Updates from The Evergreen State College, Occupied Coast Salish Territories

This communiqué was written for students at Evergreen and people in the Olympia community and posted here for those outside these circumstances to understand where the struggle against budget cuts and capitalism stands in this community.

"What goes on between bodies in an occupation is more interesting than the occupation itself”

Tonight (the 2nd and 3rd of March) there was a study-in at the computer lab of the library building. As the clock struck midnight eighty students cheered as the administrators said the space was closed and walked off into the dark. This action was made possible by a concerted effort of student outreach to the workers of the space which helped achieve a common understanding about why this action was needed. Throughout the night people partook in finishing their homework, participating in workshops, and enjoying the feeling of a liberated (for the night) space.

In both the HCC occupation and this study-in, participants felt the change in how they related to the space and the people around them. The floor was no longer a cold hard surface, but a cozy bed, or the perfect place for playful interactions. The private computer rooms transformed into movie theaters and musical stages while the people in them began to loosen their shoulders and see the people around them as something more than alienated, stressed out students. In this space, temporarily void of authority figures people began taking responsibility, horizontally, for their own actions in the space that was, for this night, truly theirs.

People expressed joy, thanks, and excitement for this space. But if we as students, workers, and community members want to truly change the way we relate to this school and city we need to recognize that if we want to expand the bounds of these feelings we need to reclaim what’s ours. That means all of it and all of us.

After the soft (open and permeable) occupation of the HCC two weekends ago, to autonomous individuals organizing against budget cuts, it became more apparent that the administration and the police are fighting a war to pacify the student body. Finding places were they can split and divide student sentiment and pit organizers against organizers, they break our movement apart piece by piece. Whether its by causing internal disruptions at our actions, or endorsing our actions and deflating our momentum on the outside they continue to try and walk the middle road.

Tonight the police and administration walked that road but in the future it is certain that lines will be drawn and boundaries pushed. Eventually they will not bend and students will be forced to pick a side and stand their ground. There is no room for bystanders, budget shortfalls affect everyone. These cuts are just symptoms of a larger problem. Capitalism is in crisis and it is apparent who will get the short end of the stick.

Love,
Autonomous Individuals

PS. We’re just getting warmed up!

Best picture-hover-over

Best picture-hover-over comment ever.

....the amount of liberation

....the amount of liberation occurring is overwhelming.

finished their homework??

finished their homework??

Where the confrontation at?

Where the confrontation at? Are you simply students "struggling" to fulfill the next bulk of managerial positions or actively trying to transcend that identity?

evergreen is a fail haven

evergreen is a fail haven

the "occupation" began just

the "occupation" began just as the computer center closed at midnight and ended just as it reopened at 7 am.

My co workers and i stopped working at 12 noon today to sit and eat food, smoke cigarettes, drink coffee and bullshit with one another in a temporarily liberated loading dock. liberals, reactionaries, and non-autonomous individuals might call this a lunch break, we prefer to call it a General Strike.
Look for our communique shortly!

oh yeah, the General Strike

oh yeah, the General Strike ended at 1pm sharp.
it was made possible only through outreach and communication with the boss

bun, i love you lonewolf

bun, i love you

lonewolf

TAKE IT QUICK!!!

TAKE IT QUICK!!!

Should students not organize

Should students not organize student-centric things?
If people need to use a computer center overnight, should they not use it?
Should workers not organize worker-centric things?
Should you not ask your employers for a raise, or organize your co workers when they don't pay one of you?
Does everything need to be over the top revolutionary, or can we start with agitation?...

