, and cannot be, a redemption, and if we subscribe to the heightened modes of identification that he proposes ("we are all united") or that we propose ("he is one of us"), we risk believing that this political moment can overcome the antagonisms that are constitutive of political life, especially political life in these times.  There have always been good reasons not to embrace "national unity" as an ideal, and to nurse suspicions toward absolute and seamless identification with any political leader.  After all, fascism relied in part on that seamless identification with the leader, and Republicans engage this same effort to organize political affect when, for instance, Elizabeth Dole looks out on her audience and says, "I love each and every one of you." 

It becomes all the more important to think about the politics of exuberant identification with the election of Obama when we consider that support for Obama has coincided with support for conservative causes.  In a way, this accounts for his "cross-over" success.  In California, he won by 60% of the vote, and yet some significant portion of those who voted for him also voted against the legalization of gay marriage (52%). How do we understand this apparent disjunction?  First, let us remember that Obama has not explicitly supported gay marriage rights. Further, as Wendy Brown has argued, the Republicans have found that the electorate is not as galvanized by "moral" issues as they were in recent elections; the reasons given for why people voted for Obama seem to be predominantly economic, and their reasoning seems more fully structured by neo-liberal rationality than by religious concerns.  This is clearly one reason why Palin's assigned public function to galvanize the majority of the electorate on moral issues finally failed.   But if "moral" issues such as gun control, abortion rights and gay rights were not as determinative as they once were, perhaps that is because they are thriving in a separate compartment of the political mind.  In other words, we are faced with new configurations of political belief that make it possible to hold apparently discrepant views at the same time: someone can, for instance, disagree with Obama on certain issues, but still have voted for him.  This became most salient in the emergence of the counter Bradley-effect, when voters could and did explicitly own up to their own racism, but said they would vote for Obama anyway. Anecdotes from the field include claims like the following: "I know that Obama is a Muslim and a Terrorist, but I will vote for him anyway; he is probably better for the economy."  Such voters got to keep their racism and vote for Obama, sheltering their split beliefs without having to resolve them.

ANSWER's big plan revealed

Confounded as to why anti-war sentiment in the US has been steadily increasing while attendance at their demonstrations (in monotony) has been decreasing, the ANSWER Coalition (who I've made clear I'm no fan of) released a proposal yesterday, asking What Should the Anti-War Movement Do Now?:

It is clear that the anti-war movement is not sufficiently strong at the moment to bring this criminal and despised war to an end. Every organization must ask why is this so and most importantly what can be done to change the situation immediately.

The first question to ask and answer is: Can a people's movement in the United States overcome the commitment of the White House, Congress and the Pentagon to authorize, extend and finance the war and occupation in Iraq?

If the answer to the question is yes...we must assess various factors and craft a strategy that will be fundamentally different from the current path of the anti-war movement. [Emphasis added]

So what's this great "new" strategy?  Unfortunately, it doesn't involve ANSWER dissolving and us rejoicing.  It involves...hold your breath...one big protest!  Taadaa!  Because that new/old strategy of organizing big protests has been working so well, ANSWER wants to get one million people to march on DC.  In six months to a year's time.  In the meantime, you can all take a nap.

Brilliant!  Why didn't anyone think of having a big protest in Washington, DC before? 

Oh wait, they have? 

Oh wait, and the war is still going on? 

Oh wait, no one pays attention to a "movement" that only involves showing your face once or twice a year at a boring, cop-coordinated rally?

Is this really the best that the "leaders of the vanguard" at ANSWER could come up with?  I guess adherence to Stalinism really does stifle creativity.

No wonder the US left is a worldwide laughingstock.  It's been co-opted (willingly) by the likes of ANSWER and their cult of banality and faux-dissent.

At this point, I think Bill Hicks and I are going to go watch American Gladiators.

SSA shut down at Port of Oakland

My crappy cell phone photo of the picket.

This (early) morning a community picket successfully shut down the war profiteer SSA (Stevedoring Services of America) at the Port of Oakland.  The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) locals decided to honor and not cross the 100+ strong community picket. 

Therefore SSA, which was at full capacity with three ships waiting to be loaded and unloaded, wasn't able to do any business this morning.  The picket is continuing as the second shift of longshore workers arrives at 4:30PM, hopefully to meet with the same results.  I'm sure more photos and reports will go up at Indybay. May this only be the beginning.

UPDATE: SSA was indeed shut down all day by the picket. From a obnoxiously sectarian reportback:

When scores of picketers blocked the gates at the SSA terminal beginning at 7 a.m., the company eventually gave up and called off the shift. In the evening, an arbitrator ruled that this was not a bona fide “health and safety issue” and ordered the workers to go to work. However, the dock workers collectively refused.

Saturday: Picket to shut down the war profiteers

March 19: Die-in

For assembly points, to get involved or more information, visit dieinmarch19.org.

