The modern university is the cradle of the nations future. This be so, let us not underestimate the task we face. Meanwhile, the explosive growth still increases the demands upon us, the under developed peoples look to us for training and guidance and our own governments, local governments, state governments, national governments, look increasingly to the universities for expert counsel and staff of higher responsibility. However much personality with the Administration May have exacerbated the situation. The situation would have been there no matter who was president for the university. Right. So he came out with his thing that hes going to recommend every month or week each dean set aside some time to talk to students who dont have which makes the liberal assumption what we have here is a failure of communication. That isnt so because its an analysis of an entire system of the functioning of a corporate entity that is in question. The students understand very, very well what the ruling class of columbia does and what its about. The university has become to use an old term a means of production where one guy does a little bit for cia or the troops, trained here. This university is now a means of production pro to using the mechanisms of human oppression that has been brought out by the military. 50 of the Research Done here at this university depends on defense money. We can see when we look at the New Buildings that are going up an engineering building, a business school, a law school, a school of international relations, we can tell how much this university is hooked in to servicing the corporations and hooked in to servicing the war machine. William burden is a director for lockhead aircraft. Maurice moore the counsel for General Dynamics and a junior partner in his law firm the undersecretary of defense. Kirk is a trustee of the institute for defense analysis. He is president of Morningside Heights incorporated concerned wi with institutional expansion on morningside. If you wonder how columbia acquired the land for the gymnasium 400 year lease renewable every five years after the first 100 years at an incredibly low sum of money, all you have to do is look at who the trustees are, percy uris, chairman of the board of the uris buildings corporation, a corporation which has done 17 of all the building in new york city since the war. Benjamin button, one of the trustees on the Building Corporation. Courtney c. Brown, who is also on the uris Building Corporation is one of the directors of the board of cbs. William paily, a trustee, is chairman of the board of the columbia broadcasting system. Author solzberger, chairman of the board of the New York Times for two sessions of the state legislature, columbias ruling elite made journeys to albany, new york, to convince legislatures this was a wonderful thing for the Morningside Heights community, that columbia should build its gym there. I dont think a gym nine stories high with facilities for black people in the basement with a back door is something black people want. There has never been any dispute as to the position of this community on the placing of a gymnasium by a private institution in a public park. I dont trust anybody in the Administrative Network of Columbia University because they have lied, they have contradicted themselves. Grayson kirk wrote us a letter say we have stopped the gym and the next day the board of trustees states we have stopped the gym temporarily. This house went up and this country is going down on violence. As a house goes up, a house must come down whether you like it or not. April 23rd, they held demonstrations which inn which we plan to demonstration inside the library and protest columbias racism in building the gym and Morningside Park and its attempt at suppression of the left by disciplining six students. About 500 people joined us at the sun dial. We were opposed by about 200 jocks and found that not only were the jocks there blocking our way, but we found when we got to low library it was locked by the administration. Must have thought that would stop us but it didnt. We went into harlem and busted into the gym site. Lets go. The pigs called in reinforcements. You will get hurt. I want to know who you are. We were weak down in the park. The cops were coming quickly. They were building up and up on a dirt mound i said to leave. The people at the sun dial, we would go back and meet them. How often was the perfect thing after that . It wasnt so perfect because at a point we were moving faster than we knew how. Tremendous snowball, tremendous yeah. Almost in spite ourselves. Something we wanted to do, on the other hand, something we werent sure we were ready to do. Its our responsibility to use coercion. You use coercion. Legal means working . Is the political pressure from congress and the Community Working . Are speeches and Peaceful Demonstrations working . Youre assuming youre going to come out night some of these things have gone on for weeks before the time has come. At that point coleman thinking he was our trump card, but we didnt know our real strength was holding the buildings and staying there. The real thing about the split the two groups realized we had two different political identities. The blacks wants to stop the gym. They figured the best way to do this was to hold the