Mmmmmm... No. Not if you are

Mmmmmm... No. Not if you are a student. If you are a student it is likely that you are pretty much reviled by most anarchists (especially the ones who are students themselves) for your ‘privileged’ social position of being born middle class, being blindly shoved into an institution by your parents who (not having gone themselves) were brainwashed to think that it was the best thing they could offer you, and then being left with the choice “do I just give up on ever breaking even, or should I sell myself for whatever corporate job I can get.” Anarchists turn red in the face when they see clueless middle class kids “demanding everything” because they are secretly reminded of themselves, but are simultaneously aware of how embarrassing the student’s attempts at being more than their defined role is. It’s easier to fantasize about worker revolts that don’t exist than to look at what presently exists in the form of student activism, and don’t forget it gives them someone else to shit on. If there is anything anarchists need it is people of similar opinions in similar predicaments who don’t call themselves anarchists, so we may shit on them and tell them why if they did things our way they would be more successful. Sound pathetic? It is. Perhaps the actions being taken by students are unimportant spectacular attempts to re-negotiate some of the terms of their slavery in a better way, but it is at least a tangible reason that has something to do with the conditions of their life. Unlike, “everybody go outside and retake the streets for no particular reason! Fuck authority!” That’s an ideological imputes that will never get anywhere unless resistance to authority is based on resistance to its most vulnerable intrusions into our lives. And forget “overthrowing everything,” this kind of ideological struggle is one that never ends. There is no “after the revolution,” there is only “during our lives.”

But if students do anything short of burning a campus down they are basically shouted down by anarchists for being what most anarchists are: privileged (this is america remember) people too far gone to a system that they can think beyond but never get outside of. If I sound kind of pissed it is because as a student, who has never participated in or even seen substantial actions on his campus, I am sick of the pretentious “more-oppressed-than-thou”, “I am a working class anarchist”, “suck my non-privileged ball sack” bullshit; this stupid class analysis stuff where peoples’ circumstances are boiled down to their relation to capital and their opinions don’t matter much. You want a class war? Go pay a bunch of homeless people to ransack a Wal Mart, and then another anarchist can tell you that what you’re doing is pointless and we can repeat the whole cycle again. Personally I congratulate anyone on this site who has actually been out doing anything recently and not just surfing for posts that they can shit on.

Let me know when you people actually do something. I am (non-sarcastically) waiting with bated breath and will be ecstatic to see anarchists actually do something near the magnitude or visibility of the student protests that doesn’t just reinforce capital.

I don't think student

I don't think student activism is totally bankrupt, I'm pretty excited about what's been going on in california. the situation in california is and has been tactically, and contextually very different than what kids at evergreen have been doing.
I could care less if some folks want to bring sleeping bags into a computer center for a slumber party just as it's closing and politely show themselves out in the morning just as it reopens. the evergreen police and administration apparently could care less as well.
It's just weird that we're discussing it on a website called anarchist news, because it isn't newsworthy nor does it have anything to do with anarchism.
However, i do object to folks using the word 'Occupation' to refer to a permitted sleep over in an arbitrarily chosen school room with absolutely zero predetermined purpose in mind. I take anarchism seriously and Occupations historically have been an important and useful tool in the struggle against state power. When these folks appropriate that term and attach it to whatever the hell they find themselves doing right now, which apparently is having weird parties in boring venues for no reason, i find it irritating. I find it irritating for the same reasons i found it irritating when I heard years ago that a bunch of freshmen new to olympia were starting an 'Evergreen Food Not Bombs' which right away changed its name to S.O.F.A. (i forget what the acronym means) after being harassed and threatened (not with violence, but with the printed word circulated for the purposes of discrediting and mocking) by members of the already existent olympia FNB, at least five of whose members (that i can think of off the top of my head) were life long local residents with strong ties with the street community. College kids eating dumpstered food with college kids on a college campus that is inaccessible to homeless folks (unless they buy a bus pass to get all the way out to TESC, but in that case they might as well get a hamburger and save themselves a bus trip to place they're gonna feel uncomfortable and out of place being gawked at by rich kids) for the purpose of protesting aramark by not eating food their parents already paid for (mandatory purchase of meal plan for freshmen) is not called Food Not Bombs, its called a potluck. Just like the zine library on campus that called itself the Sabot infosquat was not a squat, squating is also important and useful and means something specific.
Just like my lunch break yesterday was not actually a general strike, just like me taking my dog for a walk is not seizing a town and expropriating all means of production, abolishing the wage system and declaring anarchist communism! Nothing wrong with walking dogs, just don't call it that.

