CUAD REMAINS COMMITTED TO OUR DEMANDS | A TRIBUTE TO YAHYA SINWAR | AL-MAYADEEN DEFENDS CUAD
CUAD REMAINS COMMITTED TO OUR DEMANDS | A TRIBUTE TO YAHYA SINWAR | AL-MAYADEEN DEFENDS CUAD
Contents:
I. AFFIRMING OUR COMMITMENTS AND CONTEXTUALIZING OUR DEMANDS
II. CAST OFF THE RUBBLE OF YOUR CITY: A TRIBUTE TO YAHYA SINWAR
III. ZIONIST SIEGE CONTINUES TOTAL DESTRUCTION IN GAZA; RESISTANCE IN PALESTINE AND LEBANON REMAIN RESILIENT
IV. FROM AL-MAYADEEN: “NYT SLANDERS PRO-PALESTINE COLUMBIA GROUP FOR SUPPORTING RESISTANCE”
V. LESSONS FROM THE POPULAR FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF PALESTINE
VI. WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU
AFFIRMING OUR COMMITMENTS AND CONTEXTUALIZING OUR DEMANDS
"The Palestinian cause is not a cause for Palestinians only, but a cause for every revolutionary, wherever they are, as a cause of the exploited and oppressed masses in our era.” —Ghassan Kanafani
1. Financial Divestment: Divest all of Columbia's finances, including the endowment, from companies and institutions that profit from "Israeli" apartheid, genocide, and occupation in Palestine.
2. Academic Boycott: Sever all ties with "Israeli" universities including the Global Center in "Tel Aviv," the dual degree program with Tel Aviv University, all study-abroad programs, fellowships, and research collaborations with "Israeli" academic institutions.
3. Stop the Displacement - No Land Grabs Whether in Harlem, Lenapehoking, or Palestine: Cease expansion, provide reparations, and support housing for low-income Harlem residents. No development by Columbia without real community control.
4. No Policing on Campus: End the targeted repression of Palestinian students and their allies on and off campus including through university disciplinary processes. Defund Public Safety, and disclose and sever all ties with the NYPD.
5. Amnesty: Amnesty for all involved in pro-Palestine protests and organizing at Columbia. No repression of pro-Palestine students, faculty, and staff by way of suspension, expulsion, or firing.
Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) remains unwavering in our commitment to the Palestinian liberation movement. The heroic struggle for Palestinian liberation did not start on October 7, 2023, but rather 106 years ago with 30 years of British colonialism and 76 years of Zionist occupation. It is with this historical grounding that we write this statement to reaffirm our positions and dedication to the fight for divestment at Columbia University. The genocide in Gaza has reached unfathomable levels, revealing some of the most atrocious horrors of our lifetime. Yet the Palestinian people remain steadfast in their commitment to liberation, and Palestine remains our guiding compass. We look to the resilient people of Palestine for inspiration; through their deep connection to their land, culture, traditions, and faith, they continue to resist the Zionist entity.
Amid heightened repression against the Palestine Solidarity Movement in the US, including the federal banning of Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network without evidence, The New York Times hit pieces on Within Our Lifetime and CUAD, and calls from Congress to launch an FBI investigation into CUAD, we refuse to be cowed in the face of repression and reaffirm our commitment to divestment as strategic and necessary in the path towards liberation.
CUAD has been and continues to be an anti-imperialist organization. We stand unwaveringly in defense of the Palestinian national liberation movement and its resistance. We established in our founding statement that: "We will not rest until Columbia divests from apartheid, Palestinians are free, and liberation is achieved for all oppressed people worldwide," "We seek an end to all interlocking systems of oppression through collective action and solidarity with oppressed people worldwide," and that "We necessarily envision an entire world free from colonialism and imperialism." We can either water down our politics to seek the legitimacy of monopoly media and institutions, or we can fight for a free Palestine, which means to support ongoing struggles against imperialism and doing our part to disrupt the status quo at home.
CUAD organizes with the intent to create as broad a coalition as possible, uniting the struggles of oppressed and exploited people into a powerful movement for a free Palestine and the destruction of imperialism and its apparatuses worldwide. As such, our demands are around not only divestment from the Zionist entity, but also against displacement and gentrification in Harlem, and against increased police presence on and around our campus. We must remember that the Zionist project in Palestine is the epicenter of Western imperialism; that the ideology undergirding the genocide in Gaza is the same ideology that supports Columbia's expansion in Manhattanville.
