“Campus protests against Gaza genocide spread globally despite police repression”, Apr 26, 2024, Anon, World Socialist Web Site {WSWS}, at < https://www.wsws.org/en/
~~ recommended by dmorista ~~
Introduction by dmorista: The WSWS website has kept up adding material to the article I posted in yesterday's post (“Hundreds arrested and assaulted by US police as protests against Gaza genocide expand on college campuses”, Apr 25, 2024 Updated 9 hours ago, featuring Live updates (probably to be continued later today April 26, 2024), Anon, World Socialist Web Site (WSWS), at < https://www.wsws.org/en/
The horrific tactics the U.S. ruling class used in places like the Philippines and Vietnam came back to our shores after a few years, when the long series of political assassinations took place throughout the 1960s and covert operations were waged against the domestic population. Those wide ranging operations, from Cointelpro of the FBI and Operation Chaos of the CIA, were exposed to a limited degree by the Senatorial Church Committee hearings in the late 1970s. But the operations, both in the U.S. and in the Global South, continued and one development was the use of snipers in the U.S. supported Coup in Ukraine in 2014. Hopefully we will not see such an extension of those terrible tactics in the U.S.
The overall WSWS article is pretty long, though well worth perusing, but here are the pertinent excerpts and photos.
“In the United States, mass arrests took place on Thursday at the Ohio State University, in Columbus, Ohio and Indiana University, in Bloomington, Indiana. Prior to the arrests, students photographed and videotaped armed police snipers on the rooftops of campus buildings with their weapons trained on students. ….
“The mass arrests and violent actions taken by the police on every US campus is not the result of a few rogue departments. The police, via orders transmitted to Department of Homeland Security fusion centers, are carrying out directives ordered by President Joe Biden.
“On April 21, in a White House statement, Biden repeated the lie that 'blatant antisemitism' was taking place on 'college campuses' and that his administration will 'aggressively implement the first-ever National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, putting the full force of the federal government' behind the effort. (this must be seen for what it actually is ".... Biden issued a press release stating that 'Antisemitism is reprehensible and has no place on college campuses,' announcing the creation of a new police bureaucracy to monitor the campuses called by the Orwellian name 'the National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism,' ”; yet another governmental agency tasked with controlling the U.S. Population, What could go wrong??) {See, "Biden’s campus crackdown—the Democratic Party bares its fangs, again", Apr 27, 2024, Tom Mackaman, WSWS, at < https://www.wsws.org/en/
“The following day, Biden repeated the 'big lie' stating that he condemned the 'antisemitic protests' on campuses and that 'I’ve set up a program to deal with that.'
“The results of this state-backed censorship program, can be seen on various campuses. On Friday, police arrested students at the encampment at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Police also arrested students on the Auraria Campus in Denver, Colorado, who were simply sitting cross-legged on the ground next to their tents.
“CBS Colorado reported that the protesters were handcuffed and led to a bus that was labelled 'Denver Sheriff.' In addition to police, CBS reported that there 'appeared to be Colorado National Guard members' as 'part of the law enforcement seen on campus.'
“At Wayne State University in Detroit, police were observed assaulting students as they were demanding the Board of Governor’s divest from Israel."
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Campus protests against Gaza genocide spread globally despite police repression
In the face of violent attacks and arrests from police thugs, and a stream of lies from politicians, thousands of students, faculty, and their supporters, have continued to protest the genocide in Gaza and build encampments on their college campuses in the United States and in Europe.
Attempts by capitalist politicians, corporate journalists, and even the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, to portray the encampments as “antisemitic” or embryonic “terrorist” cells have failed. Students of every faith, including many Jewish students and atheists, have taken part in the demonstrations which are calling for their universities to divest from corporations engaged in genocide.
Following the establishment of the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on April 17 at Columbia University in New York City, more than 40 other pro-Palestinian encampments have sprung to life in the United States. Solidarity encampments have also been established in Italy, France and Germany.
Along with the encampments, global protests against the genocide in Gaza have continued on every major continent. In Sanaa, Yemen, over a million people, as they have for over six months, gathered on Friday to protest the US-backed campaign in Gaza.
The military campaign by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) against the civilian population of the narrow enclave—with the use of American-supplied bombs and fighter jets—has officially killed over 34,000 Palestinians, no doubt a severe under-count, while injuring over 80,000 more. More than 1 million people have been displaced over the last six months with most homes, schools and hospitals damaged or destroyed.