hey everyone, just for the

hey everyone, just for the record, you know, because you don't live in olympia...bun bun is a 30 year old named RB. He is creepily obsessed with a 22 year old girl who tried to kill herself three times while she was with him. anarchist news is the only way he knows to vent his garbage at her. because she wont talk to him and he sends her creepy text messages. sorry you all have to read his shit while he tries to discredit what people are doing at evergreen. some people thought he was a cop. he probably isn't, but he is a creep and has been accused of being a rapist and has no friends and everyone thinks he's a pathetic joke with a dumb metal band. so......sorry everyone.

thing's will get going at Evergreen soon enough and poor bun bun will still be alone with nothing to critiize. judge the kids all you want, at least they aren't rejects on a computer pathetically hanging on to an electronic high-five, Ryan.

Hmmm... Even so (if it is

Hmmm... Even so (if it is so) what he said in the post you were responding to made sense to me. Is it inaccurate? Was there something more important that happened?

Independent of the

Independent of the administration, the staff and management of the computer center agreed to the occupation and are working together, something which the people in California are striving for: workers and students on the same page. Workers and students did this together, despite the threats of the administration. While it is a small undertaking, its target is not the national anarchist community. Its target is the Evergreen student body, ie: the people who will either make or break the efforts on the Evergreen campus ie: not some lonely creep on the internet: ie, RB, aka, Bun Bun. Most students at Evergreen were happy to be able to use the computer center when they once were unable to. Most students at Evergreen also hate anarchists (in part because of the type of shit talking done by people like Bun Bun after the Dead Prez riot). This is a positive step. Building raport with workers, students and anarchists. More will come later!

30 year old Bun Bun is just an idiotic parasite who cant stop creeping on a 22 year old over the internet. Hey, Ryan, we know youre listening. We hate you! Please kill yourself! Just like you told the cops to do! =) =(

RB, aka Bun Bun, is not welcome anywhere near the events that took place, nor will he ever be. He is a parasite who leaches off the people he drives to suicide and will NEVER be allowed to participate in ANYTHING ever again.

While none of you may understand, we hope you will hold off judgement on these undertakings on not listen to this wingnut named Bun Bun. The efforts of those at Evergreen will speak for themselves over time. Bun Bun is pretty much almost dead. He looks like a prune these days. He is sad, lonely and smells like an pigs asshole.

This is just weird. Ewww!

This is just weird.
Ewww! 30!!!, silly rabbit, anarchy is for kidz! Get running Logan!
I actually won't be thirty for another three years, but i suppose i am beyond the cut off age of 25 for north american anarchism, you too Aragorn. Mb and i have a four year age gap, why this is relevant, i do not know.
This is a pretty weird forum for talking about interpersonal drama, but it seems to be the only place any of these seven or eight folks are willing to talk about any of it. Any time any of my friends have tried calling them on their weird rumor mongering they just clam up, it reminds me of that chapter in language older than words about not talking about the fact that we dont talk about the fact that we're not talking about...etc.
yeah, both times i dumped mb she responded with lame over the top dramatic suicide attempts like eating childrens asprin and then calling people, i fell for it the first time and got back with her, the second time i told her i needed space and not to contact me, so a week later she started a rumor that i had sexually assaulted my ex, my ex heard about it the next day and wrote a letter stating that i hadn't done any of these things, after that a line was drawn in the sand and anyone who still wanted to be friends with me could no longer be friends with the seven or eight people in mb's weird little cult, so now a bunch of people aren't friends with eachother anymore and the police watch our community rip itself apart while rubbing their bellies and laughing. A month later mb called me crying and said she was gonna hurt herself and needed me to come talk to her, i fell for it and she just ended up drunkenly taking swings at me so i went back home, later on i heard a rumor that i beat her up, almost no one took this accusation seriously on account of the fact that she had just weeks earlier made a rape accusation on behalf of someone else who said it never happened. Credibility is important to most people, use it wisely.
And now six months later if i want to voice criticism of "actions" that i think are silly, instead of responding specifically to any points i make, people can just say, "bun is a crazy old man who lives in a shoe"
Also the only person who ever suggested i was a cop is a paranoid idiot who spends all his time writing unreadable anarcho-fantasy novels about kids taking over tacoma and bumming cigarettes off the devil (it's like if an inarticulate eighth grader were trying to rewrite a neil gaiman book). He has accused almost everyone in olympia of being a cop at one point or another, if he did think i was a cop, that never kept him from sleeping on my couch, eating all my food, smoking up all my weed and cigarettes and drinking all my coffee.
Anyway, i think i'm done talking about all this gossip and drama on comment threads on anarchistnews, this is not a contructive dialog and i'm sure it's annoying to all who read it, if anyone has anything to say to me about it in real life, i'm around all the time and you know where to find me (in my lonely tower on the edge of the world).

