Student Encampments
Militant Resistance on U.S. University Campuses
Student rally at State
University of San Diego, California, May 7, 2024
U.S. student encampments for Gaza now number more than 100. Among the newest are those at DePaul University in Chicago, State University of New York at New Paltz, with more and more students, faculty and supporters joining in daily to oppose state repression, police attacks and attempts to criminalize students for expressing their views. The students' militancy and determination are being applauded from Palestine to Yemen, Tokyo and many cities across the world. Students, faculty and staff at the universities are defying violent police raids and successfully maintaining many encampments and establishing more despite arrests of more than 2,000 participants and supporters across the country. Students are daily affirming their rights to speak and organize, backed up by faculty and staff. Everywhere, the encampments have created collective gathering places for discussion, learning, sharing experiences and organizing on many fronts, including providing food and health care, uniting all in action regardless of background, religion or beliefs.
At the Princeton encampment on May 4, a group of students started a hunger strike in support of Gazans, to denounce the famine being imposed by U.S./Israeli actions. They are demanding an end to the genocide and university complicity in it.
The students' persistence is such that encampments which university administrators and police shut down emerge again, including the encampments at Indiana University at Bloomington, Virginia Tech and the University of Southern California. At Indiana University the encampment was shut down twice by university police and state troopers and re-established both times despite more than 50 arrests. As well, more than 500 faculty members, graduate students, and staff rallied there April 29 to demand that President Whitten and Provost Rahul Shrivastav resign.
The
encampment at City College of New York (CCNY) Harlem, part of
the City
University of New York (CUNY) was violently raided by hundreds
of
police in riot gear on April 30, with more than 170 arrested.
The CUNY
Students continue to organize, holding teach-ins and demanding
that all
charges be
dropped. They explain that the main reason for the attack was to
destroy the collective work, unity, and shared anti-colonial,
anti-racist, and anti-imperialist stands of the participants.
Encampment activities included daily people's assemblies, live
music,
art builds, poetry readings, children's
craft workshops and political education on topics ranging from
the
history of the Puerto Rican and Black liberation struggles to
the
Filipino people's liberation movement, the history of the
Palestinian
liberation movement, COINTELPRO and more. A food pantry open to
all
members of the Harlem
community, a medical tent, and a peoples' library named after
Refaat
Alareer, the prominent Palestinian professor and writer who was
martyred by Zionist forces in Gaza last December, were
established.
Local small businesses contributed to student efforts by
donating hot
meals multiple times a
day.
The same sort of organizing is taking place at many encampments across the country and one of the reasons they are being raided is to smash the organizations that students have created.
Students at Northwestern in Evanston, a Chicago suburb, are achieving the goals they set for themselves by speaking out in their own name and presenting concrete demands. In an April 29 statement the students reiterated their call for Palestinian liberation and an end to U.S./Israeli genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza. They emphasized that their main success has been the expansion of their encampment and the "transformative community space" that they have created where people from all backgrounds and walks of life come to "share knowledge, celebrate culture, and join in religious services for Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities." The agreements achieved with the university include having Northwestern disclose investments supporting Israel and any vendors on campus that support the Israeli military and apartheid. The university will invest in the Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim communities on campus and support students and scholars from Gaza. The demands so far achieved represent "the floor for negotiations, not the ceiling," students said. Students have also taken the initiative to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to ensure they get full information on university complicity in genocide. Their encampment remains, minus tents. "Our eyes are on Gaza. To the children who will see a free Palestine in their lifetimes: we will not stop fighting for you," they said.
Students at Evergreen College in Washington State reached an agreement with the administration for securing university divestment, refusal of grants that "facilitate illegal occupations abroad, limit free speech, or support oppression of minorities," and an alternative "non-law enforcement model for 24-hour crisis response." A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) provides for student and faculty-led task forces to implement the agreement. It requires the president to make a public statement that defends the rights and free speech of students, calls for a ceasefire and expanded humanitarian aid for Gaza and the release prisoners being held without due process, referring to the thousands held by Israel with no charges. Students at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, also secured plans for university divestment.
