Free Speech

Film On Gaza Solidarity Encampments Launched Amid Crackdown On Activism

March 23, 2025 People's Dispatch. Educate! Campus Movement, Columbia University, Documentary, Free Speech, Gaza, Genocide, Palestine, United States, Zionism

A new documentary chronicling the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University will premier at the CPH:DOX Film Festival in Copenhagen on March 25, 2025. “The Encampments,” a film produced by BreakThrough News and Watermelon Pictures, “challenges the dominant media narrative by revealing the true spirit of the encampments—what it felt like to be there, the emotions that fueled the students, and what motivated their drastic action,” said directors Kei Pritsker and Michael T Workman. The film was produced by nonprofit media organization BreakThrough News, Grammy-award winning musician Macklemore, and Watermelon Pictures, a production company focusing on Palestinian-centered films.

Federal Agents Seek Detention Of Cornell Graduate Momodou Taal

March 22, 2025 Matt Dougherty, Ithaca Times. Educate! Campus Movement, Cornell University, Free Speech, Momodou Taal, Palestine, Student Activism

Ithaca, N.Y. — Days after filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration that challenges the constitutionality of two executive orders that violate free speech, Cornell graduate student Momodou Taal has said that he is being watched by federal agents who could be looking to detain and potentially deport him before he can make his case in court on Tuesday. “This morning, shortly after a federal judge scheduled a hearing in my lawsuit demanding the courts strike down Trump's executive orders attacking free speech, law enforcement from an unidentified agency came to my home in Ithaca, New York,” Taal said in a social media post on Wednesday, March 19.

The Chris Hedges Report: America’s Constitutional Crisis

March 20, 2025 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. Resistance Report Campus Movement, Deportation, Free Speech, Higher Education, Mahmoud Khalil, Repression, Student Activism

Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest and detention in a Louisiana ICE facility is a harbinger for a new authoritarian era of the United States. Khalil’s arrest, the capitulation of Columbia University against dissent and protest by its own students and the Trump administration’s threat of stripping the university of $400 million in grants if it does not meet its requests is just one place where the tentacles of fascism tighten their grip. Katherine Franke, a former law school professor at Columbia, is on the front lines of this assault. Her support for student protests and her condemnation of the university for not addressing the harassment of pro-Palestinian students has earned what she called, “a termination dressed up in more palatable terms.”

Jury Delivers Verdict Finding Entities Liable For More Than $660 Million

March 20, 2025 Madison Carter, Greenpeace. Resist! Energy Transfer, Free Speech, Greenpeace, Legal System, Right to Protest, SLAPP Suit

Mandan, North Dakota — A Morton County jury of nine reached a verdict in Energy Transfer’s meritless lawsuit against Greenpeace entities in the US (Greenpeace Inc, Greenpeace Fund), and Greenpeace International, finding the entities liable for more than US$660 million, today. Big Oil Bullies around the world will continue to try to silence free speech and peaceful protest, but the fight against Energy Transfer’s meritless SLAPP lawsuit is not over. “This case should alarm everyone, no matter their political inclinations,” said Sushma Raman, Interim Executive Director Greenpeace Inc, Greenpeace Fund.

Right To Free Speech Curtailed On Cornell Campus

March 19, 2025 Katie Church, Danny Creamer and Josh Dolan, Popular Resistance. Resist! Campus Movement, Free Speech, Genocide, Higher Education, Palestine, Student Activism

On March 10, we as members of the Ithaca community joined with Cornell students and allies to exercise our First Amendment right to protest on behalf of the Palestinians in Gaza, who are the victims of genocide at the hands of the Israeli Occupation Forces. We and multiple students were arrested on the orders of Cornell’s president, self-proclaimed 1st Amendment champion Michael Kotlikoff. His office had invited a panel comprised of war criminals and genocide enablers from the US and Israeli government, with a token former Palestinian government official who had a <25% approval rating by Palestinians, under the guise of discussing "pathways to peace".

Historic Lawsuit Filed Challenging Trump’s Attack On Free Speech

March 16, 2025 Amandla Thomas-Johnson, Popular Resistance. Resist! Campus Movement, Cornell University, Deportation, Free Speech, Legal System, Palestine, Repression, Trump Administration

A Cornell professor and two graduate students are suing the Trump administration for violating the First Amendment as it seeks to deport international students protesting Israel’s war on Gaza under the guise of protecting national security. Trump’s salvo of executive orders targeting what amounts to student thought crimes means the Cornell scholars “now fear government retaliation for engaging in constitutionally protected expression critical of U.S. foreign policy and supportive of Palestinian human rights,” according to the lawsuit, filed Saturday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District.

Columbia University Expels Student Protesters, Fires Union President

March 15, 2025 Michael Arria, Mondoweiss. Educate! Campus Movement, Columbia University, Free Speech, ICE, Repression, Student Activism, Unions

On Thursday, Columbia University issued suspensions, expulsions, and temporary degree revocations to a number of students connected to the April 2024 occupation of the school’s Hamilton Hall. The announcement from the University Judicial Board came on the same day as a campus ICE raid, with Department of Homeland Security agents executing search warrants on two Columbia University residences. “I am writing heartbroken to inform you that we had federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security (D.H.S.) in two university residences tonight,” Interim President Dr. Katrina Armstrong told students and staff in an email.

