To better understand what’s happening on campuses around the country, read “First We Take Columbia: Lessons from the April 1968 Occupations Movement.” The essay, which appeared April 20 at the autonomist website Ill Will, is penned by anonymous participants of the late Columbia and Yale protest encampments. The authors recall another occupation, another Columbia, which took place 56 years ago, while urging on their fellow occupiers.
The first thing you’ll notice is that essay says practically nothing, beyond a brief reference to “solidarity with Gaza,” about the ongoing war in the Middle East.
Instead, the authors divide their advice into sections with headers such as “Occupations are effective because they are disruptive,” “An occupation needs to spread in order to survive,” and “Every occupation is a commune” together with examples from the 1968 Columbia campus protests.
The symmetry between 1968 and 2024 became increasingly clear this week as protests have escalated across the country, with students seizing university buildings, building barricades, and bringing in reinforcements from among outside radicals. Columbia protesters reportedly briefly held Columbia staff hostage, refusing to allow them to leave the building in a manner reminiscent of Columbia Dean William Coleman’s capture a half century earlier.
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