yes, the situation in

yes, the situation in california has been very different. If you'll remember the movement around budget cuts which is the movement that led to state-wide occupations started in late august. By the time school had started again in september people were already seriously working around the budget cuts. The situation in olympia has ben very, very different. People started seriously organizing around budget cuts in late january. That means that the people organizing at evergreen have only been doing so for two months, so no the movement is not as advanced as the on in california is right now. I'm aware that in some cases the UC's were only organizing for around two months but they also have a lot more people than evergreen. Berkeley itself has about 35,000 students, compared to the 5,000 that evergreen has. I would say that around maybe 7,000 students live on campus. Santa Cruz has about that amount too. Evergreen TACTICALLY is very different from the universities in california, therefore I feel that it should be tactically approached very differently.Actually the evergreen police and the administration do really care about what's going on. They are nervous about another occupation happening on campus and have been changing the procedures on how to deal with evacuating and shutting down buildings. I understand that you do not care about this and think it does not matter. In some ways you are right. Personally, as of now I do not think the movement is a threat to the administration, but that is how they are seeing it. Really? Out of all the other garbage posted on here, some of it being satire, (and remember comedy is not news) you are going to complain about this event being posted? Give me a break. This was meant to be a form of ourtreach. The only point in the communique where it says occupation is in a quote, taken from something else. Not, many people at evergreen are going to jump right in and support an occupation. Therefore outreach needs to be done, students need to understand why and how the budget cuts are effecting them, who the people making the decision on how to spend their money are, and what the campus spaces can look like if the administration was taken out of the picture and things were controlled by the students. Students also need to realize that If this university system is going to exist at all, it needs to be available to everyone. However, when trying to get people on your side and “build a movement” insulting people and calling them worthless students is probably not the best tactic. Once people can begin to realize how unequally the university system is set-up hopefully they will start realizing that there things they can do to show their dissent and their disagreement( and students are slowly but surely realizing the inherent inequality that exists in the realms of high education. I'm not trying to say that students are going to bring the revolution because they are not, But I do agree that its a good idea for people to organize around what they already find themselves around ( me being a student...) and that movements do need to be merged. (I.e. student, worker, teacher, unemployed, retired, etc.) But until the movement is strong enough to stand on it's own legs, I really do not see that happening. I didn't see you venting any public frustrations about all the soft occupations that happened at the U.C.s earlier this year. Berkeley live week, that was a whole week of soft occupations where there were dance parties and people working on their homework for finals and other things. Do you really see the theory of soft occupations as anti-tactical in regards to outreach, because that is usually what they are meant for. 
These above things you mentioned in regards to the "infosquat" and evergreen food not bombs are very fucking stupid. And I can tell you that little to no lifestyle anarchists are involved in the main planning of these events. We agree on this. I think the most important thing to remember is that evergreen should be approached different tactically than other universities. There are many people right now who would love to go out and occupy a building on campus, break everything in the room, and ransack the presidents office. However, would the students on campus support it in anyway? probably not. But maybe after some outreach work, explaining why the president is a piece of shit who profits from offshore drilling, and why the board of trustees are all millioniares, students will start to get more pissed and become a little more supportive. Definitely not all, almost 100% chance not most, but hopefully more than we have now. I am in no way trying to glorify the student movement, but i think if the student left can become more radicalized it gives them a lot more potential then they have now, and right now they are focusing all of their attention on the capitol and the governor, when on campus people like Les Purce are getting their two houses paid for with college funds approved by the board with a 5,000 a month catering stipend to boot. Hopefully evergreen can act as an example for exposing administration and higher-ups for who they really are. Because the board at evergreen is small potatoes compared to the board of regents at UW or WSU. You have every right to be critical but I can help but think a lot of your criticisms are stemming from you personally not liking people involved in the planning of these events. Because there are a lot of parallels between what has been going on in california, and our movement is still growing. But I don't see you tearing apart actions that the UC's are doing.