Fueled by outrage over the unstinting US and European military support for the slaughter, exemplified in the most recent bipartisan passage of the $95 billion war supplemental, protests have continued throughout the world. Despite the overwhelming peaceful character of the protests, police have initiated a violent crackdown on the demonstrations, arresting hundreds of students and faculty members for opposing their universities’ and governments’ complicity in the genocide.
In Berlin on Friday, in front of the Reichstag (seat of federal parliament) German police choked, punched and arrested non-violent anti-war protesters. Socialist Equality Party candidate for US president Joe Kishore denounced the attack, writing on Twitter/X that “German imperialism is returning to its Nazi traditions.”
In the United States, mass arrests took place on Thursday at the Ohio State University, in Columbus, Ohio and Indiana University, in Bloomington, Indiana. Prior to the arrests, students photographed and videotaped armed police snipers on the rooftops of campus buildings with their weapons trained on students.
At Ohio State, roughly 40 people, including some faculty, have been arrested since Tuesday. According to local reports, 36 people, including 16 students, were arrested on Thursday night following a police rampage on the encampment site. Social media video shows dozens of police in riot gear and with batons assaulting the students for being on the grass.
Saphia Abdelsalam, a student at Ohio State, told NBC4 that the protest was peaceful when police began arresting students. “We just wanted to be peaceful and stand our ground, and then [the police] made it not peaceful. They started attacking and started arresting,” she said.
At least 33 students were arrested during a Thursday rally at Indiana University’s Dunn Meadow in Bloomington. The students were arrested for violating a university policy that an “ad hoc” committee at the university implemented on April 24, the day before the protest was scheduled to begin, which banned “temporary structures” on campus.
Outraged over the arrests of their students, dozens of faculty at IU joined students in a protest Friday in Dunn Meadow.
The mass arrests and violent actions taken by the police on every US campus is not the result of a few rogue departments. The police, via orders transmitted to Department of Homeland Security fusion centers, are carrying out directives ordered by President Joe Biden.
On April 21, in a White House statement, Biden repeated the lie that “blatant antisemitism” was taking place on “college campuses” and that his administration will “aggressively implement the first-ever National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, putting the full force of the federal government” behind the effort.
The following day, Biden repeated the “big lie” stating that he condemned the “antisemitic protests” on campuses and that “I’ve set up a program to deal with that.”
The results of this state-backed censorship program, can be seen on various campuses. On Friday, police arrested students at the encampment at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Police also arrested students on the Auraria Campus in Denver, Colorado, who were simply sitting cross-legged on the ground next to their tents.
CBS Colorado reported that the protesters were handcuffed and led to a bus that was labelled “Denver Sheriff.” In addition to police, CBS reported that there “appeared to be Colorado National Guard members” as “part of the law enforcement seen on campus.”
At Wayne State University in Detroit, police were observed assaulting students as they were demanding the Board of Governor’s divest from Israel.
Coupled with state violence, the Biden administration has dispatched top campaign surrogates to the encampments in the past 48 hours in an attempt to politically neuter and smother the protests.
On Friday, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) members and New York Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman both traveled to Columbia University to meet with organizers. Their appearance at the encampment drew rebukes from thousands of social media users.
On Thursday, Texas Rep. Greg Casar, another DSA member, went to the University of Texas at Austin to meekly declare his support for a “ceasefire.” The same day Casar was in Austin, USA Today published an interview with him in which he hailed Biden as “the most pro-worker president in my lifetime.”
On Wednesday, 57 students were arrested in Austin for “trespassing.” A Texas-based NPR reporter confirmed with a spokesperson from the university that even though the charges against the students were dropped the following day, the students will still not be allowed back on campus for at least the rest of the semester. It is unclear if the students will be allowed to complete their final exams or attend graduation.
Repression of pro-Palestinian supporters on the Texas campus continues to intensify. On Friday, the Austin chapter of the Palestine Solidarity Committee confirmed that the university suspended the club from campus. In a statement, the PSC-ATX wrote: “UT’s suspension of the Palestine Solidarity Committee is an attack on free speech to distract from and enable [Israel’s] genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people!”
In a statement posted from Austin on Thursday, Socialist Equality Party candidate for US vice president Jerry White denounced the attacks on the students, saying it “is not only an attack on the rights of these students to protest, it is an attack on the right of the working class.
“It will be workers whose sons and daughters die in these wars, whether it’s in the Middle East, or the new wars expanded against Russia in Ukraine and against China,” White said, adding that “workers have no interest in these wars and every interest to fight against them.”