Broadening our demands to connect various liberation movements has, historically, been essential to the strategy of student movements. The 1968 student occupation movement at Columbia linked Harlem's anti-segregationist struggle, led by residents and Black student organizers, with the Vietnam anti-war movement on campus, leading to the conflagration of 1968, which saw thousands of students, faculty, staff, and community members taking part in building occupations and rebellions against the school administration and police. A people's movement, taking into account the concerns and flashpoints of both oppressed people abroad and at home, halted the construction of Columbia's proposed project for a segregated gymnasium, forced divestment from pro-war research institutions, and ended ROTC activities on campus. With these moments in mind, we reject the notion that a diverse array of anti-imperialist demands weakens our movement. Instead, staying informed by and supportive of our neighbors strengthens us, mobilizing greater resources in pursuit of divestment. Struggling side by side around varied principled demands energizes the movement, building momentum for a free Palestine through greater participation and resources.
Moreover, as an organization of people who live, work, and attend school at or around Columbia, we focus our attention where we can hit hardest. Acknowledging and working against our university’s expansionist project in Harlem is not only a worthy moral position, but a solid tactical decision as well: the closing of the Manhattanville complex and the subsequent reduction of Columbia’s holdings uptown puts a strain on the university which decreases its capacity to fund its active investments in the ongoing genocide. The removal of cops from our campus not only increases the safety of our Black and brown community members, who are continually profiled and targeted by the private security that now occupies our common areas, but also increases our capacity to organize for our demands, allowing greater latitude for our actions in support of divestment. Taking lessons from prior student movements against apartheid and war, we recognize that we absolutely cannot achieve these demands alone. It is with the skills, creativity, wisdom, and continued support of the community that we will win divestment, reducing the capacity of the US to send aid to the Zionist entity, and thereby strengthening the resistance movements on the ground in their fight for a free Palestine within our lifetimes.
These struggles are both objectively linked through their common enemy—imperialism broadly and Columbia University specifically—and materially tied with the genocidal Zionist entity. Ex-IOF members use their experiences in the Zionist intelligence apparatus to develop surveillance technology in Harlem. The Empire State Development Corporation has direct economic ties to the Zionist entity, using the wealth generated by these ties to enable Columbia’s expansion into Harlem. The NYPD is trained by the IOF, importing their methods of terrorism and torture.
A movement that fails to recognize that the struggle against imperialism is a shared one is doomed to fail. History shows us that as long as our struggles to win individual demands are not combined with the struggle to overthrow imperialism more broadly, oppression continues to prevail. As such, CUAD is committed to fostering and utilizing the historical, transnational, and interconnected solidarity of the liberation movements on whose history we draw. We refuse to be myopic in our organizing, either in principle or in action. The targets of our movement are systemic, and our actions and demands will continue to reflect this. The US is the main financier of the Zionist project, and any action taken with the intent to destabilize its funding apparatus, no matter how small, is an action which makes inroads toward ending the genocide.
Without the US there would be no Zionist entity. The Zionist entity is an unstable settler state, propped up by the disproportionate spending and support of the United States, who, more than any other country, has financed and enabled its continued ethnic cleansing of Palestine. By working against US imperialism at home, alongside the people of Harlem and with an ear for their demands, we believe that we can facilitate its fall. Therefore, we cannot separate the struggle in support of a free Palestine with the struggle against US imperialism. We cannot retreat into a single-issue perspective when the commonality of our cause has become widely understood. We cannot hide our views to fit the narrative of monopoly media in the hopes that they will paint us in a sympathetic light. In opposition to all efforts to divide and weaken our movement, we unite around and stand in solidarity with the heroic resistance fighters of Palestine, Lebanon, and Yemen, who do whatever is necessary to secure their freedom—damned be the opinion of their oppressors and those who cry for a vicious peace.
