Fight Back! News

News and Views from the People's Struggle

Student Movement

By staff

Pro-Palestine students attacked by Denver police. | Fight Back! News/staff

Denver, CO – On Friday, April 26, the Denver Police Department (DPD) attacked an encampment for Palestine set up by Students for a Democratic Society.

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By staff

Tacoma students join walkout for Palestine. | Fight Back! News/staff

Tacoma WA – On Tuesday, April 23, over 150 students and faculty members from Tacoma School of the Arts, University of Washington Tacoma, and University of Puget Sound walked out of classes at 10:30 a.m. They rallied at Tollefson Plaza to demonstrate student solidarity with Palestine and demand that the United States of America divest from Israel.

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By Taylor Cook

Emory encampment demands divestment from apartheid Israel. | Fight Back! News/staff

Atlanta, GA – On April 25 students at Emory University hosted an encampment at their quad. The encampment followed the recent wave of encampments across the country demanding a free Palestine and university divestment from Israel. Hours after the encampment started, Atlanta Police Department and Georgia State Patrol began brutalizing protesters, shooting pepper balls and arresting them.

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By Freedom Road Socialist Organization - Atlanta District

Police arrest pro-Palestine activists at Emory University.  | Fight Back! News/staff

In a radical act of solidarity with the Palestinian people, university students across the country have escalated the struggles on their campuses with the campus encampment movement. At Emory University in Atlanta, students, faculty and community members created one such encampment demanding for the immediate and total divestment from the Israeli apartheid state. The Atlanta Police Department and Georgia State Patrol were called to the encampment by the Emory administration where they brutalized, beat and arrested dozens of protesters.

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By Rick Toledo

Students hold off police in pro-Palestine building occupation. | Fight Back! News/staff

Arcata, CA – On Monday, April 22, around 4 p.m., roughly 30 students began a sit-in in Siemens Hall at Cal Poly Humboldt, California, to show solidarity with Palestine and with other campuses that are doing the same. While many students on other campuses are setting up encampments, theirs is the first in the movement to take over a building so far, and an admin building, no less. This also made them the first state university to join the movement.

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By Dane Snudden

University of Wisconsin-Green Bay SDS members chanting outside of Senator Tammy Baldwin event after getting kicked out. | Fight Back! News/staff

Green Bay, WI – On March 22, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) interrupted a College Democrats speaking event on campus that had U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin as a guest speaker. The event was promoted in secret on campus to prevent SDS from organizing and was supposed to teach students how to get people to vote for her. SDS found out and decided to mobilize.

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By staff

Student occupation in Rochester, New York. | Fight Back! News/staff

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from University of Rochester Students for a Democratic Society and Students for Justice in Palestine.

As of April 24, the administration of University of Rochester has announced that UR will move forward with an academic boycott from all ties to Israel. This was a demand of the occupation set up by Students for a Democratic Society and Students for Justice in Palestine, now won by the students.

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By Gillian Rath

Twin Cities students establish Gaza Solidarity Encampment demanding divestment from apartheid Israel. | Fight Back! News/staff

Minneapolis, MN – On Tuesday, April 23 at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, student activists set up a Gaza Solidarity encampment. This encampment was organized by the UMN Divest Coalition which is made up of Students for a Democratic Society, Students for Justice in Palestine, Young Democratic Socialists of America and Students for Climate Justice. The coalition is pushing for the University of Minnesota to cut ties financially with Israel. This means to divest from weapon manufacturers, stop study abroad trips to Israel and stop having defense companies doing recruitment on campus.

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By Carson Cruse

Protesters in Baton Rouge gather with mock body bags in protest against reactionary republican agenda. | Fight Back! News/staff

Baton Rouge, LA – On April 22, over 50 students and community organizers rallied on the steps of the Louisiana State Capitol demanding an end to the GOP’s reactionary agenda. The protesters then took to the streets and marched to Governor Jeff Landry’s mansion for a rally. This action served to unite the people against the Republicans and bring the people to the march on the Republican National Convention this summer in Milwaukee.

