N.Y.U. and City College students strike in the early spring of 1933 against the suppression of campus papers.

‘New York Students Strike for Free Speech’ from The Militant. Vol. 6 No. 14. March 1, 1933.

THOUSANDS OF STUDENTS DEMAND RESTORATION OF ACADEMIC RIGHTS

A total of 1500 students participated in strikes at City College, day and evening. At the same time half of the student body in New York University, about 2000 left classes in demonstrative protest against the suppression of their daily paper. Both strike movements were the results of a basic issue, that of academic freedom.

The strike at City grew out of the suspension of nineteen students, reported in a recent issue of the Militant. Early in the morning a group of fifty students gathered to carry out the demonstration, signal in the history of the college. During the course of the day, the number swelled to a thousand, many students joining the strikers as they paraded around the school building at 138th Street and Amsterdam Ave., and assembled around the school flag pole. A good number of those in the protesting ranks were students of other schools who had come down to show their solidarity with the striking militants.

A band of hoodlumns, “defenders of the people”, sought with disruptive “Americanism” to break the lines of the strikers around the flag pole. With howls and physical attacks they attempted to tear the banners, in which they succeeded in part and prevented the speakers from addressing the students on the campus.

Unfortunately the strike at City College was not very well prepared. Called scarcely with more than a day’s preparation the strike could not take on the broad character and forceful effect it might otherwise have had. The strike committees were poorly organized if at all, and did not show a clear understanding of what move to make next. Not enough students had been reached in advance to, firstly, sound out their response, and, secondly, to ascertain their support. Furthermore by more carefully detailed plans much of the hectic features which detracted from the serious nature of the events could have been avoided. However the strike will remain a memorable event in the fight of the City students, as well as those at other institutions, for recognition of their rights. evening strike, which suffered from the same faults, gathered about 500 demonstrators.

The strike at N.Y.U. was obviously better prepared aside from certain factors that made it easier to call. Here the students were insisting on the right of the editor of the Daily News, school paper, to freely express his opinion and to take his stand in favor of the student body. The Daily had made accusations against the athletic committee for mishandling an injured athlete. To this the school authorities responded with suspension of the paper. Before the strike had been called the proper preparation had taken place. Consequently greater numbers of student were involved.

That in a “liberal” school like N.Y.U. the students are pressed to take strike action, and that they stand ready to pursue such action, as they were in Columbia University last year, another “liberal” school with upper class enrollment, is a healthy sign. Even in the city owned colleges where academic freedom is so much more suppressed, it is unusual for students to leave classes. It is to be hoped that taking measures which are the natural instruments of the working class in its resistance to capitalist exploitation, will help to identify more closely the students with the struggle of the proletariat. In that alone rests the full value of the action taken by the City College and N.Y.U. students.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/themilitant/1933/mar-01-1933.pdf