An incomplete compendium

of reportbacks from the

Student Encampment
movement for Palestine
Aux armes!: May Day
at the Olive Grove

By Emelina Rosa|

What can we do againstthe steady drip of
almost unbearble news, not only from Gaza,
bt from allaround this beleaguered planct?
This is what we can do, we can be
ungovernable. There s alchemy in coming
together and facing them down. Thisis how
we find ourselves: Gaza i us

Took partin the two Gaza Soldarity
encampments a the Universiy of Arizona
and lefe minutes before police etacked in the
early hours of Wednesday, May 1. I'e been
afliated with UA for twenty years, firstas .
seudent and now asa visicing scholar, and it
was an honor to ake part, We overeurned the
loeal tadition of pacficism and civliy. 'm
proud of us

Titayed on campus unl the order o disperse
‘on Monday evening and was furious a having
o take down the barrcades we had juse buile.
Tmet with my crew in the morning, and we
grumbled about the tyranny of fear. [ was
packing to go home when word came that we
were sewting up another liberated zone and
this time we would stay and fight. This came

from the same foks who decided to disperse
the day before. That they changed their
minds, not because they were overruled or
outvored but because they themselves
overcame their own caution: this was a
moment of transformation.

This was my first encampment. (I¢s along,
story but Pve been in Bisbee for decades.) A
lot was new, T was unprepared for how
solcitousfolks were with one another, how
wellwe worked together. There was such
tenderness, such mutual respeet,that it ook
me awhile o understand the culture, (1 know
i€’ more complicated but give me this
moment. I remember when macho asholes
ruled.) The first evening I rurned down an
escortto my car—thisis my campus—and [
bristled at people constandly offering me
water, I declined the frst young woman who
offered to be my buddy—my instinet was to
be autonomous—and now P'm sory; because
it was rude—forgive me, i you read this—and
because L did notexpeet it T accepred the
second but remained uneasy, not used to
being shadowed.

Ihad to realize [ can no longer run up and.
down the mach, as did in my twenties. 'm.
estless and I could never walk in place back
then, so [ would patrol the perimeter with an
old Nikkormat taking photos. That was my
tole. Now I can hardly walk.

P seventy-four, with archecs, [ could barely
st on the ground. T kep squirming. Even
when Iwent over the wallto Park Avenue,
saton achair. [ was there with my back to the
wall when a ine of frat boys formed in the
sereet with a huge spealker blaring pop music.
That was the only time I fel fear and for only
2 moment. We drowned them out as we
drowned out the cops, but they stayed a long
time. I stood up and blocked one when he
wandered among us, screaming as loud as
could and then shoving a poster between us
In the moment when e were inches apart, he
mimicked a gesture I made. I expected him to,
e brutal and vulgar, but that mackery was
‘odd. They seemed to think we cared what they
thought, perhaps because they re brought up
torule.

Twas surprised that most of the campers were
women and trans people. Despite te years
Pye been lurking on the ringes of anarchise
movements, { did no expect that, because
nearly all the witers are men. [ won’t name
names and I love my comrades, but women,
trans folks—please—step up. Writing is way
of thinking things through, don’t letthe cis
men do el

Twent to my first protest when I waseleven.
My facher picked me up from school and ook
me to the Utah sate capitol, where they were
debating a cvil rights iniciative. We lined up
around the edge of the rotunda, Black and
white. The iniiacive lost, but we bore witness.

Sometimes its worth i, to simply bear
witness, st was that time in Sale Lake Ciry:
But T have aken part in countless marches,
salles, and demonstrations, and most of them
were shows of weakness. We respected their
protocol, we marched within the lines they
drew, and acquiesced to the containers we're
seuckin, We blew offsteam and went back to
our lives, having done “something.” We gave
them the chance to identify us and gauge our
serengh.

Most demonstrations focus on a specfic issue
and are only about themselves, but our
demands made it clar that we are fighting not
only o divestment and an end to the
genocide in Gaza but for our liberation as
well Plestine will free usal!

“The universiey will not divest, since that
would mean urning itselfinsde out and
denying is own primary function, of
maingaining elite rule. (I lso provides,
through s contradictory nacure, spaces of
ereativity and precious earning, but that’s
another sory.) Divestment is a demand thae
points to the limits of the wretched system
we're caught n, ademand that this world
cannoesatisfy,that begs s to destroy it, now,
in totality, and not bit by bit, through
incremental improvements that are usually
turned againse us. Our demands are
nonnegotiable. None of usare free unilall of
us ae free. Don'elook for aseres of
accumulating wins, building to a better world:
e willose every battle but the last one, but
e willearn to lose better, and we will keep
advancing.

‘We refused o negoriate. We ralied hundreds
0 our sde through our intransigence and we
avoided mass punishment. We hurld defiance
at the pigs for hours and only a handful were
armested or hure. We are pareof global
movement. May 1 was avictory.

Beillegal,early and ofien. Look out for your
friends and be brave together. Escalae and
expand. Go Wildears!

At the barricades the pain s over. The.
sransformation is omplete. It s complred by «
shou from the roofiaps that thesldicrs are
aduancing. Suddenly there is nothing to regre.
The barricades are betucen their defenders and.
she iolence done tothem throughout ther ives,
There s otbing to regre because st s he
quintesence of theirpast which is now
aduancing against them. On their side ofthe
barricades it s already the future. Every raling
minority needs o niomb and, if passblesto kil
she time sense o those whom i exploits by
propusing a continons present. Thisis the
autboritarian scret of all methodsof
imprisonment. The barricades break that
present.”

-John Berger, G.
FROM HARLEM
TO PALESTINE:
GLOBALIZE THE
INTIFADA

Communiqué on the
Liberation of Hind’s Hall

Inthe carly morning of April 3
liberated Hamlton Hall at Columbia
Universty. Nearly two weekscarlir, bundreds
of pople had constructed he Gaza Solidarity
Encampment on Butler Lason, under constant
threats of police abuse and university disipline.
Thisencampment helped spark a global
movement against he role of unicersiies in
imperialis Zionit genocile. By moving from
the lawn and liberating a wnicersty building,
we escalated our tactics o apply greaterpressure
on the administration and 1 inspireotbers to
take bold action. Here s ur statement;

‘We took Hamilon Hall because it belongs to
us. We took it because we rfise o remain
compliantin the face of an American-led
genocide of the Palestinian people.

We liberated the Hall, and made it Hind’s

Hind’s Hall was named after Hind Rajab, 2
sixyear-old Palestinian gil from Gaza
murdered by the Zioniseentity on January
29th. Her final hours were spentina
bulletriddled car, pleading for help into 2 cell
phone, surtounded by dead family members
Tovelve dayslter,her remains and those of her
Family were discovered alongside the bodies of
the two healtheare workers sent to rescue her,
their ambulance blaseed apart by a Zionist
missle.

Hind: kindergareener, daughter,sseer, martyr
She and the tens of thousands of other
martyes moved us o act. We are committed to
the fight for the toral liberation of Paletine,
which s no lss than the ight to iberate.
Harlen from Columbia, the prisoners from
the prisons, and the wretched of the earth
from Western imperialism

Columbia escaated, so we did too.

‘Columbia Universiy earned its staus as an
elite universiy through colonial
plunder—from Harlem to South Africato
Palestne. It grew its $13.6 illon dollar
endowment by investing in corporations like
BlackRock, Caterpillar, Google, and Aiebnb
that facilicate violent land theft and genocide
in Palestine and across the Global South.
Pro-Palestine students on campus have been
protesting tirelesly for Columbia to divest
from the business of genocide, only to be met
with discipline and realiation.

Last month, asthe situation in Gaza became
more dire—with the number of confirmed
martyesclimbing above 42,000, millons
facing catasrophic fumine, and the (now.
underway) invasion of Rafih
impending—Columbia’s commiment o
repressing student protest against the
genocide only intensified. On April 18,
President Minouche Shafik caled i the
NYPD to sweep the frse Gaza Solidarity
Encampment, carrying out thelargest mass
arrestson campus since 1968. Shorly aier,
the administration rejected our demands for
divestment and doubled down on ts support
for the genocidal Zionist entty.

Soinstead of continuing to entereain bad fith
negotiations, we chose to strike at the heart of
the prevailing order. We iberated Hind's Hall

Weare all ourside agitators.

Who are we? Some of us are students under
the threat of expulsion. Others are staf,
faculty alumi, and community members.
However, inside of Hind's Hall,none of these
discinctions mattered. To liberate the building
st tear down the acifical border between
“student” and “non-seudent” imposed by the
clasist racist sorting mechanism which
determines who deserves a place within the
ivory tower and who remains locked outside
ies gates.

‘While Columbia continues o displace the
Black and brown working class community of
Harlen, it criminalizes the very people whose
homes it has solen. While Columbia
continuies to profi from imperial spoil, it
ostracizes and expels students who protestits
ol i the genocide of the Palstinian peopl.
In the eyesof this occupying force on stolen
land, we are all outside agitators. We wear this
as2 badge of honor.

Tewasour refsal to accept the terms and
categoricsimposcd on us by the universty
that threatencdits power, Our
uncompromising commitment to nothing
shortof fulldivestment and the total

donors, trustees, and lking heads—who.
work overtime to defing our budding
revolution with bread crumb concessions

‘We refused o be pacified while the blood of
Palestne spils on the strets of Gaza,Instead,
e forced Columbia to show the world the
iron fistinside it vlvet glove

NYPD, KKK, IOF, YOU'RE ALL THE
SAME!

On the evening of April 30th, the university
placed our entire community under iege.
Preparing to raid us, the NYPD and Public
Safety locked down the Morningside campus,
as wellasseveral locks of the surrounding
Harlem neighborhood. Already having
trandformed itselfinto a miliarized police
fortress over the past few months—with a
proliferation of checkpoints,surveilance
drones, infiared cameras, and hovering
choppers—Columbia became one giant kettle
from which no one could exitor enter.

Under threat of areest,journalists and
onlookersalike were herded into buildings,
prevented from bearing witness to our
brugalization. The NYPD's Strategic
Response Group (SRG) violendly arrested
those defending us outside the building,
linging one protester down the sairs and
leaving them unconscious, dragging others
avvay as they tied to help.

Inside Hind's Hall, we faced stun grenades, a
rogue gunshor from a rigger happy pig,
batons and circular saws, face stomping, head
trauma, fractured bones,sprains and cuts and
bruises. Once we were in police custody, they
seole hijabs of the heads of Muslim women,
sexually harassed our gender-marginalized

liberacion of Plestine threatencd the fackal of comrades, threatened and rdiculed us.

the university system —administrators,
Stop Cop City!Stop Cop University!
“This militarized raid was orcheserated by
Rebecea Weiner, Faculty at Columbia's School
of International and Public Affairs and the
Deputy Pig of the NYPD Counterterrorism
Bureau, which maintains an offcein Tel Aviv
“This triangulation becween the universiy,the
NYPD, and the Zionist millcary parallls the
“deadly exchange” called out by our comrades
in the Stop Cop City movement a they fight
to shut down GILEE (Georgia International
Law Enforcement Exchange), a progeam
sponsored by Georgia State University which
cross-trains USS. police departments with the
10F

Faculty like Weiner and programs like GILEE
draw a direetline from universiy campuses to
Cop City, the facility modeled afer an IOF
training ground in occupied Palestine, a
“Little Gara,” where advanced suategies for
urban warfare and dispossession are refined.
These laboratorie of domination are
proliferating acros the country in an
inexorable march from Cop City to Cop
Nation. There are cursently sixty-nine Coy
Citiesin'the USS. that have either lready been
buile or are n the process of construction,
with universities such as Columbia and
Georgia State playing a ey role n facilitating
the knowledge transfers that make them
possible. Let it be known that the police and
the university are mutually reinforcing
apparatuses of the fascistsate!

United in scruggle, united in victory.

Just 20 blocks uptown that same night,the
NYPD brutalized our comrades at the Ci
College of New York. In the hours after our
concurrent arests, we were held in the same
cells but were no subject to the same

treatment—CUNY's arestees were slapped

with felony charges and held for three days,
while we were charged with misdemeanors
and released in lss than 48 hours

We reect these hierarchical divisions imposed
on us by the stare and understand our
mobilizations as part of 2 unified whole. We
insist that CUNY and Columbia are one
campus. Our soldariey with the CUNY rebels
is unconditional, s is our solidariy with those
who took to the sreets and cheered us o at
the gates. We have not forgotten that the one
thing that kept Columbia from raiding the ‘68
occupations was the threat o Harlem roting.
Similarly, working class Plestnian-ed crowds
Kept ussaf by becoming a near-constant
finture outside Columbia's gates.

In an actempt o divide us and fragment our
movement, police departments and
universties have only crystallized the power
e hold when we ae unified. In the ight for
ot liberation, an injury to one s an injury to
usall

Offof campus and into the steets

The enemy may hav dismantled our
communes, but we know our struggle has
only just begun. Just a the Viemamese
revolutionariesignited the eycle of student
revoltin ‘68, he Palestinian people inspire us
to continue building on the insurrectionary
energy incubated in the encampmens. The
Studen Intifada will become a evolutionary
force only when it succeeds in integrating
ieself with the struggles of the surrounding
community and expands the popular cradle of
resistance beyond the campus and into the

What we experienced i nothing compared to
what the Pletinian people have endued for
76 years and seven months. Bombs on schools,
missles on hospitals, state-of-the-art machines
designed o slaughter children by the
hundreds and dissolve the skin from their
faces, bulldorers and mass graves,starvation,
dehydration, imprisonment, torture,
displacement, death—this will be our legacy;
unless those of us within the bely of the beast
fight oend it

‘We chose action, and you must too—again,
again, unil the weight of ur collective action
and refusal dismantles the prisons and all our
prisoners flood the steets.

UNTIL VICTORY!
For Those Who
‘Would Act When
Genocide is
Ignored: A Report
Back from the UC
Santa Cruz
Encampment

Critical eport and reflction on the launch of
astudent encampment i solidariy with
Palestine at the Universit of California Santa
Cruz (UCSC).

photo via Ales Davocy on Indsbayorg.

“The ifeblood of ou encampment has becn
the act of sceing what nceds to be done and
doingit, without waiting for permision or
instruction. We could not have builtsuch
outstanding supporting srvices foroursclves,
nor could we have addressed evolving violent

s, otherwise. GRAB SOME
PEOPLE AND GET IT DONE” - How We
Can Wi from UCLA

May Lst, Day One

Late morning, around 50 people set up a few
doen tents in UC Santa Cruz’s Quarsy Plaza,
astudent quad thatis the closes thing on
campus thatstudents have to central hub.
The Plaza tselfis made up of a wide walking
path with a bookstore, a cafe, and several
student commons buildings surrounding it It
isin chis wide walking path that student

activists set up camp. The firse few hours were
busy and energetic,food arrivs, wood pallets
and taffc cones areset up to form a basic
perimeter. Baniers ae dropped and morale s
high thanks to a large May Day rally of
hundreds which gathersin the parking lot
near the main entrance of the Plaza. Set-up
continues throughout the day, with more
tents and people arriving, the makeshift
barricades being bolsered with fencing,
Aframes, and metal concert bareers

A “people’s library” of ines and donated
books pops up, a robust medlic sasion i
ereated. Student Leadership begins
appointing more and more people as
“security” and handing out yellow vests. An
effortatsecurity culture is made via a mask
policy within the encampment, and the
widespread use of “code names” for
participants. All the surrounding buildings
remained open to the public the firt day.
Much fusis made bout the fire marshal
code, and soa walkway remains open on one
side of the encampment for pasersby to move
through. University admin and stafflinger on
the sidelines, some talking to student
organizers. The day moves fas, several
“community meetings”are called, moderated
by megaphone.toting leadership, and there are
some teachns sbout Palesine and
community events

A few cop cars oll by on the main road, and
every now and then a campus security vehicle
saations itselfin the parking lot. An effort s
made o cover up the security camerasin the
area. The Graduate Student Commons,
which s a smalllounge located above the cafe,
isleft open and a mix of grad students and.
campers say there lateinto nigh, taking
advantage of the itchenette and restrooms
inside. The campers eat dinner, everyone is
provided atent and sleeping bags, and the
camp etites for the night, although many seay
up late chatting, and a securiey decailof yellow
Vestersstays a the camp entrances throughout
the night.

Day Two

A cold, quiet morning staes off day two of the
encampment. Halfa dozen security people sip
coffee and wander around, and evenvually the
rest of the campers begin to wake up.
Through the day programming continues
with more teachins. Organizers hold some
low-key meetingsin the corners of the
encampment.

The camp really expands day two, from 50 to
over a hundred campers that wickled in
through the day. Out of necessty the camp
expands farther down the quarry pah. More
barrcade materials are scavenged from the
surrounding areas. Student leadership really
stars exerting influence, with more and more
concern displayed for respectabiliy,including
much anxiety expressed over graffc, banners,
and slogans that do not ftinto thei image.

The graduaee student commons, which atthis
point has been de-facto occupied; becomes a
place for meetings, and some tents are moved
onto the balcony: The surrounding buildings,
including the bookstore and the student.
resource centers, are closed due to the
protests. That night,the caf s briefly opened
butleadership shuts down the idea to oceupy
ie. There isalso push to expand the camp
inco the frone parking lot, but that s shut
down 100 in 2 moderated community forum.
Police remain a no-show, but i i reported
that under coversare putrolling campus, and
admin continues to hover. A sense of fear and
anxieryis palpable, as organizersstess sbout
what actions may or may not mean recaliation

from the University. A lae night meeting,
campers etie forthe night,and securiy takes
up the nighttime watch.

Day Three

By day three the camp has begun to seriously
fallinto routine. Camp continues o grow.
Some reporters and what look like
independent filmmakers show up. More.
organizer meetings, a de-arest rining, and
more teachins on the patio ofthe closed cafe,
which has been dubbed “The People’s
Universiy.” Leadership organizes a bsic tier
of isk olerance, and reorganizes some of the
ents to reflct this,so that those who are
willing to be arrested are in tentscloser o the
perimeter. Tents are also moved in
anicipation of possible rain.

Here's some analysis about the frs few days
of the encampment;, which at time of writing
isstill oing strong into ie's seventh day:

Analysis

Itis incredibly important o stres thefact hat
this encampment is ot an autonomous space.
“Thisaction was planned and continues to be
controlled by the local chapter of Students for
Justce n Palestine (SJP), who have been in
close communication with UCSC
administration, and who are devored to tactics
of respectabiliy politcs, peace polcing, and
non-escalaton. As of dme of writing, the
UCSC encampment s suffering from *slow
death by committee,” fuling o escalae,
expand, or act boldly. [Editor’s nore:
‘According toa prsss release posted so.
Indybay.org ks bevween the encampment
representatives and campus adminstration
has broken dowa, and demonsteators are
expected apolicerad |

Atevery turm, actions by non-organizers at the
encampment have been discouraged and
micro-managed, and used as justifications for
leadership to consolidate their powier by being
the loudest and most “reasonable” voices.
Echoing every single report back we've read
from around the country, we can’t wait
around o decide everything in a meeting, that
willjustslow us down, and now i no the
time to give platform to those who are too
timid 1o 2ct. The hesitancy of leadership.
towards autonomous action s exactly the kind
of atitude that creates a culture thatis too.
nervous of the threat of violence o stand in
solidariy with Palestine. The only language
the colonizer understands s milicancy, we
can’tafford to deny that right now. Itis
impossible to peacefully end a genocide,
getting free is sruggle, and we shouldn’t
condem the strategies of others fighting for
liberation alongside us.

P leadership expresses hostilty towards the
Universiy of California (UC)in thei slogans
and speeches, butare in fact n close
communicacion with them, The or
parametersof the encampment were
communicated to administration, and admin
has aid ou certain ground rules that JPis

committed to adhering to. This hasked to an

nal

incredible misplacement of priorities,such as
the obsession over following fire marshal code,
and the refusal o occupy new buildings
because it might mean a police response.

SIP knows they ae being peace police, nd
have excuses at the ready. Ultimately,they are
liberls practicing counterinsurgency on
themselves. They perperuate the “outside
apitator” nareaive that divides seudents and
non-students, and absorb the nergy of new

participants by handing them safety vesesand
encouraging a shared porver tip.

The encampment is not prepared for police
brusaliy. They want to grow but are
paralyzed by the fear that doing so willinvite
police violence (which is coming regardless).
They want to hold space and prepare for
escalation at some magical future point. Our
best chance 1o escalte s now; before the
police come. There s no time to wait, and the
time for words s over.

No flimsy agreement or negotiated space will
keep the polic from coming forever; we need
o prepare for them to come by taking space
while we can. We keep us sae not by policing
each other but by having each others backs
and being unified in our shared goal, i
always in our tactis. We keep us safe, not the
cops, not the University:

FREE PALESTINE and DEATH TO
WHITE SUPREMACY. Shame on organizers
for chanting “Globalize The Intifada” while
simultancously negotating with the
occupying force

We believe thaethese dynamics arelikely
present in many of the current Palesine
Solidarity Encampments around the country
and world, and that describing and naming
the counscrinsurgency tactics of cganizers
can help us find new ways forward on the pah
of ending colonialism and genocide in
Palestne.
“The Cops
Brought Guns”:
Sights and Sounds
from the UCLA
Liberated Zone

Personal reflection and account of the popular
defense of the Palestine soldarity
encampment at UCLA in the face of attacks
by far-Right supporters of seael and law
enforcement. To hear a podeastinerview on

this subject, go bere.
Dhoto by Shay Horse

APR 30, 11:45 PM There area couple of
constant simuli that bombard you when you
reach the encampment - thyough the backline,
pastthe lower quad, and wp the staivs;beyond.
hese tairsa barricade, bolding the front lines
of the encampment together with road signs,
metal barriers and wooden boards. This
barricade splis the encampment into two
distinetzones of lower risk before the
barricade,including the stairaell, the greens at
citherend, and the lower quad down below)
and higher risk (beyond i, on e upper quad)

These sounds and symbols mark the
movement with a reverberant ostinato. The
first sounds immediately apparent as I walk up
the campus steps are the throes of hundreds of
voices, impresions which on any other day
would be spores fans miles i the distance, but
are reeased instead from the stained bodies

of the pro-Palesinian demonstrators only a
couple offet beyond the barricaded suirtop.
These demonstrators were students, medics,

faculty, friends, parents, communicy members
and leaders. Watching - without participating,
cither presentlyor from the safetyof campues
buildings - were UCLA campus safety,
mdtiple city and state police departments, and
schoal administrators, damned o bisorical
records asactors wh intentionally put their
students in e lin of five. Perched upon Royee
Hall are two snipers with a view of e inner
encampment

Wellinto the next morning, the screams
encouraged the other several hundred
seudents guarding the bartieade to remain
steadfast, repel any instigators, and hold the
line. Then there are the call for medics,
frequent and piercing. Students were ofien
rushed out of the sde entrance bloodicd,
confised,or dyenched in pepper spray, and sent
offfortriage. Just as my group arrived, we.
witnesed a small string o students being
escorted out of the camp with bloody heads.

A group of students, no older than undergrad
age, emerge erying s others gather to pour
water down thei faes. There, hey are
recognized by their friends, n utter dismay at
their condition, figning whatever confidence
they have lef to coax ther riends nco calm,
0 open their eyes for the water 1o wash out
the poison. Here s the ity of LA, once again
leading the charge i showing that the il
might of the imperial corecan be mobilized to
appress disent, as it did in 2020 afier the
marders of George Floyd and Breowna Taplor,
assedid in 2014 in Oakland afier the murder
of Michael Brown, asit did in 1992 afier e
cating of Rodney King,in 1965 afir the
arrest of Marguette Frye,in 1943 with the
Bracers program, et a pattern starting with
the inception of thesate in 1851 through the
genocide of indigenous

A sign, bearing the word “divest” in
Auorescent orange, sits tucked away beneath
the hedges at the barricade end of the greens.
Beyond the barricade, at the op o the stair, the
demonstratos aced chemcal, pychlogical,
and physical violenc from Zionist mobs that
had gathered with theintent o destroy the
encampment. Throughout the lfe ofthe camp,
the pro-Palestinian protestors were st o
beatings, chemical irritant attacks, firework.
antillery, doxing, assaults from rods or planks
of wood, one incident of biological volence in
mice astack, and prychological violenc i the

form of msic torture. On this nighs,theyfaced
out afier bout of plysical brutality from the
Zionists astheriot-clad police watched - onsite
- forbotrs before deciding toclear the area of
ounter-protestors i the carly bowrs of the
morning. Lsat, with others, at he back line
(walking besuween the main stairuay entrance
and the smaller entrane flanking the
encampment on the greens north of he stairs)
watching asthe violence nfolded.

The choppy rumble of the police helicopters
holding formation above the school;the drone
lying up and around the base ofthe Liberated
Zone, eyeingll the people who populat .
wondered what the LA police would use my fuce
for, what data poins they had just gleaned from
me. Could theysee me from their cockpi
(pigpic?),kised by dhe Beerdy syline? 50 Layers
of masks and black boc ould not have made
me feel any less pecred int, could not have
reinforced my face against the beam coming
from that beliopeer lantern. I'm sure f they
ould find a wayto make light kill you they
would.

i minutes East of this scen; the Becerdy Hill
Plaza Hotel stands undisturbed, Rodeo Dr. the
pearl of LA bowrgeoisic. lanked on the West,
the Gty sits atop Brentwood as a beacon of
eultural beritage. The Hill disappeared,

folded, tucked asway intothe liberated land, as
ifthe sy islf desended onto campus to protest,
asing down the heatens n the proces.

