BACK TO SCHOOL EDITION: DISRUPTING CONVOCATION AND MOVE-IN | OPPORTUNISM AT THE DNC | LOCAL EVENT TO HONOR POLITICAL PRISONERS

Contents:

I. NEW SEMESTER, SAME STRUGGLE

II. BARNARD MOVES IN, GAZAN STUDENTS RECEIVE AN EDUCATION IN AIR STRIKES

III. A COLUMBIA STAFF MEMBER WRITES ON STAFF REPRESSION

IV. THE UNCOMMITTED MOVEMENT DECLARES ITS COMMITMENT TO GENOCIDAL IMPERIALISTS

V. CURBFEST 2024: JOIN US TO SUPPORT THE STRUGGLES OF POLITICAL PRISONERS ON SEPTEMBER 7TH

VI. READING GROUP DISCUSSION: THE QUESTION OF HAMAS AND THE LEFT

NEW SEMESTER, SAME STRUGGLE

Welcome back to school, Columbia! There may be new students and new classes, but some things stay the same: Columbia's refusal to divest from their genocidal investments, their relentless normalization of the Zionist entity through their dual degree program with Tel Aviv University and the opening of their global center in Tel Aviv, and their constant repression of pro-Palestinian protestors. 

Though Shafik has resigned, repression continues. Students, who have had their charges dropped and their cases dismissed for their alleged involvement in the liberation of Hind's Hall, still face a murky disciplinary process, even as the new semester begins. Meanwhile, Barnard has simply suspended their students for protesting against our institution's support of genocide.

All this points to Columbia's fear of our solidarity. That's why they sicced NYPD's notoriously violent Strategic Response Group on us, that's why they surveil us and hire private investigators, and that is why they lock the gates to keep community members out. 

This is not just the policy of one individual, but the policy of an institution devoted to continuing to profit from settler-colonialism. Other universities have joined Columbia's shameful conduct, such as NYU, which recently made "Zionist" — a person who supports racism, apartheid, and genocide — a protected class. 

But other things will stay the same, too. As long as Columbia continues to be a tool of empire, we will protest them.

This relentless spirit could be seen on August 25, when a group of about 100 gathered at the 116th gates to disrupt Columbia's convocation. Demonstrators chanted and brought drums, pots, cowbells, and other noisemakers to ensure everyone inside the gates could hear us at their ceremony. Our rally was so boisterous, that community members joined us from blocks away because they heard our calls. 

Several comrades from Columbia and Harlem gave speeches, grounding our efforts in service of Palestinian liberation and opposing Columbia's expansion into Harlem and Washington Heights.  

We also passed out flyers to new students entering the gates, encouraging them to join us. If that sample of students is indicative of the class of 2028, Columbia should be worried. These students expressed their disgust at Columbia's genocidal investments, as well as their own intentions to escalate. One student said, “It’s horrible what’s going on in Gaza, and we are funding it, it’s just like, what can I do to help? There’s only so much that boycotting can do. We have to go beyond that.”

We should feel optimistic about the energy and resolve these new students will bring to our movement. Columbia has unwittingly admitted a new wave of protestors ready to join us in the struggle.

So, a call to all new students, whether dewy-eyed or already disillusioned, join us, and help us build a future where the school we attend is not entangled with colonial violence. Talk to us when we table outside the gates, come to a demonstration, or email us to join our reading group. We look forward to organizing alongside you.

BARNARD MOVES IN, GAZAN STUDENTS RECEIVE AN EDUCATION IN AIR STRIKES

As the incoming class of Barnard College students moved in on August 19th, their pro-Palestinian peers gathered for a 9 AM picket in front of the school's gates. The CUAD-organized picket highlighted the cruel irony between Ivy League students moving into their new school while their university funds the destruction of every educational institution in Gaza.

Slated to begin in the early morning, the picket also called on students to support their peers who are being subjected to a discriminatory disciplinary process that explicitly denies due process rights. Over the past few months, Barnard has attempted to intimidate pro-Palestinian students with rushed disciplinary hearings, offers of predatory deals that suspend students' ability to protest, and suspensions that leave students in housing- or food-insecure conditions. 