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By staff

University of Minnesota SDS encampment demand divestment from apartheid Israel. | Fight Back! News/staff

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement by the New Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

While standing in solidarity with Palestine, the student movement has once again escalated protests on campus with the campus encampment movement. Students are calling out their universities and its administrators for their decades’ long support of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians and are demanding that our universities divest and cut all ties to Israel! University administrators have no right to ignore the students as university administrators continue to support the genocide in Gaza and maintain support for Israel.

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By Liz Rathburn

Chicago IL – On April 17, over 70 students rallied and marched at the University of Illinois at Chicago to oppose U.S. war moves against Iran. The action was part of a National Day of Action called by Students for a Democratic Society.

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By Victoria Hinckley

Tampa students march for Palestine. | Fight Back! News/staff

Tampa, FL- Over 20 students at the University of South Florida marched April 18 to demand no U.S. attacks on Iran and an end to U.S. aid to Israel.

Tampa Bay SDS organized this protest and march as part of a National Day of Action called by National SDS in response to the April 1 Israeli bombing of the Iranian diplomatic mission in Damascus, Syria. Students marched from the library to the student center to show their support for Palestine and for the solidarity that Iran has shown towards Palestine.

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By staff

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from University of Central Florida Students for a Democratic Society.

On April 1 , UCF Students for a Democratic Society was informed that the Office of Student Conduct and Academic Integrity was moving forward with charging one of its members with several violations of student conduct in addition to filing legal charges for criminal mischief, in response to pro-Palestine activism.

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By Yossi Aharoni

Students march for Palestine in Minneapolis. | Fight Back! News/Ashley Taylor- Gouge

Minneapolis, MN – On April 20, on a brisk spring afternoon, over 350 pro-Palestine demonstrators rallied at Bryant Square Park in the Minneapolis Uptown neighborhood for the first large scale march initiated by the Minnesota chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine and the Arab Student Association at the U of MN.

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By staff

Tacoma students rally against war with Iran. | Fight Back! News/staff

Tacoma, WA – On April 14, in Tollefson Plaza, approximately 30 protesters gathered in Tacoma to demand “U.S hands off Iran” at a rally called for by several Students for a Democratic Society chapters (SDS).

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By staff

Minneapolis, MN – On Wednesday, April 17, dozens of students and community members gathered on the University of Minnesota campus to rally against war with Iran. On Saturday, April 13, Iran launched a series of attacks on Israel in retaliation for the recent Israeli attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria.

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By Jacob Muldoon

On April 17, The bi-partisan House Education Committee held a congressional hearing focused on Columbia University’s response to alleged antisemitism on campus. This hearing is part of a larger investigation into universities in the wake of widespread pro-Palestinian protests nationwide.

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By staff

Khalid Hamu removed by police from University of Colorado Denver board of regents meeting  | Fight Back! News/staff

Denver, CO – On April 11, members of Denver Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) rallied and held several disruptions outside the University of Colorado Denver board of regents meeting to further Denver SDS’s demands for the University of Colorado to divest from companies tied with Israel.

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By Oliver Cheese

Students gather on Landis Green to demand FSU divest from Israel. | Fight Back! News/Ben Grant

Tallahassee, FL – On Friday, April 12, students at Florida State University joined Tallahassee Students for a Democratic Society to demand that the university divest from apartheid Israel, including ending its partnership with infamous weapons manufacturer Boeing, which arms the Israeli occupation.

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By staff

Chicago students march for diversity. | Fight Back! News/staff

Chicago IL – On April 3, nearly 70 students rallied at the University of Illinois at Chicago to demand the university do more to support its diverse student body. This included increased funding to cultural centers, ethnic studies programs, diversity programs, increased Black enrollment and retention, and hiring more Black and Latino faculty. Despite freezing wind and rain the students marched and rallied for over an hour, chanting “We’re cold, we’re tired, we don’t like the admin!”

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