International students in New York City denounce attacks on anti-genocide protesters, “The struggle for Palestine and the struggle by workers everywhere are the same”
Students and faculty in New York continued to protest the ongoing genocide in Gaza on Friday even in the face of police violence, Zionist attacks, and threats of suspension, expulsion and job loss from universities.
On Friday, “Faculty for Justice in Palestine” reported that “Mathematics postdoctoral scholar and instructor” Darren King, was fired from New York University on April 15, for removing pro-Israel posters from a construction barrier last fall. Right-wing and Zionist elements had been lobbying for King’s firing for months after video of him removing the posters went viral in pro-Israel circles.
Police attempted to break up the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” at NYU on Friday, but retreated after several faculty members joined the students and locked arms facing the police.
Heeding the advice of fascistic Republican politicians to cancel the visas of international students for voicing opposition to US-backed Israeli ethnic cleansing, on Friday, Cornell University Ph.D grad student Momodou Tall revealed on his Twitter/X account that he and three other students/grad workers had been suspended for organizing an encampment on campus.
Tall wrote that the Cornell administration:
deliberately targeted students with precarious positions such as visa status. They have given me a grace period but I am no longer permitted on campus. I know they have done this as a means of bringing down the encampment. The university has acted in extremely bad faith and refused to engage in any form of dialogue about our demands. It is clear that they are more concerned with appeasing their Zionist donors and keeping their hands drenched in blood than over the expressed refusal of their students and workers. I’m okay and please don’t stop talking about Palestine.
The International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) distributed leaflets at a protest in Washington Square Park on Friday, just steps away from the center of the New York University (NYU) campus, where 120 students who set up an encampment on Gould Square were arrested this week. The leaflets contained a statement by Socialist Equality Party (SEP) candidate for US president Joseph Kishore which opposed attacks on student demonstrators and called for mobilization of the working class in defense of the democratic rights across the country.
The IYSSE spoke with Claire, a history student from Paris.
I think these attacks on students are absolutely disgusting. As a community we need to better. We need to mobilize to end the occupation in Gaza and liberate Palestine. We need to make our government understand that they cannot repress us by just shutting us down. That is not how democracy works. We will fight for our rights and the freedom of everyone.
At the end of the day, the struggle for Palestine and the struggle by workers everywhere are the same. Everybody just wants a decent wage, decent standard of living, decent education, and decent help for acquiring food and basic necessities, decent housing — it’s all the same struggle — people just want to be able to live with decency. And that is something that we lack. It is becoming more and more difficult to just live a regular life with the money that is available. It’s insane.
I don’t support for any wars. I agree that all of the wars that are happening have been planned for a long time. We’ve seen a lot of people speak out against these wars. But it really feels like we are not even being listened to. Nobody in the government hears the people. What does it even to elect people if they then just turn around and ignore us?
All of these wars were a huge eye opener for people. We see the youth much more engaged, because we now see the government revealed to be extreme rightist pieces of trash. So these protests were really needed and I’m glad young people are speaking up.
Eric, a computer engineering student from Beijing, told the IYSSE:
What happened to the students this week was very bad. The school acted in coordination with the state government, and the schools are not protecting their students at all. The politicians are harming the rights and freedom of students who are peacefully protesting. So now we have to stand with peace and democracy. I really hope that the students involved are not harmed and that they are absolved of any wrongdoing.
Los Angeles police blockade University of Southern California campus from public, press after arresting 93 protesters
On Wednesday, April 24, Los Angeles Police Department officers in riot gear brutally arrested 93 protesters on trespassing charges at the University of Southern California (USC). Early that morning, hundreds of students and protesters set up a peaceful encampment at Alumni Park, where the yearly commencement ceremonies take place. LAPD officers surrounded the park in the afternoon, while USC administration closed the campus allowing only those with university IDs entry.
Protesters included members of pro-Palestinian groups such as Trojans for Palestine, Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace. Several professors also joined the protest Wednesday, holding a sign that said, “USC faculty against the genocide in Palestine.”
The protest comes after more than a week of campus tensions that began when USC President Carol Folt, caving in to Zionist groups, canceled the speaking engagement by valedictorian Asna Tabassum that was supposed to take place at the May 10 main-stage commencement, which was expected to draw 65,000 people.
On Thursday, as the protests continued the USC administration announced that the main commencement event was being cancelled, to be replaced by individual departments’ ceremonies. The two other featured speakers, film director Jon M. Chu and tennis legend Billie Jean King, were also canceled.
On Thursday, WSWS reporters attempted to speak with students in the encampment but were blocked from entering the campus by LAPD.
