The ralliers, pictured on the corner of Union Square South and University Place, walk toward Union Square Park and then block traffic by walking in the street. Two of them hold up a banner that says, “We’ll get what we can take.”
Should NYU faculty and their dependent children receive full tuition remission?
Two members of Take Back NYU, an on-campus activist group, were arrested last night during a rally that began near Washington Square Park, continued to Union Square and snaked south again, ending at NYPD's 6th Precinct in the West Village.
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After leaving Union Square Park, the group walks down Fifth Avenue toward the Parsons building, where they entered, walked through and chanted, and exited.
The ralliers run toward the police as they catch Phillips and Lewis on the corner of Washington Square North and MacDougal Street. The ralliers shouted and protested what they said was police violence and brutality toward Phillips and Lewis.
Police hold down Phillips outside the Washington Square Hotel before arresting him.
Police arrested CAS junior Maria Lewis and CAS senior Drew Phillips at MacDougal Street and Washington Square North shortly before 9 p.m., where they were transported to the precinct; they were released just before 11 p.m. on charges of disorderly conduct.
The night began at 8 p.m. with about 30 students, mostly from NYU and The New School, who met in Washington Square Park for what they said would be a "dance party" to express their solidarity for the occupations currently taking place on some of the campuses of the University of California system.
Since the beginning of fall, UC students have been protesting a 32 percent student-fee increase and ongoing attacks of campus unions; just yesterday, several dozen students at UCLA occupied Campbell Hall, a classroom building, according to UCLA's student newspaper, The Daily Bruin.
But the focus of TBNYU's rally wasn't exclusively about the UC occupations; the ralliers spoke out against capitalism, consumerism and, later, the city.
"We are here tonight to abolish the commodity form," said a second-year New School graduate student who identified himself as Auguste Blanqui, a 19th-century French political activist.
He added: "Our comrades in California are objects of capitalism in its decadent form."
The other ralliers, including TBNYU members, declined to comment.
The students left the park shortly after 8 p.m. and walked up along Fifth Avenue, blasting Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind" from a boombox. They stopped between 12th and 13th streets, where they tried to put up a banner on scaffolding but were stopped by an officer. They continued to Union Square, where they danced and put up a banner on the Independence Flagstaff in the center of the park.
The ralliers later walked to the intersection of 14th Street and Fifth Avenue, where they blocked traffic with their bodies and trash cans, which they had removed from sidewalks. As they walked, they chanted, "Workers and students, shut the city down!"
Shortly after 8:30 p.m., the crowd entered the Parsons building at 65 Fifth Ave. They walked through while chanting "Occupy everything!" and exited quickly.
Then they walked down Fifth Avenue, turned onto Eighth Street and arrived at MacDougal Street, where police chased after them and arrested Lewis and Phillips. The ralliers continued to the 6th Precinct, chanting, "Fuck the police from New York to Greece!"
At the precinct, the group stood outside and waited until Lewis and Phillips were released at exactly 10:59 p.m.
The rally came exactly nine months following TBNYU's 40-hour occupation of the Kimmel Center last February, where members of the group barricaded themselves in the third-floor MarketPlace with a list of at least a dozen demands, including tuition stabilization, full disclosure of NYU's budget and endowment, and a fair labor contract for all university employees.
Julianna
Nov 20, 2009
7:40 a.m.
The comment against commodity made me LOL. Have we forgotten the fun video TBNYU! released during their "occupation" last year and the treasure trove of Mac laptops they specifically took note of because they couldn't stand to lose them?
Oh, and where did you buy those keffiyeh scarves and skinny jeans? Urban Outfitters?
della
Nov 20, 2009
9:30 a.m.
No no no, the banner says "We'll Get What We Can Take," not "We'll Take What We Can Get." It's saying that power will never concede itself of its own accord. Liberation will never be granted to us - if we want freedom we have to take it.
Ex-student
Nov 20, 2009
3:54 p.m.
We should please excuse the 19 year old French student who may not understand that the United States has certain civic systems set into place to deal with such disagreements and objections. We can write our elected legislators. We can appeal to alumni, voters, the community. We can get the media involved.
Only when things can no longer be pushed through the civil channels is a demonstration called for. That's why protests are usually left for the more important matters...like human rights abuses, war, corruption. So they're taken as seriously.
But why should Mr. "Auguste Blanqui" care?
Afterall, he's chosen to name himself after a violent communist leader who believed change should happen through violence and not through peaceful means.
Dan
Nov 20, 2009
6:14 p.m.
Serves those two right ;D
TBNYU represents only themselves and no one else on campus.
Sarah
Nov 21, 2009
12:40 a.m.
Your caption reads, "The ralliers, pictured on the corner of Union Square South and University Place, walk toward Union Square Park and then block traffic by walking in the street. Two of them hold up a banner that says, “We’ll take what we can get."
In fact, if you look at the picture, the banner says, "We'll get what we can take."
Julie
Nov 23, 2009
9:07 a.m.
Another pointless protest by TBNYU! in the name of "solidarity"...with a group of students from a STATE school whose tuition was raised over 30%. Of course the fact that TBNYU! students are mostly attending very costly PRIVATE institutions (and CHOSE to do so) doesn't matter, because really they just want to siphon some of the attention from the students who are protesting with a purpose and by doing so making themselves seem relevant. Walking to Union Square, being loud, disruptive, and obnoxious, and having a protest "dance party" is just an embarrassment to the entire NYU community and an insult to the UC students.
jen
Nov 23, 2009
11:27 p.m.
Julie,
an article about this event was posted on an anarchist news site and one response from claifornia was "Thanks New York!!!". So whats more of an insult, a solidarity action that was appreciated by those it was meant to be in solidarity with and that brought thanks or your accusation that it was "an insult"?
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