The encampment-protest at Columbia is righteous. A just and defiant action against U.S.-Israeli genocide in Gaza... against university complicity in the maintenance and enforcement of apartheid Israel... and against the repression meted out to those who have stood up and continue to stand up against this horror.

That this protest began only hours before President Minouche Shafik testified before Congress—where she made clear her commitment to further crack down on pro-Palestine protest in the name of “combating anti-semitism”—only underscores the importance of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment. Thursday’s NYPD police assault on the encampment, the mass arrests. and suspensions of students are an outrage.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is sending 2,000-lb. bombs to Israel to drop on defenseless Gazans. Already close to 35,000 killed. Some 80 percent of Gaza’s buildings, homes, hospitals, and infrastructure partially or totally destroyed. Starvation looming for hundreds of thousands.

Why Is This Happening?

The banning of pro-Palestinian student organizations at Columbia, the suspensions, the draconian new rules—it’s part of a massive wave of repression on campuses. Across the country: arrests of protesting students, the firing of college presidents at Harvard and Penn, the canceling of the scheduled commencement address by a Muslim student at the University of Southern California. 

At the same time as we stand together to demand justice, there should be vigorous discussion and debate over WHY these things are happening and WHAT must be done to stop them. In speaking of the repression now going on against pro-Palestinian students on U.S. campuses, the revolutionary communist leader Bob Avakian (BA) has said:

Why is this happening? Because 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.

All this reveals, more “nakedly” than in “normal situations,” the actual dictatorship behind the shell of “democracy” of this country—and it shines a light on the strategic weakness of this system, when it does lose the allegiance of major sections of the people and this has the potential to spread to all parts of society, including among the dominant institutions of this system.

Dispatch #17 @BobAvakianOfficial on all social media

GETTING AT THE ROOT CAUSE... AND THE REVOLUTIONARY WAY OUT

People need to confront that there is a system, capitalism-imperialism, that is at the root of settler-colonial occupation over the Palestinian people. And all the crimes and injustices that people so detest—from the assaults on women’s and LGBTQ rights to the careening climate crisis.

But there is a way out: a liberatory socialist revolution guided by the new communism developed by Bob Avakian. 

This is a time to step up resistance to stop the genocide... to stand together to beat back repression... and to raise sights to the possibility of a radically different and far better world.

To those who understand that big things are at stake and are not afraid of the truth, or of being challenged, we invite you to listen to Bob Avakian’s audio dispatches @BobAvakianOfficial.

This is the time to step in to, and learn more about, the REAL revolution to overthrow this system. There is nothing more urgent, meaningful, and practical to be doing with your lives. Come out and be a part of Revolutionary Internationalist May Day 2024.

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