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https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/04/25/fwco-a25.html

On the morning of April 29, 21 Democratic lawmakers issued a threatening public letter to the Trustees of Columbia University demanding they take “action ... now” to disband the anti-war encampment on campus, which they lyingly claimed was constructed by “anti-Jewish activists.”

If the trustees were not willing, or able, to call in riot police, or perhaps the National Guard, to violently deal with college students and their professors peacefully protesting the university’s, and US government’s, complicity in the genocide in Gaza, the representatives demanded the trustees’ resignation.

The authoritarian letter was signed by several prominent Democrats, including Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, the most senior member of the Democratic House, having been in Congress since May 1981. Until January 2023, Hoyer served as the Majority Leader in the House for over two decades, second-in-line to then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Other prominent Democrats who signed the letter include Senate candidate and current California Representative Adam Schiff, Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Florida), Josh Gottheimer (New Jersey) Dan Goldman (New York) Henry Cuellar (Texas), as well as Haley Stevens (Michigan).

In the letter, the Democrats expressed their “disappointment that, despite promises to do so, Columbia University has not yet disbanded the unauthorized and impermissible encampment.” Echoing fascistic Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, the Democrats repeated the “big lie” that protesting the mass slaughter of over 40,000 Palestinians, a majority women and children, was “antisemitic.”

The Democrats wrote that the encampment “has been the breeding ground for antisemitic attacks on Jewish students.” To back up their bogus claims of “antisemitism” the authors of the letter cited President Joe Biden’s April 21 statement which also repeated the slander.

At the same time the Democrats’ letter was released, Columbia President Minouche Shafik also released a statement claiming the encampment had created an “unwelcoming environment for many of our Jewish students and faculty.” She demanded students “voluntarily disperse.” Shafik’s statement was accompanied by a packet distributed to protesting students at the encampment warning them to disband and leave before 2 p.m. or face suspension/expulsion.

Unfazed by threats from the Democrats or administration officials, it appears none of the students took them up on their offer to voluntarily disband. Instead, prior to the 2 p.m. deadline, dozens of Columbia faculty members joined the encampment and formed a human chain.

The faculty were joined by up to 1,000 other students. As of this writing, the encampment remains, but it appears the university has begun suspending students. In a statement to the New York Times, Ben Chang, a spokesman for the school said, “We have begun suspending students as part of the next phase of our efforts to ensure the safety of our campus.”

Since April 17, students at Columbia University, ranging from a few dozen to several hundreds, have occupied a section of the lawn. Despite the peaceful character of the protests, the university called in the riot police the following day, leading to the arrest of 108 people.

Massive police repression did not prevent the encampment from reconstituting on Columbia grounds, and spreading to other universities in the US and internationally, including in France, Germany, Spain, England and Australia. In addition to student encampments, protests against the ongoing genocide in Gaza have continued throughout the world, including in Tokyo, where students in construction helmets resisted riot police while chanting “No more!” “Free Palestine” and “Workers, unite!”

In the United States, despite the police repression, several new encampments and protests in solidarity with Gaza have emerged on major college campuses. In response, several colleges have called in police to violently disperse them.

At the University of Texas-Austin, which saw mass protests and arrests last week, hundreds of riot police were called in by the administration to disperse a reestablished Gaza Solidarity Encampment on the South Lawn of the campus. Video shows riot cops assaulting students sitting on the grass before zip-tying and arresting them. Local reporters estimate that “dozens” have already been arrested.

To justify the mass arrest of peaceful anti-war protesters, UT-Austin issued a statement before the arrests began claiming they found “rocks ... strategically placed within the encampment” and that the school had received “extensive online threats from a group organizing today’s protest.” The university did not disclose the nature of the alleged “threats.”

Video from Austin posted later in the afternoon showed students backing police down from the campus.

At the University of Georgia in Athens, several students, many with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), were arrested less than two hours after establishing an encampment. The Atlanta Community Press Collective (ACPC) reported that 16 people were arrested and charged with criminal trespass.

After being arrested in the morning, many of the anti-genocide protesters returned to the campus in the afternoon to participate in a pro-Palestinian protest.

ACPC reported protesters demanded that the university divest from companies involved in the genocide in Gaza and that the university divest from companies supporting the construction of “Cop City” in Atlanta.

In Cleveland, Ohio at Case Western University, police were quickly called to disband an encampment established by students outside the library Monday morning. Local reports indicate roughly 50 people initiated the encampment, which was quickly surrounded by police who removed all of the tents. Roughly 20 people were briefly detained by police while the encampment was cleared.

Major protests and walkouts have occurred on several other campuses. At UCLA in California, hundreds of students and faculty walked out of class on Monday in support of Gaza. After holding a brief rally, students and faculty marched around the campus chanting, “We will not stop, we will not rest, disclose, divest.”

Hundreds of students at Whitman College, a liberal arts school in Walla Walla, Washington, walked out of class in solidarity with Gaza and other students.

At the University of Chicago, students established an encampment on campus. A few hours north, in Madison, Wisconsin, hundreds of students have been protesting for several hours and tents have been set up.


At the University of Indiana-Bloomington, hundreds of students and many senior faculty professors held a rally where they demanded the immediate resignation of IU President Pamela Whitten after she ordered state and local police to clear a peaceful encampment last Thursday.

Gaza Solidarity Encampment organized at Western Michigan University

On Saturday, a joint Gaza Solidarity Encampment of students from Western Michigan University (WMU), Kalamazoo College and Kalamazoo Valley Community College was set up near the Faunce Student Services building on the campus of WMU.

