FW: More of the NYC Activist Reality STRUGGLE HERE THERE & EVERYWHERE

------ Forwarded Message
From: Panama Vicente Alba <panamaalba2@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: <panamaalba2@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2006 13:17:41 -0800 (PST)
To: <panamaglobaljustice@lists.riseup.net>
Subject: [panamaglobaljustice] More of the NYC Activist Reality  STRUGGLE HERE THERE & EVERYWHERE


  
http://fightbacknews.org/2006/05/ccny.htm <http://fightbacknews.org/2006/05/ccny.htm>
  
Student Activists Under Attack at City College of New York
  
for Honoring Black and Puerto Rican Liberation Heroes
  

  
By Brad Sigal
  

  
New York, NY - The New York Police Department is on the defensive because of
  
mass outrage over the police’s murder of Sean Bell. Bell, a 23-year old
  
unarmed African American man was killed by the NYPD in a hail of 50 bullets
  
Nov. 25 a few hours before he was going to be married. His murder has
  
sparked large protests against racist police brutality.
  

  

  
The Morales / Shakur Community and Student Center in the NAC Building at
  
City College of New York. The sign with the center's name and the photo of
  
Assata Shakur above the door was removed by the CCNY administration on
  
December 14.
  

  
Two weeks later, the right-wing New York Daily News tried to create a
  
diversion from the issue of racist police brutality by attacking student
  
activists at the City College of New York (CCNY), accusing them of promoting
  
“cop killers” and “terrorists.” On Dec.12 the Daily News ran a cover story
  
and editorial attacking CCNY’s Guillermo Morales/Assata Shakur Community and
  
Student Center, a student-run activist space on the flagship Harlem campus
  
of the City University of New York (CUNY). The Daily News editorial demanded
  
that Shakur and Morales’s names be removed from the Center.
  

  
The Center is named for former Black Panther leader Assata Shakur and Puerto
  
Rican revolutionary nationalist Guillermo Morales. They were both students
  
at CCNY in the 1960s that dedicated their lives to the liberation of Black
  
and Puerto Rican people. Both were imprisoned in the 1970s and escaped and
  
fled to Cuba, where they currently live in exile. Assata’s 1987
  
autobiography has inspired countless people to join the struggle for Black
  
liberation.
  

  
When the Daily News article came out, the CUNY administration quickly joined
  
in the attack on the student activists. CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein
  
released a statement saying that the CUNY Board of Trustees never authorized
  
naming the center after Shakur and Morales. He demanded the immediate
  
removal of the sign bearing their names.
  

  
The Center has been named after Shakur and Morales for its 17 years of
  
existence. Students won use of the space as a result of the 1989 CUNY
  
student strike against a proposed tuition increase. Ydanis Rodriguez, a
  
leader in the 1989 student strike and a leader of the Center’s community
  
projects, states, “In 1989 when we ended our organizing movement against the
  
tuition increase proposed by Governor Mario Cuomo, we were able to persuade
  
the governor not to increase tuition. At the end of that movement, as part
  
of the negotiation, we got that space to use as a student and community
  
center. The center has been a very important place at City College because
  
this is a real link between the university and the surrounding community,
  
especially Harlem, Washington Heights and El Barrio.”
 

  
When the Daily News article came out, the City College administration asked
  
the students to remove the sign themselves. The students responded
  
immediately with a press statement saying they would not remove Shakur and
  
Morales’s names from the Center. They expressed support for Shakur and
  
Morales, who they said are freedom fighters for the liberation of Black and
  
Puerto Rican people. In defense of Assata Shakur, the students’ statement
  
said, “We know that many Black people who fought for better conditions in
  
the 1970s were framed. We consider Assata Shakur to be one of the people who
  
were wrongfully and purposefully framed for her activities. And we consider
  
her a hero and role model for standing up for our people and putting her
  
life on the line.”
  

  
After the students’ press conference, the attack against the students
  
broadened when Fox News picked up the story, making it the top national
  
story on FoxNews.com under the headline “Students Love Cop Killer Honored at
  
New York College”. This was then picked up by many other news outlets.
  

  
On Dec. 13 the students attempted to meet with the CCNY administration to
  
negotiate. The administration refused to meet when the students said they
  
wanted their lawyer present and wanted the conversation recorded. Then
  
taking unilateral action, on Dec. 14 the CCNY administration removed the
  
sign with Shakur and Morales’s names from the entrance to the center. They
  
threatened student activists with disciplinary action if they put the sign
  
back up.
  

  
Students responded by calling a meeting to defend the center. Over 100
  
people came. From that meeting a rally was planned for Dec. 20 to confront
  
the CCNY administration and show support for the Morales/Shakur Center. The
  
rally will take place at 4:00 p.m. on CCNY’s NAC Plaza (outside of the
  
Administration Building) on Convent Avenue between 137th and 138th Streets.
  
Students are also encouraging supporters of the Morales/Shakur Center to
  
contact CCNY President Gregory H. Williams to protest CCNY’s infringement on
  
academic and student rights by their attack on the Center. Williams can be
  
contacted at 212-650-7285 or by fax at 212-650-7680. Plans are also in
  
motion to file a federal injunction to win the right to put the sign back
  
up.
  

  
A Center for Organizing
  

  
The Morales/Shakur Center houses various activist groups and projects.
  
Students for Education Rights was the group that led the student strike that
  
won the space for the Morales/Shakur Center from the CUNY administration in
  
1989. Union de Jovenes Dominicanos and Dominicanos 2000 use the
  
Morales/Shakur Center for their activities, including running a
  
Pre-University Program that works with hundreds of high school students from
  
the community. Student Liberation Action Movement is an activist group at
  
CUNY formed in 1995 in opposition to another round of tuition hikes. The
  
Messenger, which was started as an alternative newspaper at CCNY in 1997,
  
uses the center too.


  
  
  
Vicente " Panama" Alba
panamaalba2@yahoo.com <mailto:panamaalba2@yahoo.com>
(917) 626-5847
 
 
  
"if you tremble with indignation at every injustice
then you are comrade of mine."
 
  
"Let's be realistic, let's do the impossible"
 
Ernesto "Che" Guevara


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