building, barricade it. The whites on the other hand, saw and still see our goal is to radicalize other white people. We didnt want to confront other students coming to class. We thought we should confront our men is the administration, but we didnt realize we were too timid and what we had to do was show our moral strength and hold the building. Now the blacks saw we were split amongst ourselves, werent disciplined and we didnt understand what the correct militant tactic was. They asked us to leave. Mark came down to the meeting and told us they split. We left and took lowe library. Look, in two days weve taken five buildings, hamilton, lowe, avery, and mass. When they do, we want to be here. We barry caded at the basement and the police were trying to come through. What the brother did was knocked the police back, that kind of thing and flooded the basement. That was one of the best tactics. The police were very angry about that. They still didnt charge the building and they were pretending they didnt try to come through the tunnels into the basement of the building. They were trying to take the building by surprise, quietly, that kind of thing and beat the movement that way. Try to defeat it. Im sure they werent worried about a handful of black students at the university. Its when those tactics and the brothers in the Community Say look, these brothers up here who got it made are revolting too against the system, they couldnt get through. M there were mothers here who didnt want to see that park there, didnt want them to be running ix permits at the school against the children and families. Everything from the far right to the liberals, right such as charles, to the far left such as epton and pl and independents movement. These black high school students, right under the nose. We walked up the avenue to columbia, we were talking about burning the place down. We came up with baseball bats and hockey sticks and we got to columbia and we broke through the police line. They heres a statement that was released by the school on the inside. Ill read the statement. Number one, stopping of the construction of the gym. Number two, stopping of the charges against all persons involved in demonstrations against the gym. Number three, breaking of administrative ties with ida. Number four, for all the students involved when the university has stopped construction of the gym and granted an amnesty, we will consider the questions of negotiation with the university. We are prepared to remain here indefinitely until these conditions are met. The black students of Columbia University joined by a few members of the black community have been in Hamilton Hall for 56 hours, more than that now and established the cafeteria a physician is in charge of our infirmary, morale is high. Yes. Of the 200 that went into lowe library, 23 stayed when the first cops came, but as the days wore on we realized that our strength was in our militancy and staying in the buildings. It took the example of the blacks to move us. The first thing when we got into kirks office is hit his files. Beside a bunch of crap and his girlie magazines we saw papers linking columbia to the ida and letters about cleaning up the area by moving out the blacks and the puerto ricans. First day we set up a Defense Committee which took care of putting up the barricades and decided what our policy would be towards police and jocks. We soaked some of the stairs and taped the windows and emptied book cases and put them up in front of the windows in case tear gas canisters did get through the tape. There would be a scratch on the marble top desks. The second time we decided the barricades were necessarily politically or strategically and anything went in making it strong and permanent type barricades. Its all taken care of. Secure the problem letting people in and out of the buildings, watches. We need people to watch the windows every night. We had a walkietalkie set up. There were Telephone Communications to every building which the university tapped. We had that worked constantly somebody in berkeley says, five students and a machine can do more harm to a university than an army. Every building had their Communications Room that had to deal with the modes of communication we were using. One of the things that would happen was each new group of people who came in the building, each new days recruitment to the building, would become political work understand the life of the commune, would understand what was going on by the meeting. The stable of commune life was the meeting we would meet for approximately eight hours a day. A lot was political education a lot was worrying about what we would do when the police came. Representing the student body but a committee of care various people from campus and were now trying to combat a statement to the effects no amnesty will be granted under any sirc stabses. The question of amnesty is important because its a political position. There seems to be more dignity amongst the students now because they feel that they have a right to say the things theyre saying. Thats why i think maybe the amnesty issue has been raised and reraised so many times here and weve had to reassure ourselves by issuing votes of confidence every 30 minutes. People are not sure theyre supposed to be guilty for what theyre involved in. The