News and Views from the People's Struggle
Orlando, FL – On June 15, Orlando for Peace, with the support of civic organizations around Central Florida, created a Memorial for the Children of Gaza on the steps of Orlando City Hall. The event, held the day before Father’s Day, was to remember and mourn the over 15,000 Palestinian children murdered by Israel.
Orlando, FL – Marcus Polzer, a Students for a Democratic Society member at University of Central Florida faced a formal hearing in front of the office for Student Conduct & Academic Integrity (SCAI) on May 30.
The office of SCAI alleged two counts of disruptive conduct, claiming Polzer taped flyers to light poles advertising SDS’s weekly meeting and pro-Palestine messages. Interestingly, while only citing evidence of taped flyers, the university claims the student leader broke rules regarding solicitation and fundraising. Neither Polzer nor the SDS chapter engaged in such activities.
Los Angeles, CA – On the afternoon of Wednesday, June 12, in an act of escalation for Gaza, pro-Palestinian student protesters occupied the student services building at the California State University – Los Angeles (CSULA) campus.
Fight Back New Service is circulating the following statement from Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
On Friday, June 7, the University of South Florida (USF) made the decision to expel Victoria Hinckley, a leader of the Tampa Bay chapter of Students for a Democratic Society. Hinckley had previously been suspended and barred from walking at graduation, despite being in her final semester. Joseph Charry, another leader of SDS and an international student, was also suspended for a year which threatens his student visa and puts him at the risk of deportation.
Publicado el 7 de mayo de 2024
Los ocupantes Israelíes de Palestina han intensificado sus ataques contra la ciudad de Rafah en el sur de Gaza durante las últimas 24 horas. Han atacado viviendas y han matado a niños. Los aviones están fabricados en los Estados Unidos. El material de guerra que se utiliza lo suministra la administración Biden. Se está llevando a cabo un genocidio en Palestina y Washington, D.C. lo está facilitando.
Fight Back! recently interviewed Fern McBride and Rick Toledo. Both are pro-Palestine activists and SDS members that played important roles in supporting the occupation and the historic resistance at Cal Poly Humboldt, in Arcata, California. What started as sit-on on April 22 escalated into outrageous repression that was, however, met with determined resistance. On May 28, some of the activists had their first court appearance.
Fight Back!: Could you say a few words about how the occupation at Cal Poly Humboldt came about?
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The English translation appeared on the Resistance News Network on Telegram.
Milwaukee, WI – On June 6, the student movement steadfastly continued their efforts to get the University of Wisconsin System to disclose its funds and to divest from the apartheid regime of Israel.
At the June UW System board of regents meeting, approximately 15 students and community members entered the open-session financial meeting to disrupt the scheduled programming.
Minneapolis, MN – On June 6, hundreds of protesters unwelcomed former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who came to downtown Minneapolis to speak for the Center for the American Experiment, a conservative think tank based in the suburb of Golden Valley.
The Center has supported a number of Republican-led political initiatives and regularly features right-wing speakers at its events. Ticket prices for the event ranged from $300 for individual seats to $30,000 “diamond sponsor” tickets that included special VIP access to Bennett.
Bennet is known as a war criminal who in 2013 said, “I’ve killed a lot of Arabs in my life and there’s no problem with that.” Bennett was the prime minister during 2021-22 and represented the New Right political party, which opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state and demands Israeli sovereignty over all of Palestine. He describes himself as more right-wing than even Netanyahu. After Israel’s assault on Gaza began in October, Bennett mocked concerns for Palestinian lives, saying in an interview, “Are you seriously asking me about Palestinian civilians?” and “I am not going to feed electricity or water to my enemies.”
The police stood alongside Zionist ticket holders, who heckled the crowd with racist and Islamophobic slurs, flipping off community members, including young children, while cops took no action.
Over the course of three hours, hundreds of Minneapolis police officers, including SWAT and riot teams, joined the racists in antagonizing the demonstrators.
One protester was violently arrested by riot police armed with rifles as he was peacefully walking away. Four others, including three Muslim Twin Cities residents – two of them minors – were arrested later, violently picked off the street by a large, black SWAT BearCat vehicle.
Wyatt Miller from the Anti-War Committee said, “The supposedly progressive city of Minneapolis helped facilitate the visit of an Israeli leader who helped lay groundwork for the current genocide, invited by a right-wing think tank to speak at a major downtown venue. We call on elected officials to denounce this hateful event and the fact that MPD was allowed to set up an apartheid-like militarized area on its behalf.”
The juveniles were released later that night, but the other arrestees were held until the evening of June 7.
#MinneapolisMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #International #MiddleEast #Palestine #MNAWC #MNFreePalestineCoalition
Baton Rouge, LA- On May 3, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Louisiana State University co-hosted a walkout and rally for Palestine. The protest was in response to the university’s involvement in the Go-Med Consortium, an initiative with the goals of developing oil drilling practices in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of occupied Palestine, with the eventual goals of bringing the developed technology to the Gulf of Mexico. The consortium includes Louisiana universities as well as Israeli universities.