Repression

The ‘Blurred Lines’ Of Columbia’s Task Force On Anti-Semitism

May 29, 2024 James Schamus, Mondoweiss. Resist! Anti-Semitism, Campus Movement, Columbia University, Higher Education, Israel, Palestine, Repression, Zionism

On May 16, as Columbia University’s Spring semester ended, the school newspaper published an Op-Ed from the “Task Force on Anti-Semitism” appointed by President Minouche Shafik last November. The Task Force, made up of pro-Israel faculty, announced at its inception its goal of making “ambitious changes” to the University’s “policies, rules, and practices,” and has already released one report supporting increased restrictions on student protests. While it has made a point of refusing to define what it means by “antisemitism,” its latest communication indicates that Columbia faculty and students critical of Israel and Zionism may well be in real danger should the Task Force deliver on its currently-stated goals.

BLM Activists In Grand Rapids Face Repression And Need Solidarity

May 29, 2024 Emma Boyhtari and Tristan Taylor, Left Voice. Educate! Black Lives Matter (BLM), Grand Rapids, Legal System, Michigan, Police, Repression

In April 2022, Patrick Lyoya was murdered by police officer Christopher Schurr. His murder garnered national attention — his funeral was attended by Al Sharpton, and Lyoya’s family was represented by Ben Crump. The movement in Grand Rapids mobilized, and held a 1,000 person demonstration demanding Schurr be fired and prosecuted. In response to the movement, Christopher Schurr was fired from the Grand Rapids Police Department (GRPD) and charged with second-degree murder. However, two years have passed, and Schurr has still not gone to trial. Yet, in those two years several BLM activists have faced trumped up charges, including felony assault of a police officer.

Drexel Students Set Up Palestine Encampment, Call For Divestment

May 22, 2024 Dan Feidt, Unicorn Riot. Resist! Campus Movement, Drexel University, Israel, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, Philadelphia, Police, Repression, Student Activism

Philadelphia, PA — Students at Drexel University established an encampment in support of divesting from Israel on May 18, following a rainy Nakba Day commemoration march from Center City that started around 4 p.m. Philadelphia and Drexel police officers quickly surrounded the encampment with a ring of metal barricades and largely barred additional people from entering; this was apparently at the orders of Drexel’s campus police chief. There was a brief struggle over the metal barricade components, and at one point an officer brandished a Taser at the crowd but was pulled back by another, shortly after our reporters got onsite. As of late Monday the encampment was still in place.

The Threat Of Democracy On Campus At The University Of Massachusetts

May 22, 2024 Kevin Young, Portside. Resist! Campus Movement, Democracy, Israel, Massachusetts, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, Repression, Student Activism

Before arriving at UMass Amherst last fall, Chancellor Javier Reyes was already notorious for his cavalier approach to critics. But few foresaw what he did on May 7. Earlier that day, organizers from a coalition of campus solidarity groups had erected tents on a small section of the lawn by W.E.B. Du Bois Library. Like virtually all the recent encampments in this country, there was no hint of violence from the campers. It was the latest tactic in a seven-month campaign to end UMass’s complicity with the US-Israeli war on Gaza. The organizers had four demands: that UMass disclose its financial ties to weapons makers and corporations with links to Israel, that it divest from those corporations, that it end study abroad programs in Israel, and that it drop all charges and sanctions against the students arrested in a peaceful building occupation last October.

University Of California Student Workers Begin Historic Political Strike

May 22, 2024 Olivia Wood, Left Voice. Resist! California, Campus Movement, Genocide, Israel, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, Repression, Strikes, Student Activism, University of California

On May 20, University of California (UC) student and postdoc workers at the Santa Cruz campus began a historic strike against the repression of the student movement. UAW 4811, which represents over 48,000 workers, voted last week to authorize a strike in response to intense repression unleashed against students and faculty protesting for Palestine. Administrators at several University of California campuses invited in the police, who violently arrested and injured students, faculty, and staff. Many workers and students across the UC system also face disciplinary action from their universities, including suspension.

The Billionaires And Establishment Officials Unleashing Violence

May 22, 2024 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. Educate! Campus Movement, Columbia University, Eric Adams, Israel, New York City (NYC), Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, Repression, Student Activism, UCLA, Zionism

It has been weeks since the brutal state repression and right-wing violence unleashed against some of the most prominent Gaza Solidarity Encampments, including the encampments at the University of California – Los Angeles and Columbia University. Since then, independent reporting has uncovered disturbing links between extreme-right counterprotesters and billionaire donors, as well as collusion between city officials and police conducting violent repression. At UCLA, Zionist counterprotesters conducted several rounds of attacks against the Gaza Solidarity Encampment. Student organizers reported counterprotesters releasing bags of mice injected with an unknown substance, as well as cockroaches.

How UC Researchers Began Saying No To Military Work

May 20, 2024 Isabel Kain and Becker Sharif, Labor Notes. Resist! Academic Research, California, Israel, Palestine, Repression, Strikes, University of California, weapons, Worker Rights and Jobs

Our union of 48,000 academic workers has just authorized a strike over the University of California’s unfair labor practices in repressing peaceful protest, retaliating against members for protesting, and prohibiting pro-Palestine speech at the worksite. United Auto Workers Local 4811 announced the results yesterday: with nearly 20,000 members voting, 79 percent voted yes. Part of the groundwork behind this vote and informing the potential strike is the organizing we have done over the past several months in our science departments—as researchers who are no longer willing to support genocide with our labor.