issue of demanding amnesty first is to show that we have rights and until we get those rights we have to act in a coercive way. The hangups that are usually present in any kind of collective enterprise were not there. I complain about my one roommate in one dormitory but i have 100 people in three rooms, three feet for two people and the yfds privacy and sleeping became insignificant. We never got too much sleep because we were always having meetings and people were always yelling and waking us up. We didnt care. We slept on the floor wherever we could. What the life of the commune was was a group of peoples close to each other on no other level than the level of struggle. Strikers were getting community support. They were getting blankets, food and money and also some opposition from the flulaculty students. They would try to keep the food out, try to keep a record player out, radios, everything. They were acting as if they were for the administration. These people are they stand here arms crossed not going to say anything. Its our only position. No comment. Get out of the way. Im trying to get food that food is theres nothing else to say. That food is going up. They have been eating. They havent. Of course they have. They dont have any left. They called us up. You havent been up there. Dont say anything. They dont have any food. They want to theyre getting it. You dont need to have this. Get out of there. Youre going to mess it up. They want food in there that food is going up. Pass it up. Pass it up. Pass it up. Pass it up. Pass it up. Pass it up. Stop it. You fools, cut it. Now the position of the professors was one of being the police, that they had to take sides, for taking food in or not. On the side of the jobs or our side. They never understood that. The flulaculty wanted to mediat. They never understood the demands or the struggles. Kirk understood. The faculty was as naive as the law and order politicians were. The only alternative to the present system was chaos. They couldnt see beyond the occupation of the building to something that might be better. Everyone was like in at least an entire week living in full capacity. A total collective feeling. No one cared about these individual feelings because you they have experienced it. Everything was experienced in the most collective sense ive known. If you talk to anyone outside they immediately realized there was something there they had never seen before. This was one of the new experiences for the people. Electric awakening. The communal food. Mostly, most important, we shared everything. The sandwiches. Surprising to all of us, they said we didnt want to eat something by ourselves. If somebody was hungry, we could share our sandwich. People are living here. They are living here between meetings and its a home. Ive never been so comfortable on this campus. As the spirit was so high tonight, we decided it would be appropriate to be married. It was such that it was not only holy ground but was our home. And we, therefore, chose to be married at home with our family. [ applause ] all right. I andrea take thee richard. I andrea take thee richard. I richard take thee andrea. I richard take thee andrea. I now pronounce that andrea and richard are children of the new age. [ applause ] if you do not remove yourself thank you, gentleman. The university will make a complaint of trespass to the new York City Police department in connection with your activities. We have been informed that Police Department will take all the necessary action in connection with our complaints against you. This order to remove yourself forthwith is separate and apart from any question of amnesty. You will be subject to proper disciplinary action by the university in any event. Those who leave the buildings pursuant to this order will have less to answer for than those who do not. No violence. No violence. They managed to kind of push them all together and they were all sitting on the floor. As they pushed them together they would hit, something in their hands. I was just saying these people, they rush. You cant rush us. This is nothing. Watch it. Get back. Bring them into the barn. Get back. Bring them in. Theres a doctor in the door. These guys are animals. They dont wear uniforms. They attack from behind. They talk to you one minute and hit you the next. There was a solid line of police. The people in front of me were dragged down and each individual cop standing on this line put his lix in and they were laughing. Seem to have been orders given so often during the demonstration. I dropped my classes i asked the officer could i go back and he whacked me in the face. I was hit with a club in the head and punched in the nose. I found a student who was dazed and bleeding pro fefusely from the foreahead. I said this man is wounded and he needs help and they said get out. The police formed two lines which you had to run through being pummelled. He was fortunate he wasnt kicked in the groin as most of the demonstrators were. He just had his legs kicked and back punched. At the end of the line he was hit with a blackjack at which point he was unconscious. The next thing he remembers he was in the first aid station. We want peace. Kirk must go. We have nothing against the cops. We have it against kirk. We realize the problem. Get the reporters. We have a