What Starts Here: Kirk on Campus & Water Crisis

Autonomous Student Media: Gestures Towards the Ungovernable

While we missed a beat last week since we were busy digging into Turning Point, we’re back with a brief report on some of the stuff going on around campus. You’ve probably heard about these events, but we hope to highlight some perspectives and sides to these stories you might not otherwise find. Continue reading “What Starts Here: Kirk on Campus & Water Crisis”

Turning Point: A New Threat On Campus

Autonomous Student Media: Gestures Towards the Ungovernable

Two weeks ago, the new chapter of Turning Point USA at UT hosted their first meeting. It was interrupted for a while by a fire alarm, forcing the meeting to move outside–where it was easy to see and overhear their conversation. We’ve gathered intelligence about what exactly happened at this meeting, who is involved in TPUSA, and what TPUSA’s emergence on campus means. We encourage you to share this article with your professors, TAs, classmates, and other networks. This is an extremely relevant issue for anybody that is progressive or left-leaning, who could be at risk of being targeted by this group.

Continue reading “Turning Point: A New Threat On Campus”

What Starts Here: YCT Shut Down, Survivors Stand Up, and DSA Blocks A Bridge

Autonomous Student Media: Gestures Towards the Ungovernable

We fell behind on our news cycle since we were busy working on the YCT. Here’s a roundup of the past 2 weeks of news–a lot has happened! In this roundup, we’ve got a report on the events following the YCT demonstration, anti-Kavanaugh protests in Austin, the Stand with Survivors rally, and the inaugural Turning Point USA meeting.

CW: Sexual assault, Kavanaugh, rape apologism

Continue reading “What Starts Here: YCT Shut Down, Survivors Stand Up, and DSA Blocks A Bridge”

Who Are the YCT?

Autonomous Student Media: Gestures Towards the Ungovernable

Over the past months, we’ve gathered lots of data connecting various parties within the YCT and telling us more about their activities. So far, we have 4 articles published on this site about the YCT. As we approach one week after their now infamous pro-Kavanaugh demonstration on West Mall, we’re putting out this compilation of all of the information on all of the YCT members we currently know of.

Continue reading “Who Are the YCT?”

UT Protects YCT Misogynoir & Rape Apologism

Autonomous Student Media: Gestures Towards the Ungovernable

On Wednesday evening, the YCT hosted an event where Michael Quinn Sullivan & Cary Cheshire of the right-wing advocacy group Empower Texans came and spoke to them. Following on the heels of the mass protest against the YCT’s pro-Kavanaugh demonstration on West Mall, figures like Paul Bettencourt pressured the University in ramping up their already extravagant efforts to protect the group. In anticipation of possible protests, police swarmed the area around Waggener hall. On the outside, 5-7 cops stood on guard and patrolled the area. Hidden away by the GDC and SAC, two patrol cars waited. On the inside, the lobby of the building contained another 4 police officers. Finally, the room for the YCT’s even contained approximately 5 police officers.

Continue reading “UT Protects YCT Misogynoir & Rape Apologism”

The YCT: Not Just Racists, But Rape Apologists Too!

Autonomous Student Media: Gestures Towards the Ungovernable

Yesterday, members of the Young Conservatives of Texas tabled with pro-Kavanaugh & anti-#MeToo signs on West Mall. They were swiftly confronted by a growing crowd of students, who made signs in protest, destroyed YCT signs, and chanted slogans like “we believe survivors!” With women of color taking the initiative, the protests grew increasingly militant and also confronted the administration and the police enabling the YCT rally. Within two hours, the YCT had fled in the face of the massive backlash.

Here’s a preliminary serving of information we dug up on the people who were out there yesterday. We encourage people to use these to wage campaigns and ensure there are repercussions for the actions they took yesterday. Demonstrating in defense of rapists and making campus hostile to survivors should not go unanswered. At the same time, students should prepare for backlash. Already, one student is facing harassment and threats because of a video circulating from yesterday. Students should expect to organize solidarity campaigns against targeted harassment, and begin securing their own information to avoid harassment.

Continue reading “The YCT: Not Just Racists, But Rape Apologists Too!”

What Starts Here: CIA Recruitment, Turning Point, & Muslim Solidarity

Autonomous Student Media: Gestures Towards the Ungovernable

Here’s all the news you may not have heard about, but which you should definitely care about. It’s been a fairly uneventful week, but we did see two different racist groups on campus, and one kind show of solidarity.

CIA Recruits Through SSD

Last Thursday, as this statement brought to our attention, the Central Intelligence Agency was on campus. Through a collaboration with Services for Students with Disabilities, the CIA held informational and personal advisory sessions to present “opportunities for students,” and “full-time employment opportunities.” The advisory sessions promised 1-on-1 interactions with a CIA agent for students interested in the CIA’s “national security mission.”

Continue reading “What Starts Here: CIA Recruitment, Turning Point, & Muslim Solidarity”

Uncovering Racist Student Networks at UT

Autonomous Student Media: Gestures Towards the Ungovernable

[CW: Racism, anti-semitism, Nazi imagery, homophobia]

Our organization recently received a tip about a facebook group called UT Austin Hot Takes, which had recently been taken over by admins posting and enabling white supremacist content. As we investigated the group and its members, we stumbled onto information that overlapped with an ongoing investigation we had been conducting into some fascists & reactionaries who had showed up in May to disrupt RSF’s People’s Trial of the rapist professor Robert Reese. Below we’ve compiled the information we have gathered. We uncovered a larger network of connections that included outright Neo-Nazis, neo-confederates, and the racists of the Young Conservatives of Texas.

Continue reading “Uncovering Racist Student Networks at UT”

Expose Texas State: Racism & Student Resistance in San Marcos

Autonomous Student Media: Gestures Towards the Ungovernable

A long-brewing conflict at Texas State University in San Marcos has burst into a display of student organizing power & collective capacity. Since the afternoon of April 11th, students have been staging a sit-in at the campus LBJ Teaching Theatre. The move came after 19 senators were absent from an impeachment hearing for student body president Connor Clegg, ensuring that he would be able to fill out his term. Clegg was facing impeachment over his inability to represent marginalized students–particularly students of color–on campus. In February, screenshots emerged of Clegg’s instagram account featuring racist and sexist captions. This was the latest incident with Clegg, who earlier in the year had made calls to defund the student newspaper after a columnist published a controversial article criticizing whiteness.

Continue reading “Expose Texas State: Racism & Student Resistance in San Marcos”

Long Live The Intifada! Israeli Apartheid Week at UT

Autonomous Student Media: Gestures Towards the Ungovernable

 Last week, a series of on campus events demonstrated the strength of the Palestinian liberation movement at UT. The Palestine Solidarity Committee at UT hosted their yearly week of Israeli Apartheid Week actions, a chance to raise awareness about the struggles of Palestinians and initiatives like the Boycott, Divestment, & Sanctions (BDS) campaign. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, the mass displacement & ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948, and the beginnings of Palestinian resistance to occupation. To make up for the lack of reporting in local and campus news outlets, we have gathered a rundown of the events and their significance here.

Continue reading “Long Live The Intifada! Israeli Apartheid Week at UT”