by Tiberius Thompson
All over the United States, in a seemingly spontaneous but surprisingly disciplined manner, students and professors have begun rebelling against university administrations (and subsequently the police, once they were called in by administrators) in an attempt to force them to divest from Israel.
We see rudimentary forms of mass organization forming within these movements. Many of these students have come forward in a collective and organized fashion, sometimes with the backing of left-wing organizations, and sometimes not, to present their demands in a concrete and practical, but also steadfast way, leaving no wiggle room; either universities divest and recognize the democratic rights of the students to demonstrate and protest, or the movement will continue.
On many campuses students have set up barriers and barricades, and have begun vetting individuals who attempt to enter their encampments. Students are also refusing to speak directly with representatives of the media, and some encampments have set up media liaisons for this purpose.
Students have shown incredible wisdom by refusing to engage with Zionist agitators, and by establishing clear rules for those who are participating in encampments, rules which, while varying slightly from campus to campus, share very similar themes, such as not talking to or engaging with media and counter protestors, respect for the persons and property of comrades, prohibitions on drugs and alcohol within the encampments; in a word, revolutionary disciple, something which the left in America has been sorely lacking for a long time.
As encampments begin to emerge and grow all across the country, police repression has been intensifying. In response, students at many university encampments have begun constructing barricades using wood boards, garbage cans, furniture, and in some cases metal barricades similar to those used by the police themselves. In a particularly egregious example of state violence, the Strategic Response Group (SRG), NYPD’s counter-terrorism unit, was deployed to crush dissent at Columbia University. Officers beat students and faculty alike with batons, and one video shows an officer throwing a student down a set of concrete stairs right before arresting them.
At the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) deployed “non-lethal” weapons, such as tear gas, stun grenades, and rubber bullets against student and faculty protestors. In a video filmed on a cell phone by an on-looker, over 15 stun grenades can be heard going off within a single minute.
On top of being attacked by police, students have also faced vigilante assaults by groups of “counter-protestors.” At UCLA, masked agitators attacked students with blunt objects such as wooden beams and poles, and shot fireworks into the encampment. All of this was done in view of the LAPD, who stood by for hours and did nothing to stop it.
Events at Rutgers University provide a stark contrast to those at UCLA, City University of New York (CUNY) and Columbia University. At Rutgers, students presented administration with a series of ten demands and eight of the ten demands were met.
Those demands which were accepted are as follows; scholarships for ten displaced Palestinian students, “creating an Arab Cultural Center on each campus; establishing a partnership with Birzeit University in the West Bank; releasing a statement “acknowledging the ongoing genocide against Palestinians” and calling for a ceasefire; hiring more administrators with “cultural competency and knowledge” regarding Palestinian, Arab and Muslim issues; hiring professors in Middle East and Palestine studies and establishing a full department for those subjects; displaying flags of “displaced peoples” in all areas of campus where international flags are displayed; and providing full amnesty for all students, student groups, faculty and staff who participated in the protests, including those who have already been penalized.” (New York Daily News).
The two unmet demands, that the university divest from all Israeli business interests and that it cut all ties with Tel Aviv University, have been put on the back burner, because, according to the administration, they are “not in the President’s control.”
Once it had been established that these eight demands would be met, students peacefully dispersed, bringing all of their belongings (tents, signs, etc) with them. This serves as clear proof that it is more than possible for university administrations to engage with student protestors and petitioners in a peaceful, open, and rational manner. It shows that actions taken by universities such as UCLA and CUNY were not only totally unnecessary, but that they were themselves the cause of escalating violence.
On May 15th, the United Auto Workers Local 4811, which represents graduate student workers, teaching assistants, and postdoctoral workers, voted to authorize a political strike in solidarity with student protestors. According to Politico, “Of the 19,780 votes cast by members of a local unit of the United Auto Workers, about 79% were in favor of authorizing a strike, easily clearing the two-thirds threshold necessary.”
The national organizations of import which are taking direct part in the student movement are as follows: Jewish Voice for Peace, United Auto Workers (labor union), Democratic Socialists of America, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Left Voice, and Students for a Democratic Society. There are of course others, but these are the organizations that are appearing time and time again all across the country.
At this point the relationship between the organizations and the students is not clear; that is, it is hard to determine if the organizations are leading and providing discipline to the students, guiding the movement in a revolutionary fashion, or if the students are leading and holding up the organizations.
The Revolutionist 