There’s nothing groundbreaking about protesters’ tactics of taking over university buildings or erecting encampments on college lawns.
These students – knowingly or unknowingly – are part of a long history of radical student organizing. There are echoes of both the protests against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 70s and more recently, of South African apartheid in the 1980s.
"We are here as Jews, many of us grieving Israeli and Palestinian relatives and friends, to tell you that our pain is not an excuse for genocide, it's not an excuse to enable genocide, and how dare you use it that way!"
Sandi Thom:
I'm sharing this song to encourage everyone to continue to speak up and raise their voices for the people of #Palestine! We hear you! We see you! We will not stop fighting until you are free! FREE FREE PALESTINE!
Seen the rubble, the buildings,
the mothers and the children
And all the men that you murdered,
and then we see how you spin it... https://yewtu.be/watch?v=fgDQyFeBBIo
"#AntiwarProtests sweep across university campuses in the United States. The police response – the violence – has been shocking and so has some of the reporting from the US #MainstreamMedia."
With: Paula Chakravartty,
Noura Erakat, Adel Iskandar,
Elijah Kahlenberg
A new report found that 99% of pro-Palestine protests at US colleges have been peaceful, despite remarks from Biden characterizing such demonstrations as violent.
A brief from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a NGO specializing in crisis mapping, said that the vast majority of protests have remained “vastly peaceful”.
From the report:
Student protests on university campuses around the US are the latest sign of public discontent with the Israel-Gaza conflict.
While some notable violent clashes have recently taken place, such as on the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus, where demonstrators and counter-demonstrators fought at a student encampment overnight on 30 April, the overwhelming majority — 99% — have remained peaceful.3
Chris Hayes just drew a nice contrast between schools like Brown that peacefully negotiated with protesters and those who responded to #CampusProtests with arrests and violence.
UAW Local 4811, which represents academic student workers at the University of California, authorized a strike vote in response to this morning's attack on the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at UCLA.
"At an emergency executive board meeting this morning, our union’s leadership voted to hold a strike authorization vote as early as next week to give the Executive Board authority to call a strike if circumstances justify: should the university decide to curtail the right to participate in protected, concerted activity; discriminate against union members or political viewpoints; and create or allow threats to members’ health and safety, among others, UAW 4811 members will take any and all actions necessary to enforce our rights."
My faculty association's response to the university's recent letter to students:
"The Administration appears to believe that with the stroke of a pen it can transform freedom of expression from a fundamental right, the protection of which is the sine qua non of the University, into a privilege that the Administration may confer or deny at its pleasure. This cannot stand."
@pvonhellermannn from the BBC's Live Feed summary (as of 12.37 CET) "Footage online appears to show masked counter-demonstrators - supporting #Israel - attacking their rivals with sticks and attempting to dismantle barricades" - and from Reuters via the #Guardian - "Aerial footage from broadcaster KABC, an affiliate of ABC, showed people wielding sticks or poles to attack wooden boards being held up as a makeshift barricade to protect pro-Palestinian protesters, some holding placards or umbrellas, Reuters reports." #Gaza#Palestine#Protest#Protests#CampusProtests#UCLA
Great news: UK university divests from Israel-linked arms companies following pressure
“The University of York has been forced to divest from weapons and arms manufacturers tied to Israel after a series of protests from a student-led coalition.”
Wow, reading all these letters by NYU faculty to the office of the president is quite something. Do read them all. Highlighting one by History Professor Steven Hahn, as it encapsulates everything (in one screenshot). #Gaza#campusprotests
It feels like the #campusprotests and their brutal oppression may really shift things. For one, they highlight so very clearly how militarised state power is always there, and will be used against anyone who dares to challenge the status quo.
So..It’s time for a change…
Raise your voice to the air
It’s time for a change
Revolution is here
This is our song,
our rights now expressed
There’s power in our voice
There’s strength in our words
When the whole world is silent,
Our voice must be heard.
This is our song #Revolution is set
For the festival of the #oppressed https://yt.artemislena.eu/watch?v=9F_coLFmerg