“Is anyone here a surgeon?” Miraculously,
aftera beat, e appeared. T would see them in
and about the camp as the ight progressed.
The absence of the sounds of larms, beepers,
and lfe support systems; not a thousand feet
away, the UCLA bospital profis from
attending o the jurics of studentsprotesting
on it university campus. By the time mygroup
arrived at the barricade,atleas 25 students
had been sent 1 the uspita,

¥ had found use in shusling supplics up the
camp, as well as susing out bad actors and
asking them to leave. A majoriy of our duties
for the est hour and a half incuded escoring
agitatorsout of the encampment.

May 1,2 AM Every thirty secondsor so, the
safety team would cal for wanted and
unwanted supplies as droves of (what were
mostly) students poured in with water, masks,
food, and swim goggles. The speaker had long,
since found a working cadence:

“We're on lockdown! We're on lockdown, so
we're notletting anyone els in. If you aso
want to contribe,there’s ahvays here [pause]
you can aways coneibue here.[long pause]
For supplies, we'e taking medical supplics,
water, no milk!, goggles, umbrellas, saline
water, ooh no clothes, no food!”

Esery couple minutes for the last few hours,
sirens ring out from beyond the school
perimeter, somewhere before the school
extendsinto the ity proper. They seemingly
serue o finctions: o the protestors, hey create
an air of eonfisions they cement dhis place asa
Placeof criminaliy,instead of peacefil
enactment upon ctizens’unalienable First
Amendment rights they signal to proestors
that police might be coming for them, he sirens
biding in the distance i police-cruer atigues.
7o those who are not protesing, perbaps city
foll university esidents or passersby, it
establishes the area asone with an nsafe
presence. Even if you'recled into the whal act
it sworks well 10 nnerae you and deter thase on
the fence, What thesesirens don's el you is that
she students here endlured a sicge from Zionist
forces hatLfi them battered and boodys these
students endured war, asisted by Lacli
private security, funded by Zionist donors, and
encouraged by cty and state government and
Laswenforcement at he bebest of Universcy of
Calsfornia system esecuties

Studentsget as fr up the sairs as they can
efore mecting someone dose o the encampment
which stops them, and then colecstheir supplics
10 pas upuward i a long chain from the middle
of thesairs 0 he encampment barricade at the

1p.

“If you're giving supplis, we need goggles,
make sure they're out of ther packaging; we
nced umbrellas, make sure shar's out of its
packaging,” agroup of students walks by with
jgsof milk - “we're not taking milkt”

Sexeral 2iter milk jugsline the bencbes
Leading up tothe staivull

Euery s0offen, someone walks through the
encampment in such a way as o arouse
suspicion from camp members. 43 if by
pheromonealon o pasibly becasseof their
gait, dress, or masklesvisage, Zionsst agitators
were quickly identificd and, by and large,
escrted out of camp. Mast o them came t e
encampment with recording devices already
rolling.

A

Photo via @Hunted Horse on Twitter/X.
[protestor, to Zionist] “No pictures please.”
“Fuck you.”

Upon sighting, a camp member would ask the
agitator o stop recording. I they escalate, the
camp members would be quick to yell
“Zionist”s jeers and responses would ampliy
this call and Aashlights would seramble to
point ou their location. Sometimes i took
indsvidal feats of logic and wit (asking an
agitator who daimed to be press fo their press
badge o which they eere toosunned 1o respond
and thus ef otber times, it took more
established protool (umbrelas, kerling,
de-cscalation). The protestor, if not driven out
y e, woudd be exorted to an exit point. As it
surns ous, fsist mob men love to LARP as
brownshirtsnti you work as a team or bring
out wmbrelas.

Forthe last few hoursof the night,there have
been no sounds of chants. Everyone is foused
slelyinstead on continuing the action. I eems
as f theair s to tense - e sitation oo dire,
and yet somebow oo difuse for chants to
mansfest themselues. Eseryone scemed 1o be
eitherlooking for something todo, doing it,or
leaving. It if e collctve decided not to
shrowd itself, its members, Brentwood, etc from
the horrors the agitators committed onto the
protestors(which police and admin allowed 1o
aceur), horrors which were perfeted in Gaza
and imported onto domesticsorl. I0F
cllaboration; actical infiltration; Magen Am
inuited happily into command rooms. Inthis
struggle, al he oppressd are one and the same,
and weknew that in those moments,

A group enters the encampment but s denied
entry through the barricade despite having just
Leftfor supplics minutes prio.

SOME TIME AFTER 4 AM The sounds of
joy. The sounds oflove. On the megaphone,
the speaker announces the successul defense
of the encampment s Zionist
counter-protestors are evicted from camp.
‘Cheersas the encampment celebrates holding
the line for one more night.

Sleep.

May 2, 12:00 AM There s considerable,
palpable increase in the number of protestors
here tonight. Anywhere from 750-1,500 by
my count outside the barricade, who knows
how many inside. Itis magica; and I thoughe
yesterday was ashow of force. That many
more people make that much more noise:
jokes between groups of riends and
Soon-to-be-friends; strings of people visibly
and audibly looking for other srings of
peoples an audible buzz rings around the
campus. I feelas though we ae all connected.

With the influx of masses comes steuctural
and logisica ssues. Upholding no-filming
policy is harder; maingaining and
communicating key, up-to-date information
o the camp becomes an improbabilcy: | hear
over the megaphone something to the effect
of: “Weare nor dispersed. We have not yee
received adispersal oder here at the

barricade.” There was, indecd, a disersal onder
given o he entive camp howrsprio

12:45 AM I shink of te longstanding bistory
of student provsts. Throvghout the nearly
800-ycar history of the universty as a concept, it
s been a moral imperativeof the student body
towaie tsconcerns throwgh provest. It
incredibl that however much we want o excape
from the issuesbetteen toun and gown ~
owever much we want to globalize our aoncerns
~ the universty is dragged back into strugglesof |
power between the unisersiy body and the
itizenry surrounding the wniversty. These cops
Dowever, are not from around bere

A drone again, whizzing bove the
encampment, flying closer and closer to our
faces (the closest it got was about 50.75 feet
up and away from me from my recollection).

A building ses off i the distance, illuminated.
by warm facade lighting, supplying kind of
violent irony that was not lost on me, s glow
astrong reminder of the will of the university
o mainain precty fagades, be they
architecturalor politeal. There was o pretty
fagade large enough to over up these abuses of
power, boweser;yo cannot make *500 ops, teo
snipers suppress he rights of thowsandsof
protestorson campus”go away with
non-performatioe specch and red tape.

The protest-wide no-fiming guideline seems
o have been lifted in favor of documenting
the atrocitiesthe police are expected to
commit (or el it seems that way), s the
speaker s not clling out anyone who lms
and neiher are any other protestors. The
sairwellisalive, an organism of many
instruments;there’s an ebb and flow, but
throughout the night the population rises
steadily.
1:20 AM Tervor as LAPD isseemingly invited
through the back lincs nto the encampment.
Confsion and anger manifest in the form of
ardent screaming. It is only later that it is
rescaled that the safety team, comprised of
members of UAVW Local 481, intentionally
led LA fficers up through the encampment
Not one minute later - fashbangs and sound
bombs

Chanes.

“Peaceful protest (Peaceful protest!)” Throngs
of students ~ citber from the op of he staivsor
from the dge of he encampment past the
barricade - descend toward safety. The ingured.
arrive and aresent off 0 seck atention. To my
surpris another group of Zionists inside the
encampment materialized beyond the main
gates, sentdown the main staircase

“UCPD, KKK, IOF they'e sl the same!
(UCPD, KKK, IOF they'reall the saml)”

“OFF our campus! (off our campus)”

Onthe megaphone,the speaker nstruetsthe
protestors instantly,there is an audible
difference in their tone and method of
Swift and calm as ever, they
announce thatstudents may see disressing
images unfold within the next couple of
minutes: mass arrests of heir friends and
colleagues, physical violence, and chemical
aveacks. What seemed like the fllforee of
Calsfornia’sfincst were making their way 10
campus o inally use those millions of dollarsof
raxpayer moncy on the hildren.

“Eree, free Pales
free, free Pales

e (free, ree Palesine!) Free,
ree, iee, free Plestne)”

The cps hate guns. There were at least 500of
them on campuus, on ither side of the student
encampment

AROUND 1:40 AM The camp announcer
seates on the megaphone to quickly regroup,
focusing on building aset of human chains ac
the base of the stairs. We quickly bustl ovr to
the bottom o the stasruwell in an attempt to
block opsentering through the lower quad from
entering theencampment. Asthey approach

from the norsh of the quad, they reach the base
of thestairuel; we ready ourselves mobilizing
ropes of bdics, moving t0 stay perpendicular to
the approaching corps. They come and go,
Largely dodging us beading up to e he greens
south of the stairuell as a ramp tothe barricade.
Students push tocut the opsof,ketling them
into turtle formation at the base of the court,
near student housing.

1:52-1:53 AM The sofiest rusding as phones
lide out of phone pockets,succincrly
unlocked, cameras olling;the even louder
rustling of grassas students spread through
the lawn.

Chatter, within some groups. Sometimes

For every group of students, one or two were
impromptu kecpers of recond. Seseral had their
cameras et to ecord with the flash on,
announcing their presenc othersflashed lights
and strobes t lluminate the phalans; as well
as 0 umiliate diorient, and frighten. You
could smellthe ops"desperate aggresion, like .
pack of starved rabid dogs

Green guns. Black batons beld like black guns s0
bard that they almast materializd into live
ammo weaponry by sheer feat of e
sransformative power of capital. They defnitely
look assuch rom fur away, and the cops know
b

The sound of twitchy trigger ingers,or; the
sight of buzing eyes behind a iot helmet, 2
palpable fear drenched i aftershave, steroids,
and 2 40mm hand cannon. Steobes continue
o disorient. Thank god one of hose lsers
did’ piss bis pants and wnload on s. We
outnemberthem atleast 31,

“They've got guns.” A lone student sands
direetly in front of the police formation with
thei flash on, presumably recording, as
crowds shout “cops go home!” and “peaceful
protest” for precisely one minue before —

‘One of those loserspisseshis pants and they
advance from thei kettle a the bottom of the
sairwell, from the southern summit of the
court onto the barricaded sairwell. This cours,
named the Court of Philanthropy, is named as
such to ommemorate he various donors who
hate given more than $1 million to the school,
where 83 stone plates st the donor names. They
look on asthe olice enact viokent repression, in
theirname,securing their insestments,

The eventual (why-was-t-fucking) inevitable,
unmistakable sound of rubber bullets not

hiteing the ground.

1:531:56 AM Studens, firstn a line and now
in clumps,disperse, some going home, most
regrouping. “Don’t run,” a student vocalizes,
and my legs feel like they have permission o

m God and fall back under my
control. People steady, into an organized and
purposeful pace, lightly above trotting speed.

“The parking lotsairwell s, as does the
barricade once more. Sounds of discordant
trotting reverberate throughout the structure.
For whatlooks like more than a thousand

people,the movement i well enough.
organized.

s Lhead out dowon the sairuell 1o our car, we
watch for agitators that may b biding in the
coners. We beard from otber members carlier
that Zionist counter-protestors were waiting for
peopl toreturn totheir cars o attempt to
asaltthem. We make it o our car and bead

off o regroup.

“The ollowing isrecollected from pres ootage,
s well as anonymous acwounts from athersin
my immediate prtes group.*

BEFORE 2:20 AM The unthinksble
happens. Cheer,love, and sweat coagulaten a
onceineaifetime moment of unmistakable
joy: mere minutes afer the fuled pincer, the
cops were evcted from the UCLA Liberated
Zone. The sounds of boots were silenced by
the many yawps and yels for ceebration,
though thisseemed to be shortlived. 2:20 AM
Ireccied a ping on my phone from friends
insde the encampmens, wide-cyed, they had
witnesed a mirade.

BEFORE 4 AM The policeforces seemed to
return quicker, and in bigher numberslssthan
an bour dhereaer.

An unconscionable amount of fashbangs all
at onee, in the air intended to stun and harm
asmany as possible.

Inthe ar; 1ce o my social media a video of
the ops at the encampment: *. foryour safety,
for your safety”an offce belows as e and bis
qang of cop el students i rubber.

The sound of heads meeting a rubber bullee
with courage and strengrh,
WELL AFTER 5 AM The sound of at least
130 astests.

The all.oo-familiar sound of ents being
sipped up, the cops’arms twitching, bending
i way that has become muscle memory. A
switchblade sides through nylon fibric wich
precision, a feat of infinitesimal moral
character done over and over o the houseless
daily found here today hiding behind
on-the-spot revisions of campus code. I
wonder what the scen looked ke from the cops”
ll phone cameras asthey began 10 take selfes
arvund dhe plasic rubble 1 wonder:do the IOF
dothe same?- but I don't hate 1o, as he
similarites betueen the IOF and
CHP/UCPD/LAPD/LASD are long and decp,
cven into their respecive forms of postterroriom
ritual, Of conrse,theydo. They just can’ elp
document heir crimes,like giddy
schoalchildren, ke the giddy schoolchildren
that once existd in Paletine.

Free Paletine, longlive the student intifda.
Eight Days for
Gaza: A Report on
the Occupation
and Defense of the
Portland State
University Library

A day by-day reflection and account of a
recent campus occupation in solidariy with
Palestine a Pordland State University (PSU),
in Pordand, Oregon. Social media posts and
photo from.

Day 1 - April 25 2024

The call went out around 3pm, Thursday the
25th, on 2 couple local Insagram pages. A
couple hours later, dozen or so people were:
mobilized atthe park blocks,seting up tarps
and tents. For those unfamiliar with the park
blocks,they are Pordand State’s university's
version of the "quad,” where people go to chill
and smoke weed. A stip of nature bisccts the
campus, and its a nice spo to hang out. T
thought it was also under the jurisdiction of
the park rangers a it s publi park.

The park rangers came by and were heckled.
The campus police came by and they received
aheavy dose of heckling as well. This srategy
of being assertive with the police from the
getgo served the encampment well

s the sun ser, more folks arived and buileup.
Some barricades on SW Harrison Ave. Both
the ast and west sides of the purk e

rendered inaccessble to vehicles, ey
quickly. More and more people arived as the
night went on, probably culminating around
10pm or so with maybe 50 people. Some folks
left, convinced that the next night was already
assured. Some of protesters sayed.

Ac1:20am, the Portland police arsved en
masse from the northern direction along the
park blocks,slencly with a brigade of bout
25 cop cars and 40 cops. The camp was not
serong a this point. Only about 15
demonstrators were there a the time. The
Portand Police Bureau (PPB) camein with a
strong personnel and equipment ratio and
people were not prepared. The camp
dispersed.

Day 2 - April 26 2024

On Friday,a call went out on social media
again, for people to come back and re-establish
the camp. By 1pm, half.dozen people were
there, with a ent and a couple tarps. People
quickly arsived, pehaps invigorated by the
heavy-handed sweep the night before. The
president also *paused” ties with Bocing,
which turned out to be bullshit. So people got
o protesting

More people came than on Thursday: The
cops made their move early, around 3pm
bringing roughly 12 riot cops to tear down the
tarps for being “unauthorized structures” or
Something,

People did not ke the cops. The crovd linked
arms a the north edge of the encamprment on
Harrson A There was chanting and yelling.
People yelled at the cops, “Why are you here?”
‘Alsocres of ACAB, FTP,and Free Palestne

ang out. Finally the protesters moved all teie
shitonta the ibrary steps, which appeased the
cops because it was PSU university property
and echnically the campus police were
supposed to deal with that, not PPB.

A police rereat invigorated the crowd again,
which began building up the barricades in
their new space. Despite being a smallr area,
the library portico provided some tactical
advantages. Now the protesters had the high
ground. Afier a couple hours of baricade
building, the library portico was sealed-off to
the outide, giving demonstrators some
privacy. There was some redecorating that
night.

Day 3 - April 27 2024

Early Saturday morning, maybe Sam, che fiest
truck arrived for the Portland Saturday
market The other vendors soon arrived and
began seting up for the massive weekly
gathering, which was welcomed by those at
the encampment. Protesters also st up a
‘booth and participated, as wel s shopped for
waresalong the park blocks.

The library was renamed “Refast Alarcer
Library.” Saturday night, the vibes were

immaculate. People redecorated multiple
oo of the ibrary windows, and the
barricades received some serious
einforcements. There was some banjo or
something, which I didn’t care for but people
were havinga lot of fun so whatevs. More
people, maybe 30, seayed the night.

Day 4 - April 28 2024

‘On Sunday people organized a parey with lots
of supporters coming by and having fun
Protesters even got a leter from.
Munia-Abu-Jamal

Day 5 - April 292024

The big day. Even more nighttime
redecorating and Ann Cudd [President of
Portland State Universiy (PSU)] decides to
Serew everyone. She tels protesters toleave the
portico. The campus police came by and
dissed the barricade. People did not respond
o dhis threat. A ally had been planned for
Monday at 4pm, and folks had been
anicipating this for days. Tt was even bigger
than anyone expected. Multipl groups
showed out, mobilizing about maybe 400
people around the library ac Spm. The
campus police could only watch from 2
distance as waves of protestors moved, some i
formation, some not, around the library:

“The school had actuall closed the ibrary
earlyat noon. So people broke in. One door
got smashed, and the demonstrators flooded
in, bringing their supplies, and methodically
moving up the floors tosecure the bulding,
The campus police brought inal show of
force, two cop car. They were chased off
within 15 seconds.

One by one the entrances, sairwels, and
elevators are barricaded. Food and drink were
liberated from their machines and people had
an incifada fease Ac 11:30pm, the mayor, DA,
school president, and chief of poice gachered
foralive press conference. They threatened
the protesters. People did not leave. Inseead,
they had a movi nigh.

Day 6 - April 30 2024

Itis Tuesday now, and school is canceld.
Look atfolks now. Proesters are having
teachvins at the library. Cafe Incifada (the
repurposed library coffee shop) i operating
full service. Some of our houseless neighbors
from the PSU community are finaly gerting
shelter and care in the library for the ist time
in years.

Word spread about the occupation and soon
100 people ae here. People are getting thank
yous from kids in Gaza,Students came into

the lbrary and studied just ike any other day:

The campus police came by and gave someone
a pice of paper full of misspellings to serve as
a dispersalorder or trespass o something -
IDK, neter saw thefucking paper.

Apparently some students decided they were
the “leadens” of the occupation. They made an
Instagram page and spread rumors that other
protestors were undercover cops. The two
people unning the “Refaat Alareer Library”
(formerly occupypsudpalesine) Instagram
page ae not representative o the protest and
they are not to be trusted. They made
mldiple flse statements thatled o people
getting hure, Fuck them

These “leaders” apparently negoriated with
the president unbeknownst to most. 1 don't
Know why these kids thought they could
speakfor anyone, specially while speeading
rumors that protesters (the people actually
holding it down, putting themsclves on the
line every nigh) wee police. What the hell,
gy

An email went out o the PSU commaunity
that the PPB would be coming in o deal with
the “incident.” This immediately garnered
push back from multipl student and faculey
organizations because everyone hates cops.

Day 7 - May 12024

‘Wednesday, May Day; was wild. Things
started off well enough with the May Day
actions downtown. Starbucks got smashed,
woo-hoo. A few hundred people were at the
library. Some folks came back from a May Day
march and apparently had a scufle with the
self-appointed *sccurity.” Fuck the
self-appointed door people. They thought
they could keep folks (again, he people who
were acrully chere night aier night defending
the camp) out of the ibrary a thei discetion.
Tdon't even know who these door people
fiuckers were, but that was not okay behavior.

‘What do you think the point of black bloc is?
‘You don’t get to personally identify everyone
coming into the ibrary. Thisis a protest not a
ail Anyways. The randos who thought they
were in charge o the library entrance kept
refiaing access to the library and so only 30
people were there chat ight, and many knew
that the police were coming in. Too bad there
weren't more protesters at the library. Thanks
alot,door people.

Day 8 - May 22024

“The police arived at 6am and began their
operation. They brought maybe, 120 PPB
officers,and 50 sate troopers. There were alot
of cops. At G:30am the pigs began arresting
homeless people outside the library.

Acabout 7:20am, asix man SWAT erew used
Some chainsaws o get into the north side fire:
escape. They climbed up to the ifth floor
They either busted down that weak-ass
barrcade into the book stacks area or went up
o the roof and then took the south side fire
escape down. Once they clared the fifth loor,
they got into the elevators and worked their
weay down, sweeping floor by floor.
When the cops got to the second floor about
Sam, people decided to run. A wiple line:
diagonal cross formation worked to maximum
effectiveness, The element of surprise, along
with excellent route-running, resulted n an
almost-clean escape. One protestor got id
outby a cop, and it was fucked. We all saw it
on the news.

Now the erowd was arrving. PSU made many
tactical errors throughout the aceupation,
mainly refusing to negortiate with the group.
The school didn’t cancel class unil ight
before school started. PSU is commuter
school, and half th students were aleady on
the way to campus. In addition, the schools
alert system had made an otherwise minor
typo, that “Thursday, May 1st” school was
canceled. Of course, Thursday was ot May
15t And May 1t had already happened. Many
Seudents brushed the email alert off, hinking
it was aglitch or repeat from the day before.
So, hundreds of people were there in the park
a9am.

PPB tred to geta few arrestees back o the.
precinet but were met with a crowd of
protestors blocking the paddy wagon. A
seruggl for control of Broudway Ave ensued.
‘About 20 sate roopersescorted the paddy
wagons onto the 405 on-rampn an epic
batle. They had to cicle around on the
highway, and go 3 extra e, just to get back
o their precinct a mere 8 blocks from the
PSU campus.

Later in the day, people overwhelmed the
police and drove them out. Occupation
definders theew shit at them and yelled ¢
them and backed them into the baskerball
aren at5:09pm. Then, withinseconds,
people retook the brary. Within ten minites
the intersction of Park and Harrison was

again blocked off, and protesters were bk in
the lbrary

Acthis point,asef-appointed “leader” made
an extremely curious tacticaldecision. “We are
going toleave and lock the door,” tey told
me. This didn’t make any sense, 2 people had
jsestormed the lbrary, the home of the
occuparion. So...yeah, weird move. The
“leader” corralled people out of the building,
but not everyone, and so more people got
arrested as the cops came back to the library a
second time, unimpeded.

Don'tlisten to self-appointed leaders tha ell
you to stop protesting. Tell chem to shu up.
‘Another couple of sef-appointed leaders led
people on a march to nowhere and that was
the end of the protest

Notes

‘Whoever made the Instagram page for the
protest and then spread rumors about people,
fick you

The occupation was sarted by students. Folks
tried thei best o keep each other safe.
Demonstrators didn’t have any leaders. The
peace police came to the occupation and tred
o physically ight protestes. They hated the
library takeover, and said i was, “Not for
Palestine.” Kids in Gaza said otherwise,
thanking folks personally for taking action.
Don’tlisten to the peace police. Do the right
thing. Of course the peace police allParty for
Socialism and Liberation (PSL) members,aso
exploited the protest o push their own

clout.chasing agenda.

Here's to people doing it again sometime
so0n, maybe at the ICE building? Land Back
from Turtle Island to Palestne.
Audacity!

By Emelina Rosa|

“Audacity, sl more audacity, audacity

always!”

~Georges Danton, French Revolution 1792
“The best defense is disorder.”
“The Do-Jt-Yourelf Occupation Guide

The fise Battle for Tucion ended in victory for
s wben the cops trashed owr encampment a the
Olive Grove by the University of Aricona Main
Gate on May 1. We escaped from campus afier
a four-bour standoff, supported by hundreds of
compades who held back a polce charge in the
sreet with linked arms. We suffered four
arrets and.a couple of rubber et wounds, at
leastone serious See Living and Fighsing for
morcon Tucson and my first eport, alo
publisbed in Hard Crackers

On May 9, we returned to the Olive Grove
and built another camp, where we did our
best to be the world we wanted to be for
about sx hours. We knew they were gunning
for us: by the end it was only a few dozen
battle-prepped people defending the camp.
W had two lines of barricades and retreated
when they assiled us, at midnight, and
pushed us west on University Boulevard from
the corner with Park Avenue that forms Main
Gate. We turned and faced the police across
block crowded with bystanders now saturated
with tear gas—brighe lighs and that dark
Tucson sky, hiaroscuo, drained of color
under the palm trees It was the night before
UA graduation, and we were UA's second
Solidarity with Gaza encampment. Police shot
pepper balls and rubber bullets, We recreated
with digaity after half-hour standoff,
keeping most of us sae.

These weeks hae been aschool. Weare
learning in ou bodies whathas been only
theory understood at a dstance. We are
learning 10 act togechr and build world. A
few daysofacion ae worth a year's sudy
(although sudy i precious). We have
momentum—it's noc about negoriatons,
concesions, o eforms i’ bout pushing o
Everyching. This i rehearsl.

