In which Bwog succumbs to a terrible case of false nostalgia.

Par for the course of other Barnard Townhalls, the lasanga, coffee and white tablecloths came out in full force for tonight's discussion about student activism at Columbia in 1968.

After a brief introduction by two SGA representatives announcing tonight's speakers—Dean of the College Dorothy Denburg, BC '70, and Karla Spurlock-Evans, BC '71—the members of the Townhall were shown an 11 minute video clip. The clip was part of a larger documentary entitled Remembering '68, and featured interviews with a number of Barnard and Columbia professors and students about the spring of said historic year. Bwog would normally, of course, be happy to share with you what interviewees said, but because the documentary-maker—in a curious move indicative of some sort of activist-y universality or sheer forgetfulness—didn't think to provide the names of the people who were speaking as they were on camera.

Mulling over the merits and drawbacks of a hunger strike, Bwogger Sara Vogel G-chat with a striking member of Columbia Solidarity [link to strikers' blog added 12:44 am] who wished to remain anonymous. It's been edited a bit — IM conversations are always disjointed.

SV: Sorry to bother you! I've just been thinking a lot about this hunger strike. I don't really know what to think, actually. And I thought you're really involved, and could give me some perspective.

StudentStriker: After reading bwog...it is so important to have these conversations about it

8:18 PM SV: To many, a hunger strike is a really symbolic action that calls to mind people like Gandhi and Guantanamo Bay prisoners. Is that something on strikers' minds?

8:24 PM StudentStriker: So the thing is there is a "why we strike" statement [reproduced after the jump- ed.] and this statement is a collection of the strikers' personal feelings. It is a culmination of individual statements, not to put us on the same level of prisoners who are without rights, expressions, food, or freedom. However, there is the sentiment that if all things were relative, students are in a way robots of this school.

The idea is, the core curriculum is so beautiful and so empowering, a social tool and a social weapon, so we should use it to make intelligent citizens and reform it with input from current events--such as the 5 hate crimes in less than a month. But the administration oppresses idea likes this or ethnic studies or expansion.... and they [the ideas] are literally put into a vacuum. We have had meetings with Bollinger where he outwardly doodles flowers on the demands

Many of you may have heard the distant rumblings of this news, but Bwog has recently received enough on-the-record information to post about a series of newsworthy events that will start tomorrow morning. And so:

Remember Solidarity, the anti-racist coalition with the long list of demands? Turns out six of their members are going on a hunger strike (water and gatorade allowed), starting tomorrow at 8:00 am, to pressure the administration into action. Their reference point is the great student hunger sit-in of 1996, which resulted in the creation of the ethnic studies department--many of their demands involve further empowering ethnic studies, in a plan to clear up unfinished business.

The precedent has been set apart from 1996, however. A 9-day strike went down at Harvard last May, when students deprived themselves on behalf of school-employed laborers, and this article from the Boston Globe has a good chronology of other recent strikes, which have been a lot more common than you'd think.

The striking group plans to make their intentions public knowledge at a dinner at 6pm this evening, so they have no official statement as yet. But campus awareness has reached the tipping point, so Bwog posts--despite threats to withhold information for publishing before the public release.

And, of course, we'll keep you updated with other news as it develops.

Bwog was out getting afternoon coffee when the Starbucks Barista pointed towards Broadway. "I originally thought it was a gay pride parade. But I think it's an Asian pride parade."

Actually, despite the rainbow flag and several Asian participants, it was neither. A group of about 15 students (and one monk) gathered in front of Starbucks holding rainbow peace flags and wearing "Free Burma" shirts. One of the flag-wavers told Bwog that they were marching to the Burmese embassy on 72nd, and tomorrow they would be meeting up with other students from different universities are walking from the Burmese mission to the United Nations building.

- JNW

Last week, Bwog made passing mention that the Students for Environmental and Economic Justice were selling t-shirts on college walk. By way of a follow up, we'd like to say just how much we love their screen-printed, second-hand tees--they're clever and environmentally/economically conscious!