specific issue. The faculty stood with us. The strikers today there. We will admit we are guilty and wish to be charged. I want this all down. We will give names. It was our choice. No thinking here. Will people not realize this insanity. Cops do not belong on campus. I am guilty. I wish to be arrested. Kirk must go. Two vans have pulled away and now theyre moving in another one. Watch it. Together now. Im not going to the cbs crew. I hope to i would like to know what im arrested for. They got over 700 of us on charges of criminal trespass and resisting arrest, some of was real and some which was fake. I know of nurses and doctors that pleaded with the police not to proceed, leave these men alone. They would say no, get away, this is our job. I was arrested. They would not allow me to see a doctor. Broken ribs, face covered, hit with a pistol under the eye and bleeding there and wasnt allowed to see a doctor until i got out of court approximately ten hours later. I was awarded a fellowship next year. Im sorry. What does it mean . Im going to strike. I hope every i dont see how any teacher or student can attend this school anymore. I was completely liberal about the whole thing. This radicalized everybody. I was a nonviolent, i was completely passive. I didnt care what happened. I was neutral. Im not neutral tomorrow. I will occupy buildings tomorrow. According to six written affidavits compiled by a professor of mathematics, lunch looting and destruction occurred between 7 00 a. M. And 2 00 p. M. During these hours the only people permitted inside the building were policemen, members of the press, and the very small group of building staff. When i got out of jail and got back to math looked around for my camera and light meter i left behind. All i found was a lot of exposed film, broken lenses. Who would have done it, but the cops. Its interesting to note that Arthur Hayes Salzburger one of the trustees just happens to be the chairman of the board of the New York Times and one wonders why certain things were distorted in the times coverage of the strike, other things that appeared in the evening edition changed in the morning edition and i think the answer is clear enough. Take a look what is this a police state. Cops all over the campus. Got to show two cards to get in. What is this . Identification, please. Double identification, please. Double identification, please. Okay. Ahead. Final. Get ahead, work, prosper, grades, finals, get ahead. Study, get ahead. Jo jobs, get ahead. Papers. Police, forward. March. Private property. Private property. No talking on campus. We shall not we shall not what is this . We shall not be strike, strike. Strike. Strike. We now demand we no longer ask a say in decisions that affect our lives. We call on all students, faculty, staff, and workers of the university to support our strike. We ask that all students and faculty not meet or have classes inside buildings. We have taken the power away from an irresponsible and illegitimate administration. We have taken power away from a board of selfperpetuating businessmen who call themselves trustees of this university. We are demanding an end to the construction of the gymnasium, the gymnasium being built against the will of the people of the community of harlem. A decision that was made unilaterally by powers of the University Without consultation of people whose lives it effects. We are no longer asking, but demanding an end to all affiliation and ties with institute of defense analysis, Defense Department venture, that collaborates the university into studies of kill and overkill that has resulted in the slaughter and maiming of thousands of vietnamese and americans. We are no longer asking, we are demanding that students and faculty have a say in the policies of the university. We find our lives being governed by men who do not understand the problems of the day. It has become increasingly clear that they dont even understand the elements of the grievous or the creative discord that begins to show up today. What they are able to do if given their reign is to create a world order which in every one of the tactics ends up on the power of the police to maintain it. They have no other power. When you have understood the uniform and the badge and the coercive violence of the billy club, napalm and atomic bombs then you have understood absolutely the sole legacy of those like grayson kirk who pretends authority in our world. It is this coming to its maturity behind i suspect one day beyond the humbled barricades in new york and in oakland and in rome and in paris and london, which is about to shape the future i aint going to be treated this way this way and i aint going to be treated this way well she went to her room oh, on top of the world please join a game called trustee, see how with dice and a checkerboard decisions have been made at this university and then go around and see liberation classes and see how the university should be run, is going to be run and will continue to be run without the power of the administration. Classes have been set up at this university. The purpose of the new classes is to establish a free, open, democratic and meaningful discourse between faculty and students. We have put an end to the old system and structure of Columbia University. Classes are being held on lawns, on