This did not prevent WSWS reporters from speaking with several USC students who were outraged at the violence meted out to the protesters and the cancellation of graduation ceremonies.
Abiye, a freshman at USC studying film, said, “I think it’s terrible that they’re canceling the commencement ceremony just because they’re scared of one person in her speech might say something sympathetic about Palestinians. And I think that they’re not being transparent about the security concerns that they say would be caused by her speech. I don’t know, I think it’s awful.
“If you would have gone inside there and seen what the students were doing, they were sitting down peacefully, just talking. I don’t get it how something like that is being so misrepresented.”
Anastasia, a philosophy student at USC, said, “I actually wasn’t shocked that all this happened because USC has been doing some controversial things lately. Like when they canceled Asna’s speech, and they also canceled commencement ceremony just did this today. The class of 2024, they keep getting pushed around.”
Kim, a graduate student at USC studying electrical engineering, said, “It was a peaceful protest. People were mostly sitting down, and it really wasn’t violent. Most of the people were informing about why we should support Palestine. That was the gist of it when I was there.
“Then the police came. I left when we all got emails that the police were coming. I think it was really unnecessary for the police to come, but I don’t know what intentions USC may have had to send in the police. Most of the people I saw were students.”
Anti-war encampment grows at University of Pittsburgh: “Biden, Trump, Bush and Obama, all of them are committed to continuing war”
Students and faculty from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University along with many supporters from throughout Pittsburgh set up an encampment in support of the Columbia University students and faculty and against Israel’s genocide in Gaza on Thursday.
“We think it’s wrong that the university should be assisting in and profiting from the genocide which is taking place in Gaza,” one of the protest organizers, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from the university, told the World Socialist Web Site.
The University has a $5.5 billion endowment but refuses to make public the corporations that they invest in.
“We are against genocide. We don’t want the University of Pittsburgh to support or profit from genocide,” the organizer continued.
Asked about the label that people protesting the genocide in Gaza are being called antisemitic in the press and by the Biden administration, they replied, “Our organization is made-up of people from all backgrounds and religions including Muslims, Jews, Christians, white, black, brown, Latinx, Asian and indigenous American and all genders and members of LGBTQ+. We are against all forms of hate, we do not tolerate antisemitism as much as we don't tolerate Islamophobia, racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia. About thirty percent of the people on our organizing committee are Jewish, including two people who are from the Tree of Life synagogue.”
In 2018 a fascist adherent of the antisemitic and anti-immigrant “Great Replacement Theory” murdered 11 worshipers and injured 6 others at the synagogue.
Asked to comment on the passage of the most recent $95 billion war supplemental, which was supported by the White House, Democrats and Republicans, and included over $26 billion for Israel, the organizer replied: “Biden, Trump, Bush and Obama, all of them are committed to continuing war and the destruction of the world. That is why we are trying to build a movement to unite people throughout the world.”
Lita Brillman, who came with a group of friends said:
I’m a lifelong member of the Jewish community here in Pittsburgh. I was born and raised here, and I actually do not want a genocide to be committed in my name.
I find it really offensive and antisemitic how much the Jewish perspective is all being wrapped into one thing—one Zionist perspective. They’re saying that protests like this are antisemitic. But all I see is people protesting injustice. The same way that we were raised to as Jews and embodying the spirit of Tikkun olam. This is a really nice, peaceful, respectful and coalitional protest.
Lita explained that the “antisemitism” smear is,
definitely just the most convenient way for the state to frame. It so that they can maintain some sort of semblance of moral high ground. But it’s all lies, it’s all just to maintain power. It’s all for them to maintain their endowments from wealthy donors. To create an illusion that the protesters are being violent or disruptive while still teaching social justice classes and arresting their own professors. The crackdowns are all just to hide the hypocrisy and make us appear dangerous when we are not.
Asked about Biden and the Democrats siding with right-wing and fascistic Republican to get the war bill passed she replied, “I proudly voted uncommitted on Tuesday because I don’t believe that we should give people our votes just because there’s some theoretical something worse out there. Politicians need to earn our votes. I don’t think that Biden is much better than any of those other fascists.”
Another protester who works for the University of Pittsburgh and asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation said that the school is complicit in genocide:
We need to rise our power as workers, to hold our bosses to account. I stand for the value of human life and that value is not being respected or upheld.
I just think the militarization of our police forces; the private police forces by the universities it’s not right. It’s not healthy for society. I’m seeing tremendous resilience from students right in the face of unprecedented repression. People are still taking to the streets. Are still protesting their universities.
The faculty member added, “We need to stand together. We’re all in this together.... People are voicing their displeasure through these camps around the country.”
