The Occupation Cookbook

or the Model of the Occupation of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb
Introduction by Marc Bousquet
Translated from the Croatian by Drago Markisa

The Occupation Cookbook is a “manual” that describes the organization of the student occupation of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences that took place in the spring of 2009 and lasted for 35 days. It was written for two reasons: to record what happened, and to present the particular organization of this action in such a way that it may be of use to other activists and members of various collectives if they decide to undertake a similar action.

What does it mean to “occupy” a school? A school occupation is not, as the corporate media like to portray it, a hostile takeover. A school occupation is an action by those who are already its inhabitants – students, faculty, and staff – and those for whom the school exists. (Which is to say for a public institution, the public itself.) The actions termed “occupations” of a public institution, then, are really re-occupations, a renovation and reopening to the public of a space long captured and stolen by the private interests of wealth and privilege.  The goal of this renovation and reopening is to inhabit school spaces as fully as possible, to make them truly habitable – to make the school a place fit for living. – Marc Bousquet, from the Introduction

Free pdf can be found here

Radical Publishing: What Are We Struggling For?

Last year’s student protests saw a new generation take to the streets. Much was made of the vandalism and disruption that occurred, with some arguing it eclipsed the protests’ intentions—but were the students’ demands ever clearly articulated? Did the protestors know what they were struggling for? From pamphlets and theses to journals and zines—the relationship between protest and print goes back a long way and has helped galvanise and articulate dissent, but do radical publishers and radical thinkers still matter today and how do they relate to contemporary protest?

For one day, the ICA will host some of the UK’s most exciting radical thinkers, published by British radical publishers such as Verso, Zed Books, Zero Books, Pluto Press and AK Press, to grapple with these issues and more.

From 12pm to 5pm, four panels will explore topics such as:

• Tactics of Struggle: with John Holloway, David Graeber and Carrot Workers
• New Psychic Landscapes: with Franco Berardi ‘Bifo’, Mark Fisher and Saul Newman
• New Public: with Peter Hallward, Hilary Wainwright and Richard Seymour
• New Economics: with Andrew Simms, Milford Bateman and Ann Pettifor

This event is organised as a collaboration between the ICA and Through Europe, with special thanks to Associate Producer Federico Campagna.

Walter Benjamin’s The Life of Students

“Benjamin makes an intelligent and eloquent case against the poverty of student life under capitalism in this early essay, written more than fifty years before the Situationists would tackle the same subject. He argues against the intellectual frigidity and alienation of the university as a factory of future workers, and for a genuine “community of learning.” Wider social issues that affect the university environment such as student activism, gender, and sexuality are also dealt with.”

Taken from libcom.org