campus, in hall and apartments of faculty outside of campus. Students were saying three major things. First, they were saying that they refused to be produced any longer, to be sent out into society as some kind of a managerial class. Second, they were saying to the faculty that they could no longer accept the paternalistic role teachers play in the university. Learning takes place in dialog and between equal men. They said in effect, we will no longer let you play some kind of big daddy to us. Third, they were saying that tee manneds and actions had to be taken seriously, could not be dismissed with platitudes about ideal youthism because they were involved in the highest level of seriousness. Tonight there is a new liberated area this neighborhood. Were going to support the 50 Community Members that have taken over a building. In the buildings there are 40 to 50 representatives of Community Groups of political clubs, of organizations involved in the morningside renewal, organizations that have been fighting columbias expansion policies for years. Students of vanguard but massive people in new york around columbia, is finally going to stop columbia. Sometimes it seems to be a contradiction between support action and fighting but what see when you want to oppose an institution of that sort you have to fight on all fronts. Columbia has closed our streets, gobbled up our park land, seized over 100 of our buildings, and forced the removal of over 8,000 people from their homes. Why is the Community Action committee predominantly white . Of the 8,000 tenants of small hotels, sros and tenants who columbia has systemically displaced, only a specially selected token number of Minority Group families now reside in Morningside Heights. We deplore this deliberate creation of a white ghetto. To be arrested. We dont want to be arrested. Under arrest. We dont want to be. I am. Okay. Get your own wagon. I dont want to be arrested. None of us want to be arrested. I wanted to show solidarity with six strike leaders. They decided to take hamilton once again. You are hereby directed to clear out of this building. If this building is not cleared out within the next ten minutes we will give further instruction. After three votes the majority decided to stay. If you refuse to leave this building well have no alternative but to call police. Any student arrested will be immediately suspended. A lot of the most militant people had left town. Building barricades and fighting the cops. Up against the wall. Up against the wall. It wasnt enough to build barricades because the cops could break them down. Take one. It is the cradle of the nations future. Its been called the chief energizing and Creative Force in our entire social system. Here we are at Columbia University, amsterdam avenue, 116th street. For the first time in the history of Carnegie University there will be two graduations inside. At a given signal from the students almost the entire graduating class is expected to leave this ceremony and protest over its legitimacy and hold their own graduation as a repudiation of the trustees. They expect to be joined by a few members of the faculty. Hold on, hold on keep your eyes on that prize, hold on hold on, hold on keep your eyes on that prize, hold on hold on, hold on keep your eyes on that prize, hold on keep your eyes on that prize, hold on, hold on, hold on keep your eyes on that prize hold on hold on, hold on keep your eyes on that prize, hold on heres a look at whats streaming live today on cspan. Org. Coming up at noon eastern the House Oversight and Reform Committee looks at the challenges essential workers are facing during the pandemic. You can follow this hearing live online on cspan. Org. Also watch right here on cspan 3. Tonight on American History tv beginning at 8 00 eastern pulitzer prizewinning author ron chernow recalls the life and leadership of Union General ulysses s. Grant. Every saturday night American History tv takes you to College Classrooms around the country for lectures in history. Why do you all know who lizzy borden is and raise your hand if you had ever heard of this murder, the gene harris murder trial before the class . The deepest cause where well find the true meaning of the revolution was in this transformation that took place in the minds of the american people. So were going to talk about both of the sides of this story here, right, the tools, the techniques of slave owner power and well also talk about the tools and techniques of power that were practiced by some slaved people. Watch history professors lead discussions with their students from topics ranging from the American Revolution to september 11th. Lectures in history on cspan 3 every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv. Find it where you listen to podcasts. Cspan has unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court and Public Policy events. You can watch all of cspans Public Affairs programming on television, online or listen on our free radio app and be part of the National Conversation through cspans daily Washington Journal Program or through our social media feeds. Cspan, created by americas Cable Television companies as a public suvervice and brought to you today by your television provider. Live now here on cspan 3 we go to capitol hill where treasury secretary steve mnuchin