7/27/2019 Liberate CUNY Front Press Release

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There will be a demonstration today at 12:30 pm in front of the North Academic Building to denounce therepressive actions of CUNY administration and demand that the illegally torn down student-run safe space bereinstated.

Posted: October 21 2013

Liberate Cuny Front, Press Release: Stop the Militarization of CCNY!

Defend the Morales-Shakur Center!

Today October 20th 2013, The City College Administration appropriateda Safe-Space on its North Academic Campus. The Guillermo Morales/ Assata Shakur Community Center is an independently run space thatallowed students to congregate and study together. This space was alsoresponsible for community outreach throughout The Harlem Community,facilitating an affordable farm-share and making affordable fresh foodaccessible, a book exchange for students who cannot afford textbooks,and the housing center for the activities of the Students for Educational Rights and the Revolutionary Student CoordinatingCommittee. Using the space, students have won victories such as the 24hour library and free printing.

Like the Safe-Space in the first floor of the CCNY NAC (North AcademicCenter), The Shakur Center is sovereign from CCNY and under the jurisdiction of students, the administration cannot appropriate theserooms without notification. Yet despite the promise of sovereignty,the school went ahead and took over the revolutionary space with theclaim of expanding a Career Center that would facilitate students withinternship opportunities.

The CCNY administration’s reasoning is deceptive and dishonest, and indicative of a major lack of respect for the ability of studentsorganizing. The Morales-Shakur Center was appropriated from studentsand community members without any consultation and notice, despitethem having the legal rights to the space. The administration did not

consult with The Corbin Hill Farm Share members who facilitateaffordable aliment to the community or the director of the space whohad contractual jurisdiction of the space, furthermore the personalbelongings of students and collective property of the organizationswhich utilize the space was seized. This is symptomatic of a growingtrend of militarization in the community, also reflected in themilitarization of CUNY.

The morning after the raid, the entire City College campus was putunder lockdown, inside the college students were kidnapped and unableto leave the facilities, outside students were harassed by publicsafety officers and unable to access the school. This came at theworst time, as students needed to get in and use the library to studyfor upcoming midterms.

In their frustrations about the library being closed and a belovedcommunity center being raided and shut down, students organized animpromptu protest that gained numbers and support quickly. Media,community members and city council members came to express solidarity,and enough pressure was built to force the administration to reopenthe campus. However, the Morales-Shakur Center remains under siege.

Call the offices of your local council member, or any mayoralcandidate, there is an occupation being formally organized and

7/27/2019 Liberate CUNY Front Press Release

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students need supplies to stay overnight. The City College is locatedat 160 Convent Ave, New York. Show solidarity and support to thestudents fighting against these oppressive measures. This is a threatto all-progressive, radical, and revolutionary organizers in NYC. Thesiege of the Morales-Shakur Center marks the escalatingintensification against anybody challenging the status-quo.

The movement[s] of progress, democracy, liberation and of revolutionneed to be present and at the forefront of the defense of this center,for the loss of it is a blow whole-hearty against them.

Unless all progressive forces unite at this point, the repression willbecome even more draconian and face the possibility of our movement,that among the students in general, will be set back years of workwith this loss. Morales-Shakur Center is the center and congealment of those progressive struggles that ran themselves among therevolutionary working class students. It must be defended now.