Wow! A lot happened at the end of 2008.

First, that one guy was elected as president of the United States. Next, workers in Chicago staged the first U.S. sit-down strike of the 21st century, garnering attention and support from across the country. Then, Greece was swept by popular uprisings of students, workers and neighborhood assemblies, all of which showed radicals across the world what an organized and militant populace is capable of in times of economic crisis. Yep, it's been hard to catch your breath for the last few months--and the excitement hasn't been lost on young folks in New York City.

Three weeks ago, students at the New School University conducted a successful occupation of a main building on their campus and energized social movement in NYC. I was present at the New School fight, and like many others, I've been buzzing with excitement ever since. The brief student occupation was the first clear movement victory experienced by New Yorkers in a long time, and it struck a blow against the corporatization of higher learning.

"Corporatization" generally describes a process whereby colleges and universities are retooled as appendages of corporate capitalism and imperial war. In recent years, universities across the country have hiked tuition, cut financial aid, attacked campus worker organizing, and outsourced their departments as think tanks and research labs for governments and corporations. Colleges and universities are increasingly being turned from hubs of mass education into inaccessible elite institutions, generating knowledge for the owning class while producing their future pool of skilled workers.

All these systemic problems existed at the New School, but as luck would have it, they were also encapsulated in one figure: the university's ill-fitting president, Bob Kerrey. A former Navy SEAL and Nebraska senator, Kerrey had drawn the ire of students and faculty at the New School for a litany of offenses. The list included the following:

• In 1969, a SEAL team under Kerrey's command murdered 21 civilians near Thanh Phong, Vietnam;
• Kerrey was an early and vocal supporter of the Iraq War on a historically leftist campus, and in 2005 he invited his friend John McCain to give a commencement speech at the university, drawing protests;
• Kerrey covered up investments connected to New School trustee Robert Millard, a war profiteer and Chairman of L-3 Communications (L-3 supplies interrogators and torturers to the U.S.'s growing network of secret prisons and detention camps);
• Kerrey's heavy-handed administration locked faculty out of university decision-making, and pushed through development plans that included the demolition of a main campus building on 65 Fifth Avenue, nixing the campus' only common student space and a library;
• Kerrey's management style also drove out five Provosts in seven years, and when the latest Provost resigned in 2008, he appointed himself to serve as Interim Provost and President at the same time.

With all this tinder on the fire, a December 10th meeting of New School faculty resulted in a crushing no confidence vote against Kerrey's bid for Provost-in-Chief. The vote was big news in NYC, and even prompted the New York Times to speculate on Kerrey's future job prospects. Tensions ran high, and after a student protest demanding more say in university decision-making went unanswered, New School-ers seized the moment.

On the evening of December 17th, over fifty students swarmed into the main campus building at 65 Fifth Avenue shortly before the building was scheduled to close. They surprised the ill-equipped campus security guards on site, seized the cafeteria on the building's ground floor, and moved tables and chairs to block entrances to the area. A banner announcing the student action was unfurled. Supporters appeared outside, enticed by hours of preparatory text messaging. Laptops opened and keyboards clicked. The occupation had begun.

Thankfully, the student action caught school security off-balance. I arrived at the New School shortly after the occupation kicked off, and found the official response halting and unsure. Security guards did eventually close the facility to the public, overturning a university policy that allows students to sign in non-student guests. But for the first hours of the occupation, those with student IDs could still move freely in and out of the building, gathering supplies from supporters and contacting allies where cellphone reception was stronger. By taking the initiative and forcing the administration to react, students were able to exploit the pockets of autonomy provided by their university, and hold 65 Fifth Avenue through its first full night.

By the time the building opened the next morning, students had already released blog posts, videos and photo sets online, compiled a set of strong demands, and called a press conference for 10:30am outside the building. I arrived just as students read their demands to the press. Their list included the resignation of President Kerrey, Vice President James Murtha, and Trustee Robert Millard, transparency in university investment, the preservation of student spaces and greater student involvement in university decision-making. Just as the press conference was about to disband, a student at the edge of the crowd announced: "Anyone who wants to go inside, follow me!"

People jumped at the opportunity, and a large crowd circled the building at a speedy jog. On 13th street, students had opened a service entrance to 65 Fifth, seizing control of a back hallway and ushering supporters inside. Campus security officers arrived hot on their heels, and instigated shoving matches in a vain attempt to clear the area. But without the numbers to move the resolute students, a stalemate ensued. Students held control of the outside doors, and hurriedly called friends to join the occupation while distributing fliers to passersby.