Hundreds arrested and assaulted by US police as protests against Gaza genocide expand on college campuses
In spite of police assault and threats of expulsion, student-led encampments demanding an end to the genocide in Gaza have continued to spread on university campuses in the United States and internationally over the last 24 hours. As of this writing, over 40 college campuses across 22 states in the US have encampments or protests ongoing.
In response to the peaceful demonstrations, local and state police have been summoned by university administrators, at the behest Republican and Democratic politicians, to conduct mass arrests and assaults. As of this writing, over 400 arrests have been reported.
Those incarcerated by US police for sitting on grass or camping on pavement to voice their opposition to the genocide include many Jewish students, and even faculty.
One of the largest police actions occurred Thursday morning, at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. At least 108 people were arrested after erecting an encampment in the morning. Even though the encampment was entirely peaceful, city and state riot police viciously assaulted protesters less than four hours into the demonstration.
In one video, Georgia State Police and cops with the Atlanta Police Department are seen tackling and choking students, while another cop is heard firing dozens of pepperballs into the crowd.
In another disturbing video, a cop is shown using a taser on an already handcuffed person. As the person is being tased, two other cops pushed down on the person with their body weight.
While it appears many of those arrested at Emory were students, faculty who stood alongside their students were also not spared police repression. In one video, an Emory student documented the arrest of Noelle McAfee, chair of the Philosophy Department at Emory.
In the video, the student is heard attempting to gather information to assist Professor McAfee as she’s being led away in handcuffs by a thuggish trooper wearing a black balaclava. As McAffee gives her name to the student, the cop is seen squeezing and twisting her arm.
Another video documented Emory University Economics professor Caroline Fohlin thrown to the ground and arrested by police. Prior to assaulting the professor, one of the cops is heard yelling at her to “Get on the f***ing ground!”
The cop is shown grabbing the professor by the arm and throwing her to the concrete, causing her glasses to fall off. Another cop grabs and twists her other arm as they put in her handcuffs. A voice is heard off camera yelling at the cops, “You people are fascist!”
An Emory student told a local CBS reporter, “They got my friend, they tackled him to the ground ...It makes me feel sad, but not just for Emory University, but for the state of America. What the hell is this? It’s freedom of speech. We didn’t even do anything wrong, now people are tied up, heads down ... it’s atrocious.”
Following the police assault on the encampment, Emory University President Gregory Fenves stated in a campus-wide email that the protest was “completely unacceptable.”
The scale of the attacks against the protesters reflects the heightened nervousness of the corporate and financial backers of Emory University. This fear of the ruling capitalist class to opposition against its economic and political prerogatives is replicated throughout the entire education system in the US.
While the university advances superficial claims about “advancing racial and social justice,” Emory’s board of trustees consists of representatives from Blackrock, Goldman Sachs, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Coca-Cola, among others. These are the real interests the university administration is beholden to and seeks to advance against the popular opposition to state-sponsored genocide.
In Boston, Massachusetts, near Emerson University, 108 anti-genocide protesters were arrested early Thursday morning after putting up an encampment in Boylston Place alley, a walkway near the college. The number of students arrested at Emerson is the same number of students who were arrested at Columbia University last week.
Video of the arrests early Tuesday morning shows police grabbing students and throwing them to the ground. While on the ground, police are observed choking and smashing students faces into the pavement.
In the morning, a student at the university recorded city workers cleaning up the blood from students following the police assault.
In Evanston, Illinois, police attempted to break up an encampment erected by students at Northwestern University. The Daily Northwestern reported that police are “getting physically violent with faculty.”
One faculty member was heard yelling at the police, “You will not touch our students.”
As of this writing, it appears police have temporarily retreated from the campus. In an interview with the Daily Northwestern, a student organizer with the encampment said they planned to continue their demonstration until university officials agreed to demands advanced by local chapters of Educators for Justice in Palestine, Students for Justice in Palestine, and Jewish Voice for Peace.
In two other major police actions, cops at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, confirmed they made 93 arrests Wednesday evening. In Austin, Texas, the Travis County Sheriff’s Office confirmed police arrested 57 people on Wednesday at the University of Austin.
“The right to protest is at stake,” Columbia student tells WSWS
Student encampments continued at Columbia and other New York City-area universities on Thursday.
Sitting on the steps of the library, a student majoring in English, told the WSWS, “The right to protest is at stake.”