Twenty Police Departments Dismantle UCI Palestine Solidarity Encampment

May 19, 2024 David Pulido, Fight Back! News. Resist! Campus Movement, Police, Repression, Student Activism, University of California

Irvine, CA – At least 20 police departments besieged the University of California, Irvine Gaza solidarity encampment on May 15, as student protesters marked the anniversary of the 1948 Nakba. Earlier that morning, protesters reclaimed UCI Physical Sciences Lecture Hall and renamed it in honor of Alex Odeh, a Palestinian American activist who was assassinated in Santa Ana, California in 1985 by three members of the Jewish Defense League. Shortly after students draped banners on Alex Odeh Hall, 20 Orange County police departments swarmed the campus parking lots as UCI administration put out a call for “mutual aid.”

UPenn Students Arrested At Palestine Demo After Building Occupation

May 19, 2024 Dan Feidt, Unicorn Riot. Resist! Campus Movement, Gaza, Palestine, Philadelphia, Police, Repression, Student Activism

Philadelphia, PA – Nearly twenty University of Pennsylvania students and supporters were arrested after briefly occupying Fisher-Bennett Hall along 34th Street Friday night. Officers including UPenn’s Emergency Response Teams worked to shove hundreds of pro-Palestine demonstrators away from what they renamed Refaat Alareer Hall. (Alareer was a prominent Gaza professor killed by Israel late last year.) UPenn has also been a site of rallies against Ghost Robotics, an incubator spinoff company that has fast become a key world supplier of military robots including for Israel. We heard that the action was an extension of the UPenn protest encampment organizing that was swept by police action a week earlier, and was aimed at forcing UPenn to divest from companies that do business with Israel.

Columbia Students Vs The State

May 18, 2024 Danny Shaw, Black Agenda Report. Resist! Campus Movement, Columbia, Gaza, Repression, Student Activism

Hundreds of college student encampments across the country against the U.S.-Israeli genocide in Gaza have now spread to Europe, South America and the world. The acts of mass solidarity have seized the frontpages of mainstream tabloids for almost a month now. It all started on Wednesday March 17th at my alma mater, Columbia University, thanks to the leadership and solidarity of hundreds of student and faculty leaders. Mayor Eric Adam’s impressive squandering of our taxpayer money to harass and repress peaceful student protests will not soon be forgotten by voters. I was one of the alumni and professors arrested for opposing this disgraceful holocaust of human life in Gaza.

Morehouse Will Stop Commencement If Students Protest Biden Speech

May 18, 2024 Michael Arria, Mondoweiss. Resist! Atlanta, Campus Movement, Gaza, Genocide Joe, HBCU, Joe Biden, Morehouse, Repression, Student Activism

When President Joe Biden gives the commencement speech at Morehouse College this weekend, it might be a short one. Administrators at the historically black college have warned the event will be stopped if there are protests over Gaza. When President Joe Biden gives the commencement speech at Morehouse College this weekend, it might be a short one. Administrators at the historically black college have warned students that the event will be stopped if any “disruptive” behavior occurs. Recent events suggest that there’s a good chance we’ll see some, as community members have consistently protested the administration’s support for Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza.

Anti-Zionist Historian Ilan Pappé Detained By FBI

May 17, 2024 Brett Wilkins, Consortium News. Educate! Anti-Zionism, FBI, Israel, Palestine, Repression

In what one observer called “a whole new level of insanity and paranoia,” renowned Israeli historian and professor Ilan Pappé — a staunch critic of Zionism — was detained and interrogated this week by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents as he entered the United States at Detroit’s airport. In a Wednesday Facebook post, Pappé said that he was questioned by F.B.I. agents for two hours after arriving at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport on Monday. He wrote: “The two-men team were not abusive or rude, I should say, but their questions were really out of the world! Am I a Hamas supporter? Do I regard the Israeli actions in Gaza a genocide? What is the solution to the ‘conflict’ (seriously this is what they asked!) Who are my Arab and Muslim friends in America… What kind of relationship [do] I have with them?”

University Of California Workers Vote To Authorize A Strike

May 17, 2024 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. Resist! Campus Movement, Repression, Solidarity, Strikes, Student Activism, UAW, University of California, Worker Rights

On May 15, United Auto Workers Local 4811, which represents 48,000 student workers across the University of California campuses, voted to authorize a strike following police and administrative repression of pro-Palestine students staging Gaza Solidarity Encampments. Strike authorization votes took place from May 13 to May 15. Workers voted in favor of striking by a landslide of 79%. There is currently no fixed date for a strike, but the vote empowers the union’s executive board to call a strike at any time. Were Local 4811 to strike, it would be the first strike in history to be called for Palestinian liberation.

Argentine Social Movements Denounce Illegal Raids By Government

May 16, 2024 People's Dispatch. Resist! Anti-Austerity, Argentina, Javier Milei, Repression, Social Movements

In the early hours of the morning on May 13, the Argentine police raided the homes of leaders of the Worker’s Pole, the Front of Organizations in Struggle (FOL), Barrios de Pie, and the Evita Movement. According to the organizations, federal police officers participated in the violent raids, the cell phones of the leaders were also seized, and 27 free soup kitchens run by the movement organizations were also raided. In a press conference in front of the National Congress on the same day, progressive movements came together to denounce the raids and repression they have faced under the far-right government of Javier Milei.

Divest Now! A Revolutionary Demand

May 15, 2024 Sara Flounders, Workers' World. Resist! Campus Movement, Divestment, Israel, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, Repression, Student Activism

Why have student encampments for Palestine ignited such an uproar of brutal repression, vicious police attacks, mass arrests, overwhelming condemnation in the corporate media and a new level of reactionary legislation in Congress? The demand to divest, raised at almost every encampment, exposes the insidious inroads of the military-industrial complex into the heart of almost all higher education institutions in the U.S. today. This demand to “divest” has revolutionary implications. Divestment is not just a threat to university boards, administrators and their alumni funders. It is a threat to the established capitalist order.

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