According to the flyers handed out by picket-goers, Barnard students who participate in the same actions as their Columbia counterparts are isolated under an opaque and arbitrary disciplinary process while their peers have their hearings overseen by the University Judicial Board, a transparent and less punitive system. Students subjected to the Barnard trials, which the college ironically describes as an "educational process," are given last-minute notices with little time afforded for preparation, are denied extension or delay requests, refused evidence files ahead of their hearing, and denied the presence of legal counsel or faculty advisors. Moreover, the hearings are often only a formality as their punishments are pre-determined by Dean Grinage and President Rosenbury. 

Upon their arrival at Barnard's 117th and Broadway gates, the students were met with 20-30 NYPD officers who had set up a small barricaded area down the block that they repeatedly asked picketers to go to under threat of arrest. At 9:10, there were already at least three white shirts—high-ranking officers—on scene. The officers were immediately verbally aggressive and initiated physical force. They lied to picketers by asserting that it was illegal to walk on the sidewalk and repeatedly threatened arrest for students who would not move into the barricaded pen away from the gates.

Within minutes, Barnard allowed the arrest of one picketer who had been using a megaphone to lead chants, once again demonstrating the administration's wholehearted embrace of the Zionist genocide. Though the megaphone was no longer in use, a sergeant ordered the arrest of the picketer who had been using it and physically forced picketers into the kettled area while isolating and handcuffing the arrested person in the original picket location. 

Accustomed to intimidation by police and public safety, the picketers continued for nearly three hours in the kettled area while the arrest van stayed parked outside the main gates. Approximately ten uniformed officers stayed by the kettled area while another 15 officers including sergeants remained by the Barnard gates. As the picket prepared to close, the students attempted to return to their original location. Within five minutes, however, they were physically forced back into the original pen. Once in the barricaded area, officers physically stood in front of picketers to prevent them from walking and claimed that they had broken the law by not walking further and that they were now blocking the sidewalk. Though the NYPD claimed that blocking a sidewalk made one liable to arrest, they had no qualms themselves about impeding movement with their masses of barricades. The NYPD then physically pushed the picket even further down the block. As the students dispersed around 1 PM at Riverside Park, they were followed by an NYPD officer driving an arrest van.

Despite the attempts at intimidation, use of undue physical force, and weaponization of the law, students were undeterred. Tailoring their chants to the event, the picketers exclaimed, "Rosenbury have some shame, all our martyrs have a name" and "over a hundred thousand dead, you're arresting us instead." 

A COLUMBIA STAFF MEMBER WRITES ON STAFF REPRESSION:

In the weeks after April 17, conversations among Columbia, Barnard, and Teacher’s College staff about what became known as the student intifada, were supportive, if disconnected or even fearful at times. It is part of the logic of the university to pit faculty, staff, and students against one another. At times one might find themselves straddling multiple lines, most notably graduate student workers; however, we are forced to pick a side and keep to ourselves. This is reflected in the piercing silence on Palestine and the students’ struggles among the 14,000 staff members.

Those of us openly supportive found ourselves in a parallel universe: a hidden world of repression, and resistance against it. We found ourselves sneaking away to peek at the encampment or run supplies with our precious ability to move in and out of the campus borders. Later, we sat at computers in silent rooms while our co-workers ignored the students’ chants echoing off the campus buildings. We heard co-workers grumble about needing to sneak out the back door of buildings to avoid the students altogether. We were coerced by bosses and union leadership alike to do extra work in service of student repression: custodians forced to trash students’ belongings in a post-encampment sweep, administrative assistants asked to report pro-Palestine stickers or drawings, event planners tasked with coordinating logistics for Zionist/normalizer “listening sessions” and Dialogue Across Difference events. In the spring semester, the parallel universe of passive silence slipped into a wholly alternate reality. We were told explicitly by supervisors, upper administrators, and human resources officers to ignore and stay complicit. Or, we were given a “concession:” work from home (this last one a slap in the face after four years of fighting to retain the flexible work arrangements we won from the start of COVID). Yet again, while some staff appreciated the work-from-home option, it was another attempt to pit staff against students. By reducing the number of people on campus and creating barriers to access, the administration could more effectively police the students, as well as weaken or hide encampment support.

