May Day was founded to commemorate a police massacre in America 138 years ago and it is still not officially marked in America today. Thinking of that as I watch my place of work, Columbia University, where once again police are summoned to attack those yearning for a better world

May Day is not just about work, it's also about cops, because cops opening fire and killing striking workers on May 3, 1886, is what the Haymarket rally the next night was in response to, which the state responded to by legally executing four anarchists.

This story is bananas. Florida charges people $50 a day for their stay in prison. The state wants this woman to pay $127,000 because she was sentenced to 7 years—even though she only served 10 months.

A perfect example of how the gov’t sets people up to fail upon release.

I AM NOT A LAWYER, AND THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE

if you're going to a protest where you expect to get arrested it's extremely important to have arrest training. this thread will not be as useful as a proper training, but i can offer a few tips:

These USF students are incredibly brave to set up this Gaza solidarity encampment in DeSantis’ Florida.

Breaking: Florida cops are using tear gas and rubber bullets on students at the University of South Florida.

The NYPD has also begun encrypting their radio transmissions.

When the police and universities block the press, but the head of the NYPD’s press office rolls up to scene on the roof of an MRAP truck, the narrative will only be controlled by NYPD NEWS

Ferguson, 2014.
Standing Rock, 2016.
Charlottesville, 2017.
George Floyd Uprising, 2020.

They’ve been getting more militarized, more emboldened. Look to #CopCity & #MVP .

'A nation driven to use the weapons of war upon its youth is a nation on the edge of chaos.'

—President's Commission on Campus Unrest, 1970.

I teach a class on technology and fascism, and today we literally talked about fascist discourses and how they adopt food as a symbol of presumed virility or weakness. Anyways, on an unrelated note, please feel free to read this screenshot.

today, alexispauline reminded us that audre lorde & june jordan met at a student-run campus occupation in new york city. i don't think that'll ever leave my heart.

When the South has trouble with its Negroes—when the Negroes refuse to remain in their “place”—it blames “outside” agitators and “Northern interference.” When the nation has trouble with the Northern Negro, it blames the Kremlin.

- James Baldwin, 'Nobody Knows My Name,' 1961

in sudan those are our children.
in palestine those are our children.
in haiti those are our children.
in the congo those are our children.

on these college campuses, those are our children.

*all* of the children are ours and we’ve gifted them a world that feeds on them.

It happens at every single protest against the state. They did through 2020, at Ferguson, and the protests between, after, and before that. They don’t change their game plan because what matters isn’t truth or reason, but the power they have to brutalize people into submission.

In the spring of 1985 we padlocked the front doors of Hamilton Hall, renaming it Mandela Hall, and encamped on the steps for three weeks. Columbia divested from South Africa in the fall of 1985.

AMERICANS NEED TO UNDERSTAND

This is partly a practice run for NYPD. Locking journalists and students in buildings either physically or under threat of arrest? That can happen anywhere that NYPD can get to.

Understand that.

You may well have the unusual situation of the Columbia student radio station being eligible for a Pulitzer Prize, administered by Columbia University, for the station’s coverage of how Columbia called the cops on Columbia students. (They’re doing an extraordinary job).

Our team of 18 student volunteers is immensely proud to be providing this coverage to the Columbia community, NYC, and the world at large. We are incredibly appreciative of your support and understanding.

FYI Israel said they’re invading Rafah no matter what. That’s why encampments are spreading. That’s why we must escalate. That’s why all eyes on Rafah.