Weare speaking with our actions,refusing to
e governed. We can be the future

Twent back for the second Battle for Tucson,
Arally was called for 5:00 .. in Catalina
Dark, just west of campus. T attended the
beginning of a meeting in the park for UA
faculy and staff, who were sriving to protect
the student protesters. We were asked how
high our tolerance was for risk. The plan was
o get between the seudents and the cops. The.
organizers gave us ten minites to turn to our
neighbors and talk it out. My neighbor was an
anthropologist, we chateed 1 bit

“This technique for getting active participation
was new to me, and ove it especially for big.
meetings. Everyone gets space to think out
loud, even the ones who tend to hold back.
My friends also have a technique for voting in
large groups by breaking into circles of five
and then taking a all after a quick
discussion. This develops even shy people’s

kil by lesting s practice in small geoups.

“The organizers were beginning a traning
when 1Lt for the rally: ' 74 and in no
shape for the defensive lineup. I st under a.
fowering desert willow and listened to
speeches across the lawn, Catalina Park is one
square block, landscaped to climinate private

Ihad agreed to speak and did so briefly. I
stated my UA affliation (visiting scholar in
the history department) and ssid: “You're
beautiful! You are stronger than they are,
stronger than you know when you move
together! Be illegal, carly on and often!” and
not much else. (IF1 did this a Lot Id gee
better.) A faculty member from the School of
Education announced he was proud of the
seudents. Mobyeddin Abdulsziz from the

rizona Palestine Solidariy Allisnce spoke
about Palestine at ength,

Then we walked, perhaps 300 of us as we lefe
the pak, resolute, with a masching deum.
People joined us and waved, it was a sunny
afternoon and not t00 hot. We turned down
University Avenue and saw mororcycle cops 3
block ahead in the middle o the intersection,
but they fell back, and back again, unei we
marched through Main Gate, onto campus,

around the fountain and back to the Olive
Grove. We returned!

Photo: APSA Media Collec

We built 2 new encampmen: tents, arps, and
palles ied with zip tes. Snacks and heaps of
small water boteles appeared. Someone
announced, “Time to kick back and get to
know your neighbor. Your presence matters.”
There was trsining for medics. Someone.
sarted a song. L spoke with a couple of folks
briefly. T was oo tired to engage bu L had to
e there. T ate a protein bar and tried to est
We were told no to liter but the pigs are
going to bust us up anyway—why am [
searching for a rashean? But an orderly space
is part of esallure. We had camping toflets.

There was a wild moment of premature
confrontation when the police attempred to
snatch someone and we got them back. (I
dashed for the exit when it broke out.) We
were not sealed in, we could come and go. We
had folks on the other side of the low viall
holding signs, but not many. We missed the
supportive crowd that had flled Park Avenue
the week before. Cars honked support. There
was a convocation right behind us at
Centennial Hall, where they were forced to
exit by the back door. There were grads and
their parents everywhere, bros and gies in tiny
clothing, a few homeles.
The university brought n a trailer mounted
flood light unit pulled by golf car and
dozensof people surrounded i, icked in the
hood of the cart stol road cones and boards
to:add o the barricades, and chanted “Pigs
Oue” The contraption had legs to stabilize it
and in the confision someone detached one
of them and spirited it away into the darkness
of the encampment. The confrontation lasted
for perhaps ten minutes before the cops
retseated,taking ther damaged cquipment
with thean.

Oneaof thelessons o oceupations is how to
use downtime. We're n tght quarters, we
can't bing anything we don't dare lose. '
restess, so et once to visit a hote. L put my
Kaffiych away and wore lipstick, and sipped
by the desk with a smile, pointing a¢ the
bathroom.

Photo: Vanessa Bertram

Some folks carried a couple of couches into
the encampment. A lot of supplies came from
dumpsters:this was end of the school year, the
dumpsters were full. Tsank down, then
thoughe, My joints will frecse and when I eed
tomove fst, L won’t be able to. The ops will
charge while I'm dozing. That's when |
decided 10 go home. One of my crew appeared
beside me and 1 sid goodnight. (Thank you,

you showed up both nights just when [
needed to check out).

The cops moved in at midnight and drove us
out of Main Gate and west on Universiy to
the next block. (1 had lefi carlier and watched
this on live stream, I'm using the collective
pronoun). Faculty stood on the front line,
holding signs that said, “Keep Students Safe,”
and chanting, “Faculty are here to say, Shame
on you, Go away!” (Two were later arested

some place away from the main action.)

The stand-off lasted maybe half an hour. The
cops could have pushed us north or south into
an empty street. Instead, they drove us nto

rowded pedestrian area the night before
commencement, packed with bars,
restaurants, grads and their parents, partying
jocks. We think they counted on the bros to
beat us down, remembering the line of
drunken frat boys on Aprl 30, We suffered
only a couple of arrests, again a couple of
injuries. L found police behavior bewildering
and asked my comrades, “Are we that good or
are they that bad?” They ssid, “Both.”

Did the cops think about how many people
would be hit by tear gas? (It would be
interesting o sce legaldiscovery. Or any
ienpacts on asthmatics,for cxample, out for &
late strol hat night) 1 saw bros taunting us
anda few skirmishes but nothing outof
control. I think the frat boys were taken aback
by our batle gear—helmers, shiclds,
seinforced signs—and by women and teans
foll ighting, It wasastandoff, we threw
canisters back at the pigs and kept up our
drumbeat and shouting: “We keep us afel”
“Palesene will be freel” There was gas
everywhere. Our comeade doing the e feed
g gassed and kept lming, We finaly el
back around 12:30 am.
Td been reuctant o go but oo teed o stay in
avolaile siuation. There had been adircct
action trsining that moring, focused on
high-speed costume switches to thwart
surveillnce. I learned to make a mask from 3
eshirt, At the encampment, | changed my
head gear and top twice. Leaving, I switched
again, put my backpack into 1 tote bag and
shook out my haie. I wore a pustelzp-up
hoodic and looked like sububan granny.
had along wlk to my car.

Twent back to the house where I was scaying
and hung out with our comade who got a
purple heart last week for being shot with a
rubber bulle to the kce. We drank wine and
dozed on our couches, then found a lve feed
o watch, then dozed some more. Folks got
home around 1:00 .m, jubilant but stinking
of tear gas. They showered off outsde. One of
them was hitn the torso with pepper balls
They reported someone with a broken collar
‘bone from stumbling through the chaos and
falling, and someone hit on the head with a
ear gas cannister.

Some friends came by and sad they'd been
supporting folks whod been blinded by tear
gas while heading for their cars. A bully on the
sidewalk s flming them with his phone and
ering—our frend slapped the phone out
ishand and cursed him. He was

of
astonished.

Photo: Anonymors

On graduation nighe, frends projected a sries
of poeti fragments on the wall of the city
courtbuilding downtown at ightfll
“Palestine illuminates the colonial nature of
the est of the world. - Noura Erekat,”*There
will be no flowers o lay asthey too will have
dicd. No palms on graves, and no graves
cither. - Heba Al-Agha,” and “I keep the dead
in my head like knives in a block. - Benjamin
Krusling ™

Deople papered every car in the garage near
commencement with afie ac

. cusing
Raytheon of war erimes: “U of A you can’t
hide: Here’s proof of your genocide,” and a
list of investments tied to seael. We heard that
two people were artested and charged with
trespassing a the garage.

Tean't believe m par of a movement where
you can fight the cops one day and be offred
herbal emedies and tattoos the next. (A
Palestnian flag on the neck for me.) The day
affer there was “an abundant schedule for
fun/chillsweet/reseul/caing thangs!”: a pool
party, 2 nervous system workshop, healing
support dropein, and a writing group which
was oversubscribed. Two dayslater, Tdrove
home to Bisbee but sayed on my Signal
channel, where folks are still decompressing,
debricfing, and beginning to make new plans.
There was a equest for tips on geting tear gas
out of car sats. (Change the air ler and
borrow a vac). There was abid for a die.
our nex direct action, since the comrade was
0o tired to march and shout but would gadly
tie down. T harvested a crop of mullin o
bring next time: good for lungs damaged by
ear gas, growsin my yard.

Last week I found Zhe Do-Jt-Yourself
Quagpation Guideaxthe firs encampment.

The authors offer practical advice for building
takeovers, exc, from bolt-cutters and
angle-grinders o how to wear glasses under
goggles. They offe social advice as wel
occupations are more than expressions of age,
they are opportunities o live and fight
together.

Leaving town, Isaw a friend. While I was
bubbling with excitement that I wanted to
share, they told me they had no hope, a i
that were gife. used to call myself a soldier
from a defeated army. But [—we—have hope.

The timeis now.
Bonk: University
of California
Office of the
President Attacked

by sacred black and red
Tue, May 14,2024 12:43AM

‘With the Aurora Borealis above us and the
martyesin our hearts, we artacked the UC
Office of the President in soldarity with the
Palestnian Resistance, Using fire
extinguisher filled with red paint we covered
the facade and smashed seven windows. Then,
with aceessto the building, we eleased 500
cockroaches inside and empried asecond fire
exintguisher onto the interior. We finaized
the act by leaving a water jug inseribed with
“Bonk” atthe scene - an homage to the
miliants of Cal Poly Humbolde and the
international student encampment

original image (1752x1322)
Bonk: University of California Office of the

Dresident Attacked

“The beginning of every revolution is an exi,
an exit from the socialorder thae power has
enshrined in the name of law, sabiley, public
inerest, and the greater good.”

- Baselal Argj

With the Aurora Borealis sbove us and the
martyrs in our hearts, we aetacked the UC
O

Palestinian Resistance. Usinga ire

of te President i soldariey with the

extinguisher filled with red paint we covered
the facade and smashed seven windows. Then,
with aceessto the building, we eleased 500
cockroaches inside and emprid asecond fire
exintguisher onto the interior. We finaized
the act by leaving a water jug inseribed with
“Bonk” atthe scene - an homage to the
miliants of Cal Poly Humbolde and the
international student encampment

Asanti-colonial anarchiss and communists
we offr this act of material and spiricual
solidariy with the hopes of shattering the
illusion that resiseance i limited to 2 single

s Moten says “THE ONLY POSSIBLE
RELATIONSHIP TO THE UNIVERSITY
TODAY IS A CRIMINAL ONE”. The
Universiy’strue ascis form has been put on
full display, and hiding behind hollow
progressive ideals s no longer an option for
the dead-eyed desk killes. Abolish the UC.
showed us in 2020 that the University of
California s nothing more than a seteler

colonial project, that thei police are
protecting the gates of colony, where
Knowledge is produced and captured by the
State to only digis claws deeper nto the flesh
of Indigenous lands here and abroad. Let us
no forget the UC became co-ed to breed
sectlers and populate the west coast. Speaking
only to the UC's material connetion to the
Zionist entity obfuscates the extent of the
politcal, theoretical, and culeural
entanglements between the UC and the lsracl
State. The Universiy does not simply fund
Trael, it creates Iacl, and launches this
white-colony into the post-modern Empire
‘What does divestment mean when the very
essence and foundation of the institution isa
fascis regime? Where does Zionism begin and
end in the University of California? Is
divestment an oxymoron? The UC must be
abolished.

The "working-clas” public college are not
safe from eritique (nor attack). Some of the
resulting encampments have established
themselves as outpostsof nonprofits and
NGO -loyal oy to funderss moved by
professional parenerships and personal brands.
Revolutionary seruggle and it legacies have
been co-opted, deradicalized, and
professionalized through idencity-driven
liberal pedagogies. By teaching a revisionist
history that renders iberation movements
comparible with capitalism,
niversiy-deputized counterinsurgeats erise
and demonize miliant forms of suruggle while
smugly promoting an nert philosophy of
nonviolence and respectabilicy. Thisis one of
many reasons why, although divesementis
valid and tngible baseline demand, our
longterm focus should not be on reforming
and reaffrming these nsticutions, but racher
on resource expropriation and fucking them
upirreparably.

Across Bay Area university encampments and
police-izsoned street mobilizations, escalation
is consistently policed by weaponized liberal
anti-oppression politics or erushed entirely by
the fear ofrsk. Perpetual hand wringing over
what could happen obscures what can be
achieved. Attempring toshape a milicant
movement into something that il never have
o contend with epression i o abandon the
pursuit of revolutionary ends. The attack on
UCOP began with an ask: how can politcal
analysis be anticulated through atack? An

effctive operation begins with the needs of
the struggle the goalsof the cadre, and its
limitations. Threat assessments should remain
realistic and specifc o the actions being
carried out. Within the American empire,
what s soldariey with the Mujahideen of
Palestine and milicant scudent movements if
not shapeshifiing into a political ighting
force?

We join the chorus calling for escalation in the
imperial core escalate, escalate, escalate! This
is our historical and spiicual duty: To not
old this as truth is to give up and accept
defear hoping someone else will do what it
takes to disrupt the flow of eapital into the
sentler-colonial project. We must bring the war
home,

“Let them do their work because thereis
manhood in that work which we will one day
trandform ineo holy struggle, and as long as
the colonizer wants to kill ur souls,these
people are closer to God and to the love of
holy struggle than are those who submit”

- Sheikh zad-Din al.Qassam

For the children of Gaza
For the martyrs

With eternal revolutionary spirit
Break open the gates

- sacred black and red
Enclosures of
Possibility: The
University & the
Encampment

Filed under: Analysi, Briish Columbia,
Critique, Solidasity, Uncategorized, War

— Anonymous Contributor

A

o Share This

Reportand ritical analysson scadenc
protests n soldariy with Palscine. Originally
posted 1 BC Counter-Info For a prnvable
PDF vrsion of this ex,go et

In the caly hours of April 29, 2024, studens,
faculty and community members began their
encampment of UBC’s Maclnes feld.
Inspired by seudent groups from across Norch
America, we too are calling our instiution to
divest and cut ties from companics and
insitusions supporting the genocide in
Palestine. In the contagion of resistance,

seudents began building a baricade out of
salvaged palles, fipped
tables and construction fencing, We set up
our tents proudly, and began putting
countless hours of organizing to work by
secting up programming space,as well as
medical, supply, and food tents.

enic tables, cafe

For many hours everything was possible, and
ie fle ke our esealation would lead us to new;
unexplored terrains of freedom. This was until
the encampment spoke o the police

UBC s land-grant universicy generating its
wealeh first from stolen Musqueam land, then
profiting off this stolen wealth with genocidal,
ccocidal, and technoeratic investments. The
universiy, much ike Isracl s the expansion of
the sectler colony, and as such, an enclosure of
possbility I€s inevitable that the structures of
the university would replicae themselves in
the “People’s Universiy for Gaza,” but n the
interest of advancing both learing and
liberation, we've detailed ashore s of what
we'ee referring to as “enclosures of
possbiliy” We offer these as invitations for
how we a5 group can advance Palestinian
liberation by means of advancing our
liberation zone furcher into the universcy.

Aesthetic Betrayal

British oppression, which had
escalated to.an unexpected.
level, and the escalation of
police raids, mass arrests, and
executions throughout 1937
and 1938, weakened the revolt
butdid not end it. The British
had come to realize that both
in essence and substance, and
in regards to s local
leadership, it was a pessant
evolt. As a result of this, the
evolutionary spiri that
prevailed throughout the
whole of Palestine led to
exeryone in the towns wearing.
the peasant headdress (keffiya
and agal)so that the
countryman coming into the
town should not be sublected
to oppression by the.
authoritis.

Ghassan Kanafuni The
193639 Revoltin Palestine!

“The lesson of the keffiyeh i clear: i not just
an aestheric, o an indication of politis, but
also an extension of solidarity with peasant
escalations, and an aceeprance of isk.

While a constructed barrcade in a field is an
aestherically beautifl thing to behold, it too
must extend beyond the aeschetc. Itis the
denouncement of property and of saety
through policing, and it must provide shelter
for those taking isks while advancing the
liberation zone. Without this, i’ just a bunch
of students building a fort wichin a orc widhin
afore

Student Leadership

s noted by Indigenous women of the Native
Study Group in 1968 Vancouver’,
considering slidariy between Indigenous
and Palestinian people,

“The question of leadership
has been forced upon us by
the bourgeoisie”

Acthe People’s Universiy for Gaza, we ae ot
defning astudent by the superfical

categorization of merit, or by their capacity to
handle the financial burden of atending
postsecondary, but by their apacity for
co-creation, their abilty to bring analysis to
thei struggle, and by their commitment to
liberation.

s police and administration force the use of
“sudent leadership,” are we able to rsis their
hetoric and actiesfor division?

Righteous Victims

Authenti victimhood,
passiviy, moral purity and the
adoption of a white washed
position are necessary for
recognition in the eyes of the
stte... The desire for
recognition compels us o be.
alies with, raher than
enemies of the Sute, to
sacrifice ourseles in order to
meet the standards of
vietmhood.

Jackie Wang- Against
Tnnocence: Race, Gender and
the politcs of Safery*

Camp, much like the media we consume, is
quick to speak about the deaths and tragedies
of Gaza, leaving ltle space to celebrate
resistance. Innocence i also used 1o sanitize
the solidarity movement for Plestine by
alenating those who express support for the
resistance®

Assoon as. camper spoke to the police,
innocence and safety were wielded to advocate
for acquiescing to the police’s demands, and
ensue legality of the encampment.
Thankfully after many disractions and a long
day none ofthe police demands were met,
highlighting how unimportant the demands
el were.

The invocation of personal
security and safety presses on
our afective and emorional
regiters and can thus be
manipulated tojustify
everything from racial
profiling to war. When people
use safe space language to call
out people n activist spaces,
the one wielding the language
is framed as innocent, and
may even amplify or politicize
thei presumed

Jackie Wang

Day 2in camp included an arrest formations
workshop to better protect vulnerabie or
marginalized students. Asrest handbooks were
handed out to campers so they could know
e rights once they re arested. Arrets were
communicated as a foregone conclusion
without any discussion of running, fighting,
o escalting our defense. This,ike many.
actions that have come before i, el like
“symbolic arest” was on the horizon so that
we t00 could become righteous victims.

Militancy is undermined by
the polites of safery It
becomes impossibl to do.

anyehing that involvesrisk
when people habicually block
such action on the grounds
that it makes them feel unsafe.

Jackie Wang

Waiting around for police scalation in hopes
of performing the righteous victim not only

doesneescaltefor Gaza, but e reinforees
liberl eformism and reproduces the xising
social order.

Sweet Songs of Organizers

Ttwas nolong before we understood that
seudents had assumed a hierarchicalstructure
with “organizers” advising and
back-channeling with students on decisions of
how to proceed. No matter how sweet their
words might be, how many interviews they've
given, books they've sold, o social media
followers they have, organizers can only be
trusted to act according to their own goals,
which may or may not align with our
collecive values and aims. Their politics may
e good, bu resorting on tired actics
(leadership structures,symbolic arests, peace
policing) imits our imagination and any
possbility of advancing the iberation zone.

Pedestal Pedagogy

The encampment fllowed the rut of protests
that came before it loud speaker with a
microphone and specches and lessons from
faculty and “organizers”. While these teachvins
provide a much needed space for faculy and
students o speak openly, it alo reproduces
the strueture of the cassroom. Much of the
learning we witnessed came from the
co-creation and conseruction of mutual aid
and defense suategies within the camps: the
‘book and zine libeary,the food disuribution
zone, the supply sation, the medic tent, and
of course, the barricades. Learning ac e
People’s Universiy for Gaza exists in the
ereation and continual expansion of iberation
zones; it must bein the democratic
co-conspiring of fculey and students; n the
practice offreedom and joy; and in the
creation of a movement where everyone is
nceded and everyone has what they need.

The Big Outsider

On May 1, 2024, Rashid Khalidispoke to
seudents ar Columbia Universiy where he
deseribed how their protests in 1968, againse
the war in Vietam and American
imperilism, were characterized by politcians
as being led by ‘2 bunch of outside agitators’.
Students were inevitably beaten by aggressive
and indiscriminate repression from the
NYPD. Rather than remembering what MLK
poignantly noted in 1966, that “the riot s the
language of the unheard”, i seems that the
state’sframing has leked into the
consciousness of ‘seudent leadership’ pushing
for change in the contemporary moment. If
community members and upwardly mobile
universiy students cannor b responsibl for
their tax money and tition fes, then who.
can? When our universit isan imperialist war
machine with 2 vested interest n the genocide
of a people and the indiscriminate slaughter of
childsen, are you gld you are on the inside? In
the case of the university, scudentsare the
strongest weapon against the expansion of the
seclercolony, whether they are understood 2s
‘inside’ it or not.

The Manager in your Head

Asawareness of the encampment grows, so
does the number of studens. Each time 2
newcomer saw something that required
tending to,they were quick to look for the
“organizers” and leaders to make sure to ask
for permission. Do the people in your direct
viciniy agree with your vision? Willthey help
youachieve it? Don’t e chis invisible manager
hold you back. Get a group of friends and do

what s necessary:strenghen the barricades
organize the food sation; facilitae a
conversation; construct space that you loves
or redesign your leas favorite classroom. Find
your people, and take what you need to
escalate for Gaza. The more you ereate
somerhing you love, the harder you'l fight for

Wi have et tofind liberation within these
enclusures, we belieee we'l find it once hey e
one
All Spectators Are
Cowards Or
Traitors”: Reflections
on the University of
Arizona Gaza
Solidarity
Encampments

By Anonymous participants

On Tuesday, April 30 and ino the early
morning of May 1, 2024, hundreds of people,
fulfilling different roles and moving fuidly
becween them, collectively constructed an
encampment at the University of Arizona,
aied a perimeter around i, baricaded that
perimeter, held offa police advance, launched
asupportive ally of several hundred people
on the public avenue west of the
encampment, and then formed a defensive
line in the sreet to protect the encampment
from a second police advance. Throughout
the night, engagement with the police
escalated from encampment participants”
willingness to negoriate, o a rejection of all
artemprs to quell the oceupation through soft
power tacics. This included rebuffing all bids

for conversation from the police and
adminiseracors:al of their endeavors to
negoriate or communicate were responded to
with chants of, “Fuuck you pig!” When sheriffs
deputies with helmers and shields approached
the camp, and when they later auempted to
expand their lines to surround it, camp
occupiers peled them with water borttles and
other projectiles, in some cases causing the
police to fll back n response.

How was allchis possible? Just twenty-four
houss prior, an encampment on the
University of Arizona Mall was abandoned an
hour before the administration-mandated
“curfew” by self-appointed leaders within the
encampment who announced that theyd
come to a “democratic decision” to leae.
Camp was packed up and dozens of people
who had been building barricades for hours
resigned themselves to taking them down and
going home.

In the span of one day,the movement
escalated from toothless confusion into force
capable of acting with discipline and clarty to
engage the police in direet confrontation, ally
4 supportive population of hundreds toits
flank, and make caleulaced and decisive
tactical calls to avoid mass arrest. In the end,
only four people were arrested and all charged
with low level misdemeanors, despite the
continual and semi-public commitment of
felonious activity throughout the night
(several who were not arrested, however, did
sustain injuries from rubber bulets,some of

which e serious).

“The oucome was so spectacularly successful
that the president of the police union went on
the local news to decry the inability of
prosecutors to successfully charge anyone.
*This just encourages that kind of activity,” he
said. Our conviction is that,in this final point,
he s correct

Thisessayis an atcempt to draw some surategic
and tactical lessons from the suceessesof April
30-May 1, 2024, to idenify porential areas of
growth, and to contrbute to the aceelerated
learning process that people of conscience:
moved by the ongoing genocide in Gaza-and
o forcefully confront the violence nherent in
American society-are currently engaged in.
American universities and increasingly
universtis around the world, have quickly
shified from serving as mainly a loc for the
prolifration of apltalist alues o
simuleancously functioning as a site in which
the tcties and strategies of ereatve insurgency
are apidly developing. We hope to decpen
this dynansc

AllSpectators Are Cowards Or Traitors

‘On Tuesday afternoon, paticipants arrved at
the new encampment, located (with ich
symbolism) in an olve grove on the
northeastern coner of University of Arizona’s

Main Gate area. They peppered a variety of
s and banners throughout the newly
constructed “liberated zone,” including one
that read “All Spectators Are Cowards Or
Traitors.” 1]

“This bold asertion, likely painted by one
individual, nonetheless caprured an affctive
shifi on the part of the students and
non-students present at the encampment that
night. In stark contras to the endless
handwringing about ensuring that those who
were unwillingto take on the associated isks
of partiipation flt free to stand aside, the
presence of this sign indicated a stark.
escalation:in the midst of a genocide, there

are no spectators,only cowards and traitors.

Some of those who attended previous Gaza
soldarity actions at the university experienced
stark dissonance between the calculation of
visk on the part of many of the seudents and
activists and e reality of the situation in
Gaza:low-level misdemeanor charges and one
nightin il paled in comparison to being
‘bombed while asleep in one’s home.

This dissonance between the fel conditions of
Tt in America and the fele conditions of lf

in Gaza may be the most pronounced
diffculey thatsolidarity activises here muse
seek o address. If would-be insurgents in the
USS. do not,on a substantive human level,
understand the suakes of the fight,they Il be
unwilling to make sacrificesfor ie. And
conversely,tangible human connection to the
ongoing genocide is the most powerful
motivator driving American students and
activists toward a willingness to ake risks. At
least one major condition that drove the
potency of the movement against the Vietnam
War (including causing it to develop into its
miliant, armed wings) was direct
communicarion that became possible berween
the Vietcong and other Vietnamese people
and American activists Deegations of
Vietnaese people were able to establish
dineet linesof communication with the
anti-war movement and share with them both
uraeegis learned in the midst of guereill war
and the human tollthe ar was taking on
thir people—in ather words,they shared the
affecive urgency of the stakes of the siuation.

Throughout the evening, as participants buile
and fortified barricades, held their lines, and
fended of police incursions, those on the
megaphone were people who demonstrated a
direet and immediate connection to Palestine
and who continually eframed aloud the
takes of the fight. “We do not negotiate with
an administration and.a police force that
participatesin murdering thousands of
childsen in their sleep,” they proclaimed. “We
are hre for the people of Gaza, who are being
murdered and buried under rubble.” These
are not direct quortes, but summaries offered
in an atempr to convey the sense of urgency
and sakes continually broadeast o those
within the encampment.

The successes of the evening stemmed largely
from these fel, emotionl interventions, and
the way they were able o displace (while not
directly confronting) endencies within the
camp that lacked the clariy to push the fight
forvard.

GreenZoned

Onthe night of Thursday, April 25, students
at Arizona State University in Tempe,
Arizona, occupied the front lawn of their
universiey,successfull bringing the Gaza
Solidarity encampment movement to

Arizona. Their efforts quickly led to a more
comeadely version of the competition between
the two universcie”sports teams: if ASU can

doit, then UA better catch up.

The morning after the ASU encampment was

broken up and seventy-two participants
artested, networks previoudly established.
between Palestinian solidarity acivists in the
two cites conveyed the story to peaple in
Tucson: protest leaders asked participants to
separate themselves into a “green” group (low
tisk) and “red group” (high rsk). Green
participants eft the encampment or stood
aside and watched as red participans inked
acms and were passively arrested,

The week between the ASU mass arrest and
the UA encampment saw ASU participants
enirely caught up in jal support, post-arrest
needs, and endless meetings. Tt also resled in
the least risk-averse lement facing ife chaos
and confusion as they spent days
leep-deprived from anight in jul, locked out
of their dorm rooms by adminsration, n jail
support meeings, and the ik, instead of
showing up the next day to push furcher
escalation. Meaningfl mass action, a new
encampment or otherwise,has not re-emerged
a the time of this writing a week and a half
later,

“The question on the mind of some UA
participants then became: how can the geen
zone participants contribute in a meaningful
way tothe encampment while not isking
more than they d bargained for?
Asthe 10:30 pm. curfew approached on
Tuesday night, UA administrators explained
o encampment leaders that if they didn’e
wan to get arrested, they could stand behind
the forming police line cast of the
encampment. Instead, some within the
encampment spread the idea of holding a rally
on Park Avene,just west of the encamprment,
which police had closed off o raffc,forming
a protective flank for the encampment. Green
2one participants, under the legall protective
cover of holding rally on the sidewalk and
the seret, therefore offered a buffer that
allowed those within the encampment to flee
and blend in if they were unable to hold camp.
Instead of police encircling and arresting in
one place all those they knew to be responsible
for the most militant actions, subset of e
protesters decided to blur the lines between
the two camps,allowing more combative

actions to develop with relacive safety

Neither Arestable Nor Non-Arrestable

Allweek, adichotomy had developed in
meetings berween those campers willing and
unwilling to be arrested. Several times aday
people would be asked to put their hands up if
they were or were not amenable to going to
il This contributed to a tactical confusion
that ultimately benefited our opponents: by
equating those with the highest threshold for
sk with the willingness, or even certainty, of

ending up n the hands of the polic, it created
a situation where the movement was likely to
be stymicd by a massareststuation that took
thelest sk averse clement out of crculation,
aleas for the evening While risk-averse
participants ace hsolutly necessary for
advancing a sruggle beyond the limitations of
what the cstablishment can gnore (oles like
supply runs,ul support, medis, funding, and
others must b fulfiled). in most ULS. protest
movements these days (urban uprisings
excepred) it the lack of combatantsthat
prevents theie development.

On Tuesday night, this dichoromy s
transcended in at least two important ways.
First, those within the encampment were able
o spend hours ficing off with the police,
including holding back their advancements
with projectiles, and then, when the camp was.
about to be flanked by police and arrest
immanent, encampment protesters vere able
toblend into the crowd on Pack Avenue by
cither oining the front line there or changing
their appearance and filling back. Second,
when the police closed i in riot gear in an
actempt to clear Park Avenue, where the
“geen zone” rally had moved, those formerly
green participantslinked arms and held aline
against the cops to protect the camp, They
quickly transformed, when the call to be brave
was tangible and the material stakes of
protecting their comrades became clear, from
ear guard protesters to frontliners. This was
not a coercive situation in which people were
forced to take on risk theyd previously been
unwilling (n the fice of the advancing police
line, many people simply cleared the sereer),
buta testament to the reality that ie's diffcult
to know what risks one will take on until
presented with a concrete circumstance in
which to enact, or choose to not enact,
bravery.
Importantly, those in the back eventually
elized that the mjority of those holding the
line against the police were falling into a
stalemate that they likely didn’e want to be in,
escalation

and they encouraged a strategic d
o prevent, for a second time, a mass arrest
scenario. OF course, complex communication
about tactis s nor always possible n those
moments, and the days following the uprising
included discussions of whether the
de-escalations both at camp and in the street
were strategically necessary to avoid mass

artest, or whether the confict could have been

pushed furcher. Those debates are generative

and should continue; chisis how we learn,

What Winning Looks Like

In asituation of ssymmetrical ighting in
which the police and those who direct them
will almost always, up unil a critical moment
of systemic breakdown, be able ta overwhelm
s with the level of organized violence they
can deploy (with their armies of militarized
cops, iot gear, SWAT vehicles, chemical
munitions, backed up by ais, prisons, courts
exc.) it can be difficult 1 notice when our
actics are successfil and when we have

chieved mediun and shors erm goals. On

on the violence of the police and those

holding societal povwer

While s

(or contradictions) within society and show

cessary to draw out the faultines

the population that the power of those who
run the world ultimately relis upon
force-not any supposed “social contract” or
democratic “will of the people”this
discursive srategy can lead to us taking
mostly about police and their violence instead
of movements and their power. It can make us

el like the police aways wi.

“The university encampment as a tactic has
spread throughou the country in large part
because it has proven to be successful and the
participants have proven themselves poverful.
From images of hundreds squaring off against
cops, mountainous barricades, ive-gallon
water jug bonks, and university architecture
femade into a vision of free Palestine and
free world, displays of our power have buile
this movement. We must figure out for
ourselves what small wins look like, se short
term and medium term gouls, and
what we achieve. Meanwhile, we need to
eveal the police as both violent and stupid
(memerically bonking th

lebrate

s perfect way of

the surface, it can look like the police aways
win. This llusion is sometimes promoted by
media and communications teams within our

movements, who are quick to put the focus

doing this)as often a5 we can.

On the night before the uprising, the
encampment was evacuated an hour before

curfew following two warnings by a
bootlicking administrator. The next night,
when police, sans ot gear, initially
approached camp and began taking it spart
from the outside, those within threw things at
them, held tight lines, and fortified barricades
that both made a police incursion diffcult and
dangerous, and prevented them from sceing
what was going on within some parts of camp.
Meanwhile, frontliners in the encamprment
made their intentions clear by chanting, “If
you comein, we willfight you!”teling the
‘cops what they already suspected: atempting
toenter camp would create a violent shitshow,
a media spectacle, and, evenruall, legal
nightmare. Because those inside the camp.
showed their force, the cops stepped back and
held a ine for hours past curfew. For that
moment,thisis what winning looks like.

Next, when police advanced on the crowd in
the seret, that crowd held a ine, preventing
the police from casily achieving their goals.
“The police had been forced to don riot gear
o small victory against the Tucson police,
who prefer to project an image of iberal, first
amendment protectors. Instead, they were
forced to appear in the morning news like the
occupying army that they really are. When we
force them to make the violence upon which
they rely abvious, and especially when we can
do so without getting people too badly hurt,

Tucson police were forced to shoot protesters
with rubber bullets, deploy chemical
munitions, and generally behave like violent
assholes. This led to hundseds of faculty and
saffsigning a pecition calling out the violence
of the police: “Under the closk of enforcing a
legal curfew, you violated not only the
primary dircctive of caring for students in
your charge but also turned a peaceful protest
into a violent confrontation.” Any time

liberals and other fence-sitters are forced to

draw lineslike chis, we've won.

Finally, while camp as physicallocation was.
lost, camp as zegeist was proliferated by the
intensity of the spectacle that was created.
Hundseds of students and community
supporters flled the streets to watch,
participate in, support, and be forced to
consider the demand for a frce Gaza and the
free use of public space the encampment
implics. Every action like this shifts the
popular commmon sense and leaves behind
dozens or hundseds of people who know in
their bodies what it feels like to hold their
ground againse the police. These essons do
not go away when we go back to work and
elass. They stay with us and we keep them in
our back pocket for the next time t's
necessary to push back together: whether
against genocide, an unjust war, gainst the
cops killing yet another Black person, or
against the nibilisic march toward climate

apocalypse

Whatis a University Anyway?

“The university promotes a certain ideology of
itselfand il every visible surfice of campus
with propaganda that reinforces this ideology.
W must see this for what it i: the university is
doing palitis, it's attemping to control the
terms of the debate and hold onto povier by
promoting a certain self definition.
‘Wichin chis ideology, 2 university s 2
supportive environment for learning and
nurturing young minds, and for promoting
free inquiry, free speech, and conteibuting in
important ways to the progess of society. Its
an environment of co-creation among equals,
where the needs and creative imypulses of

seudents are nurtured.

While elements of this idcology may in certain
moments prove true (some students may
genuinely feel nurtured and may learn during
their time there, insights that contribute to
society can do and develop there) the main
purpose of the university at this time is to
contribute to the development of the
cconomy by working in concere with
corporate backers to crate workers-especially
a higher educated, specialied classes of
workers-as well as the research insights
necessary to promore the profis of
corporations. Ultimately, i exists to make

“The university is therefore a strategic nexus of
private and public interests. One reason that
the university occupations have been so
swiily repressed is because administrators are
aware of the encampments’ impacts upon the.
cconomic activity of the university system.
“This also exposes how fundamentally
alienated the university environment is: even 3
simple protest encampment perched on the
fringes of campusis enough to draw out the
ot cops. Clearly,chisis not an insticution
open to the non-normative creative impulses
ofstudens.

Awareness of these realities ae strategically
important fora few different reasons. When
we see the university as an arery for capital,
we can ask ourselves diferent questions sbout

how to strategically confiront or scek to

disruptit,rather than getting caught up
endless debates common to the logic of the
university: free specch, rights, and demands.
We can instead ask ourselves: what impact will
this eactic have upon the ability of the
university to function propery (ic. to

generate profits)?

Specificaly, demands about “divestment”
must take into accoun the reality that the
University of Arizona, the argest employer in
Tucson,is deeply intertwined with the second
lasgest employer in Tucson, Raytheon, The
University cannot actually divest from
Raytheon and the other weapons
manufacturers with which ic s intertwined
without cessing to be the universiy that it
currentlyis. Such a divestment would require
4 fundamental, even ontological, shift in the
nacure of the University. As such, this demand
is something quite more than typical
demand: it marks horizon beyond the frame.
of the negortiation table. As such, itis endlessly
escalatable. We can always continue to
demand further divestment, unil we
ultimacely accomplish the total rebirch of the
university as a public seructure truly serving
the needs of the people

[1] A quote,or paraphrase, of Frantz Fanon,
e Whetcbed of the Earth.

from 1
The Pigs Can Try,
But They’ll Never
Stop Us: On the
Police Raid of
UMich’s Gaza
Encampment

Report on the defense and eviction of the
encampment at the Universiy of Michigan in
solidarity with Palestine. Originally published
on Black Ink.

After 30 days and muliple sweep alarms that
did not maerialze, Uiversiy of Michigan
PD finally evicted the Ann Arbor
encampment at U-M beeween 5-6 1.m. on
May 215t, 2024, Unlike the credible sweep.
threat last week (for which dozens of
community members mobilized to the
encampment), no material police force
buildup was observed by scouts at key
logistical sites s late as 4 .. Similaly there
were o clear tel-ale sigas of a sweep on

However, about two dozen people were awake
and willing to push back against police when
they finally did atack. Eight minutes into 2.
10-minute dispersal order, about 20-30
UMPD cops with riot helmets and batons
artacked in unison with the “move back”
chan, excessively pepper-spraying the
frontliners, Protesters pushed back with
whatever tools were at their disposal: mostly
putting thei bodies as well 2 objectssuch as
camp chairsin the way of the advancing police
lines. At least one protester had goggles for

protection against pepper-spray, but other
than that, protesters had e protective gear
and were generally not dressed in acie that
could improve anonymity and proteet their
skin from chemical weapons. Despite the lack
of protective gear, protestors consistently
supported one another in lushing eyes and
returning to engage with the police, with
many protestors recurning to be sprayed
mltiple times. De-arrest cactics were
employed with mixed results. Some obiects
were thrown in the police’s direction to keep.
them at bay. Three people were taken to ER,
were discharged, and are currently in good
condition. Four people were arrested and.
released around 1 p.m. to 2 large cheering,
crowd doingjail support and picketing
outside the il

During the raid, other police units shue down.
all access points o the central campus plaza
with vehicles and caution tape. At one access
point, people who areived a the scene afier
the raid had begun stared protesting without
crosing the line. The cops, who wiclded
batons and displayed a lne of handeuff zip
ties, pushed the protesters onto the steet. The
protestersthen marched on the strets of
downtown, closely tracked by several Ann.
Arbor Police Department patrol vehicls.

The cops lef the encampment in uins
Facilty workers were deployed to clean up the
mes. Later that morning, U-Hauls, municipal
garbage trucks, and aerawler dozer were
spoted moving the remains of the
encampment into a dumpster. UM police
confiscated the campers’ personl belongings
(including clothes and prescription glases),
‘books and zines from the Liberation Library,
and prayer rugs, among many other fcems.
The day afier the raid (May 22), UM police
confirmed that they trashed the large amount
of non-perishable foods they took from the
encampment, aa time when there s so much
hunger and homelessness in Washtenaw
‘County. This fisthe pattern of UM police’s
activities, which are dedicated to eriminalizing
poverty and temoving people the universicy
deems "undesirable” from public space. The
story isthe same—police only exist to proteet
property not people.

Members of the student coaltion TAHRIR
as wellas other antigenocide protestes acted
quickly to go to the Washtenaw County Jail
‘on Hogback Road to support the four people:
arrested. Under ablazing sun, dozens of
community members picketed in front of the
Jail,refusing to leave unil their comrades were
released. Food, water, sunsereen, banners,and
drums came with community members to
replace materials rashed by the cops. This
impromptu mobilization demonstrates
people’s willingness o defend each other,
while also notably moving students off
campus to confront Washtenaw County's
broader carceral landscape. We hope to see:
more demonstrations of soldarity at the ai,
notjust with seudent protestors, but with all
people caught up in WashCo’s racist and
patriarchal carceral system.

Despitethe raid, morale i high and people are
eager to continue fighting, This may take.
many forms yet unscen in Ann Arbor, butit
alsoincludes dedicated anti-repression
organizing, such as packing the coures for
armaignments and hearings. We also recogoize
the need to generalize unrest and escalate in
and beyond campusin order to stop the
US-backed genocide in Gaza.

We write this as the zonist attacks on Palestine
escalate and asliberals applaud the
recognition of the Palesinian Authority as
wellas ineffectual “steps towards divestment”
in exchange for the demobilization of various

seudent antigenocide groups. We wite this as
the resistance in Palestine escalates on their
own terms as well We know that all repression
by the police and courts on solen and here.
ehymes with the sectler violence by the sate of
Irael, None of usare free until Paletine i
free. We are against all cops, all ionists, and
we are againse this fascist, white supremacist,
capitalist world. They swepr the camp but
they cannot sweep our visions of beration,
nor can they sweep the affnicies,alliances, and
relationships we built ogether on the Diag.
Long live the encampment! Free Palestinel
The LZ is gone but
we remain
committed to
disrupting and
destroying all
systems complicit
in genocide!

Autonomous communiqe from the so called
UW “Liberation Zone”

The LZis gone but we remain committed to
disrupting and destroying allsystems
complicitin genocidel

The following statement was witten by a
group of comrades who autonomously
occupied the University of Washingeon in
solidariy with the broader Palestnian
resistance movement globally known as the
Student Intifada.

On May 1", 2024, a colition of student
organizations known a the United Front for
Paletinian Liberation (UF) put outa call ©
join an oceupation to demand that the
Universiy of Washington, (1) materially and
academically divest from lseac, (2) cutall
financial tes with Boeing, (3) and end the
repression of pro-Palestnian students,
workers, and faculy. This occupation became
known as the Liberated Zone (LZ). The UF
stated, “we reject our universitys complicity
in genocide and refuse to leave unil our
demands are met” but afier only two weeks,

small self-appointed negoriating team signed a
vaguely worded agreement with university
administrators committing to remove al tents
and never establish an encampment again in
exchange for wition waivers for 20 Gazan
seudents (ae an unspecified dme),tentative
opportunities o propose (not guarantee)
steps toward divesements, and performative
gesturesthat imply the university supports the
safety and well-being of Palestinian, Arab, and
Muslim communites

‘Weknow these gestures mean nothing since
the universty remains complictin the
on-going mass murder of people within these
communities. The agreement does not
guarantee any form of material divestments
from genocide:-profiteering companies but
instead uses standard deceptive sales tactcs to
deny and obscure the university’s investments
and ties with these companies. The agreement
pacified the oceupation by inviting students to
send eepresentatives to additional
inconsequential meetings to discuss ther
investments and ies with genocide.

‘When asked for an account of what happened
astudent occupier explained:

“In the frst days of the encampment, the
negotiations team insisted that they were very
optimistic that the university was willing to
meet the demands. Many people who had
participated in previous occupations warned
against his filse hope and emphasized the
nced for more escalaion, but they were
dismissed as pessimists. After a few days, the
negotiations team began to adit that the
universicy was ot willing to ut tes with
Bocing or give any guarantees for divestment.
They sill sked everyone to rffain from any.
escalation and wait until thre is clear dead
end. While some autonomously engaged in
minor escalations such a grafic, many waited
for more unity around escalation to avoid
abrupt factures, Four days before the
agreement was signed, the negortiations team
said chat the university was not willing to give
us anything atal.For the fist time, the UF
calld for escalation albei in a gradual way.
This added 2 ot of momentum and hope.
That night, many groups and individuals
autonomously covered buildings all over the
campus with graft and were preparing for
more escaltion. The next day,the admin
calld this a “major escalri
come to the negortation table. But in reality,
this minor escalation had made the admin
very concerned about the momentum for
more escalaions. So, day later, the admin
came with an offer with the hope of ending
our movement and preventing furcher
escalations. By accepting the proposal, the UF
helped the Universiy of Washington
whitewash their complicityin genocide, while
seipping us ofthe ground that we had a
degree of control over,the valuable resources
that we had gathered, and the community and
momencum we had bule for further
escalations.” -Anonymous

" and refissed to

Another occupier explains, “What happened
widhin the LZ isthe same thing we s happen
in broader social and political spheres.
‘Whenever 2 grassroots Lefst mobilization
becomes a threat to the satus quo, people in
pover delegate representatives within those
popular movements (most often appointing
people with specifc oppressed identitis),give
them a sense of agency within their
decision-making process (ofien described 2s2
“seat at the able,”) use those representatives
o communicate to larger groups that their
voices are bing heard and they are working
toward meaningfl change but often what
ends up happening is nothing fundamentally
changes because it is casy for these
representatives to be disregarded f pressure is

not applied outside of negorations. On a
micro-social and politica sale, this deseribes
the function of the LZs negotiations team,
theiragreements wich UW adminiseracors,
and i resembles the function of the
Democrati Party within the US political
system asa whole. Within the LZ we aso saw
attempes o forcibly assimilace small
autonomous groups unaffilated and
unwilling eo parcicipate with the UF and their
negotiation tactics. Smaller slforganized
autonomous groups took action as rusted
friends and made no attempts o brand,
formalize or officiate themselves or their
efforts. These groups seemed to confuse and
threaten the order of the more esablished
seudent Organizations since our presence
within the LZ was distinguishable. Orgs began
referring to us s “the AG” (which stood for
Autonomous Group) and requested we send
representativs to their meetings. Many of us
Taughed a this because it el like they were:
trying to formalize us against our will Simply
pu, many of us eagaging in autonomous
organizing both within and outside of the LZ.
identify as anarchists and therefore act
without regard to authority. What defines
autonomous selforganization i precisly the
rejection of all representation. Our pover to
ereate change will aways lein direct action.”
~Anonymous

For weeks, students of UW along with mixed
groups of community members devored time,
energy and resources toward this occupation.
‘We sacrificed health, comfor, and safey for
an encampment that could have been a hub
for disruption and escalation in solidarity with
Palestine. We defended the LZ from Zionist,
Fascistaggression on two occasions and yet as
Soon as UW President, Ann Marie Cauce
refised to negotiate over some graffit (what
she laughably described as 2 “major
escalation”), the negoriation team aceepred
the firse deal she offred them — because these
selfappointed representatives of the LZ
believed tha the point of negoriating s to
argue efectively, to placate the concerns of the
other party, to “win” something “realstic”.
Butasthe broader Palestinian resistance has
taught us, our enemies will not give us
anything unless we force them to, unless we.
pressure them enough that they will do
anything to make it stop — unilreising
gif from Bocing sounds a lot icer than
waking up 1o see what those meddling kids
have been up to

Asrevolutionaries, we do not align ourselves
with the terms of this agreement and remain
committed to disrupting and destroying il
colonialsystems compliit in genocide. We
know that many of those who poured love
and rage into this occupation will do the same.
‘We are insulted by the outcome of the LZ and
urge our comrades to withdraw allaith in
bureaucratic processes that ae designed to
pacify and estabish control over grastoots
movements oriented around direct action.
The LZis gone but the mass-murder of
Palestnians continues. Peaceful protests do.
o stop genocides. We will not allow
illegitimate, slfappointed leaders of these
Liberal reformist organizations to co-ope our
movements and kill our momentum. We eal
upon those who are dissai
outcome of the LZ to engage in autonomous
actions against the on-going genocide. DO
NOT WAIT FOR FURTHER
INSTRUCTION! We are not done until
Palestne s free!

Fight Like a Flea:
Lessons from the
Casbah of Basel
al-Araj

Report and analyss on recent occupation at
the Universiy of Chicago in solidariy with
the people of Paestine

“The flea has fuscinating
fighting strategies and
echniques..It does not kil ts
host..what it does s exhaust
ies host and consume s
blood, causing conseant
diseurbance, eventully
preventing the host from
being able to res. It makes the
host nervous and demoralzed.

()

[TJhe guerilafights its wars
like fleas.IFthe bactle lasts
long enough to exhaus the
hostthen it will il in the
batle due to ts weakness
while unable to locate the
flea(s)..[Flight ke a flea” -

Live Like A Porcupine, Fight
Like A Flea

“The beginning of every
revolution s an exit, an exit
from the social order that
pover has enshrined in the
name oflaw;stability, public
inerest, and the greater
good.” - Faiting Law &
Entering Revolution

Since October 7th, Chicago has seen countless
marches and actions that have been suceessful
in bringing out hundreds and thousands of
people. However, many of these numbers
consistof suburbanites driving or being
bussed inco the city to show support, rather
than a mass of Chicagoans coming together
from across the deeply race- and
classsegregared city. In addition, these
marches have usually been put on by small
number of nonprofit organizations. They
have been heavily marshaled and largely
symbolic leaving many people demoralized
and looking for more.

Asevery day sees more Gazans murdered by
the sionist entit,symbolic parades that play
ineo respectabiliy politcs at every turn and
ask e stae for permission to protestare.
clearly a woothless and insuffcient response.
‘Small, isolaed acts of sabotage aren't enough
either—it s erucial to seek more militant
forms of collctive action. These actions
should demonstrate an understanding of the
throughline between the colonial staes of the
US and srael and the need to abolish both
entirely—prisons, polce, miltary,and state
bureaucraciesalike—to stop both the
genocide in Gaza and the daily forms of state
violence here in Chicago. From within the
imperial core, there’s an obligation o
inerrup the material support that the “U.S.”
provides “isracl”

In order to encourage more militant collective
action, there is a need for a change in protest
culture that s rife with peace policing liberal
concerns about “ouside agitators.” Contrary
to what peace police,protest managers, and
the heads of beral social justice organizations
would have us believe, many people are
looking to take more escalated action and.
learn the skills to do so together. This desire
clearly expressed itselfin flashes acthe campus
encampments here in Chicago, including in
the brief but impactful establishment of the
Casbah of Basel Al Arzjon the University of
Chicago campus.

SUMMARY OF EVENTS

Around 4:40 pm on Friday, May 17th,as the
Universiy of Chicago’s Alumni Weekend
cked off, group of protestors marched to
the Insteute of Politics on the University of
Chicago campus. Soon afier they aived, a
group entered the building and barricaded ts
entrancesfrom the inside. Banners were
dropped from the upstairs windows. Saff
working n the building were told that the
building was being occupied and it was time
for them to leave. Most ofthe building's
occupanes complicd, but the director of the
institate, who happened to be a former
senator,refusd to leave. Cops were able to
beach a fistfloor door on the side of the
building thatled to the basement, but
protestors prevented them from accessing the
inside of the building fo the time being,

Meanwhile, the crowd outside was trying to
prevent cops from entering the building but
did not suceeed in blocking pigs from going
up the porch stairsto the front door. Onee
the pigs got to the front door, it only took
them a few hard yanks to break the barticade’s
pull on the frone door. From there, the
protestors regrouped to the second floor and
tried to barricade that loor. As pigs started o
enterthe second floor,the protesors reteated
0 small conference room, and held offthe
pigs for long enough to leave the building
through windows and onto a porch roof.Just
as the cops were able o enter the room,
everyone escaped onto the roof and climbed
down into the crowd. From there, people were

able o escape using the cover of the crowd
No arrests were made.

s police worked to enter the building,
protestors outside had set up barricades in the
gangway becween the IOP and a neighboring
building, making it arder for cops to move
between the front and back yards. Afier
protestors made thei escape and active clashes
with cops slowed down, people began to set
up tents and chairs on the front lawn of the
building, and continued to oceupy space in
the back yard as well Food and snacks arrived,
attempes were made to st up speaker system
(though cops threw a wrench in this pln by
cutting an extension cord),and kids played on
the lawn. The demands of the action and the

principles guiding e were read aloud.

Struggles with police occurred in the
building’s backyard, as cops atempred to
control the space and warned that aests
would be made if any more tents were set up.
A nearby frat blaseed shitey music (the
national anthem and mediocre dad rock with
a quick reprievein the form of Dolly Parton’s
910 5),tying o drown out protestors’ chants,
Protestors continued to surround the bulding,
and hang out untilaround 9:30 PM, at which
point protestors assesed that there was not
enough energy, support, or numbers to spend.
the night amid cops’threats o sart making
arrests. The group marched to the University
president’s house nearby with chants of,
“Well be back!”

TAKEAWAYS

We share these takeaways n an cfort o
contribute to tactcal and strategic knowledge
developing acros campuses, assoldarity
encampments have been set up,atacked,
epressed, voluntarlydisbanded, and in some
cases escalated. We hope this can be useful to
others pursuing escaated taics in soldarity
with Gaza and in resistance to colonial
violence at home and far away.

(1) On escapes and exits—hope for the best &
prep for the worst. Protestors who entered to
barrcade the [OP were able to make a ull
escape—footage shows them climbing safely
from the roof nto the waiting arms of fiends.
Tewasn’t clearin advance that this would be:
possible, but folks inside were quick on their
feetand had the foresight to leave o fight
another day.

The University of Chicago’s campus is highly
policed by the private Universiy of Chicago
Police Deparment (UCPD) and the
municipal Chicago Police Department
(CPD), o drawing enough protestors to fend
off an inital police response was going to be
diffcult, especially during Alumni Weekend
when police presence was already heightened.
UCPD responded most actvely o the
protest, quickly moving past protestors
attempring to block the front steps; removing
furniture blocking the front door; shoving
protestors and throwing chaies at e and
then entering and sweeping the building.
CPD officers et up lines on al sides of the
building, but mostly st back and watched
events unfold,afer initally chasing some
protestors who attempted to barricade the
alley behind the building back into the erowd.

Leaving the building so quickly was not the
only way things could have unfolded. Had the
front door barrcade held,or had protestors
blockaded more successuly from outside,
UCPD cops would not have entered the
buildingso quickly, and protestors could have
remained inside longer. This would have
necessitated longer-term organizing from
supporters outside the building, and perhaps

different police response. By the time police
entered the building, it might not have been
possible for protestors o ext no a riendly
crowds leaving in handeuffs was thus a
possibility protestors likely anticipated.

However, the protestors at Casbah of Basel Al
Araj had no apparent interest n symbolic
arrests and sfzed the opporcunity to leave
when pigs breached the building and an
escape route presented itelf. This fleibiliy,
and mental preparation to leave if possible
rather than submit o forms of “surrender”
and planned arreses, was astrategic srengeh.

(2)On scouting, preparation & logistics -
practice more. At the Casbah, cops were able:
to move relatively quickly through barricades
protestors attempted on the building’s doors.
Hlad there been more materials on site for
back-up barricades—or more knowledge on
site about methods of barricading
doors—protestors might have been able to
improvise stronger barricades and hold the
space for longer. Practicing sill outinely, to
e more ready to act n escalaed action
siwations and to pivot on the fly when plans
change,isan evergreen takeaway that's
especiall relevant at actions where success
hinges on specialized techniques and tactic.

Further, having more supplies on site for the
full range of possible seenarios would've
served the action well. Tents, chair, food, and
more defensive materias didn’t areive on site
a5 00 a they could have, which delayed the
crowd’s abiliy to jump in and support
holding the space.

(3) On Idenifying Cop Tactics—Repression
goes beyond arrests. The fact that no arrests
were made s always something to ceebrate.
Howerer, ies imporant not to educe state
repression to asingle actic. Cops may not
have taken anyone away on the day of the.
protest, but they did stand by with body
cameras recording footage throughout, and at
Several moments pointed out specific
individuals within the crowd, seeming to
single them out for increased avention, We
can’tbe sure why specific people were pointed
out. The cops could be noricing people:
artested in previous protests, they could be
trying o idenify potential organizers of an
action, or mapping networks to sce who,
might know each other. Observing these
practices underscores the importance of
diguising idenivies when in action spaces,
and having a robust thisat model. Forallwe
Jow arreses could be ateempted weeks afeer
anaction using footage of people involved, a5
e saw in 2020 in Chicago afer protest in
Grane Park where a staue of Col*mbus used

o stand.

() On liberal co-optation - srong principles
et the tone. This action aimed to disrupt the
pattern of berals deescalating
confrontational tactics through pesce
policing, So, we created principles of unity
thatincluded esclation,slf defense,
non-cooperation with thestate, nd diversity
of actics. We shared those principies through
fliers handed out o the crowd before the
match, and through announcing ther over
the megaphone at the rally ourside the
Casbah,

Setting these expectations, and very visbly
sharing and practicing the principles and
demands that don’t it into liberal
organizations’ lacforms, made it harder for
liberals to co-opt our action. As we thought
might happen, iberal organizations emerged
aftera few hours and tied to el people what
o do. When they did, they were shut down
and ignored by the protestors, with some.
responding to people claiming to be “police

Hiaisons” with “chis action doesn’t have police
Hiaisons.” These same liberal organizations also
tookissue with some of the demands because:
“fuck the police and gentrification” don'tfit
neatly into their single issue platforms, making
the action harder to co-opt. Messaging should
focus on reaching folks who share values and
ideological leanings, like being ertical of
co-optation, reform, and negotation.

The demands issued also helped prevent
co-optation. They were:

1. Feee Plestine
2. Abolish the University
3 Land Back

4. Fuck genteification

5. Fuck 12

Following the logic that making demands
pushes movements and insurrections toward
negotiation and moderation, and leaning into
the observation that there is no centralized
authoritycapable of granting us the world we.
insist o building (without abolishing isef..)
the demands are maximalist, general,
uncompromising, and reject incremental
logie. They challenge respectabilty and the
demands-based framevwork itself, making i
harder for liberal organizations to claim eredit
for the energy or power buile by the action.

(5) On student radicalization — learning by
doing, Student organizations limie
imagination of possibl actions and control
protests into being governable, peaceful, and
nonviolent. Offten, the heads of these:
organizations ar obsessed with the dea that
they are responsible for keeping a crowd safe
and are willing to police the actions of others
in the name of preventing areest. When not
intentionally challenged, che campus bubble
of student organizing can isolae students
from non-student genocide resisters, which
meansisolation from collective knowledge of
resistance techniques.

While the encampments did allow for some
new networks to be formed and more militane
tactics to be shared, some organizers were
more interesed in control than in escalation
Thisdesirefor control played out along racal
lines,as students in the encampements policed
Black protestors and faild to understand the
realiy of police violence.

In addition to more methods to occupy,
defend, and evade,this acti
o hink about the question of demands.
Traditional organizing encourages creating
“achievable” divestment demands and other
institationl reforms. But students are seing
that demands and appeasement reforms don’t
go far enough. The full disruption of the
Universiy’s iesto occupation, genocide and
imperilism requires the abolition of the
Universiy institution.

lso led students

The Casbah of Basel al-Arg showed scudents
that they can take actions which threaten
pover and that they can do so withou the
permission of acentral organization. Students
saw that actions do not have to end in
performative artest, We lose our abiliy to
artack if we all go to il Risking caprare can
e done with srategy and material impact,
butbeing captured is ot the goal.

Atthe Casbah, the possibility of autonomous
action and milicant escalation was ot just
theorerical Students and non-students joined
in by buiding barrcades, coverng for people
exiting IOP, kettling the cops, joining other
actions throughout the day, and opposing
co-opuation.

CONCLUSION

From the Casbah of BaselalAraj, protestors
demonstrated the possibiliy for forms of
escalation that allows for an escape from
marshals, peace-policing, student and
non-student divides, and negortiation, and can
allow for a varity of acties. It also showed.
seudents disaffcted from the encampment
and failures to escalate that i posible to
artack and escape—both from the clutches of
police and from the hierarchica peace
policing of liberalstudent groups atempring
o suppress more miltant actions. The
universiey is accidentaly giving its students an
education in autonomy and direct action.
What we learn from disrupting the universiy,
prepares us o intensify and decpen our
actions to free Palestine. School may be out
for summer, b e fght goes on.

Maersk Warehousing
and Distribution
Service Center
Beautified

Posted on 2024/07/09 by wpsilied

In the early hours of July 8, Maersk’s
warehousing and distribution service center in
romulus, mi was argeted by an autonomous
group.The Macrsk encrance was beautified
with satemens ke “Fuck Macrsk” and “Cut
ties with genocide.” Thisaction was done in
line with the Paestinian Youth Movement’s
Mask OfF Macrsk campaign, as Macrsk plays a
direct role n commiteing and continuing the
genocide of the people of Plestine. In the last
nine months, Maersk has transported
hundreds of millions of dollrs worth of
Weapons components t the top 5 weapons
manuficrurers in the US for assembly.
‘Wichout Macrsk those weapons would not
reach iracl W demand that Maersk stops
shipping weapons to the zonist entity, and

thatthey cut ties with gencide. Until then,
we will continue to escalace againstall emples
and those tha fund and empower ther, We
encourage all thase whoread thi to take
action against the genocidalsupply chain and

against colonialism, in whaterer f
appear.

may

“It Doesn’t Matter
How Peaceful You
Are”: Report on
Repression at the
University of
Michigan

Report on violent police epression of recent
sally in support of Palestine at the University
of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Atthe Universiy of Michigan, a coalition of
organizers from campus and the community;
held one of thefrs actions of the new
academie year to draw attention to the
ongoing genocide in Palestine and to demand
the university divest from lsracl. The action
was adiein on the *Diag,” a large public
square on campus in front of the library that
is popularspor for all manner of events. The
universiy responded with vindictive police
violence. One of the four people arrested ac
the action shares the following reportback

People love to talk about especeabiliy
politcs, with “protest marshals” aka peace
police) trying - sometimes violently, 25 we saw
atthe Chicago DNC protests - to prevent us
from organizing and defending ourselves. But
what happened at the Diag (and at countless
other protests) shows clearly that at he end of
the day, i doesn’t macter how peaceful and
“non-violent” we are. We weren't blocking
traffc. We weren't arguing with people or
getting in fights. We were ltrally just
standingin 2 public, open space, with signs
about dead children being murdered in

Palestine, and that was enough to rigger
retalition from the police in the name of
“keeping the campus safe.”

Acthe action, T met up with a friend and we
chatted briefly about how decply unpleasant it
was that the Universiy sent out so many cops
st for a small, peaceful “di-in” - 2 type of
public action focused more around media and
optiesthan tacticaldisruption. Die-ins at U of
M have been historically implemented many
times by a variety of seudent campaigns
throughout history, ahvays with DPSS (UM
cops) remaining firly hands-off and never
artesting anyone. We wondered if this was
sign that the University was planning further
repression, and decided we wouldn'estick
around long: we did not want to risk arrestfor
such a small, actiealy insignificant action.

Iefel extremely surreal a5 we lay on the
ground holding signs with images of dead
Palestnians while 2 UM admin walked over
our bodies elling us that we need to do this
2 more convenient time, and that she would
e happy to work with us at a date that would
Work betterfor the University. (I couldn’t
help yeling back, “Are you really asking us to
SCHEDULE A PROTEST at a convenient
date? Should we be asking Isracl and the US to
reschedule the fucking genocide at a more
convenient time, to0?” She ignored me.)
Eventuallyeveryone lse seemed to collctively
decide that they d pissed off Universiy admin
enough to leave without risking arrest. The
cops announced that we were blocking rafic
(not rue - the Diagis large and open, people
were walking around us with no problem) and
needed toleave so everyone deposited their
signs and banners back in the wagon s folks
continued chanding while leaving the Diag,

Pye been to plenty of die-ins before and they
had always ended peacefully. And thisaction
s also very ealm and solemn, aside from
Some fishy counter-protesters who vere.
jering and laughing and trying to stat fights.
Twas not connceted with the organizers at all
aside from mutusl friends, but having
organized on campus for years and therefore
being very familiar with tacics that work and
don’t work against the University, I igured.
they were probably trying to scat things off
somewhat calmly in the hopes of preventing
immediate escalation. Unfortunately,the
Universiy decided otherwise

Seemingly out of nowhere,as we allried to
leave, the cops moved in. In an act of
spectacular cowardice,they went for
(presumably) the firs arget chey feltthey
could ake -2 16 year old who weighed maybe
90 pounds on a good day. I heard everyone.
yelling, and I didn't see what happened afeer
they grabbed the kid, because whax fle ke
four or five cops grabbed me, shoved me o the
ground, and handeuffed me.

Gertng asrested i never fun, but the process
s not 100 bad for me, in large part because [
am white. I was not even properly cufed, the
cuff were o loose [ could have slipped out
(This might have jus been incompetence on
their part, because another cop stopped them
and made them fix my cuffs) One of the
officers read me my rights, went throughall of
my belongingsin front of me so could see
them, and informed me of why T was arested.

In contrase, the two Black arrestees with me.
were handeuffed properly,left in the paddy
wagon without AC for fifteen minutes unil
they put me (2 white person) in the wagon,
whereupon they immediatel switched on the
AC. The other Black arrestee who was with
me did no have their rights read to them, was
ot told why they were arrested (we evencually
figured it was for the classi erime of “fyering

while Black”), and was eft n the paddy
wagon with no AC until I was placed in with
them. Neither of them were ever told why
they were artested, to my knowledge.

This s just another example of how Palestine
solidarity actions areincredibly racilized. UM
isincredibly focused on is public image and
they almost never arrst seudents (or people
they think ae students). Pve been organizing
here for lmost adecade on and off campus
and in my whole time here [ (and other Fellow
longtime campus organizers) have only seen
DPSS arresestudents one time, and it was a
group of mostly white climate serikers who,
despite swarming the admin building and
occupying in for eight hours,received ample
clear and calm warnings,no violent take
downs,and were not even booked into jail
after being trespassed.

In contrase, Plestine solidarity actions on
campus have been relentlesdy repressed, with
dozens being arested and injured in the
process,and several students, seaf, and faculty
being repeatedly trgeted, followed, and
surveilled by the University (check out
@sfeumich, @umflintsip, and @jvpumich on
Instagram for video proof/examples of this).

The police do not *keep us safe.” They exist to
protect powerful people. In UM’ cas, they
exist to protect the real Universiy — i, 2
doen millionaire rea esare investors in 2
trench-coat (painted over with college
foorbll franchise). I you threaten them, the
University, or their power,they wil sam you
o the ground, concuss you, raid your house,
hure you, follow you, survel you, intimidate
you, and do everything they can to prevent
you from organizing gainse he.

A few days afte the arrsts, UM admin sent
an email decrying “outside agiuarors” Asa
friend pointed out - the syth of “outside
agitators”at thisaction is not nly a dumb
coneepe, it not even true! [ grew up in Ann
Arbor. L was curting clasin high school to
read at Borders on Liberty before most UM
freshmen were even born. But why would the
University care? They are concerned only with
the wellbeing of the President and his eight
vassallords, T mean regents, and care not for
the est of us serfs. They're fucking terrifed of
people organizing outside of the U, because
the de of us existing without them i
fundamentally desructive totheir sery way of
eing.

For those not familar with UM, itis an
incredibly wealthy insetution buile on
Anishinaabe land. Ithas an $18 bilion.
endowment (skyrocketing from a mere $12
billion in 2019, and the median (not average)
houschold income of a UM undergraduate is
$154,000a5 0f 2022 (according to The
Michigan Dasly). However, because T am not
astudent,staff, o faculey 1 am not makis
the Universiy any money right nows in fact,
P costing them money given how many cops
it took to arrest mel Therefore, Tam
considered an “outside agitator.”

More importanly,the narrative of “outside
agitators” is aluays bulshi. Even it NONE of
the four of us arrested on the Diag were from
around here, we'resill hugely impacted by U
of M1 They have a stranglehold on not just

Ann Arbor but southeast Michigan as a
whole; it’s one of the largest employers, and
contributes hugely to gentrification, ising
rents, cimate change, and other things that
affct people across the state and the country
Ourstruggle ar interconnected! The same
pipeline companies thatdestroyed sacred land
o build the Keystone XL are doing the exact
same thing with Line 3 and Bayou Bridge.
The sme official racing to build Cop City in

Adanta have encouraged other cites and
states to build their own Cop Cities. Destroy
the myth of the “outside agitator,” instead,
recognize that our struggles have drawn in 2
wide variety of people wanting to be in
solidariy with you.

Ultimately, it doesn’e matter how peaceful you
are,or how approachable and appealing your
language i, the moment that powerful people
perceive you asarealthreat, they wil euliae.
This can feel scary, but once you accepe that a
fightisinevitable, chere’s power n that. You
don’t have to play by thei rules. Be loud, be
weird, be queer,be angey, and have each
others'backs. The four of usarrested on
‘Wednesday would be so much worse f we
didn’ have our friends (and srangers) ready
o fight for us.

Allwe have s each other, and tha'sal we
need.
Statement of the
CUNY 28:
“Palestine is
everywhere. We
are all outside
agitators.”

5 September 2024

A

The allowing statement was ssued today by the
CUNY 28 at their prcs confirence autside he
courthouse where 8 of the CUNY 28 continue to

face unjust charges for theipartcipation in the
student encampment for Palesine. 4 CUNY
for Pleting writes, “On 4730, undeds acras
thecity were arrested at proests and Gaza
solidarity encampments. Wiile the charges
hate been dropped for most, Manhattan
District Attorney Alvin Bragg, CUNY, and the
NYPD continue o pursue the beaviest harges

for 8of the now CUNY 28, In addition 0 the
previously known 22, there were 6 additional
compades arnested that same night als fcing

felony charges, We'esince omneced with he 6
other comrades who were brutalized and
arvsted that night at CCNY, but who were
iolated by the burcaucracy of the carceral

machine and e als ficing heavy and e
charges.

TELL CUNYTO MEET THE 5
DEMANDS. DROP THE CHARGES FOR
ALL OF THE CUNY 28, FREE
PALESTINE”

Samidoun Palestnian Prisoner Soldariy
Network stands in full solidarity with the
‘CUNY 28 and join the demands to drop the
churges As we noted previously,™

Escalating to end a genocide s not a cime —
indeed,itis 2 duty, paricularly i the heart of
the imperial ore, ata moment when the
resistance forces of the region, from Palestine
0 Yemen to Lebanon to Iraq and beyond, are
on the front lines sacrificing and fighting for
the protection and liberation of humanity. We
must all make clar that the raids and arrests

will notintimidate our movement nor cause
us o de-escalate our tactics and methods of
seruggle, but will only lead us o greater unicy,
resistance and confrontation, to end the
genocide and for a free Paletine from the river
o the sea.

The strong and principled statement of the
CUNY 28s below:

Asof today, ens of thousands, if not
hundreds of thousands of Plestnians have

been mareyred over thelat ten months. This
is continuation of 76 years o the genocidal
ambitions of the

of the Nakba. These numbers do not account
for the countles thousands missing under the
rubblein Gaza. An entire population s being
starved, whileover 20,000 ae held hostage in

the West Bank.

Yemen, Lebanon, Syra and laq continue 1o
answer to the Palestinian cll by confionting

the sionit entit,smashing ll llusions of the
accupation’s invincibility whilethey deal with
the entity’s outbursts “The Axisof Resistance
bearsits respansibilty not only in supporting
Gaza butin doing more to serve the prinsary
goal, which i stopping the aggession n all s
forms.”

The fightis not just in soldarity but in
resising assimilation to the colonial project.
The CUNY 28 attempted to answer the call
made by the steadfase Palestinian resistance to
escalate from within the belly of the beast. We
resist with Gaza

Since October 7th, numerous CUNY
administrations have issued disingenuous
Scatements about ant-Semitism on campus,
yet they remain silent on the ongoing
genocide. Instead, CUNY actvely represses
and condemns any support o the Palestnian
tight o self determination and liberation,
contributing to the widespread racist
dehumanization of Paestinians.

As the sonist entity continuies ts destruction
of the Gaza Srip and the West Bank
the United States maintains its genocidal
hegemony from Palestine to Harlem—the
working.class people of the world escaate. An
encampment should not normalize the
institation—it should disrup it dismancle it
and abolish it

adas

The occupation of buildings by students and
outside agiators symbolizes eclaiming space
and disrupting normal operations to draw
attention to injustices and o force institutions
0 addressthe demands of protestors.

The night of the CUNY raid,“public safery”
brusalized protesters. CUNY “public safery”
are the pigs! The pigs are the IOF! Anyone
that chooses t play the role of apig s the

enemy. A principled encampment should
never collaborate with the pigs.

Since the violent escalation by CUNY and the
pigs,all 22 agitators were charged with 3rd
degree felony burghry—a clear representation
of sate repression against those of us who
choose to act against genocide. At the same
time, the CUNY Bourd of Trustees
introduced a resolution to spend 4 million.
dollars on a private security fim that
advertises i servieesto pigs and
sionist-rained “experts” o spy on.
pro-Palesine protestes.

CUNY agitaors spent more time in custody
than Columbia protesters, and are sl facing
higher charges and continued backlash. The
narrative of “good” vs. “bad” protesteris 3
narrative pushed by the stte o divide our
efforts along class and racial contentions, bue
in reality the fight against the same enemy

Wewill not be intimidated into sience by the

Eight of the 22 have decided toresist this
blatantstae reprisal We will not be bullied
ino silence by any court, nor Alvin Bragg and
his many zonist donors. More than 90% of
people serving time in federalprisons right
now accepted coercive plea bargains instead of
going to ral. The judicialsystem is built on
massincarceration, capializing off of modern
prison labor, which s juse another form of
savery.

We are fighting our charges not only because
we do not recogaize the state’schim to
authority overour actions, but also because
we belive that challenging these charges is
necessary stand againstan unjust system that
secks to silence dissent and crminalize
resisance. s hypocriticalof the stte to

criminalize property damage at a protest,
while signing lucrative contracts to destroy

We are not just fighting for a Free Pales
but forthe iberation ofal. We fight for
ies. Palestine i

ourselves and our commun
exverywhere,

Remember, “we are all outside agitaors.”
‘Whether we are fighting in Atlanea, New York
City,Sudan, or Plestine, the enemy remains
the same. The zionist entity escalates, so does
the Palestinian Resistance. The pigs and
institations escalat, o do the agiators of the
worlds

Watch the press onference video below:
A Postmortem of
the Failures of
UofT’s So-Called
People’s Circle for
Palestine

Acritcallook at libeal co-optation of the
student encamprment movement in Toronto
in soldarity with Palstin. Originally posted
to North Shore Counter-Info,

A the zionist entityssicge on Gaza enters s
ninth month, the now.dead People’s Circle
for Palestine at Uof T joins the ashes of
Northwestern, MeMaster, and numerous
others as an exemplar of beral cowardice in
the face of a livestreamed genocide. Notonly
did this encampment fil o deliver on its
stated goals of dislosure,divestment;, and
ermination, it betrayed both the people that
made it posible as well as the movement at
large. Farfrom opening up new terains of
escalatory sruggle,the organizers of this
People’s Circl spent thesixty-three days of s
existence working tirelessly to make ita
remarkable case study in definging and
dismanding the budding militancy of the local
movement. It perverted its own promises,
violaed every principle o iberatory
organizings it wasted multiple weeks
sabotaging the effots of its own comrades
while thousands in Gaza continued to be
murdered. It rned something that could
have been revolutionary for the city's
organizing scene to 2 summer camp that years
on willlikely be remembered with nothing
butshame. It wasa disappoinement and 2
disgrace.

Red flags had existed right from the moment
it was launched, but one could be forgiven for
having been optimistic back when the
encampment was sill within its infancy. For
manyin the ity who were disllusioned by
months of pointless rallies and hungered for
more, chere had initially been a few things to
be optimistic about. By Toronto’s
unfortunately low standards, breaking open
the fences of an enclosed privately-owned
space to set up camp while multple
banner-wielding crews physically blocked the
police from interfering was precty damn
miliant, et this sole act of breaking and
entering, i soon became clear, was where the
line was drawn. In the two months following
the breaching of King's College Circle’s
fences, Uof T saw not one single large-scale
escalation for Gaza: no building occupations,
no disruptions of Board of Governor
meetings, not even convocation ceremones
were meaningfully targeted. In fac, forget
escalation: even simple attemps to srengthen
the encampment’s defenses were constandy
shot down. Autonomous actors were
repeatedly prevented even from building
barrcades and had to defy the organizers in
order o reinforce the preexisting fences, and
the tctics ainings independent crews had
stared in the camp were forced o a hale
halfway theough.

While encampments llacross the world were
courageously confronting police forces and
taking on their universicis n ever more
ereative ways, the organizers of the so-called
People’s Cirele chose to abandon the very
possbility of a principled defense or straegic
escalation, not only faling o build a
movement that could sustain such a seruggle
butactively ensuring any clemens that were
interested in doing so were killed of, Rather
than focusing on building up the
community’s material capaciey to defend itslf

and keep on esclating, the organizers focused
on pandering to corporate media, on
“deescalaing confrontations with the pigs, on
preventing any autonomous actions that
might make them ‘look bad” or ‘invite’ police
repression. They devoted their time not
towards principled resistance but towards
crafeing an image that portrayed them as
“peaceful’ and ‘nonviolent’in a fule artempe
o iniiate ‘good fath dialogue’ with a system
that understands no language but violence.
Instead of focusing on what they could do to
continue argeting the infrastrucrures
sustaining this genocide, they focused entirely
on whether what they did remained legal, and
whether it looked good on camera. And their
limsy excuses o taking this approach -
namely that the risks of continued escalation
were 'to0 high' to be wordh it and thaetheir
priority was ensuring the continued ‘safety”of
all participans - remain precisely that, Flimsy
excuses, ooted in an illusory liberal notion of
“safery’ buile on centuriesof corpses.

Because thereis no safety o be found in
abiding by the laws of the sate, nor s there
safety o be found in pandering to s
propagandists. I does not ruly marter if an
action i legal or not, because the law is
fundamentally a weapon of the oppressor. If
the armed swine that are supposed to enforce
ieare inclined to infit violence,there s no
Taw that willstop them. What can, however, i
our own ability to evade exprure,or to fight
back. To defend ourselvs not by appealing to
the laws of our enemies but by the stengeh of
our own ability: In the sume vin, it does not
matter fit looks good on corporate cameras -
because for sarters, no matter how legal and
peaceful our actions are, it fcking won '
Almosta year of witnessing corporate media's
elentlessvilification of Palstine and her alles
is more than enough proof that it sole rason
e s to manufaceure consent for genocide.

Any positve press possibly gained by painting
our actions at legal and ‘peaceful comes at
the cost of legitimizing the perceived necessity
for legality and nonviolence — yet no act that
poses genine threat to the state and es
ineress can ever remain eicher. Any safery”
built upon seeking recognition and approval
from the apparatus of our enemy s a safety’
buile on sand - and any safery that disavows
the prasis of genuine rsistance s ‘safety’
paid forin blood. Liberal notions of ‘safety’
within the imperial core are contingent upon
our refusalto take the rsks needed 0 end the
continued shaughter of thousands of
Palestnians. They are contingent upon letting
people continue to fice the ever increasing
violence of manufictured poverty,of police
and carceral brutality, of eugenicist policies,
and of ongoing sectler colonialism, right here
in our own communities. We do not keep us
safe by leting others be thrown under the
bulldozers and tanks of colonial violence. No,
as our friends a Paletine Action US tell us -
and as the cowards within OccupyUof T
e to understand - we keep s safe by
excalating

‘et OceupyUof s destruction of militant
efforts within the encampment wasn't merely
aresult o their deference to optics and
legaliy, nor was i simply a matter of ther
own refisal to escalate. Organizers, afieral,
can be ignored, marshalls punched, and
cameras smashed. For these liberal tendencies
o make a dent,the rot had to go fr deeper
The so-called People’s Circle’ssteady
dismanding of miliuancy was rooted
ultimatelyin it deeply exploitaive
relationship to everyone outside it limited
organizing circls, to the community atlarge,
and partcularly o so-called‘outside agiators.
For some background, the People’s Circle was
launched immediately after the academic year
had ended, right s thousands of students

were wrapping up with their exams and
leaving the city. It could never have been
sustined without the eritcal support of
hundreds of local community members
unafflated with the group and the universcy.
Terelid on ‘outside agiators’since the
begining - yetsad ‘outside agitaors were
unsurprisingly neglected at best, and viifed,
isolated, assaulted, and forcibly driven out at
worst. Organizers constanly demanded
unending amouns of abor, love, and
logistical support from the community,
consistently exploiting people’s oodwil and
commitment to the cause to susain this
summer camp, while reciprocating with
neither care nor solidarity nor even basic

respect.

Rather than empowering people to ke
independent nitative and do what needed
doing, organizers consistently acted on
armogant, authoritarian tendencies, acting not
o distribute power but to consolidace it
among themselves and the selct few they
approved of. They withheld erucial
information from others,refused transparency.
with regard to finances even though every cent
of thei funds was drawn from community
donations, and created an internal culeure
where nothing could be done without asking
for permission from the Right People. They
refsed to fisten to critcism, acted as though
they knew everything, and repeatedly
patronized multiple people with far more.
experience in organizing, They demanded
people truse them yet refused to reciprocate ~
not granting others any meaningful ability to
participatein collctive decisionmaking, while
also simultancously trying to saborage
autonomous organizing and telling people
they have no right to make ‘unilateral
decisions’. This so-called ‘liberated zone was
marked foremost,therefore, by the almost
immediate imposition of a hierarchy between

the organizers and everyone ese. Not an exit
from the social order imposed upon us by
thosein power, but the recreation of the same
within a microcosm that openly - and filsely
~ branded itselfas revolutionary

Esery hierarchy, o course, requires the
violence of s maintenance. It thus entirely
unsurprising that the range of actics
OccupyUof T employed to maintain this
pover structure, n several cases, was nothing
shore of busive. Finding a number of narural
allies amongst thelibeal factions of arge orgs
like PYM Toronto and Toronto 4 Palestine,
they and their extended necwork of liberal
marshals and ‘deesealators subjected people to
endless tone-policing, shu them off by
invoking asupposed need for ‘maintaining
unity’and ‘centering Gaza’, weaponized
identity politicseven against Palestinians, and
if those actics didn't work, harassed folks into
cither shurting up or leaving. They
deliberately exposed people to police and
Zionist violence,spread rumors about
muliple individuals, publicy named
comeades who'd explicily said they did not
want to be dentifed, and recklessly shared
around people’s sensitive personal
information without ever acking or their
consent. Organizers relentlessly badjacketed
and even copjacketed several mtants,
labelled them as ‘wreckers' who shouldn’t be
worked with, and in aleast one instance.
forcibly kicked them out of the camp afier a
sustained days-long witchhunt. They created a
space that was not only against militant
actions butaceively hosile to militant
presence,isoating, lienating, and
traumatizing dosens of ous city's most
experienced and committed organizers nto no
longer wanting anything to do with the
encampment.
Perhaps the most powerful weapon in their
arsenal of anti-miliant tactics, howerer, was
the way the organizers enabled various forms
of oppression against the very people whose
cile it was supposed to be. OccupyUof T
deliberately excluded unhoused comrades
with far more experience in encampment
defense by enabling repeated instances of
harassment against them, denying ther offers
of rganizing support, and in many instances
even very explicily refusing them entry. They
tolerated and enabled tokenization and
disrespect against the very indigenous aunties
whose land they camped on, compelling
severalland defenders into leaving,
dismanding the sacred fire,and denouncing
the encampment. They threw around racist:
stursac Black and South Asian peoples
dehumanized queer and trans people,
particularly trans women; and perperuated an
ableis culture that reated people as mere
disposable bodies worth little more than their
labor. They fuled to keep out predatory
“lefist” organizations with well-documented
historis of enabling sexual buse, and they
fuled to adequarely addres instances of sexual
assault and harassment when they did oceur
inside the encampment. They enforced a
“campers only’ food poliy that denied
everyone except those staying overnight access
o food - all while throwing heaps of perfecly
edible meals nto the compost every single
ek

In other words, the organizers spent multiple
weeks shutting down militant actors in the
name of keeping the community ‘safe’, yet
actively endangering many of its most
oppressed members - while sparing no effore
whatsoever, of course, i portaying
themselves as welcoming and inclusive and
even liberatory to thei thirty thousand
Instagram followers. Over the course of two
months, they reduced the word solidariy to &

hollow carcature of eself, performance thac
meant nothing more than statements and
instagram story-posts. They filed utterly to
realizethat the saying ‘all our seruggles are
connected”isn't some meaninglessfeel-good
plasitude, but material reality - realiy that
cannotbe ignored if we are toset anpone fee.
In effectively reducing their efforts for
Palestine o2 single-issue” seruggles in
alienating, excluding, and actvely harming
entire groups of potential comrades, in
focusing entirely on posturing and
performance instead of doing the actual
fiucking work, the organizers of the People’s
Circle deprived the movement of building up
ies tre collective power. Because the fact of
the matter is this: beration starts at home. To
paraphrase asecent piece by Dr Ayesha Khan,
one worth reading in s entirety:the genocide
in Palestine does not exst in 2 vacuum. Itis
inicately connected to.a global web of
violence thatincludes the daily carnage taking
place right at our doorstep. It s this web we
must dismantle - and to do so, we muststart
by pulling at the threads closestto us

‘et OceupyUof T did none of hat, Instead, it
operated from a shallow, arrogant, liberal
middle-clasis framevwork of organizing thac
focused almost enirely on politcaltheatre at
the expense of any material community- and
movement-building, In doing so, it only
masterfully engincered its own defeat: by the
time the ijunction order inevitably came, he
organizers found themselves with nearly
nobody willingor able o defend the camp,
nor were they able o wield the threat of
continued disruptions as leverage in
futhering negotiations to arive ata deal they
ng bad. They can
pat themselvesin the back al hey want, bue
they know as ellas we do tha they did not
clear out on their own terms’. They did
exactly what the university and the pigs

could settle for without loo

wanted, because they had spent the last two
months ensuring the very possibiliy of a
principled defense or an escalaory response.
were rendered impossible. The so-called
People’s Circle died the way it did because it
had fong ceased to be a protest, ke alone
anything that resembled a beratory project.
That closing press conference’ - that’s ight, 2
ficking pressconference ~ masked only the end
ofasixty-three day long summer camp that
had all oo glaly raded in the very essence of
liberatory praxis for the smoke and mirrors of
media attention, power hungry nonsense, and
individualie clout building, s shameful,
pathetic,cowardly end was a perfece
illustration of the fact tha the so-called
People’s Circl had been rendered empty of
substance long before it was empied of tents
~ that allchat emained was spectacle.

Yer the encampment i not the movement. As
the zionist entity’s genocidal assault on Gaza
enters tsninth month, those of usin Toronto
that ake to heare the phrase by any means
necessary’ must not let OceupyUof T's
neoliberal ineptitude demoralize us into
inaction. The damage done is immeasurable:
far too many of us find ourselves exhausted,
traumatized, and isolaed from 2
disintegrating community unable to do
anything but watch our networks gt torn
apart while Gaza continues to be bombed
Betrayed by the callousness and cowardice of
those that were supposed to be our comrades,
far too many of usfeel more hopeless than
ever in this fight against the global war
machine. Yet hope or no hope, we know this:
thereis no fucure for any of us within this
existing order, and nothing to be done except
o fight. Ifshort-sighted and slf-interested.
actors have harmed our collctive abiliy to do
S0, we must find ways to nurture it back. We
must build the infrastructure necessary for
sustined, meaningful, material disruptions

againstevery institution where the hydra of
zionism and imperialism rear their ugly heads,
and we muse stat doing so now. There is no
other choice. We have never been exempt from
the seruggle - our task too, i Intifada, and
Intifada means attack.

Key to this task are of ourse the principles
and praxis of solidarit, muaal aid, and
community building, which not only
constitute direct action in and of themselves
butform the building blocks atop which all
other direct action s sustained on. The prasis
of soldarity can look like joining a weekly
mutual id distro, o running donation drives
for unhoused people, or helping to organize
ailand legalsupports. Tt could ook like:
inviting your neighbors over for dinner, or
lettng friends with abusive Familieserash on
your couch, orsharing gatekept meds with
those who need them, or bringing extra N9
masks o the function. It does not marter iFs

considered capital.O Organizing. What
matter is supporting each other, connecting
0 and building together with the most
marginalized among us, and forging resilent
relationships - relationships that can
withstand both the unrelenting lure of
liberalism and the batons ofstate repression,
relationships that remain rock sold when
things go o shit,that can form the bedrock of
amovement that, i the face ofa vesereamed
genocide, can actually shut things down.
Serting fire o cop cars or mass-sabotaging
arms factories i hardly imaginable when so
many of usarefar too caught up in the daily
agonies of surviving eapitalism and barely
even know each other, et lone have
longstanding necworks of suppor, rust, and
care. I we sk to build militancy in so-called
Toronto, we must build a cultare where
miliants ae cared for and care foreach other
~ 2 culture where people are cared for and care
for ach other. Faced agains the twin threats
of sate repression and an activist scene:
dominated by a hosil iberalshecoric wedded
o farcical nonviolence and privieged
saferyism, this is a foundation e simply
cannoe do withou

Rebuilding our communities and support
networksis the only irs of many steps: we
must also push back against both liberal
antimilicancy rhetoric and state intimidation,
e muse equip ourselves with the skill we
need to actually disrupt business as usual, and
e muse foster the radicalization of new
militants. We need agitprop, education,
training. We need one-on-one conversaions,
e need zines, we need teach-ins, we need
whearpaste and stickers and spray paint, we
nced weekly sel-defense practice - s oue
friends at CUNY puti, we need excalation
irainings. We need to claim ground against the
pervasive shecoric of nonviolence and stop.
feeding the cowardly illusion that frecdom can
everbe won by merely appealing to the moral
sense of the oppressor.

‘We need to build a broader collctive
understanding of what it truly means to
supportresistance, of why it is imperative for
our movements o develop teeth if we hope to
evenleave a seratch upon the leviathan body
of imperilism. We need to remember that
pige and politicians are st 5 mortal s us
plebeians. We need to turn cross-movement
solidariy into an inviolable principle and 2
daily praxis instead of continuing to reat it as
abonus add-on, s something o be acted on
only when convenient. We need o remind
ourselves that we too live under a colonial
monstrosity buile on genocide, that our mose
paramount cask in the figh for Palestinian
liberation will ahvays be to fight or the death
of the suter state that exises right here on
these lands. We need o teach each other how
o dearrest comrades, how o use Taiks, how to

care for our sicidal friends, how to make
unsanctioned street art, how to administer
nalosone, how to liberate food fr
megastores, how to survive a night n jail. We
need to do so frequently and consistently, we
need to find ways to sale up our projects, we
need to bringn new people,and we need o
make sure they are supported single every step
of the vay.

m corporate

Mostimportantly perhaps, we need to step
the fuck up and pracice the things that we
preach. The pas nine months have shown us
that liberals willgadly continue to pac
themselves on the back for mindesly
repeating the sume uselesstactcs over and
over again while Gaza continues o burn. The
past nine months have shown us that here i
no critcal threshold of livestreamed
Palestnian suffring that when crossed will
naturallycesultin worldwide revolt - i s
many as two hundred thousand Plestinian
martyesare not enough, nothing will be. The
movement will never naturally shife from one
of hypocritesshouting 'shut it down’ while
yellow-vested pigs with megaphones make
Sure the empire is never inconvenienced to one
of principled militants actually following
through on the promise of the chant. If we
weant miliancy, we will have to build t, and
e willal have o do so by actually being
fucking militans. And it wil have to involve all
of s, because every single one of us has vital
part o play. We ill need people who are
down to confront pigs on the front lines and
‘sabotage infiastructures in the dead of night,
jseas we will need people to secure logistical
necessites and track enemy movements,justas
e wil need people to support injured
comrades on the ground, to organize jil
supports in the aftermach, to make sure we're
fed and cared for and ready to fight another
day. We've waited for too long - i’ ime we
remember what we're capable of and stare

organizing the sustained material disruptions
we wish to sce n the world. Gaza demands
that we escalate - t's time you and T heed her

all

Ourefforts will never be perfect. New
challenges will undoubredly contine to
emerge both from within and without. We
will free increasing state repression, justas we
will e liberal eaction, ustas we will face
internal conflicts and fractures. Yet we cannot
let these challenges keep deterring us. We owe
itto Gaza to ey, and when we fil, we owe it
t0 Gaza to keep teying, We owe it to Hind
Rajab, o Refat Alareer, to Mohammed Bhar,
to Hamza Dahdouh, o Shircen Abu-Aklch,
to Ghassan Kanafani. We owe it to Breonna
Taylor, o Regis Korchinski-Paque, to Nex
Benedict and to Pauly Likens, o Corrie and
to Bushnell to Tortuguita, o Fred Hampton.
To the countles others that have lost ther
lives in the struggle against zionism and sectler
colonialism - in the las

ine months,the lase
century the last five hundred years, We owe it
o those still live — to those that every single
day continue o resist against the global
industrial slaughterhouse we ar all being led
towards. We owe it to ourseles to fight. By
any means necessary:

The secret, as aways, i o begin.
No Life in the
Master’s House:
Lessons on Selling
out from the
Northwestern
Encampment

Since April 17, 2024, Gaza Solidarity
Encampments for divestment across
American campuses have shown the world a
truth we already knows the university and the
police protect and serv the interests of the
genocidal war on Gaza that had started long
before October 7. With o universtesleft in
Gara, Gazan students have given these
encampments the tde ofthe Student Indfada.
Those serious about Palesinian liberation will
ook to the mostinventive and combative of
these encampments to refine thei sense of
whatis possble in this struggle and how to
transcend is present confines. However,
universiy presidents, professionlized

nd “movement leaders” may look to
Northwestern Universiy for different lessons.
They willind a record-seting case o
counterinsurgency, in which the
encampmentsself-appointed leadership
cooperated with university administration to
neutraliz the movement by undemocratically
forcing through a treacherous “deal”in
exchange for dismantling the camp after juse
four days

How to Lose an
Encampment in
Four Days

Ac7 am on Thursday, Apil 25, Northwestern
seudents and non-student alis et up a sizable
encampment on Deering Meadow and
successfly defended itin 2 scuffle with
NUPD barely two hourslater. By that
afiernoon, unbeknownst to most at the camp,
negotiations had begun between the
administration and a team comprised of ewo
universiy-appointed faculey (both members
of the President’s Advisory Committee on
Preventing Antisemitism & Hate) and six
undergraduate and graduate representatives
seected by a small ad-hoe geoup of students.
Ac11 pm on Sunday, April 28, this
negotiations team, urged on by an
undemocratically elected seering committee,
Successly sold adeal with the universiy to 2
lecture hall full of clapping and cheering
student activises.

This infimous sgreement, announced fire by
President Schill over email on Monday, April

29,0 much local and national outrage, did
notinclude divestment from the zionist war
machine. In exchange for non-binding
promises of isclosure, a Muslim/MENA
house on campus (for “equity” with Jewish
students and students of other ethnicities and
faiths), and smallscale aid progeams for
Palestnian refugee students and scholars, over
a hundred tents would be dismantled, and the
encampment defanged into a sunctioned,
nondisruptive daytime presence in a small
corner of the meadow with an expiration date
ofJune 1.
To sealthe deal the camp’sde facto leadership
barred non-Northwestern students from the
Sunday evening assembiy, hld on the fourch
day of the encampment, which was only
seectively shared with partsof the student
organizer body. Students who made i o the
meeting had their school IDs
checked—owice—by the most physcally
imposing person the organizing clique could
find, who was not himselfa student. Two
tenured professors (one from the Kellogg.
School of Management and another from the
School of Education and Social Policy)
dominated the stage leveraging thei identites
o actively campaign for the deal s the best
possible outcome of the camp, leaving space
for dissenting voicesonly in 2 brief Qg at
the end of the meeting, Thisdissent was
precmprively pithologized s beng
opportunisic racist, and *Ifou hase
problems with the decision, go'e a therapist.”
Those suspeeted of harboring doubt or
disaffection were precluded from speaking
under the pretext hat the goal of the
encampment and the movement was
“centering Palestnian voices”

The weaponiztion of truisms assumed to be
selfeevident helped esablish a culture of
acquiescence, compliance, and inaction thae
allowed the evening o culminate in what
Some studentsretrospectively described as .
“coup”—the near-unanimous “elction” of 12
internally nominated candidates for 12
designated seats on a new steering committee
that would make decisons for the entire
camp. Those who weren't n the room to vote
were cast as “bodies” and passive audience
members for endles specches and cultural
programming, whose job was o stand by
witing for an emergency or adecision to be
announced. The hierarchical division between
organizers and parcicipunts,students and
non-students, good communiey members,

and bad “outside agicators” —divisions that
have been forcefuly reected at other
campuses—were reaserted at every instanee
of imagined threat. Framed as necessary to
enforee order and show “good faith” to the
administration, it obstructed any.
on-the-ground development of action outside
the parameters of burgaining established by
the universty on the firs day. These
maneuvers enabled negotiators and
encampment leaders o prove to the
administration that they could manage and
eventually dissove the camp peacefully—their
only bargaining chip for a bad seat ata cursed
wble.

On May 23,2024, President Schill chimed
under oath before a Senate subcommittee that
his administration “did not give in t0 any of
the protesters’ demands” and was “fortunate
to have students who were wiling to negoriate
and willing o give up the demands” Over a
single weekend, an encampment that was the
first 10 be set up in Chicago and had drawn
many thousands of participants and tens of
thousands of dollarsin donations ushered in
ies own shameful end, allowing the universicy
o continue serving zionistinterests without
resorting to violent police attacks. As would
Soon become clear with deals cut by organizers
at Brown, Rutgers, Johns Hopkins, and other
universties, the Nordhwestern ageeement was
alandmark victory against the fast-growing
seudent movement for Paestine, which might
stand a chance of ving up to the name of
Incifada n the heart of empire.
‘Northwestern’s openly zionist and liberal
approach to illng the moemens presents a

seemingly nonviolent “soft power” model of
counterinsurgency that outsources the work
of policing to activit collsborators with
manageriaist aspirations. OF course, to 2

belligerent sionist appeite for violence, this
liberal fagade of ice specch tolerance proved

as offensive as an invocation of armed

Victory to the
Enemies

We have repeatedly asked ourseles where
things went wrong and what we could have
done diffrently. Did we botch a chance of

i thelogic of contract bargaining,
on the first morning before negortiators were
sentout without the knowledge of the
participants who had just defended
themselves, theis friends, and the camp?
‘Could we have stopped the leadership
elique—eager to demonstrate good faith to
admin and control over e camp before the
agreement was even signed—from imposing &
secof rles (including “quiet hours” during
the daytime) and significandly reducing its
perimeter on the second day,or dismantling
half of the tents and elling non-Northwestern

protestors to leave on the third? What could
e have done to mitigate the fearmangering
that started long before the encampment even
began,the paranoia manifestin the profiing,
doxxing, and frisking of “suspicious-looking
individuals” who were ou fellow students and
comrades? How could we have stopped the
professors (whose real expertise was n playing
carrotand:stick) from persuading students
that hir only two options were to “take the
deal” —celebrated as “unprecedented” and *a
historic win”—or “get arrested”? Among
these discrete points of filure, was there ever
an opportunity to pull the emergency brake
on the drive toward selling out?

Westayed el the very end, despiteclar
writing on the wall We hld out hope that
growing discontent with the ack of

transparency and authoritarian
decision-making, the racist weaponization of
identity o shut down dissent, and the
leadership’s blatant disrespect of non-student
protestors were sowing seeds of ebellion. The
specer of the outside agitator, the nfiltrator,
the anarchist,the opportunist,the
adventurist, the rumor spreader—the
potentially autonomous actor that docsn’t
consent to being governed but won't go away
- was continuously weaponized toward those
who simply questioned the lack of democratic
procedure and the strategic value of e
agreement. We lostto the povwer the university
and s junior partners wielded over the
encampment as the sole guarantor of safery:
safety but for Northwestern students only.

However, the restof the world issill exposed
o the ever-intensification of necropolites.
The zionist eneity’s “fullledged messianic
genocide” in Gaza, intensified with the recent
caastrophic invasion in the overcrowded
Rafah, is being live streamed as we writ.
Direct exchanges between Americz’s
milcarzed police and “lsracls fncse”
occuparion forces, responsiblefor aslower
“incremental genocide,” have long been kept
out of the public eye by programs like Georgia
State University's GLLEE. While paid cops
train to repressthe violent allouts ofsecler
colonial apartheids in Palestine and Atlanta,
selfideputized student organizers and marshals
in yellow veses have turned campus “lberation
zones”into hyper-survelled and
micro-managed experiments in containment.

