News and Views from the People's Struggle
![Husam Maradja, of the US Palestinian Community Network \[USPCN\]](https://i.snap.as/FRqCSv5I.png "Husam Maradja, of the US Palestinian Community Network [USPCN]")
The Anti-War Action Network, a national network of grassroots organizations, held a October 28 webinar to address the meaning of the recent ‘ceasefire’ deal for the Palestine solidarity movement.
Husam Maradja with the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), a leading force in the Palestinian liberation movement in the U.S., laid out an analysis of the ceasefire deal and our role as organizers in this period.
New York, NY – On October 24, in Midtown Manhattan the NYC Educators For Palestine convened an event to launch their divestment campaign for the new school year.
The Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) for the Ccty of New York currently holds $112million of stock in Israeli companies. The “TRS Divest” campaign, made in combination with teachers in the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and the Professional Staff Congress of the City University of New York (PSC-CUNY), seeks to bring more teachers into the fold to organize against their retirement funds being invested in Israeli stocks, including notorious weapons manufacturers such as Elbit Systems.
Milwaukee, WI – On Monday, October 20, 100 people gathered in Milwaukee for an emergency march led by the Milwaukee Anti-war Committee (MAC), protesting Israel’s violations of the recently announced ceasefire. Demands included ending all U.S aid to Israel as well as a real and permanent ceasefire, chanting “No more bombs! No more lies.”
Kent, WA – On October 24, organizers with Seattle Against War (SAW) assembled in front of Congressman Adam Smith’s (WA-09) office to launch their “Adam Smith: Stop Arming Israel!” campaign and deliver a petition with over 530 signatures to Smith himself.
Charleston, SC – On October 22, the College of Charleston (CofC) chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) staged a protest against the so-called “Combat on College” event, at which an IDF soldier was scheduled to speak.
The protest was held in the Cistern Yard in front of Randolph Hall, the college’s central administrative building. It was timed to coincide with the university-sanctioned and Hillel-sponsored Israeli propaganda operation taking place just blocks away at the College’s Jewish Studies Center.
Saint Paul, MN – On Tuesday, October 21, the typically quiet Retirement Systems Building was filled with chants of “Free Palestine” as advocates of divestment from Israel staged an all-day sit-in. The building houses the staff offices of the State Board of Investment (SBI), whose long-delayed quarterly meeting was held that morning in an online-only format in the board’s latest effort to avoid Palestine protesters.
The SBI is chaired by Governor Tim Walz, joined by Attorney General Keith Ellison, State Auditor Julie Blaha and Secretary of State Steve Simon. Growing numbers of public employees, pension holders and other community members have spoken at quarterly SBI meetings, calling on it to divest state-managed funds from the state of Israel and companies complicit in Israel’s apartheid system and genocide in Gaza.
Tuesday’s meeting had originally been scheduled for August 20, but was abruptly postponed by the SBI as soon as divestment advocates posted a call to pack the physical meeting room. The two-month delay and switch to a virtual-only format followed a year of similar moves by the SBI.
The action at the Retirement Systems Building began just after 8 a.m., when participants discreetly entered the building, hours before the SBI meeting and before security restrictions were implemented.
The group, which included public pension holders and Palestine solidarity activists, soon began their sit-in just outside the SBI’s offices, in the building's front lobby. They announced they would not leave until the SBI met their demands to immediately divest from Israel Bonds, create a task force to publicly state risks associated with Minnesota’s investment ties to companies complicit in Israel’s crimes, and pledge to hold all future meetings in person and fully open to the public.
It marked the beginning of what would be nearly 16 hours of continuous protest. At 10 a.m., a rally in support of the sit-in began outside the building, coinciding with the SBI meeting itself.
Several divestment advocates gave public comment at the SBI meeting, during which the SBI also approved new public engagement rules that formalized many of the arbitrary restrictions the SBI had imposed over the previous two years. In protest of the online-only meeting format, some speakers made their comments to the SBI while physically present at the rally outside the building.