CAST OFF THE RUBBLE OF YOUR CITY
a tribute to Yahya Sinwar
"[Israel] can make the decision to assassinate me right now; they can load the aircraft and send it out... I won't bat an eye." - Yahya Sinwar
In footage captured by an IOF drone of Yahya Sinwar's last moments, the resistance leader holds his ground on the second floor of a desecrated building in Rafah, wielding and subsequently throwing, defiantly, a piece of rubble at the Israeli drone pursuing him. With this footage, the IOF has unwittingly delivered into the hands of the resistance a stunning display of sumud. To see a hero of the revolution not, as the IOF would like, residing among civilians in encampments or in a bunker but instead continuing to fight in the heart of the occupation — to see him holding his own until the last hour and wielding, with an injured arm, the very rubble of his city — can only drive this movement forward. The clip is an embodiment of the pragmatic optimism that guided Sinwar's 60 years with the resistance. To put it in his words: "We are forced to defend our people with what we have…and this is what we have."'
Even during his time as a political prisoner from 1988 through 2011, Sinwar made revolutionary use of the resources at his disposal. He was a leader in captivity, maintaining secret communication lines with Hamas officials and working with the resistance inside and outside of prison. He also wrote a work of philosophical fiction, The Thorn and the Carnation, during this time. His philosophy of independence and self-sacrifice, which the novel presents in narrative form, in many ways preempted the resilience on display in Sinwar's final moments. The work's protagonist, Ibrahim, represents a form of radical individualism mediated through religion, revolution, and discipline. Near the end of the novel, Ibrahim consummates his 'self-made individualism' with self-sacrifice, directing all of his resources toward cultivating a revolutionary consciousness in the Palestinian youth that may outlive him.
Sinwar later became the architect of two of the greatest moments of Palestinian resistance in the past decade: 2018's Great March of Return and last year's Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. He understood, maybe better than anyone else, that there was a time and a necessity for all forms of resistance. The Great March of Return was, for him, a message to those resisting in "the free and civilised world"; it was an instructional display of mass action and protest that we continue to make use of here in the imperial core. Al-Aqsa Flood, conversely, was an acknowledgement of the limitations of the 'peaceful' methods on display in the Great March. That "the Zionist war machine continued to target our sons and daughters with occupation army snipers" — that the violently imposed facts of Palestinian life remained, so intractably, in place — meant that the intifada would need to escalate into resistance by any means necessary. Sinwar's crowning achievement, Al-Aqsa Flood was the very essence of what it is to resist with "with what we have".
Yahya Sinwar was not afraid to die. Throughout his time with the resistance, Sinwar consistently upheld martyrdom, discipline, and self-sacrifice as fundamental tenets of the revolutionary lifestyle. Now that he has ascended, he, like Ibrahim in The Thorn and the Carnation, has gifted us with an entire lifetime of resistance. Though he was of course committed to the collective liberation that undergirds the Palestinian struggle, he also understood, beautifully, the role that the individual must play in that liberation. As members of the collective pursuit of Palestinian freedom, each of us should look to him as a clear illustration of what it means to devote a full lifetime to the intifada. Yahya Sinwar became the 'self-made individual' that he wrote about. It's now the time for us to reflect on how we can make ourselves more like him.
Yahya Sinwar was a scholar, writer, fighter, political leader, and commander. He was loved by many Arabs, not just Palestinians. His resilience and strength made him an incredible leader, able to instill hope into the hearts of many. He was seen as a threat by many zionist Arab leaders because they knew how much their people loved him. Sinwar's legacy will live on as the resistance to the zionist entity is not defined by a single being but by an ideology. Yahya Sinwar and his resilience will live in the hearts of many, and he will be remembered as a brave man who did not give up on his goal to defeat the zionist entity until his last breath. The Palestinian people and their steadfast resistance remain our compass, and we continue to work towards our goals here at Columbia.
ZIONIST SIEGE CONTINUES TOTAL DESTRUCTION IN GAZA; RESISTANCE IN PALESTINE AND LEBANON REMAIN RESILIENT
The death toll in Palestine rises each day as Israel continues its genocide. In the past week, thousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced, and these numbers remain a grim underestimation of the violent impact of the Israeli occupation. Israeli forces have prevented the entry of more than 250,000 trucks of aid and goods for Palestinians in Gaza since Israel escalated its occupation last year. Poverty will cross 74 percent in 2024, affecting 4.1 million people, all orchestrated by the Zionist entity.