And for those of us who were brave enough to take a small risk—marching on our lunch breaks, sitting in at the encampment, making a speech at a rally, sicking out, etc.—the parallel universe asserted its discipline. This served as a reminder that we are expendable, no matter our unionization status or seniority, no matter what kind of quality work we have produced. We are subject to immediate (or in some cases, prolonged) firing. We are subject to repression, intimidation, retaliation, the secondary trauma of watching the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group bring together a thousand troops and all their toys to brutalize young people at our place of work. And under no circumstances will our employer stand up to Zionist bullies whose “hurt feelings” are given more space on campus than actual, present genocide. Our employer has made it clear that its financial interests invested in war, political alignments seeking to extract labor and land from the Middle East, and litigation budgets reserved for Title VI cases will be protected at all costs; even if it costs the labor that keeps the lights on, the HVAC systems cooling, the online platforms running, the students enrolled, the payroll processed, etc. 

Staff are curious to call this bluff, but not without our own costs. In Columbia’s parallel universe, we have been officially reprimanded for having posters or personal items that say “from the river to the sea.” Staff have been dismissed from contractual positions early, others suddenly not renewed on expected contracts. Some have had severance pay threatened or been flagged for “further review” if they decide to reapply for a job at Columbia. Others have been bullied or coerced into sharing information about their co-workers. At least four staff members have been fired for involvement in Palestine solidarity actions on campus. 

In one notable case, a staff member supporting the Gaza Solidarity Encampment on her lunch break was arrested alongside over 100 others when on April 18th, Columbia invited the NYPD to declare students and staff sitting on the lawn of their own university illegal trespassers. The charges were later dropped, and it is still not clear how trespassing charges could even apply to staff sitting on a lawn on their lunch break. The staff member alerted her boss before and after her arrest, and logged PTO for the half day of work she was forced to miss due to Columbia’s personal request for police intervention. Employees may use PTO to cover emergencies that take them away from their post, such as leaving work to care for a sick or injured child. Yet Columbia accused this staffer exercising that same right to take PTO for emergencies, of abandoning her post. This became the grounds for the swift suspension, investigation, and firing that followed. The directive to fire her was given from very high up, considering that her immediate supervisor, and her boss’s boss, advocated for her, and attested to her high-quality work and high performance evaluations. The administration seeks to make an example of her and create a chilling effect on all staff who consider showing solidarity. The termination happened so swiftly and decidedly that the staffer’s Department Chair was not even notified; Columbia’s alternate universe comes complete with a façade of decision-making power over one's own department. As time goes on, staff repression is increasingly coordinated across levels and positions of power. Now “abandonment of post,” is the language leveraged in other departments, alongside “non-sanctioned workplace actions” for unionized staff who called out sick during the time of the encampment, or in the aftermath during the faculty- and graduate student-organized strike. 

Importantly, another staff member was fired just weeks ago for specious misconduct allegations, intended to conceal the university's real motive which is her being vocally pro-Palestine. Her termination is the culmination of months of harassment and surveillance, as her Zionist boss built a case against her, nitpicking any behaviors they deemed out of line. The university’s human resources (HR) departments are set up to encourage this form of harassment and discrimination and give legitimacy to the illusion that none of this is politically motivated. HR, whose interest always lies with the administration, will gladly walk any supervisor through the “proper procedure” for building a case to get someone disciplined or fired. In this instance, HR, the Zionist boss, and likely those in higher-level administrative positions, teamed up to convince the staffer’s coworkers to record and report any behaviors that might fit the narrative that she is a “bully,” unprofessional, or taking unsanctioned actions. Unfortunately, Columbia’s reality succeeded once again in pitting workers against one another: a colleague willingly shared screenshots of text messages that contributed to this staffer’s firing.

