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 schools 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 and 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? The revolutionary leader Bob Avakian breaks this down:

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.

But the students have not backed down, and instead have come back stronger and more determined.

All this has potentially profound implications for the emergence of a revolutionary people—and a real chance for revolution—in the days, weeks and months ahead.

Fierce Repression

This gives a sense of what has happened at a few of the key campuses:

• At Tulane University in New Orleans, cops mounted two assaults in two days on a tent encampment: On April 30, cops on horseback rode through, causing some damage and panic and making some arrests, but unable to drive out the protesters. Then on May 1, more than 100 New Orleans cops, state troopers, and campus cops launched a second attack—this time using armored cars and geared up in helmets and bulletproof vests. Some had their guns drawn—it literally looked like a war zone. Another 14 people were arrested, some “dragged away” by cops. Video shows protesters chanting: “We don’t see no riot here; Why you wearing riot gear” as the cops tore down the encampment.

• In Washington University in St. Louis, on April 24, Steve Tamari, a 65-year-old history professor was filming the cops brutalizing some students. Video shows him being jumped by four burly cops, knocked to the ground, beaten, and then his limp body dragged across the lawn. He was hospitalized with nine fractured ribs and a broken hand—a doctor reportedly told him he was lucky to be alive.

• At Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, students set up an outdoor encampment. Two hours later, the College ordered a police attack which swept up 90 people. One of them was Dr. Annelise Orleck, 65, who has taught at Dartmouth for decades. Orleck was filming the cops when they knocked her down, zip-tied her and took her to jail. Dr. Orleck commented that she’d been at Dartmouth 34 years and, “There have been many protests, but I’ve never, ever seen riot police called to the green.”

• At UCLA in Los Angeles, cops and private security surrounding the encampment stood by for nearly five hours on April 30 as a pro-Israel mob violently attacked the nonviolent protesters. These thugs hurled fireworks, used pepper spray and swarmed isolated individuals, beating them with sticks and boards. At least 15 were injured; one man had a gash in his head that required 14 staples to close, but the attack failed to overrun the camp. Undaunted, on May 1, hundreds of protesters were rebuilding the encampment, only to be attacked by a different army of thugs—the LAPD. On Thursday, hundreds of pigs stormed the encampment, helicopter circling overhead, hurling flash-bang grenades, and firing rubber bullets. Protesters chanted “We're not leaving, we're not scared!” After arresting 210 people, the cops dismantled the encampment. (For an in-depth report on events at UCLA, see The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show episode that premiered on May 2.)

• At Columbia University in New York City, it has now come out that in addition to flash bang grenades, at least one cop had his gun out and fired off a shot. Fortunately, no one was hurt or killed, but what does it say that armed riot cops approach a group of protesters—whose sole act of “violence” had been to break a window—as if they were going to war with a drug cartel? And that in one version or another, this is what has happened at dozens of colleges around the U.S.?

All this is only a small sample of the terroristic police state measures being unleashed against the anti-genocide movement. These attacks have nothing to do with false and outrageous charges that these movements are “violent” or “anti-Semitic,” and even less to do with the ridiculous claim made by many college presidents that “we’re 100% for the right to protest, but we have an ironclad rule against tents on campus.” 

The reality is that the demands of these protests, and the exposure by protesters of the criminal nature of the U.S./Israeli war on Gaza, strike at the very heart of the interests of the ruling capitalist-imperialist system. Even a serious discussion of these demands is out of the question, for the basic reason that having to publicly defend massive war crimes, ethnic cleansing and genocide would also badly hurt the interests of U.S. imperialism. So the only thing left to them is a combination of vile slander and violent repression… and they appear to have “no limit” on either of those.

Courageous Protesters Keep Coming Back, Deeper and Broader

Yet what is even more striking than these assaults, and the complete disregard for their own much-bragged about “freedoms,” is that the effect so far has been to strengthen the movement and bring forward new support. 