Israel's siege on Jabaliya has entered its third week. More than 1000 Palestinians have been killed and thousands wounded, while many remain trapped in Jabaliya, Beit Hanoon, and Beit Lahiya without aid and others forced out of their homes. The Israeli assault has forced Palestinian civil defense forces to cease operations in northern Gaza as a result of repeated attacks on humanitarian emergency teams, leaving the regions without these services. Israel has dropped bombs on homes and groups of civilians in Jabaliya using quadcopters and has beaten and insulted civilians, preventing the wounded from receiving medical attention. One soldier told a Palestinian civilian, "Go south. The north will be ours, and we will build settlements there". Palestinian civilians have been forced out of their homes at gunpoint. Israeli quadcopters have continued to bombard hospitals, homes, and camps in Jabaliya with complete destruction as the end goal. In Gaza's Nuseirat, the Israeli occupation forces killed at least 17 people in a refugee camp and school-turned shelter. The IOF claimed it was targeting Hamas fighters in the school with no evidence. The Israeli occupation soldiers murdered 11-year-old Abdullah Jamal Hawash by shooting him after he threw a stone at an Israeli military armored vehicle. Hamas official Osama Hamdan stated, in summary, that Israel's aims are either displacement or extermination, referencing Israel's refusal to allow aid into northern Gaza where over 1000 people have died over the siege in Jabaliya. Hamdan expressed concern over the role of the international community, especially as the U.S. fully backs Israeli actions amid a one-month deadline set by the U.S. before pressuring Israel to permit aid access. Hamdan emphasized that Palestinians alone should determine their post-conflict future and called for a UN Security Council meeting to push for an end to Israel's aggression.
Israel launched 235 airstrikes in 24 hours on Lebanon last week. Amidst this aggression by the Israeli occupation army, the vicinity of a government hospital, Rafik Hariri University Hospital, was targeted killing 13 people. The Ouzai area in Beirut was hit for the first time. Other deadly raids on neighborhoods have been conducted across the country, recently in Haret Hreik, Ruwais and Ghobeiry, among many more. Lebanon's fourth largest city, Tyre, was attacked by Israel on October 23 with major air strikes. On Monday, October 28, Israel bombed eastern and southern Lebanon, concentrated in several areas in Baalbek. At least 60 people were killed. The number of total displaced people in Lebanon has exceeded 1.2 million.
Five Palestinian journalists were killed by Israeli air strikes on al-Shati camp in Gaza City on Sunday, October 27. Their names are Saed Radwan with Al-Aqsa TV, Hamza Abu Salmiya with Sanad News Agency, Haneen Baroud with Al-Quds Foundation, Abdulrahman Al-Tanani with Sawt Al-Shaab, and Nadia Al-Sayed. On October 25, three jounrnalists were killed in a targeted attack in Hasbaiyya, Lebanon as they slept in their accomodations. Their names are Ghassan Najjar and Mohamed Reda with Al-Mayadeen, and Wissam Qassam with Al-Manar TV, which is affiliated with Hezbollah. During the past year, Israel has murdered at least 177 journalists in Gaza, 11 in Lebanon, and one in Syria. Abdul 'Aboud" Rahman Battah, a teenage Palestinian activist, was detained during a deadly raid on Gaza's Kamal Adwan hospital on Friday, October 25, in which Israeli forces shelled the hospital with tanks and machine-gun fire. He was intimidated, beat, and insulted alongside hospital staff by Israeli invaders. Battah documents Israel's ongoing extermination in Jabaliya. Israel directly targets journalists through killings, kidnappings, imprisonment, and indimidation is their way of blinding the world to their atrocities.
On October 26, Iran's air defense forces reported Israeli attacks that targeted several sites in the provinces of Tehran, Khuzestan, and Ilam early on Saturday. Each assault targeting several military centers in the provinces was successfully intercepted and neutralized by the Iranian defense system, preventing significant impact. Israel also launched attacks on Iraq and Syria. Iran remains ready to counter future acts of aggression from Israel. Israel attacked Iran in response to its resistance to occupation and defense of its neighbors who are recieving relentless and violent attacks from Israel. Israel's military says the attacks have been "completed" while Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq condemned the attacks, calling it a violation of Iran's sovereignty. Iran, like Palestine, Lebanon, and Yemen, is entitled to defend itself. Iran said it will respond appropriately to the Zionist entity's aggression against their lands. In their statement they explain that "the Zionist entity seeks to expand the circle of war."
