Keep Austin Criminal
Autonomous Student Media: Gestures Towards the Ungovernable
To help make our publications more accessible, we are archiving previous publications of The Call, the zine published by the Autonomous Student Media collective. Originally published on May Day 2017, The Call has been a perennial feature of our organizing efforts. You can often find editions in stock at Monkeywrench Books, an anarchist bookstore & social space on North Loop (if you like their project, consider volunteering).
In April 2017, a wave of vandalism struck frats across West Campus over the course of three nights. Frats were tagged with “racist” and “rapist,” among other slogans. Fiji, which was targeted the first two nights, held a racist “border patrol” party in 2015. A study published in March of 2017 found that 15% of undergraduate women on UT campus reported being raped. Actual statistics are believed to be much higher.
The anonymous statement republished here was originally sent to It’s Going Down, which made the acts even more notorious across the country. The graffiti came near the end of a year marked by student struggles against fascist activity on campus, the University’s failure to address racism, and other issues. The University, ironically, tried to make use of its (at the time) new hate & bias incident policy to investigate the vandalism. Shortly afterwards, the piece was again thrust into the spotlight as fraternities and the alt-right tried to connect the May 1st, 2017 stabbings at UT with the vandalisms (and by association all “antifa” and leftists).
Three years later, almost to the day, the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority was tagged with “Eat the Rich.” We host this article to keep alive the memory and intergenerational spirit of insurgency against Greek Life. You can find online readable and printable zine versions of this statement HERE.
Continue reading “Barbarians at the Gates: A Statement From the Vandals (2017)”
Originally published on Facebook by ATXResists
On Monday, February 13th, 2017, students and workers at the University of Texas at Austin awoke to find fascist propaganda and graffiti across West Campus and Campus. Flyers calling for the destruction of Muslims, the outing of undocumented immigrants, and the reclamation of “white pride,” associated with the group American Vanguard—a white nationalist organization—were plastered on poles, newspaper boxes, and statues across campus. Graffiti of the N-word, celtic crosses, and swastikas were spotted in West Campus. Students from the night prior reported seeing a small group of people putting up the flyers. This was not the first time such flyers had gone up; neo-Nazi Identity Evropa stickers had been spotted on a few occasions in the fall semester and were destroyed by anti-fascists. This was, however, the most visible round of fascist flyering on campus.
And this time, due to the mass outrage among the student body, the University was forced to respond. In the response the University made clear that it cares more about catering to the interests that fund and support it (including white supremacists and Trump supporters) than it does about protecting students. In its statement, the University stated that it had removed the posters simply because they violated rules regarding the posting of flyers. The University’s insistence that it “vigorously supports free speech” sent a chilling message: had this been a registered student organization putting up flyers in more “legitimate” places, the University would defend the platform for these fascists to spread their messages against students. The statement from J.B. Bird, Director of Media Relations for the University, furthermore fails to name the fascistic nature of these flyers, only labelling them as “political messages aimed at immigrants, minorities and Muslims,” normalizing the genocidal politics of fascism as a valid political position. Fenves’ letter called for “robust discussions and debate,” as though students of color, Muslims, and immigrants should be forced to debate for their own humanity against those who wish to destroy them. The University has made clear that it believes genocide could or should be simply another option on a ballot to have “enlightened debate” over.
Continue reading “Stand up, fight back! ATXResists statement on fascism at UT”