It is sobering to learn that what we do on our personal devices in our free time can lead to serious consequences and that these witch hunts could be fueled by our supervisors, coworkers, and even students or Twitter personalities that we have never met. Even upper administration is vulnerable to these attacks—several have been put on leave for sending text messages on their personal devices while at a campus event. We should not have sympathy for administrators who get caught up in the repressive traps they set for students. However, this is a dangerous encroachment of the university’s powers, one that, in the long term, is likely to affect the lowest level staff the most.

There are likely many other cases similar to the ones listed above; this list was compiled through personal relationships and stories shared among trusted networks. Even direct repression of staff is carried out so precisely and quietly that many of the most active campus organizers know nothing about it. Additionally, there are likely many layers of other forms of “soft repression” happening that will be difficult to track. For example, we are hearing rumors that pro-Palestine staff organizers will not receive promotions or raises in the future. And we are already starting to see a shift in what staff are expected to tolerate in terms of policing and surveillance on campus. Lastly, it is terrifying to consider the lengths the administration will go to follow through on any new federally-mandated “compliance” requests that could appear if we are faced with a Trump presidency.

Secrecy, competition, and division are the tools that the university will always rely on to repress movements on campus, regardless of which sector is involved. These moves are easy to predict, if difficult to track and prove. But fortunately, those so adamant about building a parallel universe of silence and fear—forcing staff to act in the shadows—have names and faces. In some cases they are our direct supervisors, in others, they are many levels up. In all cases, they are our bosses, and organized workers always have the upper hand in the fight against our bosses. Building staff power resilient to repression on campus is one part of what will be necessary to hold ground in the struggle for divestment, and in solidarity with Palestine. In the coming months, Columbia, Barnard, and Teachers College staff will continue tracking the administration’s moves, preparing countermoves, and building our collective capacities to fight back in ways that, despite the university’s best efforts, assert the reality that we deeply know to be true: from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

To get in contact about staff repression on campus: cu4palestine@gmail.com

THE UNCOMMITTED MOVEMENT DECLARES ITS COMMITMENT TO GENOCIDAL IMPERIALISTS

The Democratic National Convention took place between August 19th and August 22nd. As expected, the convention was met with daily pro-Palestine protests calling for an arms embargo, an end to the US funding of Israel, and an end to the genocide in Gaza, which has intensified over the last 10 months. These protests were nothing new to the DNC. Similarly, in 1968, thousands of people who opposed the Vietnam War took to the streets of Chicago during the DNC in protest of the Democratic Party’s support for the Vietnam War under Lyndon B. Johnson whose vice president, Hubert Humphrey, was named the official Democratic Party nominee for president. The protests outside the DNC in 1968 would go down in history as having some of the most violent police presence. 

A prominent pro-Palestine organization during this year’s DNC was the Uncommitted Movement. The Uncommitted Movement came to be through a collective of organizations in the Listen 2 Michigan Coalition which was initially created to mobilize Michigan voters to vote “uncommitted” for the presidential primary. An unprecedented 100,000+ voters marked “uncommitted” on their ballot. What started as an inspiring movement that demonstrated that we, those who are disgusted at the use of our tax dollars to fund the genocide of the Palestinian people and occupation of Palestine since 1948, will not be swayed to vote for a party that has aided and perpetuated this genocide, has sold us out at the DNC during the 10th month of the genocide. 