The resistance in both Lebanon and Palestine continues to grow stronger. On Sunday, October 20, Hezbollah carried out a drone attack that struck Benjamin Netanyahu's house in Caesarea, exploding his bedroom window. A spokesperson for the Al-Qassam Brigades said that by targeting "the residence of the war criminal, Netanyahu" Hezbollah was sending a message to the criminal occupiers that resistance and retribution of the free has no escape. For 48 hours last week, the Israeli army confirmed 88 IDF soldiers injured or killed in Lebanon. These casualties are in addition to the 74 other IOF soldiers who have been killed since the beginning of October. The high casualty count is largely due to a truck ramming incident carried out by just 3 Hezbollah leaders last Sunday. The truck collided with a bus near the Gilot military base, which houses Mossad. At least 50 soldiers were injured or killed.
Despite total destruction being inflicted by the IOF in Jabaliya, Al-Qassam brigades continue to successfully destroy Israeli military vehicles, including two D9 military bulldozers and Merkava 4 tanks. Yemeni's Ansar Allah carried out three operations early this week targeting ships in the Arabian Sea and the Red Sea. The continued guerilla tactics utilized by the resistance from Palestine, Lebanon, and Yemen continue to frustrate the Zionist entity and exploit its weaknesses. The killing of Colonel Ihsan Daksa, Commander of the 401st Brigade and the criminal in charge of the siege in Jabaliya, demonstrates the Resistance's resilient military capabilities.
On October 10, Israel detained and prosecuted American investigative reporter, Jeremy Loffredo for “aiding the enemy” following his report on Iran’s missile attacks on Tel Aviv that exposed the extensive damage to Israeli military bases struck by Iran. He reports having been “beaten, kidnapped, blindfolded, and taken to a military base” by the IOF along with four other journalists. Loffredo has since been released. His and his colleagues' findings are as follows: The U.S. intercepted communication on October 1, indicating Iran’s response was imminent. The Israeli and American-led missile defense systems failed to stop a good number of these missiles. The IRGC may have conducted maneuvers intending to mislead, including using old-generation liquid-fueled missiles to secretly station more advanced solid-fueled rockets for a surprise launch. According to photo evidence, over 30 points of contact were made, including military bases Tel Nof Airbase and Nevatim, as well as near the headquarters of Mossad. Videos from Bedoin show at least 10 missiles hitting Nevatim, which is a critical airbase in Israel, home to US-supplied Lockheed Martin’s “most lethal” F-35 stealth fighter jets, which are utilized by the IOF against Gaza, as well as the “Wings of Zion”. This evidence suggests that it is possible more than half of the missiles fired from Iran got through and reached their targets.
FROM AL-MAYADEEN: “NYT SLANDERS PRO-PALESTINE COLUMBIA GROUP FOR SUPPORTING RESISTANCE”
We are honored to share this article from the Lebanese anti-imperialist news outlet Al-Mayadeen, defending CUAD against the vicious Zionist slander from The New York Times. Al-Mayadeen has faced Zionist terror, with multiple offices and journalists targeted in the US-Israeli genocide that has extended into Lebanon.
The New York Times has accused the pro-Palestine group that initiated the solidarity encampments at the University of Columbia of becoming "more hard-line" in its rhetoric, citing the group's recent celebration of resistance and refusal to “pander to liberal media to make the movement for liberation palatable.”
“We support liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance,” the group, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, said in its statement.
Sharon Otterman ignores the year of genocide and horrifying aggression against Gaza since last October and dwells on the fact that the group distributed pamphlets on October 7 using Hamas' wording for Operation al-Aqsa Flood.
“One Year Since Al-Aqsa Flood, Revolution Until Victory,” it read, over a photo of Palestinian Resistance members "breaching the security fence to Israel."
After the group used a quote by martyred Hamas politburo leader Ismail Haniyeh and called for a fight for freedom, Otterman wrote in NYT that the group's "increasingly radical statements are being mirrored by pro-Palestinian groups on other college campuses, including in a series of social media posts this week that praised the Oct. 7 attack. "
She alleged that they also reflect the impact of more extremist protest organizations beyond campus, such as Within Our Lifetime, which she claimed promotes violent attacks against "Israel".
Otterman accused Nerdeen Kiswani, the head of Within Our Lifetime, of posting "Long live October 7th" on her X account. However, she overlooks the context: Kiswani was responding to a post that draws a parallel between Jews who revolted against SS members at Auschwitz-Birkenau and Palestinians who rose up against their "Zionist oppressors" on October 7.
