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Schools

Occupy New Brunswick Convened on Friday Night at Rutgers

Discussed city violence, student debt and getting organized.

Nearly 60 people gathered at Rutgers University’s Scott Hall Friday evening for a general assembly regarding the city’s Occupy movement.

The assembly focused on which of the many broader aspects of the Occupy movement should be utilized here in the city. Ideas included:

  • Police brutality
  • Student debt
  • Block-by-block organizing
  • Tenants’ rights
  • Labor relations
  • Low income outreach
  • Utilization of social media

“This is a great opportunity for all of us to meet, throw ideas around together and see how we can get more people involved,” said Rutgers School of Business graduate student Lawrence Frydman.

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The participants, both young and old, included student activists, union representatives, political organizers, city residents and others from a variety of different backgrounds.

The assembly was host to participants from Occupy Trenton, Occupy Jersey City, Occupy Newark and Occupy Wall Street, who participated in the discussion, focusing primarily on how to prepare for the coming months.

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“This movement represents a qualitatively different kind of movement than the protest movements that we’ve seen sporadically in the last few years, in the last couple of decades,” said Nagesh Rao, an assistant English professor from The College of New Jersey.

Part of the overall goal should be to get as many people involved on a local scale as possible, he said.

“In so many ways, the Occupy movement has revived the strategy of nonviolent civil disobedience, direct action, standing up, sitting down and not moving, which was very much part of the culture of this country in the 60s,” he said.

The assembly also addressed the idea of a possible encampment, which drew support and opposition from the audience.

“Doing an occupation right now would be premature,” said Rutgers University student Abigail Garner. “But if we spend this whole winter just really organizing and getting a ton of people, we can come out of this in the spring with a really good and very noticeable occupation.”

But several people encouraged an occupation as soon as possible.

Though a general consensus wasn’t reached about an encampment, the assembly agreed that more direct action — taking direct and immediate action to achieve immediate effects —  and developing community working groups was necessary.

Immediately following the general assembly, participants broke out into several focus groups to identify how to get the community more involved in the local Occupy movement.

Groups included education research, direct action, labor outreach, social media utilization, student outreach and minority outreach.

Before concluding his brief speech, Rao reminded everyone of the importance of community involvement in the future success of the Occupy movement.

“The idea that we can actually fight for progressive change in this country has now implanted itself firmly in the minds of millions of people, I would argue, who have not yet come to Occupy events, who have not yet gotten involved,” he said. “But they’re listening, they’re watching, they’re paying attention and what we do in that context makes a huge difference.”

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