Violent and Brutal Police Attacks
Police raid student encampment
at University of California at Los Angeles, May 2, 2024
Police attacks on students on dozens of campuses have been violent and brutal. They were stepped up after President Biden emphasized that "order must prevail" on the campuses and "rule of law" be upheld — something his administration has systematically been destroying.
On May 2 police violently attacked the peaceful encampment at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), firing tear gas and rubber bullets. This followed an hours-long violent attack by Zionists on the encampment while police and university officials did nothing. The latest attack came after earlier efforts by the Zionists to block the organizing in support of Palestine and for a ceasefire in Gaza.
UCLA student newspaper the Daily Bruin reported that on April 30, "Fireworks, tear gas and fights broke out just after 10:50 pm Tuesday night and continued early Wednesday morning as around 100 pro-Israel counter-protesters attempted to seize the barricade and storm the ongoing Palestine solidarity encampment in Dickson Plaza." Police then raided the encampment, arresting more than 200 people. They used massive amounts of tear gas and flash bang grenades that use light and sound to stun and disorient people. Bulldozers were brought in to dismantle the encampment. Students leaving jail were nonetheless undeterred. "We are not done," they said. Encampments at University of California Irvine and Riverside continue.
On May 6, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, bordering Boston, pro-Palestinian protesters who had been blocked by police from accessing the encampment broke through fencing, linked arms and encircled tents that remained there. High school students from across Boston walked out of class to join the MIT student encampment in response to the increasing police repression. They joined a sit-in with MIT students that temporarily blocked Massachusetts Avenue, a main thoroughfare, during rush hour, chanting Free Free Palestine!
Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, students reestablish Gaza encampment
previously dismantled
by police, May 6, 2024
Police earlier raided the encampments at Northeastern and Emerson in Boston, arresting more than 200. At Emerson, a new city ordinance directed against the homeless pitching tents was used. Homeless people and advocates have often joined the student encampments to support Palestine and their rights to housing.
The Emory encampment in Atlanta, which also opposes Cop City, the giant police training center for urban warfare, and Atlanta police ties to the Israeli military, was also raided. University of Texas-Austin saw brutal police raids and arrests, as did many other campuses across the country.
The student encampments and resistance to police attacks have broad public support. When the encampment at Columbia University in New York city was violently raided by hundreds of police in riot gear on April 30, as at CUNY, people came from all over the city to rally in defence of the students. Hundreds of students and supporters were arrested at Columbia, so protesters then went to demonstrate at the jail in solidarity. Columbia has now canceled its university-wide commencement ceremony originally scheduled for May 15, and will hold smaller ones. The university remains occupied by hundreds of police in riot gear, at present expected to remain until May 17, after graduation.
New York Police lined up
for raid on CUNY, April 30, 2024
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has justified the police violence and promoted New York Police Department (NYPD) ties with the Israeli police. "We will not be intimidated by these brutal and spineless tactics," students from the CUNY Gaza Solidarity Encampment emphasized. "We take our lead from the steadfast resistance of the Palestinian people." The encampment at New York University remains.
Government officials and media try to make it appear the encampments are based on "outside agitators," while students make clear this is an effort to divert from the success of the student organizing and the wide public support they have gained, not only in New York City but in cities across the country. People join in activities and demonstrations, bring food, tents, blankets, books and medical supplies, write letters condemning university officials, and more.
Everywhere students, faculty, staff, and community supporters are standing strong in their demands to end U.S./Israeli genocide, end university complicity in it, and for an immediate ceasefire and freedom and self-determination for Palestine.
University of Chicago,
students rally following police attack on encampment, May 7,
2024
For an interactive map showing the locations of student encampments click here.
This article was published in
Volume 54
Number 32 - May 9, 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/MS54321.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca