Columbia University pro-Palestinian students defend occupied Hamilton Hall, April 30, 2024. Photo: AP
From the Revcom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity, May 1, 2024
One Side Is Right—
One Side Is Wrong, Criminally WRONG!
Protesting the Genocide in Gaza is RIGHT!
Assaulting, Arresting, Suspending and Expelling Brave Students and Protesters is WRONG!
We Need and We Demand A Whole New Way to Live, A Fundamentally Different System!!
The students, faculty and others protesting the genocide of Palestinians are RIGHT!
No one should tolerate what Israel is doing to Gaza—with the full backing of Biden and the entire ruling class of the U.S. Babies murdered and orphaned. Hospitals targeted. Whole families laid waste and buried in the rubble of their own homes. THIS IS GENOCIDE! The thousands of students, faculty and others across this country putting their bodies, their careers, and their whole selves on the line are right to do so! They have inspired the world and set a standard of moral courage.
UC Berkeley Law School graduates wear T-shirts that read “UC DIVEST” during the UC Berkeley Law School commencement in Berkeley, California, May 10, 2024.
The violent attacks, arrests, suspensions, expulsions on those courageously standing up for Gaza are WRONG!
Across the country, police unleashed massive violence against righteous protesters. At Columbia University and CCNY, nearly 300 arrested. At UCLA, police stood back as Zionist thugs and fascists violently rampaged the peaceful pro-Palestinian encampment. As of Sunday, May 5, the number of total arrests of students and protesters on campuses is more than 2,300. Then, the authorities used this violence to carry out further repression. Now, the fascists in Congress are dragging even more college administrators into their witch-hunt hearings, fueling an intensifying crackdown, really a Nazification of the American universities.
All this repression is ILLEGITIMATE. Not only is it aimed at those standing up for justice—it is in gross violation of the much vaunted claims of this country as a bastion of “freedom and democracy,” “free speech” and “academic freedom.”
Metropolitan police cleared a pro-Palestinian tent encampment at George Washington University and arrested demonstrators, May 8, 2024. Photo: Sage Russell/GW Hatchet via AP
Cops with riot shields viciously dismantle encampment for Palestine at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, May 4, 2024. Photo: Cal Cary/The Daily Progress via AP
What is being revealed through the U.S.'s continued backing of Israel's genocide in Gaza and through this massive illegitimate force and repression against righteous protesters is the actual nature of the system we live under: A DICTATORSHIP OF CAPITALISM-IMPERIALISM. For more on this—and why a revolution that overthrows this system is both needed & possible—see below.
Right now, three things must happen:
[1] The resistance to the genocide in Gaza must spread—on the campuses and throughout all of society!
[2] Defend ALL anti-genocide students & protesters! Do NOT let them divide & demonize a movement with right on our side!
[3] Everyone who seriously agonizes about the future and wants to see a world without the unjust brutality we are witnessing in Gaza, and in this illegitimate repression, needs to dig in seriously to the source of all this: the system of capitalism-imperialism. And dig into the solution to it: a real revolution. The Revcom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity invites and urges you to do this by reading below in this flyer, talking with us more deeply and joining. Find out about the strategy, vision, plan and leadership for this revolution. Bring the spirit of defiance and your desire to get to a world where these kinds of crimes never happen again to anyone! With this whole system in crisis and society being ripped apart, the revolution that's needed to overthrow this system could happen not just in some far off place and time, but right here and right in this time we are living in.
Why is this happening? And what must be done?
In regard to why, the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian, BA, has said that:
fundamental interests of U.S. capitalism-imperialism are at stake. Because Israel plays a “special role” as a heavily armed bastion of support for U.S. imperialism in a strategically important part of the world (the “Middle East”). And Israel has been a key force in the commission of atrocities which have helped to maintain the oppressive rule of U.S. imperialism in many other parts of the world.
And this repression is happening because representatives of the ruling class in this country have a definite sense that if youth especially at “elite” universities begin to seriously question and act against what this system is doing—if the system “loses the allegiance” of large numbers of those students—that can be a big factor in creating a real crisis for the system as a whole, as happened in the 1960s: a crisis that, now more than ever, this system really cannot afford, when the whole country is already being torn apart by deep divisions, with bitter clashes right among the ruling powers. So, at the same time as they are bitterly divided, the ruling powers of this country are firmly united in their determination to punish and intimidate especially students at elite universities who have stepped forward to protest the genocidal slaughter of Palestinians. The ruling class is desperate to prevent opposition to its fundamental interests from spreading and involving masses of people, from all parts of society…
What must be done? Again, from Bob Avakian:
The fact that sixty years [after the 1960’s] there is once again a need for this kind of massive opposition to the vicious repression of people protesting profound injustice and horrific, genocidal atrocity—this highlights sharply the fact that there is the even more fundamental need for a revolution to finally abolish this whole system of capitalism-imperialism, its actual repressive dictatorship over people in this country, and its massive war crimes and crimes against humanity all over the globe!
Download this statement as a PDF.
Listen to the full dispatch (#27) from Bob Avakian quoted above, and hear more truths the powers-that-be don’t want you to know about REAL REVOLUTION, IN THIS TIME, follow @BobAvakianOfficial on all social media platforms.
Start with this playlist to hear why we need a revolution and how it's possible.
From NYC to UCLA Students Fight Genocide in Gaza and Stand Up Against Vicious Repression
The RNL — Revolution, Nothing Less! — Show
"Rafael Kadaris leads the RevComs at the front gates of Columbia University chanting “STOP THE SUPPRESSION OF PRO-PALESTINIAN STUDENTS,” and was illegitimately arrested within minutes with no warning." —@therevcoms
Carl Dix calls out NYC pig mayor Eric "Bull Connor" Adams.
Across the U.S., Defiant Protests & Encampments Against U.S.-Israeli Genocide Met With Vicious, Mass Repression, Sparking More Protest
May 13, 2024
Students and Faculty Continue Protests in the Face of Repression
No Graduation as Usual While U.S./Israeli Genocide Escalates
College campuses continue to be the site of determined resistance to the U.S.-backed Israeli genocidal slaughter of Palestinian people. While most of the Gaza Solidarity Encampments that cropped up across the country have been violently shut down, creative and courageous protests continue to spread. And students are continuing to demand their schools divest from Israel financially, and demand an end to the genocide happening now. At many campuses faculty members have stepped forward to support the protests, speaking out against the violent assaults on their students.
As we wrote last week, “These college students, especially from 'elite' universities, are going up against their own government on a matter of strategic importance to the ruling class—the state of Israel as a military outpost for U.S. capitalism-imperialism in the strategic region of the Middle East. This is forcing many others to sit up and take notice, to question what they are going along with and to challenge long-held fundamental assumptions about the nature of this system, and their responsibility to the world.”
This has been met with slander and lies from Genocide Joe Biden and other leading representatives of this system, and a violent nationwide crackdown. Police have been called in to more than 80 campuses, and more than 2,800 protesters— mainly students—have been arrested at demonstrations or on campuses. These protests have also been violently attacked by pro-Israel and MAGA fascist mobs. ... Read more
Cops with riot shields viciously dismantle encampment for Palestine at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, May 4, 2024. Photo: Cal Cary/The Daily Progress via AP
Columbia University PhD Students Walk Out in Protest for Gaza at Graduation
Earlier News
May 6, 2024
Student Uprising to Demand an End to the U.S./Israeli Genocidal Slaughter of Palestinians Met With Violence, Mass Arrests and Slander.
Students Respond: “We will not stop, we will not rest!”
Over the past week, the student uprising to stop the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide of Palestinians has spread and grown stronger, while the repression against it has intensified. Protests have spread to more than one hundred campuses in the U.S. and two dozen other countries. The backbone of this movement is thousands of college students, including at “elite” universities, who are putting their futures and their bodies on the line for what they rightly see as a moral responsibility to demand that their campus divest funding from the state of Israel, and to end their complicity with the terror being brought down on the Palestinian people.
There have been more than 2,300 arrests on campuses, students have been met with tear gas, rubber bullets, solidarity encampments have been cleared. This was backed up and encouraged by the political leaders of both parties, who slander the protesters as “anti-Semitic,” “violent,” “outside agitators” and even “terrorists.”
Why is this repression coming down so hard on student protesters demanding an end to genocide? ... Read more
Many other campuses have been scenes of very intense struggle, including the following:
Dozens of NYPD forcibly enter Hamilton Hall to evict pro-Palestinian Columbia students April 30, 2024. Photo: AP
Columbia & CCNY—New York City: On Tuesday night, April 30, Mayor Eric Adams, (aka "the Black Giuliani"), the NYPD, and campus administrators launched a massive police assault on pro-Palestine encampments at Columbia University and the City College of New York (CCNY), arresting 119 at Columbia and 173 at CCNY.
The Columbia administration had warned students they had to abandon their non-violent encampment, and President Shafik “invited” the NYPD back onto campus (after claiming she wouldn’t) and has since called on them to “have a presence" (i.e. occupy) the campus till May 17. The students stood firm and early Tuesday morning one group seized and occupied Hamilton Hall.
Hours later hundreds of pigs in full riot gear descended on the Columbia campus, forcibly preventing any of the campus journalists from witnessing what was going down. They then tore down and removed the encampment, and broke into Hamilton Hall and arrested everyone there, as hundreds of students and supporters stood just outside campus shouting support for the protesters.
UCLA Daily Bruin shows a counter-protester with aerosol can spraying encampment for Palestine, April 30, 2024.