In her full post, Kiswani makes a broader comparison between Nazism and Zionism, expressing support for resistance against both, as well as against "all forms of genocide, settler colonialism, and fascism."
However, reporting on these critical details is not advantageous for Otterman, who aims to characterize the movement against Zionist oppression as irrational animosity toward "Israel" and an inclination toward unwarranted violence.
Oren Segal, vice president of the A.D.L. Center on Extremism, told the NYT that over 100 protests tracked featured chants and messages that expressed "support for terrorist organizations."
Otterman claimed the move reflects an internal drive among many pro-Palestine groups to align their objectives with the principles, known as the Thawabet, established by the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1977, which advocate for the right to armed resistance and self-determination from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
Otterman attempted to whitewash these rights as outrageous and hate-driven, rather than legitimate actions supported by international law.
Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) detailed its transformation in a series of Substack posts, explaining how it shifted from viewing itself last semester as part of the Vietnam antiwar movement—focused on urging Columbia to divest from "Israel"—to now openly supporting armed resistance by Resistance groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and Ansar Allah in Yemen.
This trajectory underscores a blatant double standard in the discourse surrounding violence: while massacres conducted by Israeli occupation forces (IOF) are framed as a right of "self-defense", the struggle for liberation when it involves Palestinians and their allies is labeled as "aggression" and "terrorism".
LESSONS FROM THE POPULAR FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF PALESTINE
For our last reading group, we read selections from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)’s Strategy for the Liberation of Palestine and selections from the October 1981 edition (No. 55) of the PFLP Bulletin.
We began by discussing the importance of identifying our friends and enemies. One comrade highlighted that while Arab states may share a cultural identity with Palestinians, their subservience to imperialism positions them as adversaries. These states' wealth and power are tied to the preservation of the Zionist entity; the end of Zionism threatens their interests. Another comrade drew connections to our past reading of The Wretched of the Earth, in which Fanon cautions that while nationalist movements can play a transitional role toward liberation, without a revolutionary aim, they risk becoming reactionary, with the national bourgeoisie aligning with colonial forces for their own interests.
The PFLP writes,
“This means that, in a real liberation battle waged by the masses to destroy imperialist influence in our homeland, Arab reaction cannot but be on the side of its own interests, the continuation of which depends on the persistence of imperialism, and consequently cannot side with the masses.
“These Arab reactionary forces—particularly the intelligent ones—may outwardly support superficial national movements with the object of using them to settle, to their own advantage, some of their side conflicts with Israel or with world imperialism, but in the end they are inevitably against any national liberation movement that aims at uprooting colonialism from our soil and building an independent economy that will serve the interests of the masses instead of going into the pockets of the few representing these reactionary forces.”
Bringing this question to our local conditions in the student movement, one comrade remarked on the difficulties of organizing due to the class makeup of the student body, particularly at Columbia University. He noted that most students are from a petty bourgeois or bourgeois background and thus tend towards political vacillations, individualism, and being more influenced by the rules and decorum of our university.
Another comrade added the importance of patient struggle with these students, noting the need to unite broadly and not require a revolutionary political ideology as a pre-requisite for joining our struggle. We discussed that principles and values are forged through the struggle, both externally—like in actions against Columbia, and internally—like in debates over political lines. Struggling to reach a higher level of unity allows greater unity in action and facilitates unity with a broader base, sharpening our understanding of our struggle and strengthening our movement.
One comrade said he found the rigidity of this categorization of friend versus enemy difficult. He contemplated situations with more ambiguity, specifically referencing the media, the UN, and the ICJ. In response, a comrade noted that the analysis of friends and enemies is in flux, changing as conditions change. He mentioned that under some conditions, it may be necessary to unite with groups that would be enemies under other conditions.
Another comrade read aloud this section from the PFLP's book to illustrate the nuance of this analysis:
“The main line of conflict defined by this strategy is not a straight geometric line with two conflicting forces standing on either side. It is in reality a crooked dialectical line on each side of which stands a group of allied forces co-existing under the shadow of this alliance. At times this alliance grows stronger and at other times the conflicts among them grow more pronounced so that the picture becomes sometimes a mixed and interwoven image moving along the two sides of the main line of conflict.”
