Joe Allen writes of the deepening of the solidarity with Gaza movement across US campuses, now attracting wider trade union support. As Trinity College Dublin students occupy their campus, the lessons of the extensive movement should not be lost on us.
It’s been an extraordinary two weeks on U.S. campuses and in American politics. As of May 3rd, over 2300 pro-Palestine protesters across the country had been arrested, pro-Zionist vigilantes attacked an encampment at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the NYPD forcibly retook campus buildings at Columbia University and the City University of New York (CUNY). College and university presidents, in some cases, have asked the police to remain on campus to prevent further student mobilizations. Such sustained, militant activity on the campuses has not been seen for a very long time.
President Joe Biden, dubbed “Genocide Joe” for his support of Israel’s war in Gaza, spoke from the White House on Thursday and declared that, “Dissent is essential for democracy. But dissent must never lead to disorder. Order must prevail.” That simply means that protests should be symbolic and ineffective. When asked by a reporter if the demonstrations would lead to a shift in his administration’s policies, he curtly responded, “No.” Adding insult to injury for pro-Palestine activists, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to be invited to address a joint session of Congress, further demonstrating the United States “ironclad” support for Israel.
Meanwhile, New York Republican Rep. Mike Lawler’s bill— the “Antisemitism Awareness Act” —to criminalize pro-Palestine protests overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives 320 to 9, with 70 Democrats and 21 Republicans voting against it. Based on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, it equates criticism of the State of Israel with antisemitism. New York Democrat Jerry Nadler, a self-proclaimed “Zionist” voted against it. Lawler’s bill awaits action by the U.S. Senate.
Despite these brisk headwinds, including ongoing smears of antisemitism from the U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona—the pro-Palestine movement has spread to over 150 campuses in the United States or double the number of campuses from two weeks ago, while solidarity encampments have sprung up internationally. The widespread repression on the campuses has provoked a civil liberties crisis in the United States. Even before the recent wave of arrests and police occupation of campuses, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the longstanding advocate for free speech rights in the U.S., warned:
“Campus leaders must resist the pressures placed on them by politicians seeking to exploit campus tensions to advance their own notoriety or partisan agendas. Recent congressional hearings have featured disgraceful attacks by members of Congress on academic freedom and freedom of speech. Universities must stand up to such intimidation anddefend the principles of academic freedom so essential to their integrity and mission.”
Few have, unfortunately. While a handful of colleges have peacefully negotiated the end of encampments with an agreement—if there are no further campus protests—to examine their respective financial involvement with Israeli Apartheid, there have been few clear-cut victories, so far. One of the few was at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, the college that the late Palestine solidarity activist Rachel Corrieattended. Corrie was killed trying to prevent the destruction of Palestinian homes in Rafah in 2003.
Civil Liberties Crisis
Most college and university administrators have mostly followed a similar playbook. They have stonewalled protesters in negotiations, threatened them with arrest along with some form of punishment, then they unleash the local cops to clear the encampments and conduct mass arrests decked out in their “Warrior Cop” outfits. These desperate and politically driven actions, however, have largely backfired and further eroded support for Israeli policies and Democratic Party liberalism, and created a civil liberties crisis in the United States.
The shocking level of police violence and—in the case of UCLA complicity with pro-Zionist vigilantes—have reminded many people of the unrestrained police attacks—and by Klansmen—on civil rights activists, and Vietnam War protesters movements in the 1960s. Mark Rudd, one of the best known leaders of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at Columbia during the 1968 student occupation, wrote recently in Los Angeles Progressive:
Back in 1968, Columbia’s administration called on New York City cops to empty the buildings, badly beating and arresting almost 700 students. Fifty-six years to the day later, the NYPD were again called in to break up a student occupation, arresting around a hundred students as they cleared the occupied hall and encampment last night. It was the second time in the last month — since her [Columbia President Minouche Shafik’s] trip to Washington, D.C., where she pledged loyalty and obeisance to far-right politicians in a bid to save her job — that Columbia’s president brought police on campus to make arrests.
Efforts by New York City Mayor Eric Adams—whose administration is mired in a swirl of corruption investigations—and his closest advisors to blame “outside agitators” would be comical, if not for the fact that many of those arrested may facefelony charges. The NYPD then released a statement that confirmed, however, that 99% of those arrested at New York University were students.
To salvage their sinking public image, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry told reporters that, “I just want to say, and I said it before, there’s somebody behind this movement. There is some organization behind this movement. The level of organization that we’re seeing in both of these schools and at Columbia.” The idea that there is a sinister conspiracy operating out there is a pathetic attempt to retry tired old anticommunism or Islamophobia tells you how desperate local government authorities are.