Prior to the start of the DNC, the Uncommitted Movement informed the public that Democratic Party nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris was open to talking with members of Uncommitted about an arms embargo on Israel. Swiftly, top aide in the Harris administration, Phil Gordon said in a tweet that Vice President Harris “has been clear: she will always ensure Israel is able to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups. She does not support an arms embargo on Israel. She will continue to work to protect civilians in Gaza and to uphold international humanitarian law.” This tweet in and of itself is extremely insulting and demonstrates every single thing the Democratic Party stands for: manufacturing consent for genocide and maintaining the imperialist world order. Despite this, founders of the Uncommitted Movement Layla Elated and Abbas Alaweih said in a statement that they are still eager to continue engaging with Harris and meeting about an arms embargo. In this moment what the Uncommitted National Movement failed to understand was that Harris would never meet their demands and become the candidate of their dreams. Furthermore, instead of remaining uncommitted to the Democratic Party the Uncommitted National Movement showed how committed to reforming the Democratic Party they are during the DNC. We know that attempting to reform a party designed to maintain oppressive systems is useless. We also know that a seat at a table that has committed massacre after massacre just this year in Gaza means nothing if when we leave that table the massacres will continue. 

The Uncommitted National Movement went into the DNC asking for an arms embargo and an end to the genocide and then left the DNC disappointed that their demand to let a Palestinian speak on the main stage was not met. Would the Uncommitted National Movement have endorsed Kamala Harris if they were allowed to speak on the main stage? They did a sit-in for hours outside the DNC demanding a speaker on the main stage where opportunists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez FaceTimed in to “demonstrate their solidarity”, although earlier that week she was photographed at the DNC with the family of an IOF prisoner of war. Ruwa Romman, a Palestinian-American elected Democratic representative from Georgia gave what would have been the speech on the main stage and in it she endorsed Harris. Ruwa Romman said, "Let's commit to each other, to electing Vice President Harris and defeating Trump." Was the Uncommitted National Movement ready to commit to Harris in response to their breadcrumb demand of letting a Palestinian speak on stage? Is that all it was going to take? In the speech Representative Ruwa Romman gave outside of the DNC, she admitted that she was planning on telling the Democratic Party what they wanted to hear. 

The actions of the Uncommitted National Movement during the DNC are nothing short of embarrassing to our cause. A national liberation movement guided by the principles of the Palestinian resistance and our martyrs, the Uncommitted National Movement betrays all of these things by appealing to the enemy. While some may argue that Trump would do worse for the Palestinian people, the lesser of two evils argument falls flat on its face when both parties, bankrolled by the same zionist donors, have promised to continue the genocide. The Uncommitted National Movement should uphold its name and truly represent the people it claims to by encouraging eligible voters to boycott elections that enable genocide. Uncommitted demobilizes those who are ready to take more militant action against the US-backed zionist regime and genocide in Gaza. They pacify the messaging of the Palestinian liberation struggle. If Uncommitted is not accountable to our resistance, the Thawabet, and our martyrs then who are they accountable to? The martyr Professor Refaat Alareer's last tweet before he was killed by a Zionist airstrike on December 6th, 2023 reads: "The Democratic Party and Biden are responsible for the Gaza genocide perpetrated by Israel". These words were quoting a tweet from Kamala Harris that included a video of her speech where she says Israel has a right to defend itself. Alareer was martyred just two days after this tweet was posted. 

The Uncommitted National Movement frames interactions and communications from the Harris administration in a dishonest way. Uncommitted National Movement founders said that when they told Kamala Harris about how members of their Michigan community are losing family members in Gaza due to Israel's assault, Harris said "it's horrific." they took this as Vice President Harris being able to "lead our country’s Gaza policy to a more humane place" as if she hasn't been the Vice President of Genocide for the past 10 months. This delusional framing leads supporters in the wrong direction. Instead of coming to an understanding that Harris is saying anything just to get our votes, the Uncommitted National Movement is misconstruing her words and making her a legitimate option for us. Although the Uncommitted National Movement never formally endorsed Harris in a statement, their actions at the DNC made it clear. They are not there to hold the Democrats accountable, they are there to attempt to reform a party that has shown us time and time again that they will not change or listen to us. The Uncommitted National Movement does not only sell the movement out, they write off the concerns of many of the original supporters--from their community at home in Michigan and anywhere else they claim to represent--that their strategy of being seemingly willing to participate in the Democratic camp regardless of whether the DNC makes any movement on Palestine is a betrayal. Many of those directly impacted and pro-Palestine supporters have come out against the Uncommitted National Movement and stated that they no longer represent their interests. 