Motioning toward the encampment, “It is only an anti-war protest. It has not become something more. It is not really new. Students protested Vietnam, South African apartheid. But it is growing fast and the possibilities are greater...Our voices are much stronger. But I think it is a cyclical thing, that these struggles happen in election years. Biden’s $95 billion bill with the arms it is sending out is making young people angrier.”
Another student at Columbia commented on the massive police-state response to the peaceful protests. “If it was something they weren’t so scared of, they wouldn’t send in the National Guard, the police and all of these things. The idea of people truly being liberated scares folks in positions of power.”
In addition to Columbia, protests are ongoing at City College of New York (CCNY), less than a mile north. CCNY is part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system. CUNY security attempted to remove the encampment but was repelled by a large crowd of supporters.
Winter, a graduate of the CUNY system who came out in support of CCNY students, told the WSWS, “I expected CCNY to be among the first to protest the genocide because it is more working class than Columbia or NYU. Everyone knows that CCNY students are tied to the working class. There is a need to get support from the unions but they are hierarchical and there needs to be a shift of the union workers from the Democrats. The Democrats are trying to contain the protests, trying to give us a larger cage, to pretend we have our freedom, to keep us to little protests. We need to have all of the money and time and energy divested from Israel and other imperialism. There is no reform to this system. This system is not sustainable.”
In Midtown Manhattan, protesters stormed the State University of New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology building and set up an encampment. As of late Thursday, several dozen students remained in the lobby while others protested outside.
Protests alos continued at New York University outside the boarded up Gould Plaza, the site of the student occupation Tuesday raided by the NYPD, which resulted in 120 arrests.
Hundreds of students rally against genocide in Washington, D.C.
Hundreds of students gathered at tent encampments throughout the Washington, D.C. region this week as a part of the Gaza solidarity movement to oppose the US-backed Israeli genocide.
On Monday, students occupied the lawn at University of Maryland (UMD), in the suburbs of the nation’s capital. On Thursday, students at George Washington University (GWU) built an encampment as hundreds gathered from throughout the region. Earlier in the day, hundreds of students marched at Georgetown University to protest the genocide.
World Socialist Web Site reporters interviewed students at the protests.
A philosophy student at GWU told a WSWS reporter, if the working class mobilizes against the genocide “together we will be a lot stronger.”
The student explained that the root of the genocide, like the exploitation of the workers, was capitalism. “It’s all an interconnected system… we need to work together to overthrow the system.”
Despite the peaceful character of the encampment, authorities at GWU, as they have at other universities, have moved to crack down on the protest. Previously, the school’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine was suspended for projecting images at buildings with slogans calling for the liberation of Palestine and for GWU to divest itself from Israeli apartheid.
On Thursday, protesters were beset by Zionist student provocateurs and faculty who were attempting to photograph and doxx participants at the school.
Ahlam, a public health student at the UMD rejected the claim the protests are antisemitic as “completely false.”
She explained the claim conflated things which were “not equivalent… anti-Zionism is a very strong political movement to stop the apartheid state of Israel and Zionism is a… racist, fascist ideology… anti-Zionism is trying to stop that.”
In an effort to limit the outpouring of solidarity and decrease the visibility of the protest, GWU administrators sought to run media reporters and supporters off the premises.
“We will not allow students from other local colleges or unaffiliated individuals to trespass on our campus,” stated GWU president Ellen Granberg in emails to campus faculty reported by the Washington Post. The Post relayed that Granberg had “requested the assistance of D.C. police officers after ‘multiple instructions made by GWPD to relocate to an alternative demonstration site on campus went unheeded by encampment participants.’”
GWU has imposed a curfew on the students which went into effect at 7:30 p.m. local time Thursday. As of this writing the encampment has only increased in size after the curfew.
Boston police forcibly remove tent encampment at Emerson College
Boston police in riot gear moved in on a peaceful encampment at Emerson College in the early morning hours Thursday, arresting 108 pro-Palestinian protesters at the “Popular University Encampment.” Videos posted on social media show police in helmets and reflective jackets forcibly dismantling the tent camp at Boylston Place Alley. Students in nearby buildings could be heard pounding on their windows as the arrests were made.
Boston Emergency Medical Services reported four people were taken to area hospitals. Boston police reported four officers injured and said no arrested protesters suffered injuries, although those on the scene said two students were injured in the assault.
According to the Berkeley Beacon, the Emerson student newspaper, shortly before 2 a.m. Thursday seven police vans arrived in front of the walkway at the Boylston Street side of the encampment, and arrests of protests soon ensued. Photos and video taken at the scene showed officers wearing helmets and visors, with some appearing to be wearing tactical gear.
