Audio from June 5, 2009 event with SLAM speakers in Philadelphia

photo by Jed

On June 5th in Philadelphia, Slamistas Kazembe Balagun, Lenina Nadal, Jed Brandt, John Kim, and Sasa Ynoa spoke about SLAM’s innovative approach to organizing and why we were fighting for free university education. This was a combined event called “How do we build radical movements?” with Dan Berger, who (along with Chris Dixon) interviewed people in four revolutionary study groups – Another Politics is Possible (NY), the Activist Study Circles (SF), the LA Crew, and the New York Study Group – talking about leadership, organization, and politics. Their article and an interview by Suzy Subways with 5 women of color from SLAM appeared in the radical journal Upping the Anti, issue #8.

Click on the following links to hear the audio:

Dan Berger

Kazembe Balagun

Q&A with Kazembe, Lenina, Jed, John Kim and Suzy

Q&A continued, with Sasa too

Q&A continued

Due to battery-related challenges, the audio recorder ran out before
the end of the event. Video will be coming soon!

2006 article: Student Activists Under Attack at City College of New York for Honoring Black and Puerto Rican Liberation Heroes

by Brad Sigal | Fight Back News Service

December 18, 2006

New York, NY – The New York Police Department is on the defensive because of mass outrage over the police’s murder of Sean Bell. Bell, a 23-year old unarmed African American man was killed by the NYPD in a hail of 50 bullets Nov. 25 a few hours before he was going to be married. His murder has sparked large protests against racist police brutality.

Two weeks later, the right-wing New York Daily News tried to create a diversion from the issue of racist police brutality by attacking student activists at the City College of New York (CCNY), accusing them of promoting “cop killers” and “terrorists.” On Dec.12 the Daily News ran a cover story and editorial attacking CCNY’s Guillermo Morales/Assata Shakur Community and Student Center, a student-run activist space on the flagship Harlem campus of the City University of New York (CUNY). The Daily News editorial demanded that Shakur and Morales’s names be removed from the Center.

Interview with Rachèl Laforest, Luz Schreiber, Lenina Nadal, Suzan Hammad, and Tamieka Byer

A Culture of Resistance

Lessons Learned from the Student Liberation Action Movement (SLAM)

By Suzy Subways

This interview with 5 women of color from SLAM appeared in the radical journal Upping the Anti, issue #8.

In March 1995, 20,000 students from City University of New York (CUNY) were attacked by police after surrounding city hall to protest a draconian tuition increase. This protest, organized by the CUNY Coalition Against the Cuts, marked an upsurge in student movement activity that continued into 1996, when the group transformed into the Student Liberation Action Movement (SLAM), a multiracial radical organization. Before disbanding in 2004, SLAM established chapters at CUNY colleges in all five boroughs of the city. This roundtable focuses on the chapter at Hunter College in Manhattan and explores SLAM’s legacy of building a left culture in New York City and across the country.

Content from original SLAM website

SLAM protest 1998

In this 1998 photo, you can see SLAM’s famous demonic Giuliani head puppet. We frequently got phone calls from groups all over the city to borrow it for protests. You can also see SLAM founding member Sandra Barros at right, in the maroon jacket with yellow armbands. Is Jed the person she’s talking to? Is that Ramiro in the front middle?

Below is the caption written in 1998, before the Open Admissions struggle was lost. It was copied from SLAM’s original website at http://www.geocities.com/slamcuny/ All geocities websites will be taken down at the end of October 2009, so we are transferring the content here as it was originally presented:

Protest on March 23, 1998 at CUNY Board of Trustees meeting. We demanded that they not vote to end remediation and open admissions– they tried to vote and lost! There were about 200 students at the protest.

Home Page from original SLAM website (late 90s)

Defend Open Admissions and Remedial Education at CUNY!

Click here to see the 10 DEMANDS of the CUNY Coalition for Open Admissions. SLAM is one of the groups in the coalition…Join SLAM to get involved. CCNY SLAM!, 138th Street & Convent Ave, Harlem, NY 10031

Now Available:

8-page newspaper broadsheet

“The Struggle at CUNY: Open Admissions & Civil Rights”

Mayor Giuliani & some on the Board of Trustees are calling for an end to CUNY’s policy of Open Admissions — which allows all NYC high school graduates a chance at college. CCNY SLAM has put out this timely and excellent newspaper that details the struggle around open admissions, the community colleges, workfare on campus, and the student movement at CUNY. This pamphlet argues that the attacks on CUNY are part of the larger attack on communities of color and on economic democracy. It also includes a cool 2-color poster you can put up all over campus!

Spring 1998: Demands for Open Admissions

This 10 point program was put out by Hostos Students for Open Admissions and the Hostos Student Government in Spring 1998. Contact information is at the end of the document.