We must move away from the belief that electoral politics will lead our revolution when we have leaders and revolutionaries on the ground leading us right now. No revolution has ever been actualized through voting for a different candidate and this is especially relevant today as we see the Democrats and Republicans sounding more and more alike. We cannot continue to look towards Democratic Party insiders for direction on the Palestinian movement, we must look towards the resistance. 

CURBFEST 2024: JOIN US TO SUPPORT THE STRUGGLES OF POLITICAL PRISONERS ON SEPTEMBER 7TH

In honor of Black August, community organizers around the city are holding events celebrating the legacies of Black freedom fighters and political prisoners. Last week, comrades attended a community dinner held by Harlem 4 Palestine commemorating prisoner uprisings in the US. Comrades watched a documentary on the 1971 Attica Uprising with Harlem organizers and residents and discussed its significance in relation to the Palestinian resistance today.

Lessons from the Attica Uprising

In the Attica Uprising, over 1,300 prisoners took control of the prison's facilities and surrounding tunnels as they demanded better living conditions and amnesty for political prisoners. The conditions at Attica prison, the majority of whose prisoners were Black, were vile: plumbing was broken, showers were allowed once a week, overcrowded cells were flooded with feces, food and water were insufficient, and torture of politically active prisoners was rampant. The revolt followed over a year of organizing efforts, during which, through organized silent protests and sit-down strikes, the prisoners became increasingly coordinated and militant. Prisoners also raised their political consciousness by studying other prison uprisings in the US and anti-imperialist resistance movements around the world. Revolutionary texts such as those of Marx and Mao were shared among prisoners, many of whom were political prisoners from the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords and the Nation of Islam. When the prisoners discussed potential retaliations against their uprising, some referenced the My Lai massacre in Vietnam carried out by U.S. imperialists a few years prior. Acknowledging the possibility of such aggressive retaliation, prisoners still decided to fight their enemies rather than submit to them. While over 40 were killed by state troopers who used hunting rifles and tear gas to eventually crack down on the occupation, the prisoners won many of their demands. They proved that, with organization, education, and practice, the masses can fight the enemy and conquer demands, even in a highly surveilled and guarded place such as the prison.

Lessons from the Palestinian resistance

The Palestinian resistance today provides us with similar lessons. Gaza is the largest and most highly surveilled concentration camp in the world, where the Palestinian people have been cut off from the rest of the world and have faced genocidal retaliation whenever their resistance threatens US imperialist interests in the Middle East. This concentration camp has now become a base of the armed resistance who is leading the Palestinian people towards controlling and taking back this prison from their oppressors. Despite Israel’s US-funded genocide, the resistance fighters continue to advance steadfastly, increasing in force and morality with each victory. The successful methods of the resistance are developments of the tactics and strategy used by anti-imperialist forces in the past. For example, the Palestinian resistance forces’ method of tunnel warfare is a guerrilla warfare technique developed from tactics effectively used by the Vietnamese people to fight the US imperialists and the Chinese people to fight the Japanese imperialists. Also behind the successes of Al-Aqsa Flood are decades of resistance groups’ experiences – both victories and defeats – of fighting US-backed Israel, through which the resistance learned to fight the enemy harder and better in an increasingly organized united front. The intifadas of the late 80s and early 2000s and the 2021 uprising culminated in the unity of resistance groups under joint operations whose advancements we can observe today. For the organized masses who develop tactics and strategy based on assessments of one’s own and others’ past revolutionary practices, victory is inevitable, even when the task is to regain control over the world’s largest concentration camp.

Join us at Curbfest

At the community dinner, when asked the question of why the mass movement in support of Palestinian liberation should also support the struggles of political prisoners in the US, a former political prisoner responded: “Every Palestinian has become a prisoner. Being a prisoner is a birthright there. In the US, Black people are either murdered by the police or incarcerated. We are fighting the same unjust system.” It is our duty to support the struggles of those fighting instead of submitting to oppression. As we approach the 53^rd anniversary of the Attica Uprising, we invite our readers to join us at the Curbfest for Political Prisoners on September 7^th, where we will discuss with community organizers and residents what we can learn from and how we can support the struggles of political prisoners.

