As popular demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine continue around the world, a fresh wave of large student protests against the genocide in Gaza is spreading across the campuses of major US universities. Attempts were made to stop them with mass arrests of students and also by eliminating face-to-face classes at Columbia University, where the protests began. The government also launched a campaign, with President Biden himself and Zionist entities in the US, falsely accusing the students of being “anti-Semitic”. Trump said the same and accused Biden of “not doing enough” to prevent these demonstrations. But far from being stopped by these repressive measures and slander, this provoked enormous popular outrage and among students and the protests expanded to include teachers as well.
The police have carried out dozens of arrests, dismantling the encampments set up at NYU and Yale. At Columbia, 100 students were arrested. The demonstration, in solidarity with the Palestinians, eventually spread to the streets of the city in New York. California State Polytechnic University also closed its doors because of the protests. At the University of Minnesota, students demanded that the institution abandon any association with Israel, while students at Ohio State University demanded that their university disclose any investments and divest from Israel-related companies.
The demand is for the US government to cease its military backing for Israel. This gigantic mobilisation has enormous popular sympathy. Opinion polls show that 60 per cent of Americans oppose the US government sticking up for Israel. These demonstrations continue and expand the large-scale protests that had already taken place in the US. The events, both the popular protests that have been going on for months, the demonstrations, and the university camps, are similar to what happened 50 years ago during the Vietnam War, which ended in a major political crisis, forcing the United States to withdraw from Vietnam in 1975.
Solidarity with the Freedom Flotilla
Another demonstration of global solidarity with Palestine is the so-called “Freedom Flotilla”, three ships loaded with almost 5,000 tons of humanitarian aid, food, and medicine, and 800 activists from all over the world, which has been in Turkey announcing its departure for Gaza since Sunday 21 April. But they were still not allowed to leave, despite popular demonstrations in favor of the flotilla in Turkey. Both the US and Germany, the major imperialist states that are accomplices of Israel, are putting pressure on Turkey not to allow them to leave. Meanwhile, half of the population of Gaza is already suffering from hunger.
As part of the IWU-FI, we are standing up for the global campaign for Palestine solidarity. We stand in solidarity with American students in their demand to sever all links with Israel and Zionist entities. We support their demand to send urgent humanitarian aid and the popular demand in Turkey to allow the departure of the Freedom Flotilla and its entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza! We stand against repressing American students who advocate for the Palestinian cause! Free the detainees! We demand the immediate cessation of all financial and military aid, in the first place, of the gigantic amount of arms the US sends every day to Israel. Down with the genocidal and apartheid state of Israel! Long live the heroic struggle of the Palestinian people! For a free, united, non-racist and democratic Palestine from the river to the sea!
International Workers’ Unity-Fourth International (IWU-FI)
25 April 2024