This idea reminded one comrade of criticisms she'd heard others make about resistance groups for their various stances on social issues (sometimes substantiated, sometimes not) and allies of the resistance with whom we might have conflicting views. Another comrade stated that this is a question of primary versus secondary, asserting that those who emphasize personal liberties mistakenly place these secondary aspects over what is primary, i.e., the life or death situation of liberation and the destruction of Zionism. She drew connections with the points made earlier about the consciousness of the people we organize with. Those who have nothing to lose are willing to go further in the pursuit of their liberation, while those living in relative luxury are more inclined to criticize their rebellion. From the comfort of their ivory tower, some look down on the violent rebellion of those confined to the concentration camps of occupied Palestine and deride their methods as extreme.
Another comrade reflected on the different conditions faced by people in imperialist nations versus people in nations oppressed by imperialism. These different conditions necessitate different tactics for overcoming oppression. This comrade upheld the PFLP's scientific approach to revolution, saying that as conditions change, our tactics and alliances change too. Once a tactic or alliance no longer serves our movement, we should adapt accordingly to advance the struggle.
Regarding a scientific analysis of our conditions, we continued our discussion from last time on how to use our strengths to target the enemy's weaknesses. One comrade suggested we study tactics of student movements outside of the US, similar to our write-up on the successful building takeover by students in Brazil. While reactionary enemies are technologically and materially stronger than us, this has only caused them to become sluggish and over-reliant on such luxuries. By contrast, the masses have had to devise creative solutions.
One comrade pointed to the crisis of imperialism. While the university seems all-powerful because it can deploy hundreds of cops to attack and surveil us, this hemorrhages money and time. This comrade referenced how our campus is now teeming with Allied Universal security. These guards provide the facade of control, but even a simple class analysis reveals the tenuousness of this control. The comrade pointed out that Columbia’s security guards are paid minimum wage and thus exert minimum effort. There's no material basis for them to express loyalty to the university—as evidenced by the ease with which students overcome the "mandatory ID swiping.” As the PFLP writes, “Through guerrilla warfare we avoid direct confrontation with the enemy and consequently prevent it from exercising its full technological superiority against our forces and from crushing them with lightning speed.”
One comrade applied these tactics to our conditions and suggested we work to educate our members on our strategy and politics while empowering them to go through with their own small-group actions. This comrade said we should aspire to have “little fires everywhere.” In other words, we should implement centralized strategy with decentralized tactics.
Another comrade noted that a key aspect of guerrilla tactics is preserving our forces. Because we organize in the US, we are accustomed to media focus on spectacles of violence. This comrade noted that while mass arrests can create a powerful image and may engage viewers, relying on this tactic quickly depletes our forces through suspensions and ultimately harms the movement’s longevity, as it can discourage potential allies who are unwilling to risk arrest or suspension. Following the scientific approach of the PFLP, this comrade warned against allowing media narratives to dictate our tactics rather than basing them on a concrete analysis of our conditions.
In assessing our concrete conditions, it’s clear that we need to bolster our numbers to take on the university. One comrade mentioned the success of the second encampment and attributed that to vast participation. Earlier, a comrade questioned how to stay in tempo with the masses — not persisting ahead too far and alienating them, but also not trailing behind and stagnating our movement. Another comrade suggested we emphasize outreach more, stressing the importance of connecting with the students and surrounding community members. This method of meeting the people where they are, seeing what they want and what they're willing to join aligns with the scientific approach taken by the PFLP.
To close us out, one comrade quoted this section from the General Remarks: "The relation between thought and revolutionary action is a dialectical one. Thought directs revolutionary action, which in turn produces results, situations, and reactions that influence the theoretical view of things." In our own conditions, this manifests as not reading for reading's sake but rather letting our studies guide and develop our practice. Similarly, we should be intentional in assessing whether our actions align with the guiding theory and scientifically appraise their outcomes.
Several comrades recommended books for further study: On Zionist Literature by Ghassan Kanafani, Labor Power and Strategy by John Womack Jr., and Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla by Carlos Marighella.
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU
We would love to hear your comments, critiques, and perspectives! If you would like to contribute to The Barricade, please email cuadthebarricade@proton.me. You can also follow us @ColumbiaBDS on Twitter/X and @CUApartheidDivest on Instagram. Get a legal or disciplinary notice related to alleged pro-Palestine activism? Contact CUAD's collective defense team at cuaddefense@proton.me and our legal support team at columbiapalsolidarity@proton.me for help!
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