The lull wouldn't last long. President Kerrey soon arrived and called in the NYPD to deal with his students. I was flyering on 13th street when the cops appeared: one officer brandished a billy club at the crowd, and upon trying to calm him down I was promptly arrested for "disorderly conduct." Police then dragged students out of the service entrance and re-sealed the doors, but not before their comrades inside the cafeteria erected barricades to keep the NYPD from entering further. When it became clear that Kerrey would have to order a mass arrest of his own student body in order to clear the building, the attack dogs were once again called off. Police surrounded 65 Fifth, but didn't put anyone else in handcuffs.

The occupation continued as a tense stalemate, punctuated by moments of daring action by student radicals. While I waited in a holding cell downtown, the newly-dubbed New School In Exile engaged in mediated negotiation with school administrtors. Vice President Murtha reportedly arrived to the negotiating table stinking of whiskey, while President Kerrey stormed out of the building upon learning of student demands. Crowds of supporters gathered outside the building, as occupation participants coordinated flyering at New School buildings across the city, gave interviews to the media and worked on term papers. Letters of support poured in from all over, with statements from students in the U.S, Europe and Mexico, as well as philosophy professor Todd May and former Young Lord Panama Alba. A Facebook group in support of the occupation topped 1,000 members in a matter of hours. Police began circling the cafeteria.

By the time I was released from jail that evening, tension was nearing a boiling point. Police ringed the building and had posted a mobile command center outside, after President Kerrey cast students as dangerous belligerents in an open letter replete with "War on Terror" flourishes. "In today's world every university must have zero tolerance for any and all security risks," he wrote, noting that "I have called Police Commissioner Ray Kelly for assistance. The Commissioner sent a team of professionals to consult with us about how to proceed." Kerrey's rhetoric was promptly echoed by New School spokespeople, who stated to the press: "in this post-Virginia Tech world, we must have zero tolerance"--as if student protest at the New School were analogous to the 2007 lone gunman attacks in Virginia.

With no sign of a breakthrough in negotiations, the deck seemed stacked for repression at the hands (and clubs) of the NYPD. And yet, as evening approached, numbers continued to grow outside 65 Fifth Avenue, with many supporters vowing to stay until the occupation was won. Students from many City University of New York campuses mobilized to support the occupation, fueled by fresh networks established at the CUNY Social Forum two months prior. At one point, President Kerrey appeared outside the building, only to be chased down the block by students and radicals slinging tomatoes and epithets in his wake.

Around 10pm, a "roving street party" in solidarity with the Greek uprisings left Tompkins Square park. A rowdy crowd of anarchists and radicals snaked through the streets of lower Manhattan, pulling boxes into the road as impromptu barricades and making their way toward 65 Fifth Avenue. When they arrived, student occupiers burst out of yet another side entrance to the building, allowing a swarm of the street party-ers to enter and further bolster the occupation. Temperatures dropped but crowd only grew more active, decorating the building's facade with a mosaic of protest signs and chanting away the chill. MCs from the Movement In Motion artist and activist collective even held an impromptu performance on the steps outside.

Finally, at 3:30 in the morning, an announcement came from the students inside: a deal had been struck in negotiations, and the occupation committee was declaring victory. Cheers burst from the crowd as over a hundred occupiers streamed out of 65 Fifth unmolested by the police. Raggedy students, exhausted from over 30 hours of scuffles with police and high-pressure meetings, led a march down the street behind a banner that read "New School Students For Social Revolution."

The students' victory was only partial, but it was nonetheless very significant. Though the occupation was unable to win its top demands--the ouster of Kerrey, Murtha and Millard--it did result in many other significant concessions. Among them were: unconditional amnesty for all those involved in the actions (including yours truly); voting representation in hiring processes for Provosts, Interim Provosts and Presidents; the establishment of a Committee on Socially Responsible Investment; a student government seat on the Board of Trustees; unhindered communication between the student government and whole the New School student body, without going through the administration; and a guarantee that student spaces and a new library would be created after the demolition of 65 Fifth Avenue.

These concrete wins, combined with the movement's success at deterring police repression throughout the action, have led many in NYC to conclude that the New School occupation was an important victory. Hundreds of participants ended the week energized, euphoric, and eager to mobilize for the next round of student struggles. Other students in NYC saw militant action get more goods than years of begging had produced with their own administrations. Radicals saw their movements take the initiative, and carve out spaces of autonomy that can be used for future struggles.

Of course, the victory was not without its contentious postscripts. After the occupation, the New School administration beefed up security across the university's many campuses, interfering with students studying for semester finals and generating ire at the occupation. And in various reflections published after the action, differences between the many groups of students participating in the occupation became more clear.

But this dissonance seemed small in comparison with the reverberations that the action sent ringing through New York City. The final weeks of 2008 saw U.S. actions inspire and reinforce one another, from workers in Chicago to students in New York City, making social change seem far more possible than it had only months before. We can only hope that the momentum continues in 2009.