The students have received support from faculty members and members of the community for their action. There demands are: 1.) Full transparency as to where funds from the endowment are invested. 2.) Immediate divestment and distance from all companies and organizations with connections to the state of Israel. 3.) A public statement condemning the war crimes and genocide being carried out by Israel and an endorsement of Palestinian liberation; 4.) Full solidarity, support and protection to Palestinian students and faculty.

On Sunday afternoon, Roland, one of the organizers of the encampment, said there had been no contact with the university administration or campus law enforcement so far.

Roland, one of the organizers of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.

However, on Monday, the organizers posted on social media that the university was demanding that the encampment be dismantled. They called on students, faculty and the community to rally to defend the protest.

Report: Over 900 anti-genocide protesters arrested on college campuses in the United States

In less than two weeks, police in the United States have arrested at least 900 people for participating in anti-war and pro-Palestinian protests according to a database maintained by the Washington Post. Students on college campuses in the US have organized over 75 protests and encampments on or near their schools, including at major Ivy League universities, beginning with Columbia University on April 17.

While the demonstrations have been led by students, in many cases faculty have joined the protests to register their disgust with their schools’ involvement in military projects, including deriving profits from the manufacture of Israeli weapons.

In response to protesters calling on universities to divest from Israeli companies, many administrators and university presidents, encouraged by politicians in both parties, have called the riot police on students peacefully protesting, leading to mass arrests.

On Saturday, at Washington University in St. Louis, some 100 people, including Green Party US presidential candidate Jill Stein, were arrested for participating in an encampment on campus.

Jason Call, Stein’s campaign manager, told Fox News Digital that he and another deputy campaign manager were also arrested alongside Stein and students.

On Sunday, Socialist Equality Party candidate for president Joseph Kishore posted a statement on X/Twitter denouncing the arrest of Stein and others:

The attack on protests nationwide is being directed by the Biden administration. It is supported by both the Democrats and the Republicans, the twin parties of the capitalist ruling elite.

Amidst the expanding protests in the US and internationally, both parties joined hands to pass a massive bill that Biden signed last weekend to finance the US-NATO war against Russia, the genocide in Gaza, and the developing conflict with China.

The corollary to global imperialist war is the vicious attack on democratic rights. The SEP is fighting to develop a movement in working class, connecting the defense of democratic rights to opposition to imperialist war and the capitalist profit system.

The aggressiveness of the police in response to anti-genocide protesters stands in stark contrast to the “hands-off” approach taken when it comes to neo-Nazis and white supremacists. As police rampaged on college campuses over the weekend, video emerged showing members of the Patriot Front marching through downtown Charleston, West Virginia, free from police interference.

Over 1,000 students and community members march against genocide at Yale University

On Sunday afternoon, over 1,000 Yale students and community members rallied and marched across campus in New Haven, Connecticut against Yale’s complicity in the Gaza genocide and police repression on campuses.


Over 1,000 people protested the genocide in Gaza on April 28, 2024, in New Haven, Connecticut.
Many students from Yale spoke about their experiences being arrested at the request of the Yale administration for peacefully protesting on campus last week. UConn students, who recently erected a Gaza Solidarity Encampment on their campus, were also present and spoke. There was also a large contingent of students from Wesleyan University.


A child holds up a sign at the protest that reads, "Not one more child. From Palestine...to New Haven. No more murdered for greed or empire."
A Columbia graduate student—who was one of the over 108 students who were arrested in Harlem last week—traveled to New Haven for the protest. She read the October 16, 2023 statement issued by the Palestinian Trade Union Federation calling on workers in the US and internationally to halt all military arms to Israel.

The World Socialist Web Site spoke with students and workers at the New Haven protest.

Ky, a Yale student and organizer involved in the encampment, said, “I think it’s disgusting and shameful and as a student I feel ashamed to be a member of universities that are allowing police to treat peaceful protesters exercising their right to free speech in this way. In the United States of America, it is disheartening and frustrating and deeply shameful for me to witness this.”

About the recent video from Gazans responding to the campus encampment, Ky said, “Honestly, when I saw the video of Gaza children thanking students from Harvard, from Yale, from McGill, from all over the place, it brought me to tears. I was so moved by this. It really is just a testament to how international and long lasting this movement is.”


Two young workers from New Haven, Jeanne and Zasha, attended Sunday’s protest. Jeanne said, “We need to protect the students. To send basically the militia to crack down [with] arrests is absolutely unnecessary and it is a repeat of history of time and time again throughout every type of war…We need to let people know that we’re not tolerating this. We need to stop genocide.”

Zasha told the WSWS, “The struggle of Palestinians is the struggle of all oppressed people. Once we join together and we have that consciousness, we can be undefeated.”

On the Biden administration’s support and funding for the genocide, she said, “I was never affiliated with the Democratic Party.” She said she is looking to support a third-party anti-war socialist candidate and was interested to learn about the Socialist Equality Party’s campaign in the elections.

A New Haven Eighth Grader who attended the protest with her family spoke about the police crackdowns. “I think they’re scared because when we actually start speaking up and we actually start bringing awareness, it takes a toll on our government. And they don’t want us to reveal the truth about what’s happening in the Middle East and in Palestine, because Israel is a big partner for them and source of resources in the Middle East.


Students and community members at the New Haven, Connecticut protest, April 28, 2024.
“For universities, all they care about is how they look in the media. They don’t really care about people’s lives and what’s really going on. They just want to protect their image. They don’t want anything else to get in the way of that.”

Asked if she had heard about the $95 billion war spending bill passed by Congress and Biden this week, she replied. “Being American now, it’s really embarrassing that all our tax dollars are going abroad, instead of actually going to help us with free healthcare or stuff that we need fixing here. There’s so many homeless people in America, and what we’re focused on is funding a genocide, and it’s really embarrassing and really sad.”

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