Register for Curbfest here.

Time: September 7^th (Saturday) 1-5pm

Location: 406 Utica Avenue Brooklyn NY

READING GROUP DISCUSSION: THE QUESTION OF HAMAS AND THE LEFT

During our last reading group, we discussed The question of Hamas and the Left, which analyzes how some on the so-called left couch their opposition to armed struggle in what they consider "principled" critiques of Hamas. 

We began our discussion by exploring what it means for resistance to be "pre-political," as asserted in the article.  A few comrades noted the immediacy of resistance, which arises as a visceral response to violent subjugation. One comrade emphasized that resistance is crucial for survival, which, in turn, unifies people beyond political divides.

In contrast, many in the West cannot comprehend the magnitude of violence experienced in Palestine and other colonized nations. Many Westerners cling to the liberal, idealist belief that merely bearing witness to such violence will compel the imperialists and their lackeys to award salvation. This belief is flawed: it assumes that demands are granted rather than fought for and it demonizes resistance. As one comrade pointed out, many in the West act on this incorrect belief by demanding peaceful resistance and perfect victims, who they believe will be rewarded for their suffering.

However, history shows that resistance, especially armed struggle, is ultimately vindicated. Another comrade highlighted that armed struggle was key in destroying South African apartheid and noted that Nelson Mandela, once designated a terrorist by the United States, is now celebrated as a hero. This shift in perception underscores that our principles should not be bound by laws designed by the ruling class to maintain and strengthen their power. We stand with the people in their fight to vanquish imperialist oppression. Reflecting this sentiment, one comrade argued that instead of sending our best lawyers to the International Court of Justice, we should send our best fighters and generals to Gaza.

Taking a dialectical view, one comrade highlighted that Hamas is not only al-Qassam. In addition to their military success against Zionist forces, Hamas gained popular support through their social services which were viewed as better quality and less corrupt than those provided by the Palestinian Authority. Another comrade noted the Hamas-run summer camps, where kids and teenagers would learn about resistance and how to protect themselves. 

Our conversation also addressed the importance of uniting broadly within resistance movements and we considered how this applied to our efforts in CUAD. As an aspiring mass movement, we understand that power comes from the organized people. Whether someone wants the end of imperialism or just the end of Columbia's investment in genocide, we can bring them into the movement. Building broad coalitions involves working with a variety of individuals, including those with different political views, and learning and working alongside each other. Political education and collective struggle are essential for transforming spontaneous resistance into organized, strategic movements by providing a shared understanding of issues and goals.

One comrade shifted the conversation to issues of class, drawing attention to the line, "being a member of the colonized does not automatically confer upon you fidelity to the anticolonial effort." She questioned when such identities become purely symbolic since some are unwilling to share in the struggle. Another comrade tied this perspective to her own experiences visiting the Middle East. She noted that while they share an Arab identity, many among the property-owning class do not display solidarity with the Palestinian struggle. We discussed how wealthier people tend to have a more conservative consciousness because they have more to lose. They are comfortable with the status quo and often don't want to risk their property or livelihood. Another comrade contrasted this tendency with the more radical consciousness of the peasants in Palestine during the 1936 revolt. These peasants wore keffiyehs to shield themselves from the harsh sun, and once the revolt began, Palestinians of other classes began wearing keffiyehs in solidarity. The keffiyeh as a symbol of resistance is a powerful reminder that class and resistance are deeply connected.

DIVEST AND BOYCOTT THE GENOCIDAL APARTHEID STATE OF SO-CALLED ISRAEL

GRANT COMPLETE AMNESTY TO STUDENT PROTESTORS

LONG LIVE THE STUDENT INTIFADA

LONG LIVE THE PALESTINIAN NATIONAL RESISTANCE

FREE PALESTINE FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA WITHIN OUR LIFETIME

GLORY TO ALL OUR MARTYRS