Anna Madison, a member of Families Against Military Madness, highlighted a September 16 report by the United Nations (UN) Commission of Inquiry that found Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. “The UN has handed you a gift with this report. It provides you with the moral clarity and diplomatic cover to completely divest from Israel and all related entities complicit and/or profiting from genocide,” Madison said.
“My mother has a Minnesota state pension fund, and I don’t want it soaked in the blood of the Palestinians any more than Governor [Rudy] Perpich in 1985 wanted our state’s pension funds soaked in the blood of Black South Africans,” Nathan Phillips told the SBI. In 1985, the SBI passed a resolution initiating broad divestment from apartheid South Africa.
Mary Ford is a retired teacher who receives a Teachers Retirement Association pension, managed by the SBI. “With the current, violated, ceasefire, there is a good chance that Gaza will go back to what it used to be: an open-air prison, this time with no buildings,” said Ford, who also shared an anecdote of trying to explain to her students when her Palestinian friend’s entire family was killed by an Israeli bomb in Gaza.
Several members of the Minnesota Association of Public Employees (MAPE) statewide labor union spoke in favor of divestment. In 2024, MAPE passed a resolution calling for the SBI to divest.
Hannah Gary, a state employee and labor unionist with AFSCME 668, highlighted that the state of Minnesota’s One Minnesota Plan includes a guiding principle of “do the right thing, especially when it’s difficult.” Gary explained: “We are asking you to follow the same commitments that we as public servants are holding up.”
In her comments to the SBI, Kim DeFranco, a community activist with Women Against Military Madness, estimated that the SBI has heard at least 600 public commenters calling for divestment from Israel since its current members took office in 2019. Groups have also submitted tens of thousands of petitions.
Cullom McCormick from the Climate Justice Committee highlighted ecological destruction associated with Israel’s occupation and genocide. “There is not a world in which the Minnesota SBI can remain consistent with its stated values of sustainability while remaining invested in Israel,” McCormick said.
When one sit-in participant called the SBI’s office to announce the demands, they were hung up on. Ultimately, both the sit-in and the rally outside the building continued up to 4:30 p.m., when state troopers initiated arrests.
In total, 11 people were detained and taken to the Ramsey County jail, where they were booked and held for hours. The support rally relocated from outside the Retirement Systems Building to outside the jail — despite cold, rainy weather.
While nine were released around midnight, two alleged sit-in participants were arbitrarily held overnight. They appeared in court the following morning, when a judge ordered their immediate release after prosecutors failed to justify their continued detention.
Maeve Aickin is a member of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee and a public educator who holds an SBI-managed pension. “I participated in the sit-in because the SBI invests the money I earn by creating a safe and healthy space for children, in an apartheid state that has spent the majority of the past century trying to make every space a Palestinian child can access into a dangerous one,” said Aickin. “Israel’s all-out assault on Palestinian children and their right to safety and education has culminated in its destruction of over 2300 schools. It makes me feel sick to know that my pension is invested in corporations that facilitate the murder and orphaning of children the same age as my students.”
Aickin added, “The state’s response to our peaceful protest registered to me as a spiteful mismanagement of public resources and taxpayer money.”
Organizers were undeterred by the arrests, announcing that Minnesota’s fight for divestment from genocidal, apartheid Israel would continue.
Seattle, WA – On October 18, a crowd of 90,000 turned out for No Kings Day 2.0 at Seattle Center to protest the growing list of attacks by the Trump administration. They demanded immigrant rights, police accountability, and stops to U.S. war and intervention abroad, attacks on federal workers, social programs and services, as well as people’s basic rights to bodily autonomy and access to medical care.
Portage, MI – More than 50 people converged on the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport this past Sunday to greet the arrival of Sumud Flotilla activist Khalid Jamal after his detention in the notorious Ktzi'ot Prison.