• After 108 people were arrested at the Columbia encampment on April 18, dozens more encampments were established around the country. Columbia students started a new encampment the same day as the arrests, and sustained it in the face of constant threats. The day after Columbia was “cleared” of protesters in an even more violent and militarized raid on April 30, the protesters held a mass press conference in the street outside its gate, 100 faculty and staff held a rally supporting the protesters, and the Columbia chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) called for a vote of no confidence in Columbia’s president, while the Barnard College (part of Columbia) AAUP unanimously voted no confidence in their president. 
• Also a day after the April 30 Columbia raid—and a raid the same night on City College of New York (CCNY) with mass arrests of students there—students at Fordham University’s Manhattan college started an encampment there, saying things like, “Seeing what the Columbia students went through, it’s inspiring.” The NYPD immediately vamped on it that same night—this time adding drones to their weapons arsenal and arresting “multiple protesters,” and the university also suspended an undisclosed number. Protesters took to the streets shouting that being suspended was “nothing short of an honor”! 
• In Portland, Oregon, Portland State University protesters had established an outdoor tent encampment for a week and had occupied a library for three days. On May 2 city and state cops raided both. They succeeded in arresting about 30 people, but were then confronted by hundreds of PSU students blocking their vans. Responding forcefully, including with pepper spray, cops were able to leave with the arrested people. But, “after police left, protesters were quick to replace barricades and signs, re-establishing their presence on campus.”
• After Atlanta police and Georgia state troopers attacked an encampment at Emory University, tasing, pepper spraying, and/or arresting several dozen, and after Georgia’s governor declared that “college campuses… will never be a safe haven for those who promote terrorism and extremism,” 200 Emory professors staged a walkout on the last day of classes calling for the head of the university to resign. One professor stated, “The administration was ruthless. The use of violence against students and faculty who were exercising the right of free expression non-violently is appalling. It’s a betrayal of what a university is.” Two days after that there was another mass protest on campus, and video of the arrest of the head of the Philosophy Department went viral, with 20 million views.
• At Princeton University in New Jersey: 15 students began a hunger strike, stating, “Millions of Gazans continue to suffer due to ongoing siege by the State of Israel. Two million residents now face a man-made famine” and that they “refuse to be complicit in genocide.”
• And, even with thousands of students suspended and shut out of graduation ceremonies, vibrant protests erupted at a number of commencements, including at the University of Michigan and Indiana University. A young woman who walked out said, “I think sometimes it is scary to do the right thing. I was scared. But people are dying and there’s no way I could not do something about it.”

The courage of these students is forcing others—on their campus and throughout society—to take a stand. One student arrested at the University of Texas said, “I didn't even know there was a protest going on today, but once I got three texts from the police saying that everyone on South Lawn needs to disperse or be arrested, I felt compelled to go and offer some support." 

The students themselves have expressed their determination not to stop until the genocide of Palestinian people ends.

After a mass arrest at UCLA, a journalist asked an arrested student on line to be processed by the cops: “Is this the end of the protests?” His reply was: “No, not at all… People will be back. People will be back. It’s not the end… until the genocide ends, and the funding, when the genocide ends, the billions of dollars spent.”

After the pro-Israel (Zionist) attack on UCLA protesters, a student group released a statement saying, “The zionist attacks, their use of chemical weaponry, their hatred, their destruction, are but a microcosm of the genocide in Gaza. The university would rather see us dead than divest… Call on UCLA, protect your fellow students, & call for what we need—a divestment from systems of death that profit off of indiscriminate bombing and a call to end the genocide in Gaza & the occupation of Palestine.” Another statement noted that “Today is day 207 of Israel’s genocidal campaign against Gaza, and 76 years into the Israeli occupation of Palestine,” and ended with: 

We would relive this week again and again if it means the liberation of Palestine and we remain committed to our just cause—as should you all. We will not stop, we will not rest.

MAGA Fascist America First Thugs Amass

Not only have the student protests been met with vicious state repression, there have been increasing cases of violent Zionist thugs coming together with MAGA fascist and pro-pig mobs, including large numbers of racist frat boys to uphold America and its attack dog Israel.

At UCLA, there was a pro-Zionist rally of hundreds wrapped in the American and Israeli flags. Then, just two nights later, a mob of violent Zionist thugs attacked the Gaza Solidarity Encampment (see above). After hours of the Zionist attack, when the police finally did march onto campus to intervene, the Zionists started chanting “USA, USA.” The presence of the police did result in the Zionists leaving campus, but there were no arrests of people who were wielding metal rods, wood, bear spray and more to beat on students.

The American flag—as a symbol of American chauvinism and dominance in the world—has become a concentration of this fight.

On April 30, New York Mayor Eric Adams had a fit because protesters at CCNY had taken down the American flag and raised a Palestinian one. Adams sputtered “That’s our flag folks… It’s despicable that schools would allow another country’s flag to fly in our country. So blame me for being proud to be an American.” 

On May 1, a battle ensued around the flagpole at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. Shortly after being driven out of their encampment at the campus quad, a group of anti-genocide protesters returned, pulled down the American flag, and raised the Palestinian flag and were dancing around it joyously. The acting chancellor made a big show of marching up to the flagpole with a battalion of police to re-raise the American flag while a pro-America and pro-Israeli crowd cheered and chanted “USA, USA.” A second attempt to take down the American flag was stopped by a group of frat boys and there was a standoff. Eventually officials decided—for reasons that aren’t clear—to take down the U.S. flag, leaving the pole empty, for now.

In the wake of this, the “frat boys” became reactionary celebrities, with over $500,000 raised to throw them a “rager.” Republi-fascists like Trump and North Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham praised them as “heroes.”

On May 3, a small—but brave and determined—walkout for Palestine at Louisiana State University was met by a growing mob of fascist counter-protesters, later joined by a fascist Senator, chanting USA, USA and waving the American flag.

And at University of Mississippi—in an extremely ugly incident that proved the lynch-mob mentality remains powerful and is in fact coming back wrapped in MAGA hats and American flags—a howling mob of lunatics surrounded and taunted a Black woman standing up for Palestine. Go here for a fuller account. 

What Needs to Happen Now

As the statement from the Revcom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity says:

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.