But what really piqued Bwog's interest was the cause said t-shirts are repping: the University's full conversion to wind power. According to SEEJer Laura Seidman, C '10, the group is petitioning Columbia to buy their power specifically from wind sources. Our power is curently supplied by ConEd; all we'd have to do is request that ours come exclusively from the company's wind turbines and pay the extra 2 or so percent such power would cost. NYU has a similar arrangement, and SEEJ thinks it's time for us to get on board as well. It would cost each student around ten extra dollars a year--although Bwog wonders whether there isn't some local high-roller who'd kick in $500 million to cut down on energy use altogether.

Back when Bwog had a crack-like Sim City addiction, it learned that wind turbines are slightly more expensive but about as effective as coal and oil plants. Same in the real world? Chat up SEEJ and find out.

-ARR

Previously, on the Joy Luck Book Club: Marisha Pessl's merits as author and as hottie were debated. In this week's episode, certified hottie Dave Eggers presents What is the What, and the J.L.B.C. convenes, gin cocktails in hand, to their secret clubhouse somewhere in the outer boroughs...

Reading Rainbow!

Dan: Dave Eggers is famous for two things: the painfully earnest magazine McSweeney's and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, a wonderful book that I can barely recall. (That's the one with the brother and The Real World audition, right?) What is the What represents both a return to the literary spotlight and something of a return to form for Eggers - after two little-read works of fiction, he's once again bending genres with a novelized autobiography told by Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese refugee.

In case you hadn't heard, PrezBush made a surprise visit to a charter school in Harlem today, and Bwog biked up to 144th and Adam Clayton to see what kind of welcome residents and activists had in store for him. Despite the massive security, which included snipers on every building, streets completely blocked off within a three-block radius, cadres of NYPD on every corner, dozens of motorcycles, secret service hiding in dump trucks, and metal fences lining every street, a sizable number of dissidents managed to show up and locals congregated to express their opinions and see why their neighborhood was shut down for the day.

The most striking part about the event was the effectiveness of the metal fences, copious police presence, and constantly changing rules for where one could walk. Any chance of picketing for more than a couple of minutes was precluded by the sheer overwhelming power of the NYPD and their vehicles. Nevertheless, residents shouted "GO HOME! WE DON'T WANT YOU HERE!" to Bush's motorcade, while a band of about 30 picketers, largely Columbia students, led chants of "Bush out of Harlem, US out of Iraq!" and other anti-war slogans, as they were followed by a few dozen police on the sidewalk and a rolling van of at least eleven officers. Said one Columbia protester, "This is a traveling 'free speech zone,'" mocking the fact that they couldn't remain stationary. Others were more confrontational, yelling at the NYPD, "These are our rights being violated!" The NYPD circled the group but they stayed silent.

A few who knew that LionPAC had reserved the Sundial for the same time that Lucha and Filasteen were planning a human wall across Low Plaza anticipated a showdown - but would have been disappointed, as the event went down without incident. About 50 people (very roughly speaking), including many of the New York Magazine pantheon, members of BSO, SPeAK, MSA, ISO, Chicano Caucus, and other components of Columbia's brimming alphabet soup of activism spanned the plaza in an event meant to draw a connection between the Israeli security fence and the Mexican border wall, which organizers view as racist and oppressive. James Brown, Arabic pop music, and short-lived chants of "Free Palestine!" filled the awkward hush between speeches by professor Noha Radwan, students, and a representative of ANSWER, and some of those who stopped by couldn't help but dance to the largely upbeat music.

It wasn't supposed to be a red-rover style line. Originally, Filasteen had planned an actual wall, festooned with information and student art. According to an e-mail obtained by Bwog, they ended up $400 short of the the $700 that would cost, and appealed to MEALAC professors for donations to fill the gap. No dice. UPDATE: Sources say that Filasteen actually did get the money together, but they're saving it for another event.

Meanwhile, LionPAC manned the sundial, handing out cards that said "Israel =/= Apartheid". President Ari Gardner commented: "We're here not to protest, but to present facts... The motivation is not so much an anti-apartheid event, but an anti-wall event... They don't believe that states should delineate borders."