60 Universities Under Investigation Over Pro-Palestine Sentiments

March 13, 2025 Press TV, Orinoco Tribune. Educate! Columbia University, Free Speech, Gaza, Hamas, Harvard University, Higher Education, Palestine Solidarity, US Empire, US Repression, US State Department

The US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) said it is investigating 60 universities for anti-Semitism, and that they are receiving warnings due to allegedly not protecting Jewish students during mass anti-Israel rallies in American universities and colleges. “The Department is deeply disappointed that Jewish students studying on elite US campuses continue to fear for their safety amid the relentless anti-Semitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year. University leaders must do better,” said Education Secretary Linda McMahon.

DHS Detains Lead Negotiator Of Columbia Gaza Solidarity Encampment

March 9, 2025 Meghnad Bose, DropSite News. Educate! Columbia University, DHS, Free Speech, Palestine, State Repression

New York City—On Saturday night, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents entered a student residential building at Columbia University in uptown New York and detained Mahmoud Khalil, one of the lead negotiators on behalf of pro-Palestine protesters at 2024’s Gaza solidarity encampment. In a sweeping attack on the First Amendment, the Trump administration said this week it would begin revoking visas of “Hamas sympathizers,” specifically citing Columbia University students. The detention followed a two-day targeted online campaign against Khalil by pro-Israel groups and individuals, including Columbia’s high-profile pro-Israel professor, Shai Davidai.

Fossil Fuel Giant Launches Legal Attack Over Standing Rock Protests

March 8, 2025 People's Dispatch. Educate! #NoDAPL, climate crisis, Dakota Access Pipeline, Free Speech, Greenpeace, Indigenous struggle, Pipelines, Standing Rock

Energy Transfer, the US energy giant that owns or operates over 125,000 miles of oil pipelines throughout the US, is suing environmental activism group Greenpeace for USD 300 million in damages in a trial that began last week. The company claims that the nonprofit organized the mass demonstrations and protest camp at the Standing Rock Reservation against the Dakota Access Pipeline between 2016 and 2017. If Greenpeace loses this case and is forced to pay the hundreds of millions in damages demanded by Energy Transfer, it would effectively end their operations in the United States.

A Higher Education Union’s Response To Trump’s Attacks

March 7, 2025 Workers World. Resist! Austerity, Free Speech, Higher Education, Trump Administration

Higher education — colleges and post-secondary education — has been a target of right-wing, reactionary attacks for decades, but the Musk-Trump-MAGA grouping has brought a new, vicious intensity to this campaign. The Department of Education has threatened schools with losing all federal funding if they have policies supporting diversity, equity and inclusion. The MAGA assault on DEI is intended to roll back civil rights and other efforts that address historic inequities. Much of the research funds in science, technology and clinical work has been frozen. Research and publishing on cultural and gender issues have been actively suppressed.

Breaking Down Trump’s Executive Order Targeting Palestine Activists

February 14, 2025 Michael Arria, Mondoweiss. Educate! Deportations, Donald Trump, Free Speech, Israel, Palestine, Student Activism

On January 29 President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at canceling the visas of foreign students who participated in protests opposing the Gaza genocide across college campuses last year. “To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” said Trump in a fact sheet released alongside the order. “I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”

Statement From Jewish Rutgers Union Members: Zionist Hegemony Must End

February 2, 2025 Open Letter, Mondoweiss. Educate! Anti-Zionism, Campus Movement, Free Speech, Jews, Palestine, Rutgers

On November, 25, 2024, the office building of the Rutgers academic unions (representing tenured, contingent, and graduate student educators) was defaced with pro-Israel posters. “Fight Jew-hatred. Before it’s too late,” said one. “STAND UP FOR THE JEWISH STATE,” demanded another. As Jewish educators at Rutgers we categorically reject the slanderous insinuation that our unions–led by Jewish presidents and vice presidents–are blind to or bastions of antisemitism. At the same time, we affirm our opposition to all ethnosupremacist states–including the apartheid Israeli state.

Trump Issues Order To End Censorship

January 21, 2025 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. Educate! Censorship, Donald Trump, First Amendment, Free Speech

President Donald Trump in his inaugural speech on Monday vowed to end online censorship by government using social media companies as proxies. He said: After years and years of illegal and unconstitutional federal efforts to restrict free expression, I will also sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America. Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents, something I know something about. We will not allow that to happen. It will not happen again. Later on Monday Trump signed the executive order, “Restoring Free Speech and Ending Federal Censorship

The Biden Administration Fails To Win Imprisonment Of The Uhuru 3

December 17, 2024 The Black Alliance for Peace. Resist! Biden administration, FBI, Free Speech, Legal System, State Repression, Uhuru 3, Victory

Members of the Uhuru Movement, Omali Yeshitela, Penny Hess, and Jesse Nevel – the “Uhuru 3” – were sentenced to three years probation and community service after being convicted in September 2024 of supposedly conspiring with the Russian government to interfere in U.S. elections. The Black Alliance for Peace recognizes that this sentence is confirmation that the charges against Uhuru members by the Biden Administration Justice Department were baseless. While any sentence handed down from imperialist courts for actions that are supposed to be legally protected are, in themselves, illegitimate, the refusal of the judge to incarcerate the Uhuru 3 is a victory in the fight against a repressive US regime, regardless of which wing of the finance capital bird leads it.

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