Bozeman, MT – On Friday, October 17, students and community members gathered with signs reading, “Blood money off campus” and “Pro-science anti-genocide” to protest against the presence of a U.S.-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development (BARD) Fund info session on campus, aimed at finding university researchers to do agricultural research for BARD.
Denver, CO – In the evening of October 7, 40 people gathered at the front door of the Tabor Center in downtown Denver to commemorate two years of the U.S./Israeli genocide in Gaza. The event, organized by Denver Anti-War Action (DAWA), was a reminder of everything Palestinians have suffered both before and since October 7.
New Brighton, MN – On October 16, about 50 Minnesotans gathered outside a Howmet Aerospace facility in New Brighton as a part of the Anti-War Action Network’s nationwide call-to-action targeting weapons manufacturers.
Seattle, WA – On October 12, anti-war and immigrant rights organizers in Seattle gathered with the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) to answer the Anti-War Action Network’s (AWAN) call for protests against the escalation in U.S. aggression against Venezuela. A small crowd assembled in front of the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building to show solidarity with the Venezuela and demand to keep that country free from U.S. intervention.
Niles, OH – On October 12, members of the Pittsburgh BDS Coalition joined up with activists from various local groups to protest outside a Howmet Aerospace factory, known to be manufacturing parts for the F-35 jet which is being used by the IDF in occupied Palestine. The boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement works to isolate Israel for the crimes it is committing in Palestine.
Santa Ana, CA – On October 7, over 30 people crowded on the busy street corner of Bristol Avenue and McFadden Street to protest the ongoing genocide in Palestine. They carried signs supporting an end to the siege on Gaza, calling for a victory to the Palestinian resistance, ending U.S. aid to Israel and defending the Freedom Flotilla.
The protest, organized by Community Service Organization Orange County (CSO OC) kicked off with chants of “Free, free Palestine!” and “When Palestine is under attack, what do we do? Stand up! Fight back!” which was met with honks and cheers of support from passing drivers. The chanting continued as the protesters took to the street and marched between each of the corners on the intersection, bringing the message directly to the commuters.
Philadelphia, PA – On October 7, 300 protestors marched through Center City to commemorate the two-year anniversary of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation which reasserted the global cause for Palestinian liberation and struck a massive blow against the Israeli occupation.
Garland, TX – A coalition of DFW Anti War Committee, Palestinian Youth Movement and Freedom Road Socialist Organization rallied outside the REPKON USA facility off of Glenbrook Drive, on October 10. Settled in a relatively quiet suburb outside of Dallas next to a high school football stadium, the REPKON facility spans 38 acres and is responsible for the production of the Mk-80 and BLU-109 “bunker buster” bombs, the vast majority of the munitions dropped on families and refugee camps in Gaza along with other theatres of war around the globe.
Los Angeles, CA – On October 7, the two-year anniversary of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, Centro CSO held a rally in solidarity with Palestine. The protest, which was a part of the Anti-War Action Network’s National Day of Action, commemorated the heroic defiance by the Palestinian resistance. Participants called for an end to U.S. aid to Israel and demanded an end to the siege and ongoing genocide on Palestinians in Gaza.
Tampa, FL — On Thursday October 9, Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society held a press conference to announce they had filed a lawsuit against the University of South Florida (USF) Board of Trustees, the USF Police Department, President Rhea Law, Dean of Students Danielle McDonald and Assistant Dean Melissa Graham.
Portland, OR – On October 7, over 100 people gathered in downtown Portland to rally and march on the two-year anniversary of October 7, 2023 – the day that the resistance movement in Gaza broke out of its open-air prison and brought the Palestinian liberation movement to the forefront of politics around the world.
Chicago, IL- Hundreds of Chicagoans came out on October 4 in response to a national call for protests against the two-year anniversary of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, echoed by the Chicago Coalition for Justice in Palestine (CJP). They are continuing to demand an arms embargo, divestment from the Zionist entity, right of return, and the full liberation of Palestine – regardless of the ceasefire.