An Open Admissions Program For a Democratic City University

We demand:

1. Defend and Extend Open Admissions

Open Admissions has guaranteed that every New Yorker with a high school diploma or G.E.D. can attend a college in the City University. A victory of the Civil Rights Movement, Open Admissions meant working people, the poor, people of color, and immigrants whose segregated, inferior public education may have failed to adequately prepare them for college-level work would not be denied the chance for a decent education a second time by being denied access to college.

Since Open Admissions was won in 1970, more than 450,000 students have earned their degrees from CUNY. Since 1970, more people of color have graduated from CUNY than have graduated from any other institution in the history of this country. Open Admissions has been one of the most significant democratic educational achievements in this country since Reconstruction.

2. Stop the Plans to Stratify CUNY by Race and Class

Because the city_s public school system reflects and reinforces racial and class inequalities, any plan to establish a few elite colleges with descending tiers to a non-college immersion basement is inherently racist. Community colleges should not be used as a remedial dumping grounds. Open the senior colleges to students who are prepared for college work, but may need some remedial work. No non-college “institutes.” CUNY must be a public university responsive to the communities it was created to serve.

“What is SLAM!?” page from original website (late 90s)

What is SLAM!?

SLAM is the Student Liberation Action Movement. We are based at the City University of New York (CUNY) and other schools in New York.  SLAM! is a student-based group that has mainly organized against budget cuts and for open admissions at CUNY.  Our main campaign for Spring 1998 is to defend and expand open admissions and access to education. SLAM! has also organized around welfare, police brutality, housing, political prisoners, imperialism, and just about any other injustice you can name.  There are SLAM! chapters at some schools, and there are groups with other names, as well as individuals, who are affiliated with SLAM!  We want to be part of rebuilding a student movement that is independent of politicians and political parties; that is democratic; that is organized; that is  campus-based, and that is radical.  SLAM! is all that and much more.  Get in touch for more info or to get involved…

CCNY Student Liberation Action Movement (SLAM)
City College
138th St. & Convent Ave
New York, NY 10031
212-650-8179

“Current Events” page from original SLAM website (late 90s)

Current Events and Activism at CUNY

The following activities are not sponsored by SLAM! unless it explicitly says so. This calendar will include any events we are aware of, sponsored by many different organizations that are active at CUNY. Listing here does not imply endorsement; it is for informational and networking purposes. To get an event listed here, or for information on any events that don’t have a contact listed, email cunyslam@hotmail.com (Last updated 3/25/98)

Media Coverage of Our Events and Protests:

* New York Times Coverage of our Protest at the Feb. 23, 1998 Board of Trustees Meeting!!!

* El Diario Coverage of our March 19, 1998 Protest at Herman Badillo’s Office (Spanish only)

From original website: “Active Groups” circa 1998

[This list was made in 1998, at a time when many of the original SLAM groups had ceased being active on various campuses. So this is only accurate for the 1998 era of SLAM. For example, SLAM members at Brooklyn College were working with a new campus activist group because the original SLAM was no longer functioning there as a campus group.]

Active Groups

This list of active CUNY student groups is incomplete. The contact information for groups has been removed from this page since basically none of the contact info is good anymore. The page is otherwise left as is for historical purposes.

Brooklyn College Students Speak Out A coalition at BC organizing around open admissions issues. 718-951-5766

CCNY Coalition  The activist coalition at City College.

CCNY SLAM!  CCNY SLAM!

Grad. Center Doctoral Student Council

Hostos Students for Open Admissions

Hostos Student Government

Hunter College SLAM!/USG

Queens College SLAM! and Queensboro College SLAM!

NY Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG)

Welfare Rights Initiative (WRI)

CUNY Student Network Against Workfare (SNAW)

SLAM! Home Page | What’s New | Current Activities | Active Groups | Articles /Publications | SLAM! Documents | SLAM! Links

1997: The Facts about CUNYCard

The following pamphlet was produced by the CCNY Coalition in the Fall 1997.  It explains the real deal on why CUNY Card is a scam and why we should organize against it.

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The Facts about CUNYCard

What is CUNYCard?

CUNYCard is a new ID card administrators are attempting to implement at campuses across CUNY, including City College. The proposed card may act as a library card, and, if students choose, as a Citibank debit card and MCI calling card. The card also has the potential to be programmed as a xerox card, a vending machine card and an access card for restricted parts of campus.

Though the proposed card sounds neat, CUNY-Card is actually an attempt by administrators, Citibank and MCI to violate students’ pocketbooks and privacy. That’s why CUNY administrators, working on it three years behind closed doors, have said almost nothing publically about CUNYCard. They don’t want public debate about it. This pamphlet, made by students and faculty, will attempt to update the CUNY community on the proposed card and explain why administrators don’t want you to know about it until it’s too late.