Support political prisoners, old and new

Check out this new short video on two longtime Puerto Rican political prisoners - Oscar Lopez Rivera and Carlos Alberto Torres. Visit the ProLibertad Freedom Campaign and National Boricua Human Rights Network for more info.

And check out these excerpts (in two parts) of a talk by Harold Taylor, one of the former Black Panthers arrested last week, given four days before he was arrested.  The video screening on Sunday in San Francisco went very well - so many people showed they had to screen the film twice.  Help support these political prisoners. Check out the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights and the Freedom Archives for more.

Part one:

Part two:

In other government repression news: Help defend journalist Sarah Olson (UPDATE 1: The army dropped the two charges against Lt. Watada that involved Sarah Olson, and therefore dropped the subpoena!). Activist Nadia Winstead beats a Grand Jury contempt rap.  And former professor Sami Al-Arian continues to be subject to abuse and harassment from this vindictive government and its Grand Juries.

Finally, this Friday, Feb. 2nd, at 6pm, there will be an event in solidarity with the political prisoners in Atenco and Oaxaca at Station 40.  Music, food, and talks on Atenco, Oaxaca, and the encuentro in Chiapas.  $5 - no one turned away - 3030B 16th St., near 16th/Mission BART in San Francisco.

UPDATE 2: In other great news, an immigration court ended the case of the LA 8 - two (not 8 anymore) Palestinians the government has been trying to deport for the past 20 years for distributing literature.

UPDATE 3: Three detainees being held indefinitely at "Guantanamo North" in Canada are facing serious health crises after being on hunger strike for two months due to a lack of medical supervision and the government's refusal to consider their just and reasonable demands. They are calling for support.

The aloneness

A Lebanese baby killed by Israel when it bombed a civilian convoy fleeing the violence. From the Angry Arab.

The baffling failure of humanity over the past few weeks is incredible.  Traveling and overwhelmed by events, I have little in the way of words.  Luckily, there are many (though never enough) doing all they can to dent the empire of killers and warmongers, led by Bush and Olmert, and cheered by the U.S. media. 

One of those is my dear friend Nora Barrows-Friedman, a producer for Flashpoints on KPFA radio, who writes from Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem.  An earlier report can be read here.

------------

There will be no statistics in this journal entry. Because what difference does 10 shredded children in Gaza, or 15 sliced children in Lebanon, or 40 smashed children in Iraq make to the international community anyway? What difference does it make when the twisted and sick US corporate media doesn't even mention their names, or their ages, or their favorite color, something to put a human face on the mangled mess that the latest US-made Israeli-fired missile replaced as a nose, a mouth, two eyes, freckles, cheek, forehead?

Yes, there were "escalations" today in Gaza and Lebanon. There were "military strikes" and "retaliatory attacks" and "intensifications" and "deaths." There were "officials" and "spokespeople" and "leaders" joining in the finger-pointing and the name-calling. Meanwhile, Arab people are burning. Numbers and statistics become, therefore, irrelevant. Language loses its meaning on the tongue, becomes sludge and dribbles down one's chin. My dear friend Siham said today, "What does the term 'civilized society' mean when they are killing people like this?"

What becomes of a language that has lost its original meaning? Does it shrivel up and slink into an abyss to mingle with the ghosts of these headless, armless, forgotten brown-skinned kids? And as we watch the footage, as we hear on the phone from friends witnessing in their backyards, as we read the articles, how many times can we use the words "unbelievable," "disgusting," "horrific?" They have lost all meaning as well.

We need a new language to describe these nightmares. We need a new vehicle to convey the disbelief and the disgust and the horror as Gaza burns, as Lebanon smolders, as Iraq collapses.

As we rub our eyes tonight, bleary from thick cigarette smoke and too many hours of being glued to the television, my friend Mustafa says, "No one notices, no one cares. We are alone in this world." This is the aloneness. The isolation. Gazan and Lebanese and Iraqi children are huddled in their beds tonight, screaming out to the wall of silence in a sore-throated language, isolated in their terror.

Palestinians Try to Help Kidnapped Human Rights Workers

On Saturday, four members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams were kidnapped in Iraq.  Three of the four volunteers have spent time with the CPT in Hebron, in the West Bank, which is the scene of some of the most extreme brutality of the occupation and its accompanying settler violence.

As a result, along with Iraqi clerics urging their release, the "National and Islamic forces" in Hebron held a press conference and released a joint statement calling for the release of the CPTers.

We appeal to our brothers in the resistance and all those with alert consciences in Iraq, with whom we consider ourselves to be in the same trench confronting American aggression and occupation, to instantly and quickly release the four kidnapped persons (two Canadians, one Briton and one American) from CPT, in appreciation for their role in standing beside and supporting our Palestinian people and all the Arab and Islamic peoples.

Hopefully it helps.

UPDATE: Add your name to the petition calling for their freedom.  It has been signed by such notables as Chomsky, Roy, Klein, Nader, Ali, Khalidi, and more.