On Tuesday Sept. 2, 2008, a large cloth banner was posted to the bulletin board adjacent to the Bailey Howe Library on the University of Vermont campus which read, “UVM IS RUN FOR PROFIT. TAKE IT BACK FOR STUDENTS,” with an ‘anarchy symbol’ separating the sentences rather than a period. This banner was posted by the Black Kat Underground, a militant, but nonviolent covert network of more than 25 individuals who believe in combating all forms of injustice, inequality and inequity with whatever means necessary and available.
Members of the Black Kat Underground posted the banner in the early morning hours of Tuesday, Sept. 2 after a coordinated check of the area for civilian and police presence. Lookouts were posted to insure that all at-risk members would be as well hidden and unrecognizable as possible. Although, no one was in any danger of arrest or detainment for this posting (as it is a bulletin board and a legal space to post advertisements and signs). There was, however, a serious danger that BKU members would be recognized, compromising organization security. Upon posting the banner, BKU members dispersed individually.
Our current goal is to expose the University of Vermont for what it has become: a corporate for-profit spectacle that could not care less about educating anyone, or more about its own image as environmentally sound, social justice-oriented, queer-friendly, safe, inclusive and aware. We believe that UVM is guilty of classism and exploitative economic practices consistent with extreme capitalist enterprise and the wage slave model of exploitative capitalism. UVM currently seeks physical growth. This is because through physical growth, monetary growth is attained and maintained in capitalist enterprise.
The Black Kat Underground itself is comprised of more than 25 individuals who communicate outside of mainstream channels using alternative communication techniques to covertly coordinate and execute civil disobedience and protest. We are a nonviolent organization committed to change, however, we are hidden. We are your classmates, coworkers and teachers; your crushes, your partners and bus drivers, we are everywhere and we are everyone. We are covert activists, which means that all of our activist actions are covert. In other words, we are the people you least suspect. Our membership lists and our numbers never appear in print and no one in the organization speaks of the organization. We do not use electronic or print communications for BKU business and do not have any funding or monetary budget allotted or stored. We do not travel or meet together in significant numbers or with patterned consistency. We are a functional underground activist network, organization and tool and we are commitÂted to impacting the policies of the University of Vermont. We leave no paper trail.
The Black Kat Underground.
