Disorientation Debrief
Disorientation was an event hosted by sjp, cjaa, gslp, and other community members, calling attention to the imperialism and violence that UNC’s administration and the US empire defends. While UNC performs business as usual during the first week of classes, students stand in firm opposition to its operations. UNC’s repression of organizing will not hinder the demand for divestment, the solidarity between interconnected struggles in the Congo, Tigray, Palestine, and beyond, the student intifada, and the call for a Free Palestine.
After having been on campus for almost a week, students and community members came together to ground and focus on the necessary work that lies ahead of them. The last academic year ended with the abrupt and violent sweep of the Triangle solidarity encampment and a mass mobilization on campus that saw the amerikkkan flag on polk place replaced with the Palestinian flag. Demonstrators were then brutalized by admin-backed police and all university activities were promptly cancelled on the last day of classes. To collectively unpack the uncomfortable and unfamiliar experience of being back on a campus that was so recently the setting of extreme violence and suppression is an essential step in fortifying a movement at a university that has proven itself to be repressive and draconian.
The hosting of a Disorientation during the first week of classes attempts to ground students and community members in the long history of on-campus organizing at UNC and further tying local fights for liberation with ongoing atrocities taking place both at home and abroad.
The event started out with a reminder of the atrocities israel is committing in Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria, all with US backing. As the demokkkratic party reaffirmed their commitment to upholding the state of israel, a speaker pointed out alternative avenues of caring for each other beyond the ballot box, “Let’s create the world we want to see by building towards it in small ways every day. Distribute food and donate to mutual aid. Talk to your family about what’s going on in Palestine. Get to know your neighbors and community members outside of this academic institution. Plant gardens in spaces without the permission of the state. Center Black, Indigenous, and people of color in your organizing.” Speakers continued the night by talking about the difference between abolition and reform, the importance of a unified anti-imperialist struggle, and how specific UNC school system administrators and decision-makers wreck havoc beyond the university setting. The event closed with a reminder that learning about and discussing our struggles is imperative, but it must be conjoined with building community with each other and taking action. In addition to the rally programming, students were set up alongside information tables with zines, flyers, and opportunities to support mutual aid requests.
Disorientations have long been used by student activists, at UNC and around the country, to combat the white-supremacist and capitalist narratives upheld by universities. The UNControllables, a former anarchist student group at UNC, produced disorientation guides informing students of both the campus and surrounding areas. Campus Y, UNC’s social justice hub, hosts disorientation events for students to learn and discuss together the legacy of UNC. The Counter Cartographies Collective (3Cs) created guides that used mapping to think about the university and its output in new ways. However these disorientations manifest, they offer possibilities beyond the UNC status-quo for educating ourselves.
Our maintenance of a strong resistance on campus must be based on a concrete understanding of the issues and systems we are fighting against. Community gatherings and rallies must platform key perspectives that are able to unify the people and ground the struggle in strong understandings of interconnectedness and abolition. As we enter another year at the University of Neo-Conservatism, we are also entering an environment of heavy surveillance and movement repression.
photos by grace r.