But you don’t have to be one of the student occupiers to get the end of the nightstick from the cops. Sixty-five-year-old Southern Illinois University Professor Steve Tamari had nine ribs fractured and a broken hand by the cops for filming students being arrested at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He posted:
“My ordeal is a small price to pay for Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, aided and abetted by the U.S. Government, the military, the political elite of both the Democratic and Republican parties, and, most outrageously, institutions of higher education like Washington University. The students are our collective best hope for an end to wanton violence, a more human future, and a free Palestine.”
Steve Tamari and his partner Sandra were both arrested. Both had been members of the editorial and development committees of the well-respected journal the Middle East Research and Education Project (MERIP) for many years. MERIP released a statement of solidarity:
“MERIP stands with Steve, Sandra and the students and faculty everywhere who are calling on universities to divest from companies linked to Israel by putting their bodies and their futures on the line. We denounce police brutality and the militarization of our campuses sanctioned by institutional leaders. This moment of principled unrest, motivated by support for Palestinians and demands for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, is evident throughout the United States and elsewhere across the globe.”
If anything, the Warrior Cop invasions have deepened the crisis for college and university administrators. Upheaval among the faculty bordering rage against their presidents. The tony, corporate-oriented Forbes magazine reported:
“The backlash has come in response to what some perceive as oppressive crackdowns by campus leaders on student protestors. In particular, faculty ire has been stirred by local law enforcement being brought onto several university campuses, resulting in violent clashes and the arrests of hundreds of individuals, including faculty members.
In the wake of those arrests, faculty have begun their own protests against presidents in the form of no-confidence votes, calls for their resignation, or, in some cases, investigations into how the administration has addressed ongoing campus tensions.”
Some academic workers have taken strike action. The Professional Staff Union at CUNY, the union that represents faculty and professional staff, called a “sick-out,” a technically illegal action in support of the students involving 300 members. In a statement released to the public, the PSC-CUNY said:
We organized this sick-out not only because we refuse to condone “business as usual” at our university but also because now is the moment to bring the power of U.S. labor–including academic labor–to the struggle for Palestine. We answer the calls for solidarity from our students, from Palestinian trade unions, and from Palestinian educators.
Other academic unions may take strike action to defend free speech and the right to assemble. The brutal attack on the UCLA encampment by Zionists and the LAPD, forced UAW Local 4811, the largest union of academic workers in the country representing more than 48,000 graduate student workers throughout the University of California system, to threaten strike action. It released the following statement that said :
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.
Supporting their effort is UAW President Shawn Fain, who declared:
“The UAW will never support the mass arrest or intimidation of those exercising their right to protest, strike, or speak out against injustice. Our union has been calling for a ceasefire for six months. This war is wrong, and this response against students and academic workers, many of them UAW members, is wrong. We call on the powers that be to release the students and employees who have been arrested, and if you can’t take the outcry, stop supporting this war.”
The UAW was the first major industrial union to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, but rank and file pro-Palestine activists were angered by Fain’s endorsement of Biden and his refusal to end the union’s purchase of State of Israel bonds. Less talk and more action is needed by the UAW on Gaza.
In response to Biden’s support for the police crackdown, some local unions have even called on their national unions to reconsider their endorsement of Biden for president. Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 7250’s executive board stated:
“At the urging of a group of represented members, CWA Local 7250’s Executive Board has voted unanimously to call on our union, Communications Workers of America to reconsider its endorsement of Joe Biden for President of the USA.”
Among the many reasons, they included:
“Joe Biden has lied to the people, and justified police violence against campus protesters – including CWA members – by claiming that solidarity with Palestinians is “hate speech” and that protesters are motivated by antisemitism, despite the large number of Jewish participants in the protests. Members of CWA United Campus Workers in Arizona have been arrested and beaten for exercising their rights to protest.”
Where is the movement going?
Over the past May 4 and 5th weekend, college graduation ceremonies were disrupted at several major universities. Despite the rapid approaching end of the spring semester, some students have vowed to continue the struggle through the summer. “We aren’t going anywhere,” Bryce Greene, an Indiana University doctoral student and one of the protest organizers at the school’s campus in Bloomington, told the New York Times. “He believed there would be enough students around campus to sustain the protest over the summer, or until the school agreed to their demands to divest.”
We will see if that is a sustainable strategy for campus activists. History does feel like it has taken a big leap forward, however. During the last eight months we have witnessed some of the largest antiwar demonstrations in modern U.S history. The campus activism for Palestine has been a historic break with past movements. Palestine was the great exception to progressive politics in the United States. Liberals routinely ignored Palestinian issues or sabotaged campaigns over the issue of Palestine or the role of Palestinian activists. Palestine is in a very different place now.
The issues raised by campus activists will not disappear during the summertime. It is likely that there will be a big shakeup in the leadership of major colleges and universities in order to regain control of the campuses. But university complicity with Israeli Apartheid is not going away, the civil liberties issues are not going away, and the anger and rancor generated by police repression is not going away. The return of the Autumn semester may bring a new wave of struggle for Palestine, democratic rights, a possibility of broad-based disinvestment campaign from Israeli apartheid.
