Starting May 27, 2025, students, faculty, and staff from the CUNY Graduate Center, School of Labor and Urban Studies, Baruch, and Brooklyn Colleges launched an indefinite hunger strike on the steps of the Graduate Center. Our demand is clear: that Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez and the CUNY Board of Trustees divest immediately from the zionist settler colonial state and from all weapons and tech manufacturers supporting the ongoing Israeli-US genocide in Gaza.
As Gaza faces mass starvation under total siege—with over 300 already starved to death, 14,000 babies at risk in the next 48 hours, and nearly a million children facing imminent death—CUNY continues to invest in the corporations enabling this violence, while defunding education, underpaying staff, and expanding campus policing. This hunger strike, rooted in solidarity with Palestinian resistance and liberation, includes daily speakouts, local food distribution, political education events, and a Gaza relief fundraiser.
Follow and share our updates:
- Twitter/X: Day 2 Updates
- Twitter/X: Hunger Strike Launch
- Instagram Post: Hunger Strike Statement
- Instagram Reel: We We’re Striking
- Instagram Post: Hunger Strike + Rank & File End of Year Rally
Donate to support families in Gaza
CUNY Hunger Strike Fundraiser for Gaza – https://chuffed.org/project/
131840-cuny-hunger-strike- fundraiser-for-gaza
Day three of our strike saw an outpouring of solidarity. After some harassment by zionists while setting up this morning, we had a day full of support. Here are some highlights:
The fundraiser for Gaza has now reached $7000. We are heartened by this incredible show of solidarity from our community. Please continue to boost and share! https://bit.ly/hungerstrike4gaza.
Two passersby––separately––stopped to tell us that they had participated in prison hunger strikes and wished us well. Both had achieved their demands. Their solidarity meant a lot to us, and is also a stark reminder of how deeply affected our community is by mass incarceration.
Comrades from Guttman, Cornell, SUNY, and Berkeley came by to sit with us and coordinate across campuses.
People walking by today stopped constantly to talk and sit with us. Several people donated $20 bills to our fundraiser on the spot.
A person scurried out of their car across 5th ave to us while stopped at a red light to get our fundraiser flyer and send solidarity. Another person leapt out of their car and delivered a ton of water bottles to us, before disappearing again.
We were able to distribute a LOT of free food and drinks––big thanks to our mutual aid crew who are really holding it down!
Hunger strikers are tired, but in good spirits and very buoyed by the solidarity.
No word from the Chancellor yet, though the Vice Chancellor was present at yesterday’s strike.