- KER & LBD, Photos by Sara Vogel

Columbia journalism and sociology professor Todd Gitlin knows activism. Once president of Students for a Democratic Society, there's not much he hasn't seen, and although now he writes from comfortable digs in the Journalism School, Gitlin has some words of wisdom for those still taking it to the streets. After an hour of stories from the 60s and media musings, Bwog walked out feeling just a little smarter. Protesters, take heed!

What did you think when you first heard about the protest?

Initially, one of my thoughts when I saw this event was coming was that the Republican party wants to light a match on some flammable turf. That they want to produce a polarization that may benefit them. That's the way the present day Republican party operates. They could have invited various more respectable anti-immigration people. The equivalent of Pete Wilson, you know, Tom Tancredo. You invite the Minutemen, you're on your way to a riot. They want to take their flag into enemy territory, and so they've done.

A lot of people say this reminds them of the 60s. How is this different from that?

I don't know, honestly, what the state of play on the campus is. As I walk around, I don't hear people talking about this. On the other hand, I saw the video that somebody had put up, in which the woman who had shot the video said "everybody's talking about this." I didn't dispute it, it's just that it wasn't my experience. Anyway, you have to remember that The '60s took 10 years to happen. There were times in the '60s when there were tiny groups creating events, and there were times when there were tiny groups who were mobilizing larger groups who were triggering events, there were times when larger groups were involved in producing larger events, sometimes simultaneously, sometimes cheek to jowl with each other, and it's very hard to say this is like or unlike the '60s. There certainly were such events. At the beginning of a movement, were people rushing stages? No, I'm not aware of it. It would have been more likely to be something like people standing up and turning their backs.

I was thinking about this yesterday. The American Nazi party was a visible weird force in the early 60s. They were headed by a guy named George Lincoln Rockwell, who looked the part. He had some sort of theatrical quality. He would give a lot of talks at universities, and this was in the early period of the civil rights movement, so he was much hated. People would go to his events and picket, I think there probably also catcalls. Students were generally better behaved then than now. But I don't remember anyone assaulting the stage or anything. Malcolm X was another very popular campus speaker around the same time. He had a large following, but he also had opposition, I don't remember anyone rushing the stage when he spoke.

After leaving the Minuteman Protest, Bwog sat down and e-mailed all the adminstrators it could think of for interviews. Chaplain Jewelnel Davis, who runs Earl Hall, responded via Blackberry at 6:30 AM the next morning. She and SGB program managers Jane Huber and Raquel Whittaker speak about protesting, free speech, and the swinging sixties.

When the idea to have Jim Gilchrist came up, what were your thoughts around that?

Chaplain Davis: We know that Columbia, at its very best, must be a place where free speech is affirmed and central, not only in the classrooms must there be a vigiorous exchange of ideas, but also if they have issues that their groups want to focus on, we are delighted for students to proposed events and propose speakers that will allow students first hand experience of what the issues are that face them as young people, and as citizens not only of Columbia, but of New York, of the region, of the country, of the world.

If you're going to have a speaker and have a question and answer session. You're at Columbia. If you want something to have a significant contribution to the Columbia Community, you make sure that there's a Question and Answer period.

In this case, for example, the speakers were scheduled to speak for 45 minutes, and then followed by a 45 minute question and answer period. Raquel and Jane had worked carefully and well with Chris Kulawik to make sure that the issues the College Republicans wanted to be heard, issues of immigration, were coming out. So it's not whether you read the newspaper, whether you've filtered through the television media, but no, you could say I was actually there with the people who were making the news that other people are reporting on.

At Columbia, you get to say I was there. The Minutemen are part of the national conversation about immigration, especially on the southern border of the United States, and the College Republicans wanted students to hear from them, and to interrogate. There were no bars on what the questions were going to be. There were no questions that were predetermined that could not be asked. The College Republicans made no effort to do that.

After a 45-minute long diatribe by a preachy opening speaker, during which a packed crowd inside Roone Arledge grew increasingly irate, main event Jim Gilchrist was rushed by a large group of students, in what descended into a free-for-all on the stage. Scroll below for the blow-by-blow and photos.

3:45 PM: Releases by the University and by the College Republicans appended below.

3:21 AM: Those who occupied the stage have released a statement, which has been added to the bottom of the post.

1:56 AM: Chicano Caucus press release at the bottom of the post.

1:23 AM: YouTube is down at the moment. Bwog is working to provide an alternative, so stay tuned.

CTV's video of the protest:

7: 30 PM: In the biggest old-fashioned activist shindig Broadway has seen since Chris Kulawik's last guest arrived in November 2005, hundreds of students and community members yelled and picketed outside Lerner to protest the arrival of Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minutemen. They had catchy slogans.

"Workers of the world unite! Same struggle, same fight!"

"Minutemen, Nazis, KKK! Racists, fascists, go away!"

8:10 PM: A little Miles Davis music on overhead in Roone Arledge Auditorium strikes Bwog as ironic. Opening speaker Marvin Stewart steps up to the podium, and begins by thanking Jesus Christ and Chris Kulawik. "ARE YOU READY to surrender your liberties?" he demands of the crowd.

8:35 PM: Stewart is 30 minutes into a free-associative rant, ranging through scripture and America's Consitutional Republican form of government (NOT Democratic). People in the increasingly restless crowd shout: "You don't know shit about god! Black white supremacist!" "Go home! "
to which Stewart counters: "I am home! God bless America!
to which the crowd replies: "BOOOOOOOOOOO!"

It's getting more surreal by the minute.

Update 8:41 pm: Someone yells, "In Spanish, please!" The crowd bursts into a thunderous applause, which spirals into a full-out protest, complete with students wearing Mexican wrestling masks. The students are now standing up one by one, with their backs to the man, who has asked, "Are you standing with your backs to me? Why'd you come, no wonder you don't know anything." Repubs cheered, others sneered.

Update 8:45 pm: Some white-shirted students were just escorted out of the auditorium by security.

Update 8:47 pm: Man at the podium is still ranting, despite the beads of sweat trickling down his forehead and his voice-cracks... "Religion and morality are necessary for government." Students chanting: "Wrap it up! Wrap it up!" Some guy just came out to try to get him to stop, and he said, "Let me finish..." he's sweating, and looks angry. "All of you who are doing your chanting in here are the very ones that need this the most. But guess what, I'm not deterred."

Update 8:51 pm: "I'm going to wrap this up because time is an issue." With Kulawik looking uncomfortable, Stewart stops talking with a boisterous "God Bless America, and America Bless God!" Taking the podium, Kulawik chastens the crowd. "I was under the false assumption that this was an Ivy League School," he says.

Finally the Minuteman himself enters. "Now who're you calling racist?" he shouts, putting his arm around Stewart, who is black. "I love the First Amendment. As soon as you graduate, you'll all be investment bankers. I've been where you at. I know you hate yourselves."

Update 9:00 pm: BWOG IS SHOCKED. STUDENTS WITH A BIG YELLOW SIGN JUST CAME ONTO THE STAGE. The sign says, "There are no illegals." Students rise en masse from the audience and rush the stage. The Minuteman and the students engaged in a tug of war with the banner. More people rush the stage, prompting a fist-fight. One female student is kicked in the head. A guy in a pony tail (definitely not a student) rushes the stage and fights with students (several witnesses saw him kick a student) and then banded together with the Minuteman to shout the pledge of allegiance as the rumble spun out of hand, "One nation! Under God! Indivisible!"

There was at least two minutes of chaos between students, other students and the Minutemen. Bwog took cover.

Update: 9:01 pm: Security comes out, now the curtain is down. Students are still chanting, now everyone's filing out.

Update: 9:15 pm: Students outside shouting, "They say, 'get bent,' we say, 'let's fight!'"

Update: 9:22 pm: A Bwog correspondent calls in a tip. A student defending the Minuteman right outside the gates on 115th was encircled by a group of protesters after a heated personal fight with just one of the protesters. The protesters then shouted, "Racist, go home!" Security showed up, and they started breaking up. Student last seen laughing on phone with friends. A mosh pit of triumphal students and community members dance and chant, "Asian, Black, Brown and White, we smashed the Minutemen tonight!"

OK, Bwog edited this since the initial transcription. We're excitable.

Everyone and their mother has official responses to the brawl, after the jump...

- Bwogging by Lydia DePillis, Sara Vogel, and Will Snider