A Massachusetts State Police spokesman said several troopers were also sent to the area to “maintain security” and to “assist any demonstrators not willing to be arrested.” State police reportedly did not make any arrests.
Students had occupied the walkway for several days. On Wednesday, police and fire department officials warned the protesters that the tents were in violation of city ordinances banning camping on public property and that police action was imminent. Students had described the camp as “porous” and that they had been allowing people to pass through.
Emerson officials were on scene at the time of the arrests. They said in a statement, “Of additional concern, Emerson has received credible reports that some protesters are engaging in targeted harassment and intimidation of Jewish supporters of Israel and students, staff, faculty, and neighbors seeking to pass through the alley. This type of behavior is unacceptable on our campus.” All Emerson classes were canceled Thursday.
Emerson student Adam Nuñez, who was held overnight at a police station and booked Thursday morning, described the scene to the Boston Globe: “I was pulled by my collar, pinned to a table, thrown to the floor, then dragged into the” state transportation building. Describing the scene as “chaos,” he added, “It’s stressful. But we know what we did, and we know that we’re on the right side of history.”
One supporter of the Emerson camp said, “They wanted us the hell out. The police officers had helmets, shields, clubs, and they were hitting people. People were on the ground and in chokeholds.”
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, a Democrat, commented that “Boston is a city where upholding the right to protest is very important us,” but defended the assault on protesters saying, “Public access to this right of way was not accessible.” It appears that ordinances originally intended to target homeless people pitching tents are now being utilized against students’ democratic right to protest.
Socialist Equality Party vice presidential candidate Jerry White denounces police rampage in Austin, Texas
In response to a large demonstration at the University of Texas, Austin, far-right Governor Greg Abbott mobilized state troopers on horseback to crush the protest. In a Twitter/X post from his official social media account, Abbott declared:
Arrests being made right now & will continue until the crowd disperse. These protesters belong in jail ... Students joining in hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in Texas should be expelled.
Student demonstrators refused to be intimidated by Abbott and his police thugs, chanting, “You will not scare us” at the heavily armed police.
University officials later confirmed to ABC News that at least 20 people had been arrested.
Jerry White, the vice presidential candidate of the Socialist Equality Party, provided live coverage and commentary on the student protests and issued a call for workers to come to the defense of the students.
White said the police attacks, ordered by Abbott, were part of the effort to “criminalize all anti-genocide protests.” These attacks, White explained, “are being fully backed by the Biden administration, working with the most right-wing Republicans.”
He added that the “right to protest is a fundamental right, and the working class must defend the rights of students at the University of Texas and elsewhere.”
After the police rampage, faculty at University of Texas at Austin released a statement condemning the state assault on protesters and pledging to strike on Thursday.
“I think that the real antisemitism is conflating the Israeli state with Jews,” Columbia faculty member tells WSWS
After Columbia University threatened to deploy the National Guard against student protesters yesterday, the university administration “extended” an ultimatum to the protesters by another 48 hours. In an openly fascist provocation on Wednesday, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson visited the Columbia University campus. Johnson, a prominent supporter of former President Donald Trump, has echoed President Joe Biden’s smear of the student protesters as “antisemites.” Johnson was met with overwhelming hostility by the students.
On the same day, fascist Gavin McInnes was allowed access to Columbia’s campus. McInnes is the founder of the far-right “Proud Boys” organization, which was centrally involved in the January 6, 2021 attempted coup d’etat in Washington D.C. According to student organizations involved in the Columbia encampment, while on campus, McInnes harassed pro-Palestinian students, hurling derogatory slurs at the protesting youth. This is not the first time the Proud Boys and other fascist dregs have been deployed to harass and attack left-wing student and youth protesters.
WSWS reporters spoke with a faculty member at Columbia University in front of the student protest encampment on campus on Wednesday. The faculty member said much of the faculty was “inspired by the students and organizers here who are leading this effort. I think it’s very brave of them, especially knowing the history of student protest in this country.”
The faculty member continued:
Genocide is happening in Palestine. I think that the real antisemitism is conflating the Israeli state with Jews. And I think that everyone inside this encampment will tell you that. There are plenty of Jewish comrades inside the encampment who would say the same thing and that are leading these efforts and are publishing press about this that are absolutely wonderful. This is not an antisemitism issue, this is a genocide issue and it’s not a hard thing to be on the right side of generally speaking, philosophically, but to take this risk, I think, is very important.