Thisis what the catchphrase *we keep us safe”
means n today’s elice, private university,
where the COVID-19 generacion is
conditioned by the post.George Floyd
Rebellion expansion of the DEL industial

‘complex of a ecuperative progressive identity
palitics—one of the most effctive
counterinsurgency tacticsever nvented—and
a demobilizing anti-sociality coded n the.
language of community, unity, protection,
and self-care. At Northwestern—located in
the suburb of Evanston, protected from the
social antagonisms and police brutality that
racialized working class communities
experience on the daily— one of the resuls is
that raher than shape ereatve, new stategies
of action and organization, terms like isk and
escalation have become vacuously
omnipotent,asf ther mere utterance
automarically would summon an onslaught of
violence against the most vulberable members
ofa fctve collctive. Rather than develop
collecive ntelligence and confidence in
response to eal violence,the fantasy of threat
by an omnipotent, abstract other to an
interscctionally endangered self—beit by the
stateor the “autonomous
actor”—manufactured automatic consent o

de-escalation.

The Northwestern administration saw no
reason to use police repression because
lowevel psychological warfare was enough to
scamp out resistance. To be sure, the sume
cannoebe said about the battles fought at
many other encampments, butsimilae
tendencies and techniques of control,
obstruction, and collsboration have been
observed nationall. the dream of reason
produces monsters,the shame that comes
with the - conscious or
unconscious—betrayal of the Palestinian
Resistance generalizes the desre for
masters—or for any that will declare the

master’ victory 15 one’s own.

The Future of the
Campus Rebellion

We writethis message of warning, heartened
by the rapid globalizaton of the Student
Incifada, by the encampments, occupations,
and blockades that have taken campuses and
sereets worldwide. We aso recognize that calls
for autonomous action and escalation alone
cannotaccomplish the work of
counter-counterinsurgency. Insofar as the
police recain the power to escalate the ruth
that aseudent movement can tell—with its
presumed moralinnocence and deservingness
of protection unafforded to other

seruggles—might seill belimited to the
spectacular images of disproportionate state
and vigilanee violence it provokes.

Most beleaguered sectors ofsociety hardly
nced reminders of his violence that
constitutes American life. Many in the lobal
South remain ambivalent about the firstworld
student s politeal subject,for whom police
violence against their peers in sacrosanet
spaces of classreproduction i ar more:
tangible than a broadcast genocide (to 2y
nothing of the many more years of occupation
and bloodshed that precede October 7). As
the seudent movement pushes beyond
territorial models of encampment defense to
accommodate mare agile, more mobile forms
of disruption in many locales, what will
remain of the “seudent activist”figure in the
summer,the ul,and the years to come?

While the “lberal counterinsurgency” model
pioncered by Northwesteen has succesfully
caprured multipl encampments and
channeled student esistance o existing
instiurional structures, it also appesrs to be
losingstrategy on the national stage
Biparcisan congressional assaults on Schill and.
other univrsity presidents for not cracking
down hard enough on student protestors
make it clear that politcians are only too cager
o trump up the politcal cost of
“nonviolence” to make it an even less popular
method of campus repression. It makes for
good hate-watching, but we find ourselves
unwilling co derive too much enjoyment from
mocking Schill’s F-rating from the ADL and

Wichout a doube, the illout from today’s
umpus batdlegrounds will prove disastrous
for Democrats in November, who have called
for police violence against a key part of ther
voring base already alienated by the party's
brazen supportfor the genocide in Gaza. As
Chicago braces for national party conventions
in the coming months, we note that itis
precisely through their ceaseless apiculation
0 an unmeetable goalpost in the hands of
supposed adversaries that liberals perform
some of the most esential and shoddy work
of empire:the neutralization of resistance by

proxy.

Divestment already sounds thelimits of our
existing conditions and the liitsof the
student movemment, if we are willng t hear it
What would it take to bring about real
divestment from deat o sbolish
necropolitcal apartheid regimes anywhere and
everywhere, o practice it worth living for
theliberation of Palestine? The student that
surrenders prematuely has given up on work
that s ot yet recognized, not yet avowed —the
work of becoming Palstinian, s defined by the
evolutionary martye Besil AL Araj i his
writing on the rules of war

“Finally every Palestinian (in the broad sense,
meaning anyone who sces Palstine . part of

their suggle,regardlessof thei secondary
identities) every Palestinian s on the front
linesof the batte for Palestin, s be careful

notto filn your duty.”

From the Camp to
the Campus:
Reflections on the
UC Davis
Encampment

Reportand analysis on the encampment in
Solidaity with Plestineac UC Davis.
Originally posted to LIC L Capsoff
Campus

The worldwide mobilization in soldarity with
Palestine defined 2024 for many campuses and
communities From the first tent pitched to
the last one taken down — willingly o by
force — many participants in and observers of
encampments have writeen reportbacks and
communiqués about how the encampments
functioned, politcally and practically, and
where they encourage us o go next. With
some of our members involved in the
encampment at UC Davis, Cops OF Campus
has wanted to offer its own thoughts
Recognizing that so many important points
have already been made, though, we hoped to
avoid replicating the work of others. So we
decided to speak specifcally as a group
engagediin the movement to abolish police, in
part because it s more clear than ever thaeal
campus liberation movements are cerain to
encounter the police 2 limit n their
seruggles,and in pare because this has not been
a perspective fully inhabited in the writings we
have read (although of course police violence
entered many encampments).

In supporting Palestinian liberation, we have
scen how deeply connected are campus

policing apparatuses to military enities
aberting what happens n Plestine, from the
two-vay trade beween the US and the Zionise
entity in policing and survillance,to the use
of policing to repress dissent from their shared
policy of genocide. We recognized how the
forces of policing that pressed in on American
encampments were always present, even when
notspectacularly visible. We wanted to ask:
what can that realty teach us about whether
and how a movement in the imperialcore can
seand in soldariey with those ighting againse
their own genocide acros the world?

The UC Davis encampment was st up on our
main Quad, a flat, grassy space of a few acres,
surrounded by various campus buildings
including the main library, but not adjacent to
the main administeative building. The
encampment was a circular space with
perimeter of banners and fabric that grew in
size as more students enthusistically showed
thei soldarity and participated. Potential
campers were asked to egister (giving name
and contact information) at a table et at
entrancesin the perimeter. Inside the
encampment were medic support, mutual id,
food and water, and various forms of poitical
education that - excitingly - fearured
instructors from all over Turdle Iland. Like
many other American encampments, the
interior showed what a campus could fel ke
if it were a ruly free space of education, basic
needs addressed foral asks and chores shared
by the community so everyone could learn
together in a space of mutual care. And as 2
esult, many connections of deep trust were
forged through the interactions the
encampment made posible.

Outside the encampment was the rest of the
‘Quad, open to the entire university
community and the public, round it on all
sides. This configuration made the
encampment visible and easy to approach.
Mostseing and approaching the.
encampment came to show support. But the
layoutalso made it easy for bad actors —
Zionists, white supremacists — o roll up.
Because the configuration was vulnerable to
harassment and threat thereof, the
encampment had ts own secusiey force posted
atintervals around the outside of the circular
soft brrier

Seen and described this way,the encampment
appears s series of concenric circls, with
the camp iself at the center and a st of
circular barrers extending outward to protect
ie from harm. It also seems intuicive o
understand the camp as a center from which
sound, visual messaging, and action —
politcs let's say — emanated to influence and
change what was around it like ripples on a.
pond.

However, thisset of circles can also be viewed
in the other irection, from the outside
imvard, and from the least obviously visible to
the most. The larges crcle on campus s cast
by the Chancellor, Gary May,acirce of
abstract power exceuted by administrators,
trustees, and regents who, as we'll discuss,
framed the encampment by regulating s
seraegies. Inside that circle were the various
cop and puti-cop forms that populace the
campus: UCDPD, Core Officers, Student
Afsis,anyone potentialy deployed by the
Gary circle to keep an eye on things. These
cops never entered the camp itself and were
largely invisible but thei representatives
materalized readily outside when disorder
Seemed o loom. Inside thatcirle was what
might then seem an entirely other order of
security force, appointed by the camp tself.
These were the aforementioned camp.
members who patrolled the outside of the
camp circle. Reinforcing them in their ask to

keep threats out wasthe soft barrcade
surrounding the tents. And inside the soft
barrcade was the community space of the
camp and the concrete circl that marks the
center of the Quad, decorated with chalk
messages for Palestnian liberation.

On the surface, then, power appears to move
in two seemingly antagonistc dircctions -
protest and disruption emanating outward
from the encampment, and admirisrative
pover moving inward to sifle and contan i
However, the communication with
administration that was built into the
encampment’sstructure resulted i these two
dircctionalites of power cooperating rather
than remaining opposed. This cooperation
resolved the tension becween antagonism and
compliance on the sde of compliance, such
that even what was offered or perceived as
opposition had already been caught up in the
vector of the univrsity’s overall mission:
maingaining law and order.

In ts approach to the outer edge of
administative power,the camp employed a
demands-based political strategy. As Rescarch
and Destroy notes in their andlysis of the
encampment movement,this srategy places
the camp within the admi’s regulatory
parameters. As RaD contines, havis
discreteset of demands was a ature of the
national wave of encampments, focused s it
was on winning divestment not exactly against
‘but from the administration. They note
therefore that having “specific and limited
demands that must be won from an authoriy.
empovered to delver them” required the
encampments to both recognize and negoriate
with that authority reating the
administrations s legitimate partners in
dialogue. In tuen, the camps presented
themselves as reasonable negotiators acting in
good fith, The universiy and its

administracors were therefore positioned as
both adversary and ally, a once perpetracors
of genocide and potential partnersin
opposingie. Although the s of demands
originated from within the camp a5 way to
change the administration’s policies, that
utterance ultimatel redounded upon the
camp, influencing their positions and actions
and their effcct on the lager surround.

The demand structure nfluenced many
aspects of the encampment, even down to the
community agreements that regulated lfe
inside the camp. One of these agreements was
that the camp was o remain police-free, with
asign near the entrance declaring that cops
were not welcome. We wondered - does this
mean that cops are not welcome here to harm
us,or cops are not welcome here to help us?
Was there aclar principle or wasi pick and
choose? Doubress large numbers of cumpers,
acting from abolitionist principles, did not
want the cops to do cither. At the same time,
though, it scems likely that,for the cops to
guarantee that they would not violenly sweep
the camp (which they never did), chey would
demand acceptance of collaboration,
cooperation, and self-policing.

The parameters of what collaboration might
Took like were laid out on the first day of the
encampment. In Gary May’s opening message
about the encampment, he reassured the
campus that his administration was “actively
engaging the students to mitigate any
diseuption of campus operations,including
access o classrooms, work areas,study spaces
or residence hlls.” This statement s followed
dircetly by Gary'sinsistence that UC Davis
allows “peaceful protese” and will ot
discipline seudentsfor specch protected by the
First Amendment.” The juxtaposicion of
these ewo statements implis tha fre speech
would be allowed so long as it remained

speech only and did not disrup the regular
activitiesof the universit. One s free o
philosophize about the world if one promises
notto change it. Morcover,the
administration’s unremitting anxiety that
campus movements might find themselves in
communication, alliance, and coordination
with other humans — referred to
formalisticaly as“non-afiliates” and
dishonestly as “outside agitaors” — meant
that the encampment, a partof th tacit
détente with Gary and his implicitine of
cops, was obliged to make sure no members of
the public breached this encampment at a
public university.

The adminisration’s rle as both aly and
adversary isclear here, with Gary May both
the power that can send in the police and the
pover that can supposedly promise shelter
againstthose sume police, so long 2 the
campers follow his rules. In the weeks
following Gary's firse message, an uneasy truce
emerged, in which the camp kept the peace
and the administration refrained from
sweeping it. This truce was vouchsafed by
encampment leadership’s conseant
communicarion with Student Affirs and,
through them, campus police. If the space
within the encampment walls existed as 2
microcosm of a world without police,a quick
glance over the walls revals that camp
leadership maintained this appearance only by
integrating the encampment into the larger
fabric of policing that surrounded them — by
talking 1o administrators, cooperating with
“campus safery” apparatuses, and agrecing to
self-police. As some friends once wrorte,“ free
universiy in the midse of a capitalis society is
like a reading room in a prison.” By the same.
token, a free encampment in the midst of
citles of policing.
s vibes go, what radiated from the camp
most o the time was sense of peacefulness
and useful activity. To preserve this stacus quo,
the camp did not allow engagement with the
counter protesers who showed up. The camp
security team worked to “de-escalate” these
siations, which involved ignoring counter
protesters’attemps o engage while
monitoring them, documenting them, and
preventing others from engaging in more
miliant defense. Campers were instructed o
leave potential threats o security rather than
responding themselves; defying the
no-engagement rule could result in exclusion
from the camp. Here again, the directionalites
of power that maingined this sense of peace
become important o norice. For one thing,
the no-engagement rule originated from the
encampment center but then emanated
outward to legisate the behavior of people
beyond the encampment itelfall ver the
quad. For another, with the campers not
permitted to participate n active defense
themselves, policing - 2 defning function of
the administration — beeame the condition of
possbilty for the camp’s continued existence,
the alternative to broadly-based collctive
defense. And ifthis wider ircle of policing
s actual racher than theoretical - a kind of
net to catch randos bobbing around in the
open green space — then what else might it
catch? Could it equally ensnare comrades
acting autonomously to oppose the
universiy’s compliciy in the genocide?

In addition tothe rule against engaging with
counter-protestrs, there wasanother rule, ot
written on any sign bt no lessbinding: no
escalation without encamprment leadership’s
permisson. Imporeandy,tisageeement did
notjust apply to encampment participants,
butalso influenced the entiee cumpus
community. In conversations inside and
outside the camp, campers and theie

supporters heard that actions not approved by
PULP leadership (and later UAW4811) would
be denounced leaving the perpetrators
exposed to ecalation from admi
and encampment allesalike. Like the
no-engagement rule, this rule both emanated
from the center of the quad to affet the entire
campus and reflcted back an administrative
priority. So when campus fell quie for the
duration of the encampment, with no major
diseuptions happening outside of s purview,
many counted this sate of s a succesful
‘<amp-campus relacionship for the resc of the
system to emulate. Allthis despite the many
aallsfor escalation flowing from Gaza and
elsewhere

The encampment’s disapproval ofescalation
developed in response to the specific
conditions of the encampment. Escalation
might risk breaking the uncasy truce with the
administraon, which would in turn
encourage Gary to send in campus police. In
the analysis of some encampment
decision-makers, escalation increased the sk
of police response, posing particular danger to
marginalized and precarious camp members,
and would potentialy divert capacity and
resources away from the camp tself Dircct
action could also be blamed on encampment
leaders, who would then receive the brunt of
the repression regardless of whether they were
involved. For these reasons, the possibili
someone might oceupy a building or cause:
property destruction represented a threat, not
o the administration, but to marginalized
camp members. Rk aversion was effectively
repackaged s community care,ina recurn of
widely-discredited bromides best known as
part of the Non-Profitled liberal
counterinsurgency during the George Floyd
Uprising.

Of course, the notion that nonviolence
Successfly prevents repression is
questionable at best 25 we saw at many
campuses across the country, administracors
do not need an excuse to send in the cops.
Certinly there s ltle support forthe idea
that policy-compliant protest gets the goods.
However, given the spectacular displays of
police violence that took place at Columbia,
UCLA, and elsewhere, the encampment’s
attempes to avoid repression were
understandable. No one wans to e their
friends brutalized by police or summoned by
Student Judicial Afirs. At other campuses,
Palestnians and other Arab students were
targeted by adminisrators or recaliation,
including suspensions and bans from campus,
with those whao were perceived a leaders often
singled out for harsher punishment. s also
true chat marginalized groups,especially
peopl of color and trans people, face:
inereased risks of police violence and
mistreatment during arrest and detention, As
‘e have writcen elsewhere, che question of
how to actin response to the reality of
differential risk s one that all iberacory
movements must work through, and the UC
Davis encampment was no exception.

Neither can Cops OFf Campus be an
exception, and as we continue to work
through this question, we belive that the
solution cannot e in eliminaring isks it has to
T, we believe n the willingness to ke those
visks together, in a genuinely collctive way
that involes the whole communiey and builds
on the capacitieseach person in i offers.
Solidarity is a vexed and, to some,even
emptied-out term, but ifit holds meaning for
us,itis sanding togecher to face isk and do
what needs to be done. Solidarity to us means
not only acting together disruptively but also
acting together to defend those facing violence
and represion. If the camp’s arteude tovard

collecive risk was one factor thatled it toward
collaboration and compliance, then maybe a
different approach torisk i called for, one.
that allows us o better say outside of
administrative control,

That kind of collective approach to isk llows
for attack rather than collaboration. It might
Seem at his point that we are talking about
“escalation,” especiallysince this was what the
camp sought to prevent. Bu thisterm, too,
has drawn criiques, and so we want to think 2
litle more about what we mean. Falateis
word derived through back formation from
escalator, which was coined by the Otis
Elevator Company to market its moving,
suircase. Itisa rade-word, a word of
department sores, the end of flaneri at the
hands of nexorable transactionaliey. So
instead of using it we're going to tea into its
segments like an orange and pull out its
ancient sed: sale. We approach the diffrenc
forms of arack that collctiverik allows us
notas escalacion, then, butas experiments
with seale

Sealeisa stircase and scale is a measure that
can keep moving ourward or inward. To scale
out means, for us,disrupring larger parts of
campus,treating the encampment asa buse,
nota space, and attacking in ways that exceed
whatever bounds the largest crcl of the
administration may attempe to set. One
familar principle of abolitionist discouse has
become its emphasis on building chings up
rather than breaking them down, a alking
point thatallays fear, that mitigates the sense
of isk. But the breaking down has o happen
forthe new worlds to be ralized ully: In this
process, it scems imporeant to ake physical,
material space that the university’ daily
operations need - the starcase,the building -
butatcackis atthe same ime not just about
taking the space, about territoralty. Artack

means not only ereating and defending
alternate spaces, but generating force to push
beyond them against the next layer that needs
o be toppled and destroyed. Thinking about
seraegy spatally in this way migh also mean
asking whether radiating from center, or
even from muldiple points considered centers
in some way, will accomplish these ends.

Sealing out aso directs us o the networks of
solidarity that existbeyond our campus,
connecting the encampment movement to the
larger sruggle for free Plestine. This
broader vision is most apparent when we
consider the international sope of this
seruggle - the factthat we must act in
solidarity with people on the other side of the
globe - but it also applies o those directly
outside the university’s wals, whose exclusion
through policing defines the universiy as
separacespace. These larger nerworks make
possible autonomous actions taken by
Seudents and nonstudents alike. For example,
when an anonymous group attacked the
UCOP building, they did so independently of
any encampment; et their actions intensified
the encampment movements exposure of
universtis as enablers of genocide. If any
movement i to grow into a mass mobilization
equal to the seal of the horrors it opposes, it
must evencually be aken up by people ts
originators have not met and may never meet.
These people wil necessaily act
autonomously,ealibrating their strategy based
on their own capacity and local conditions. To
grow, a movement does not have to be
centralizeds it can embrace these autonomous
actions a the vehicle by which the struggle
can spread, even when these actions assume
risks and face repression that other formations
within the movement are unwilling or unable
o do themselves. Saling out beyond
ourselves asks us to embrace those who scale
up the ntensiy of artacks against genocide, to

celebrate those wiling to take necessay riks,
and to support those who fice repression.
Being part of an international movement asks
us to support the most radical clements of our
own movement 5o as to better reffect the scale
of violence and bravery of struggle happening
elsewhere

For those of usat the encampment, the weeks
spent together were a time of collctive
growth and learning, and we forged bonds of
friendship and trust that have lasted beyond
the camp’s dissoluion. If you participated in
the encampment, whether you attended a
single teachin o stayed for the duration, you
became part of a community and saw 2
glimpse of another world, however flecing.
Now that the camp s over,the connections
you made n that space can become the
foundation for taking furcher action together
s par of the movement for afree Paestine,
you are now conected to thousands of
people you have never met, in Davis and
around the world, who will have your back
when you decide to act. What would it mean
o take those elationships, our connections to
comeades known and unknown, and carry
them forward into the al within a framework
of attack? We hope that the coming year il
see bigger, bolder attacks on the university and
its deathmaking. May the struggle generalize
unel here s no space that can contain us,
el all walls and borders and checkpoints
finally .

Well se you out there,
Over 100 March in
Richmond, VA in
Solidarity with
Palestine, Clash
‘With Police

Report on recent anti-var march in solidarity
with Palestine in Richmond, VA. From press
elease orginally posted to the Fcalatc

Network

On Friday, September 13th, a rally organized
by the United Anti-Apastheid Movement
transformed into a heated march.
Demonstrators ficed a heavy police presence,
esulting in atleast one arres, vandalized
police cruisers, and direct clashes with law
enforcement.

The rally escalated a proesters,fucled by
anger over the Virginia Ieael Advisory Board
(VIAB) andits ties to US-backed Israli war
crimes in both Gaza and the West Bank, took
o the streets. Tensions soared when police
swarmed the demonstrators without
provocation. In turn, demonstrators blocked
the sreets; hrev fireworks and projectiles at
police oficers behind the march, in order to

defend one another from the surprise atack
by law enforcement.

Seth Jackson, spokesperson for the United
Anti-Apartheid Movement, explained the
motivations behind the protest:“The Virginia
Irael Advisory Board represents imperialism.
In this genocidal moment, we reect
incremental approaches. Marching and
speaking out are not enough. We have taken
responsibiltyfor ou future, and we will not
stop until VIAB leaves Richmond and
Virginia.” Jackson highlighted the broader
context:“We are responding 102 call for
globalsolidariey with the Palestinian people
and thei legally authorized resistance to
colonial occupation. We oppose the
expanding genocide authorized by the White
House and exceuted by the US-funded sionist
occupaion of Palestine. We are workers,
students, community members, and native
Richmonders united in stopping these

massacres by any means necessary.”

The Virginia sracl Advisory Board isan Lsacli
business promotion entity embedded within
the Virginia stte government and funded by
the seate’s caxpayers. VIAB promotoes Isacli
military & police technology businesses in
Virginia, who make Heron TP drones to
murder people in Gaza & Zibar actical uilty
vehicles for patroling the Egyptian border.
Protestors argue, VIAB s a inancial arery for
the mltaryindustrial complex that supports
ongoing violence against Palesinian civilians.

Jackson emphasized the protest’s ultimate
goal:“We believe that only a revolutionary
trandformation of our world and society can
achieve our goals. We stive for a world of
peace, dignity, self determination, and
equality. That will and always has reqired us
toriseup.”

“We hope today's actions inspire others to
escalae thei resstance,” Jackson added. “This
is 2 crucial moment, and we are committed to
continuing our gt for justice. Tt docs ot
surprise us that Richmond residents would
take chis kind of bold action just after
community members in nearby Washington
DC courageously stood up following the
racist murder of Justin Robinson by law
enforcement. From Palestine o the USA,
racism, colonialism, and authoritarianism
must be toppled!
Flood the Tech
Core: A New
Front Opens in
Austin’s

Movement for
Palestine

October 14,2024 ~ From Austin
Autonomous Media

An anonymos transmission

On 1077, the anniversary of the heroic
Al-Aqsa Flood operation launched by the
unified Palestnian rsistance factions,a group.
0f 30 people demonstrated at the BAE facilicy
in Austin. The BAE office sits in 2 corporate
park that also houses General Mortors, 3M,
‘Qualcomm, Infosys, Apple,and other tech
companies. This corporate park was labelled
the *Core of Genocide in Austin” as indicated
by abanner a che demo.

The rally startd of fuily tame and hesitant.
Many were uncertain what the police response
would bes therally had been pre-announced

on social media, and the last deviation from
the downtown parade spectacle (the
encampments) resulted in heavy repression
with mass asrsts and injury. Forthe firs hour
or so,the rally stood on the side o the road
ing Parmer, chanted, and received honks
from supportive pusserby. The ally was only.
observed from the parking lot by 2 small
handful of private security guards. No cops
were present.

Afer iring of standing and chanting the
demo turned into a march. The crowd walked
down the sidewalks past the BAE building,
chantingand yeling n s direction. As the
crowd rurned towards aroad leading towards
a private entrance,the energy sarted to build.
The erowd alked up towards the parking lot,
where they were cut off by a security guard in
hiscar who unenthusiastically asked the group
not o come up onto private property, but
encouraged the group to be on the sidewalks.
After abriefyelling match, che crowd
marched back cowards the sdewalk near the

front entrance,

There, after spending another few minues
chantingand yeling at gawking BAE
employees,the rally found another round of
courage and marched up to the door of the
facility. Despite the frustrated threats of
another security guard, who claimed they
were calling the cops, the rlly stood s
ground ourside th facily. After tbout 15
minutes, with no sign of polce response, the:
group returned to the sidewalk to recharge.
‘After a brief break, they marched through the
corporate park towards Apple, then ended
shordy afr.