There is usually a pretty

There is usually a pretty uneven amount of criticism leveled at student projects on this site because... well they're students. They can be blamed for trying to increase whatever 'privilege' they already have, even though it may not be much more than a massive debt. I am a student who is paying for an education I could never afford and obviously think this is ridiculous.

BTW what exactly is the "theory of soft occupations"?

And about "lifestyle" anarchists. Attending marches, supporting prisoners, committing to direct actions, and trying to raise consciousness are all part of a "lifestyle", just as refusing work, stealing food, train-hopping and squatting is also a "lifestyle." Both are arguably useless and at the same time arguably effective ways of living one's own concept of anarchy. What this word has become is a pejorative for people who don't want to be part of the "big movement." I am not saying that either side is right, but people who don't necessarily have faith in "the movement" just may have reasons and perhaps other thoughts to contribute. It doesn't do anything to throw out the word "lifestylist," at anyone who doesn't happen to share your lifestyle. I know that has little to do with the large post you wrote, but that word has always bothered me. I just think of the blanketing of people as "counter-revolutionary" and the wonderful places that word has been. Of course no one will like reading this because I am basically throwing in an argument about a term usually used for dumpster diving crust punks that seem to arouse the hate in 90% of anarchists who aren`t... well dumpster diving crust punks.

I would define the theory of

I would define the theory of soft occupations as an occupation that has open access for others who want to join after the occupation has already started. I would say that usually they are used as a form of outreach, a way to introduce people to the idea of taking space without throwing them right into the militancy of a "hard occupation" where direct and violent police interaction is almost unavoidable, I don't know i would say that can be a very effective tool to introducing people to and also continue to build a movement.
I didn't mean to offend( and i'm not saying offend in a bad way) you with the word lifestyle anarchists. Yes people do have different definitions of the word so I probably should have been more specific. I think you got it, But i was talking about the dumpster-diving/train hopping/ crusty,etc,etc. I don't think any of these things are inherently bad to do. Free food from a dumpster is cool, stealing stuff so you don't have to pay for it is cool, but making that the basis of the whole life is just flawed. I completely understand why lots of people don't have faith in the "big movement" but I would rather spend my time working on things that I actually think can be effective and eventually accessible to lots of other people, rather than spend my time trying to convince a bunch of punker-than-thou anarchists on why not everyone can just drop out of their life and steal hella shit and hitch-hike around the country. I also think that these people are not in anyway a good representation of the anarchist movement that I hope to see and directly increase to the inaccessibility that most people have towards anarchism or revolution or whatever you wanna call it. For a long time anarchism had nothing to do with being punk and being pacified by the crumbs of society, but now, that is pretty much all that anyone sees when they look at the anarchist movement, and thats not an anarchist movement i am interested.

ANARCHY! http://www.youtube.c

ANARCHY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz_wyI-bjro

ANARCHYYY!!!

ANARCHYYY!!!

Anarchists? In MY Evergreen?

Anarchists? In MY Evergreen? I thought Geoducks were all Obama voters and KosKidz!

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