Asked by a WSWS reporter if students should be reaching out to the working class for support, the faculty member replied:
I agree. I think that this is a labor issue, this is a class issue. And I think that anyone in the United States who is not part of the ruling class needs to be concerned about this. And the ruling class frankly should be concerned too, and they are. And that’s why you see the reaction that you see.
Of course, we’re all worried about an overreaction such as we saw at Kent State. There’s a history of violent reactions and surveillance and suppression and criminalization of people who engage in organizing. So, we know that that’s a risk here, but the reason that that is, is because this poses the threat to the ruling class’s stranglehold on the way that everybody has to live. So, this is absolutely is an issue that transcends all those matters that we care about.
Asked to comment on the Democratic Party joining with the far right to crack down on students, they replied:
The great unifier between the two parties is class and socioeconomic status and power. People in the ruling class find their niche, wherever they can fit it, wherever they can get elected, whatever they have to say to maintain power, but really the great unifier is holding onto that power. So, something like this, that threatens it, I think really does, in a very stark way, unify both Democrats and Republicans around those issues even though we are told that that shouldn’t happen.
At The New School in Lower Manhattan, protests were also ongoing Wednesday.
United Parcel Service (UPS) workers in New York expressed their opposition to the attacks on student protesters and the genocide in Gaza. One “inside” shift worker at the UPS 43rd Street facility in Manhattan said:
The attacks on these students is not right. Why should you be arrested for demonstrating on your own campus? What is going on is wrong. Students shouldn’t be arrested for protesting at all.
Another worker at the facility declared:
They are protesting! You should be able to say what you want, whatever it is. I know this is controversial, but it is over killing more than 30,000 people. They have a right to protest. What are things coming to?
At New York University, the Stern Business School’s Gould Plaza has been walled off, with NYPD stationed across the street. The library entrance is now also guarded by NYPD and campus security.
A couple of hundred students, along with some faculty, protested in front of NYU President Linda Mill’s multimillion-dollar residence. An NYU faculty member told the WSWS:
The most important reason we’re out here is to protest against the genocide that is taking place in Gaza. But it’s also because [the administration] called in the riot police on a totally peaceful protest and arrested over 120 students and faculty members.
She continued:
They always use the language of safety. Then they say it’s because it’s “antisemitic” and it’s “protection” for the Jewish students. That is really problematic for a range of reasons. First of all, there is nothing antisemitic about criticizing the state of Israel. It is a country. Even Zionism is a political ideology that has been around for less than 200 years. The Jewish religion is a couple thousand years old.
What is, in fact, antisemitic is to lump all Jews together and assume that they all believe the same thing. There are a lot of anti-Zionist Jews who are criticizing Israel and would like to see social justice and a free Palestine, but they always hide behind the rhetoric of antisemitism. They conflate the two, antisemitism and anti-Zionism. And they are completely separate things. There were a lot of Jewish students at the protest Monday. There was a Passover Seder. The language of safety is completely false. If you want to keep your students safe, you don’t call the riot police.
Asked to comment on the threat to call in the National Guard on student protesters, she replied:
There’s no need for the National Guard to come to stop students from shouting for Palestinian liberation. And of course, some of us who are old enough or have seen it, the last time the National Guard was called in to stop student protests, we saw what happened at Kent State. I don’t know that they’ve been called in since, but it’s really obscene.
Asked about the bipartisan support for war and genocide and the attacks on students, she responded:
Well, I mean, the Democrats aren’t that different from the Republicans, for one thing. I think a lot of people know that. Mayor Adams, the NYPD—the NYPD has trained with the IOF, Israel Occupation Forces, and the political machine is in bed with war manufacturers, the manufacturers of surveillance equipment. I’m not an expert on surveillance systems, but from what I’ve read, Israel is one of the world’s biggest suppliers of surveillance systems, practiced on Palestinians, and they sometimes actually advertise it that way.
Student protests against Gaza genocide, police repression, expand to Italy, France
Student protests are beginning to spread to Europe. After initial protests in Italy yesterday, students at the SciencesPo Paris took to the streets to demonstrate against the genocide and the police crackdown on students in the United States. In France, the Macron government, much like the Biden administration, has moved to implement a police state crackdown on protesters against the Gaza genocide.
LAPD conducts mass arrest at University of Southern California campus
At the University of Southern California (USC), where the speech of the valedictorian was censored last week for her pro-Palestinian views, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has launched a violent crackdown on a solidarity encampment. Protests by students are continuing despite the attack.
After surrounding Alumni Park in the early evening, campus police issued a dispersal order, followed by a warning that the Los Angeles Police Department would begin carrying out mass arrests. As of this writing, at least 50 arrests have been made.
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