UCLA, Los Angeles: On Tuesday, April 30, the UCLA administration declared the campus Palestinian Solidarity Encampment illegal, warning students they could be suspended or expelled. The students, faculty and community members who make up the encampment called the declaration cowardly and refused to disband. Around 11pm that night, this non-violent encampment was violently attacked by some 200 Zionists and fascist thugs. As police and university officials stood back and did nothing for two hours, these goons attacked the encampment with sticks, bear spray, smoke bombs, fireworks, even wooden pallets, trying to destroy it. Members of the encampment and their supporters fought back bravely and the camp is still standing.
Encampment for Gaza at School of the Art Institute in Chicago, May 4, 2024. Photo: @loveandstrugglephotos via Instagram
69 Protesters Arrested at Pro-Palestine Student Encampment at Chicago Art Institute, Including Members of Revcom Corps for Emancipation of Humanity
Students at the School of the Art Institute (SAIC) set up a pro-Palestine encampment Saturday morning, May 4, at the Art Institute of Chicago. The Art Institute is a major institution and tourist attraction located on busy Michigan Ave. and SAIC is adjacent to it. There were about 20 tents and 40 students in the encampment originally. The demand of the encampment was expressed in a chant heard throughout the day: “Disclose, divest! We will not stop, we will not rest!” ... Read more
Racist mob assaults pro-Palestinian protestors at Old Miss May 3, 2024
University of Mississippi: On Thursday, May 2, 30 to 40 or so pro-Palestinian protesters who gathered in the Quad on the campus of the University of Mississippi were set upon by a large mob of mostly male, white, racist, MAGA “counter-protesters.” These goons were waving American flags and screaming sexual threats at the women protesters. As a Black woman protester defiantly approached them, they began screaming “lock her up” and one of these racist morons jumped up and down and hooted like a monkey.
But that’s not the half of it! This despicable attack at UM was then celebrated by top fascists.... Read more
Pro-Palestinian students a the University of Wisconsin, Madison protest the war in Palestine April 30, 2024. Photo: Samantha Madar/Wisconsin State Journal via AP
University of Wisconsin—Madison: May 1, university and city cops attacked and cleared a campus encampment, destroying people’s belongings and the tents that had been set up two days before. Thirty-four people were arrested, including at least two professors; a Palestinian professor was pinned to the ground by cops and had a gash on his head from being hit by a police shield. A student protester said, “All of this is to show that our chancellor, our administration would rather attack the UW-Madison community directly, then listen to our demands to ask that they simply end their complicity in an ongoing genocide.” Cops and administrators claimed that the attack had nothing to do with suppressing protest, it’s just that the university “does not allow camping or camping equipment on university property.”
Within two hours, protesters had established a new encampment with over a dozen tents.
Pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Texas are confronted by police, April 24, 2024. Photo: AP
University of Texas–Austin: On April 29, police attacked peaceful protesters with pepper spray and flash-bang explosives, arresting 79. This followed the arrest of 57 protesters on April 24. Arrestees were held for more than 24 hours while a large crowd rallied and chanted outside the jail waiting for them. Protest on campus continued on April 30.
Georgia State Patrol cuff a protester at a pro-Palestinian protest at Emory University, April 25, 2024. Photo: AP
Emory University–Atlanta: On April 25, Atlanta cops and Georgia State Patrol savagely attacked a campus protest, brutalizing students, professors and others with pepper balls and tasers, arresting 28. Fascist Governor Kemp, Emory officials, and the local (Black, Democratic) congressman all spouted similar lies that the protesters were actually “outside agitators,” “terrorists,” “violent” and “anti-Semitic.” On April 29, 200 faculty and others staged a walkout and rally demanding the president of Emory step down.
California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, April 22, 2024. Photo: Andrew Goff/Lost Coast Outpost via AP
California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt (a rural county in Northern California): On the night of April 29, 300 cops in riot gear faced off against a large crowd of protesters, chanting “End the blockade! Break the siege! Stop the U.S. war machine!” These demonstrators were protecting administration buildings that other protesters had occupied. On April 22 the University had declared the whole campus closed in an effort to suffocate protests, and cops had tried but failed to disperse protesters on April 26. This time, the cops waited six hours for the crowd to thin, then at 3:00 am they attacked the occupied buildings, arresting 31 (including a local radio reporter and a professor). Fifty people rallied at the jail to support them, and bail was quickly raised through fundraising on social media.
Students inside the encampment protest on University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, April 29, 2024. Photo: AP
University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill: April 30, early a.m.: Thirty-six protesters were arrested when police broke up an encampment. Other protesters attempted to block the police vehicles by standing in front of them. A Duke student described her arrest: "[The police] were very violent, very rough. I'm not a big person, and I had two grown men grab me very viciously... it was not kindly done."
As of the evening of May 12, the website PalestineIsEverywhere.com reports:
- There have been 160 campus encampments and 219 solidarity actions in 27 countries.
- The U.S. has seen protests in at least 36 states plus Washington, DC.
- At least 44 U.S. encampments have been attacked by police, and over 2,600 people arrested.
- In addition to the U.S., protests have taken place in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Occupied Palestine, South Africa, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Yemen.
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