Whilethe action initslf was only mildly
confrontational or escalacory i intensicy,the
gesture of thisdemo opens up a new fron for
the movement for Palestine locally. Thisis
fiting for a gesture that honors the Al-Aqsa
Flood bactle. By identifying the “Core of
‘Genocide,” thisaction challenges the
movement to refocus s proritis, and
demonstrated tha i easer and more
effctive o targe thisarea. Even the simple
activiy of marching and chanting-not that
different fom the content of ralles
downtown-fecls more meaningful here, as
onecan dircet thei rage dircctly at the
workers & infrastrucure complici in the
genocide, ather than an empry legisature or
the glas walls of a hisie.

The police are fa less likely,lss prepared, and.
less capable of mobilzing in massive force
here-whereas they have extensive training and
infrastructure for overpolicing the downtown
& campus playground. The area around the
tech campus s a mixture of lower.income
suburban neighborhood, brush and ails,
apartments, and businesses, with lots of spaces
for people o gacher,park,disperse, or move
around. A wide range of autonomous actions
could be experimented with here-pickers,
office disruptions, autonomous are initatives,
and even classic ralles. I even a fraction of te
crowds that are mobilized forrallies
downtown could be mobilized to this campus,
ie would apen new opportunitiesfor the
movement. More of the movement should
turn s autention to this new front, and
consider what they have the capabiliy to plan
advance the struggle here.

The opening of new front, one that escalaes
in direct confrontation with the wa machine,
is essential o the growth and survival of the
movement for Palesine locally. Locally and.
nationall, energy and turnout for rlles has
wwaned. The futiity of the xisting rouine of
managed protest has become more palpable
and more draining, particululy n the wake of
ayear of genocide and the post-encampment

movement ull. Across the continent,
everyone ssecking new dicctions for the
movement o stop the genocidk.

Itishard tosay what direction the movement
must go, to know what actions and
tajectories will ccomplih the task before us.
The exising strategies in the activis toolkit
will find limited purchase. The Amerikkkan
economic & geopolitical interests ined up
behind lsracl ae too invested to be swayed by
any combination of demonstrations voicing
our opposition, or by pressure campaigns
trying to convince miliary contractors to end
thei business model and abolish themselves
Asthe brutality ofthe spring should have
made clear, the facade of demoerati order
and liberal rights fall away when the core of
the colonial project i threatened. Probably,
any real challenge to the genocide would
requite 2 high degree of unrest to generalize
across the country,undermining the
government’s abilty to rule,the functioning
of the cconomy, and the sabilty of the
milcary

Thisis a tall order fora Left that can barely get
beyond navel-gazing about s own
poverlessness and victimization, or that
capitulates to the State and police tself. But
e can stare by finding our nextstep
forward-the next action or direction that can
build thesize, milicancy, and efectiveness of
the movement. The wrn towards the Tech
Core of Genocide is one such direction. An
escalation of disruptive activity targeted at the
ol that Austin-based tech plays n the
genocide holds the potential o re-cnergize
those who have been drained by the endless
parades down Congess and inagurate a new
eyele of varied movement activities in a new
area. Such an escaltion setsthe stagefor a real
confrontation and challenge to the most
important local tis to the genocide. This also
forces thelocal movermentinto
confrontation with the economic foces thae
dominate thecity and its cconomic
interests-themselves aligned with a domestic
project of displacement, development, 1nd
dispossesion.

Perhaps there are bette focus points for
escalation in Austin. Or perhaps the most
poverful contribution the movement in
Austn can make s mobilizing forces
*somexwhere lse’, somewhere more materially
impactful on haling the war machine or
generalizng social unrest. Or, perhaps, a few
elatively simple but powerful actions at BAE
could set the stagefor a new explosion of
activiey locally and perhaps regionally or
nationally. The answer can only be found
through experimentation, seraegic thought,
and reflction-qualities the movement has
thus far been lacking, particularly the last two.

Abricfrecap of the rally was posted to
Instagram. Whileitis good to post even brief
summariesof our activities, and to engage
traditional social media to do so, we challenge
autonomous forces in the movement to
advance beyond this. We challenge the
movement to generate and circulate their own.
seraegic reflections on their activity, the
opportunites and limitations they perceive,
and proposals for others to ake up.
Particularly, we encourage the movement to
o soin ways not determined by the logics of
the social media placforms we use, and should
make our movements kess reliant on these
placforms alone. This could look like more
long form texs to go o counterinfo stes ke
12 Going Down or Austin Autonomedia
(though you could easly start your own), or
circulate on lrge Sigaal threads. Tt will mean
fewer Instagram infographics, which pushed
towards analytically shalow, ateention
grabbing, highly aestheticized content, Our

reflections, analysis, and reportbacks should
not be structured to it the limitations of an
Instageam side deck; we should build
Instagram side decks to highlight and
circulate our decper reflections and analysis,
which ough to be developed outside of social
media, ideally in direct conversations and
meetings with other comrades n the

Long Live the Resistance, Long Live Al-Aqsa
Flood!
—some reflctive protesters
OFFICIAL
STATEMENT ON
THE WEEK OF
RAGE ACTION,
OCTOBER 11, AND
ENSUING POLICE
BRUTALITY

Tthas been more than a year since isracl
commenced its genocidal assault on Gaza
Armed and enabled by the US
government, the Zionist entity has
slaughtered more than 42,000 captive
Palestinians within this timeframe while
also systematically destroying Gaza’s
civilian infrastructure and killing tens of
thousands more by starvation and
preventable discase. Nor has isracl’s
genocidal rampage been limited to
Gaza—Zionist forces have murdered
hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank
‘within this timeframe, aggressively
expanded isracl’s settlement enterprise,
and launched repeated attacks on Yemen,

Syria, Iran, Lebanon, and Irag.

In the past week, isracl’s aggression both
in Gaza and across the region has reached
unprecedented heights. As part of ts
‘ongoing effort to cthnically cleanse and
erase Northern Gaza, it has imposed a
total siege on the area, preventing all food
and aid from entering i for the past 13
days. Deliberately assassinating journlists

in the northern Gaza Strip, few bravely
remain to broadeast to the world
Simultancously, Israel has launched an
all-outinvasion into Lebanon, displacing
overa million Lebanese citizens and
slaughtering nearly 2,000 in recent weeks

UChicago United for Palestine called this
action to interrupt business as usual at the
University of Chicago, whose financial
and institutional ties with the Zionist
entity mirror it objective role as a colonial
outpost on Chicago’s South
Side—gentrifying neighborhoods and
surveilling, policing, and displacing the
people wholive here. Our experiences
during last year's encampment taught us
that our demands—disclosure,
divestment, and repair—would not be
taken seriously without demonstrating
our willingness and ability to use every
means at our disposal, including
suspending the daily operation of the
university. We called this action in
conjunction with an international
movement against a civil society; sate,
and international order that prop up the
Zionist entity, facilitate its genocide in
Palestine, and enable its war of expansion
in Lebanon.

On the afternoon of October 11%,
following a rally that drew more than 150
students, community members, and
faculty, protestors locked the main gate of
the University of Chicago shut before
hanging a banner reading “FREE.
PALESTINE - HANDS OFF
LEBANON.” This was the first of aseries
of autonomous actions that marked the
end of the Weck of Rage for Palestine and
Lebanon, as we passed a year of genocide
in Gaza.

Protestors ater marched o statue
commemorating the University's
involvement in the development of the
nuclear bomb. A speaker said: “Today,
Palestine and Lebanon are being used as
the testing grounds of technologies builc
by universitieslike this one.” Tags reading
FREE GAZA, FUCK THE BOMBS, and
KEEP ESCALATING proliferated, and
balloons full of paint were thrown at the
statue. He continued: “our ultimate
message today is that we can pick apart
this university, and when we do, we can
build something better in it place.”
When the crowd regrouped and began to
march north to disperse, UCPD cut into
the middle of the march, targeting several
protestors.

As cops resorted to violence far beyond
‘what we've seen in past protests, we
‘witnessed the crowd band together to
protect cach other as protestors moved to
surround a squad car. The twenty-minute
standoff that ensued was Hyde Park's
most intense confrontation between
protestors and police in recent memory,
and the bravery and commitment
displayed by dozens of people let the
march hold its ground against UCPD and
CPD for longer than anyone presumed
possible. In the face of this substantial

escalation of police violence, the crowd
reacted instincively and successfully
prevented more than a dozen arrests

Eventually, UCPD and CPD realized that
protestors would not budge of their own
accord. Sergeant Grays Sr. began to issue
orders. First, he demanded the driver of
the squad car run over protestors: “Just
drivel” The car tried and failed to drive
through the crowd, which again refused
0 yield. This prompted Grays and
another UCPD officer to repeatedly
pepper spray upwards of twenty
protestors, one CPD captain and another
CPD officer. When the crowd held
together and continued to de-arrest
despite the pepper spray, CPD joined in
to beat protestors with batons—one later
remarked that “that was fun for a lidle
‘while.” Like before, when confronted
with police violence we worked to help
each other: people circled around the
crowd washing eyes and teaching others
to do the same.

Whether on campus, in the city, orin the
street, the Palestine movement must
recognize and confront its enemies: the
university, the police, American civil
society, and the state, all of which
collaborate to faciltate dispossession, land
theft, and occupation at home and

abroad. The people who locked the gate
did so to shut down a university that has
refused to even acknowledge the
destruction of ll Gazan universities,
much less the ongoing genocide. It
symbolized how, while we walk to class
every day, the schools in Gaza are
‘bombed, while isracl’s genocide against
Palestinians continues and the university
remains materially and intellectually
invested. Protestors painted the nuclear
bomb statue red to expose the university’s
culpability in the nuclear weapons
program, a fact they memorialize through
astatue that was explicitly designed to
reflect “the mushroom cloud of a nuclear
explosion, but also halve] the shape and
eye sockets of a skull”—mirrored in the
present by its neutral’ research and
development programs which directly
abet the slaugher in Gaza and Lebanon.

When UCPD and CPD came at
protestors with batons, attempted to run
people over, and mass pepper-sprayed in 2
drastic escalation of police violence from
prior protests at the University, the crowd
responded instinctively; recognizing that
we must protect each other from the
university's agents of brugality. The
people who spontancously decided to
surround a squad car, confront two police
departments, and not back down in the
face of pepper spray and batons realized
that UCPD and CPD stand between us
and divestment: the police are an
occupying force, and the solidarity
movement for a fiee Palestine will have to
go through them.

In Palestinian culture, there s state of
being called sumiad, which translates to
steadfastness. The Palestinian people have
remained steadfast for a century, planted
firmly on their land and resisting all
zionist attemprs at displacement and
ethnic cleansing. Over the past year of

escalated genocide, Palestinians in Gaza
and Arabs facing zionist attacks across the
region have nor, for a single moment,
abandoned their sumud: their
commitment to their land, their people,
and their right to live with dignity and
pride.

‘We will never stop fighting as long as they
face genocide and occupation. We will
remain steadfast and committed in
solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for
liberation, and the cause of allthose who
face brutal violence and occupation from
UCPD and CPD every day. And we will
not stop fighting until Palestine is free!

This release i ssued by UChicago United.
for Palestine (UCUP), a student coalition
calling for the immediate end of isracl’s
genocide against Palestinians, an
immediate ccasefire, and the immediate
end of isacl’s sicge on Gaza and occupation
of Palestine. This alition is committed to
the liberation of Palestine and supports the
ongoing campaign demanding that the
University of Chicago cut itstes o the
Lzel Institute on campus and also
supports the Buscott, Discst, Sanctions

movement.
How We Stormed
Concordia

Universit
De-arresting,

Painting, Shutting
Down Classes and
Exams

Anonymous submision to MTL
Counter-info

Strategic takeaways TLDR:

1) It does not take many people to change
the course of a prorest

2) When the police are busy defending a
fixed point it opens possibiliies for
exciting action in other places.

3) Our comrades can be de-arrested, and

doing this against security officers is good,

lower-stakes practice for doing it against
the police

The akeover of Concordia’s Hall
building was yet another instance of the
slow building militancy in the Tiohtii:ke
(Montréal) solidarity movement for
Palestine

On November 21st, over 85,000 students
across Quebec were on strike demanding
their academic institutions align with the
Boyeot, Divestment, and Sanctions
movement, drop the political suspensions
of student activists, and against police on
campus — making it possibly one of the
biggest strikes for Palestine, outside of the
occupied territories, in world history.

Committed to swinging the protest into a
more combative stance, the rough idea
was to make the Concordia rally on the
first day of the province-wide student
strike for Palestine militant enough to
force the university to shut down for the
day, thereby enforcing the strike mandate
and causing maximum disruption. The
primary proposal for doing so was to take
overa building

On the day of the rally organized and
publicized by Students for Palestine’s
Honourand Resistance (SPHR)
Concordia, a few anarchists from all over
the city (collaborating across
Francophone and Anglophone milieus)
found each other and shared ideas for
ways to make the rally more interesting
and disruptive. To avoid another
ritualistic demonstration of the same
chants and speeches, they decided they
‘would try to enter Concordia's Hall
Building: the center of the University's
student activity, and known target to the
broader Tiohtiizke anarchist community
that was hit several dmes in the fall 2024

semester, causing hundreds of thousands
of dollars’ worth of damage.

“The building was being guarded by a line
of private security mercenarics — not
‘exaggeration, everyone would soon find
ot that these goons were hired by the
university from “Perceptage,” a security
firm whose CEO advertises his IDF
training, After some comrades grabbed
hold of the door and held them open, a
firs group of brave protestors pushed
through the security line yelling “move”
and beckoning for the crowd outside to
join them in storming the Hall lobby. The
crowd reacted quickly and did just that.
Sccurity also reacted quickly and violenty
grabbed the firs few comrades pushing
through, putting them in head locks and
tipping their clothes, but other protesters
foughe back, grabbing onto their
comrades’ bodies and tearing them ot of
security’s grasp. These were the first
sucessful de-arests since Concordia
security began their practice of “ctizen’s
arrests” ae protests,and it showed that our
comrades can be snatched back if we
maove fast. Doing so aginast unarmed
security can be good, lower-stakes practice
for doing so against the police

Security soon realized they were totally
overpowered and outnumbered and
stepped aside, defeated. They could only

‘watch as hundreds of students and
“outside agitators” stormed the Hall
building lobby

Meamvhile, the riot police - who are
often a significant factor at protests in
Tiohtiarke due to being highly cquipped
(tear gas, pepper spray,etc.) and trained
more specifically for “crowd control” than
iot cops in other cities, were busy
forming a barrier around a small group of
zionist counter-protestors. As was seen a
number of times over the summer, when
the SPVM have a fixed point they must
defend, it can open up possibilties for
protesters.

>

Having flooded the Hall building lobby,
pacifying speeches on a megaphone began
‘once again, and anarchists were scen
continuously beckoning the crowd to
remain dynamic and to begin going
upstais by chanting “Who's school? Our
school!” Some protesters spoke to the
people giving specches, who then
announced to the crowd that people were
moving upstairs. A critical mass began to
move and a snake-demo through every
floor of the Hall building ensued.
Protesters were seen spray painting,
disabling security cameras, tossing garbage
cans onto the loor, creating chair
barricades outside classrooms, even
expropriating expensive university
equipment,all as security just sat back and
watched helplessly.

‘The dynamic movement created a real
fecling of empowerment, and hopefully
will encourage more serious attempts to
liberate space and resources from the
university. What felt powerful to sec on
this day was that it only took a handful of
protesters to secure the doors, and with
1520 milicants on hand the protest
shifted from a standard rally on the street,
toa disruptive snake demo througha 12
story building. This taking of the school
by force was something the secuirty was
clearly desperate to avoid, and they
responded by sending out an emergency
alert encouraging people to avoid the area,

as well as a message to professors that
resulted in some classes and exams being
cancelled into the evening. The day’s
success was made possible partly due to
activists at Concordia continuously

organizing and trying to increase
militancy and build relationships; there
had been many previous unsuccessful

artempts to escalace.

Surely thanks to 2 large portion of the
crowd being in full kuffiych, black or
student bloc, and totally concealed, as of
this day, no one has faced legal or
academic consequences for Thursday,
November 21t actions.

There were also reports that an hour
earlier, at McGill university, fire alarms
were simultancously triggered in every
building on campus, forcing students out
into the lawn where they could join the
walkout happening at the same time.

The strkes served their function very well
in this case,frecing up student time and
energy and creating the conditions for an
action that otherwise hasn’t been pulled

off.

The 21t was unequivocally a success, yet
there were a few things which could have
made it even better and more impactful:

© Itbecame very clar that, once
the snake-demo up the Hall
building had begun, very few
people had made plans for such a
successful scenario, perhaps this
comes from anarchists’
unfamiliarity with success in
attempted manoeuves, or the
amount of work militants put
into planning to enforce the
strike instead of the possibility of
other actions. Regardless of
reasons, srategic or symbolic
targers could have been plotted
out beforehand, and further
plans beyond just “getting into
the building” could have been
exccuted.

‘While people were beginning to
flood into the Hall Building, one
protestor who remained outside
putup a nazi salute towards the
zionist counter-protestors and
shouted “The final solution is
coming for you”. Regrettably, no
one in the demonstration
intervened when they saw this
happening While student
associations, the Concordia
Student Union, and community
groups across the city denounced
itafter the fact, there needs to be
astrong, shared understanding
that nazis be immediately and
physically confronted, and are in
no way welcome in the
movement for a liberated
Palestine

There is very litle shared analysis
that “If we desire an end to this

‘world of genocide the university,

too. must be destroyed.” Few

students, or even non-students,
understand the university asa
location of social reproduction
that enables capitalism and
genocide and that must be
attacked. This was seen in the
general lack of antagonistic
behavior on the 21st,ina
scenario of possibility and
frecdom.

® Despite having full access to the
building, the inense repression
students have faced from the
university in recent months likely
led them to police their own
actions on that day, despite not
having anyone physically
stopping them. This self-policing
could be counteracted by
encouraging more non-students

o join university actions, and
encouraging students to be
disruptive at each other’s schools.
In addition, hopefully actions on
the 215t can spread confidence
and the skills to de-arrest and
protect cach other at our own
schools.

Despite there being room for
improvement, we can still celebrate and
try to reproduce the palbable feeling of
liberation, freedom and empowerment
tha filled the hallways of the university
that day.
NO PEACE

Thisessay is a part of Negation's
Organicational Culture Dassir. The rest
of the ollection can b found b

“The concentration of violent power in
the hands of the few can occur
unopposed ifitis done quictly, if
unnecessary provocation, which can seta
process of solidarity in motion, is
avoided—that is something that was
learned as a result of the student
movement and the Paris May.” — The
Urban Guerilla Concept, The Red Army
Faction 1971

On April 30, 2024—the S6th anniversary
of the 1968 Columbia University mass
arrests—the NYPD besicged Morningside
Heights,locked down the entirety of
Columbia’s campus, swept the Gaza
solidarity encampment and raided Hind's
Hall. This raid marked the end of the
spring of the Student Intifada. Those of
s who were at the barricades are seill
recling from the experience. There are few
moments in our lives where history opens
its doors to us, taking the leap through s
disorienting but the responsibility to
make sense of the conjuncture falls
squarely on the people who took the leap.

Journalists and pundits have chimed in
endlesly on the Student Intifada with a
particular focus on Columbia University
Many of these pundits were nowhere near
the action or the players who made the
action happen, thus they often got the
basic facts of the situation wrong. As one

rebel once advised, “No investigation, no
right to speak.” Additionally, the political
orientation of the commentariat
necessitated the silencing and erasure of
the most radical flank of the movemen
This flank played a vital role in not only
the uprising at Columbia, but in the
direction of the movement nationally:
This essay is an attempt to both correct
the record and offer up the perspective of
this radical faction.

The character of the next sequence of the
Student Intifada remains clusive but itis
important that interventions are made to
push the movement in the correct
direction.

Aminority with the correct revolutionary
line is not a minority.

ARE WE REALLY
PEACEFUL?

In the 13 days of protest on Butler Lawn,
there was a pericious narrative peddled
by both sympathetic media and liberal
student leadership—the narrative of the
“peaceful protestors”. While this
characterization was correct fora portion
of the encampment, it is not the whole
story, and its certainly not true of the
minority group inside of the camp that
initiated the Student Intifada and
maintained influence over the politics and
prasis of the action unil the sweep and
raid
Nonetheless, every “official” statement
coming out of the encampment was
padded with language about how
peaceful, well-behaved and
non-threatening the action was—those on
the outside could have been tricked into
thinking that we were all just a bunch of
benign hippies braiding friendship
bracelecs in the grass.

Ina similar vein, there was 2 near constant
gesturing towards our “right” to free
specch and peaceful assembly without any
acknowledgement of the fact that the
farce we call “constitutional rights” i the
foundation of the genocidal regime that
brought us onto Butler Lawn in the first
place. In the process of attempting to
legitimize our resistance through this civil
liberties framework, we were
subordinated to the very logic of the
ruling class that we seck to overthrow.
The state repression of our movement s
not hypocritical, and this empire s not
bumbling. The machine is running
exactly how it was built to run. When the
pigs showed up with military grade
bearcats and stun grenades, they made
clear that these so-called rights are merely
privileges awarded to those who want to
play ball with empire—the humanity of
the people of Palestine and their resistance
makes this game impossible.

There is a belicf that these narrative
strategies, strategies that are
fundamentally dishonest, keep everyone
safe

Maybe we will protct ourselves if we speak
the language of law-abiding pacifism and
hide the radical faction from sight.

In practice,this dishonesty offered us no
safety. The armed agents of the state made
no distinctions between us, they treated
everyone on Butler Lawn as enemies ina
war against their genocidal authority and
they were correct to do so. Our demand
for divestment undermines US hegemony
and its miliary apparatus, there s nothing
peaceful about this regardless of our
rhetoric or what tactics individuals choose
to participate in. Itis of no benfit to us
to lie about the terrain on which we are
fighting by papering over the stakes with
defanged language. The enemy has a clear
understanding of what they would lose if
we were to win, so, what's our excuse? I
say none of this to promote recklessness
that would do unnecessary harm to the
movement, but our analysis must be
unflinching in order to meet this

moment. To be as radical as reality iself
requires discipline and fearlessness.

Teshould go without saying that many of
the details and the planning of our work
require an clement of secrecy because of
the nature of surveillance and
bourgeois-ettler dictatorship. Notall
work is done in the light of day, but we
should never be dishonest about the
content of our politics and what it would
take to really win—both with the masses
and ourselves. The reality of the matter is
that we are engaged in class struggle
against the most powerful empire in
human history. The radical partisans in
the encampment understood fully that
our aims can only be attained through

force and that these aims are righteous.

This understanding is not shameful o
reckless, itis a matter of fact.

The emphasis placed on how allegedly
docile the protest was played right into
the hands of the outside agitator trope
that was pushed by racist commentators.
Anyone perceived as “non-peaceful” was
classified as a forcign threat to the pristine
Ivy League finishing school. This division
between peaceful insider and dangerous
outsider became central to our criminal
cases after we were raided at Hind's Hall,
Those of us who aren’t students were
framed s violent, unhinged terrorists
who invaded the protest and brainwashed
the otherwise peaceful student actvists.
The state deemed the “outsiders”
criminals, and the “insiders”
innocent—but in actuality we were 2
single body made equal by our complicity
in this holocaust as US residents and,
most importantly, we were unified in our
resistance against this compliciy.

Any recourse to legality or peace was
meant to win over the moderates who
belly ache over free specch and the
sanctity of our democracy—the same
democracy beheading infants in the tent
‘camps of Rafzh. These moderates are not
our friends and many of them have gone
back to their regularly scheduled
programming afier the installment of
Kopmala as the democratic presidential
nominee. It s true that a small portion of
them have been won over to our side, but

we do not bow to the moderate line or
play by their rules. When it comes to the
question of US imperialism, there can be
no compromises.

These attempts to sanitize the
revolutionary policical will at the heart of
the Student Intifada constitute the
culture of liberal counterinsurgency. This
‘opportunism i the water we swim in.
Not the exception, but the rule.

ANEW FRONT, THE
ARROW AND THE
BULLSEYE

“Tengy you. You North dmericans are very
Iucky. You are fghting the mast important
fight o all. You live in the belly of the
beast.” — Che Guevara

Based off the .66% of Columbia's
investments that are publicly available, we
know that it grew its 13.6-billion-dollar
endowment in part through investing in
corporations like Raytheon, Alphabet,
Bocing, Lockhced Martin, Caterpillar,
General Dynamics and Airbnb, all of
‘which deal in the business of colonial
genocide and land theft. If his is what less
than 19% of their investment portfolio
looks like, we could assume that the other
99.34% would reveal an unfathomable
level of complicity in not only the
apocalyptic Zionist war on Gaza but the
plunder of the entire global south. There
is a reason why the university is hellbent
on refusing the demand to disclose all
their portfolio and
have nothing to hide.

s not because they

The demand for Columbia to divest from
Zionism s, when understood in its
totality,a call for the university to divest
from imperialism altogether, which is why
the police responses to the encampments
and Hind’s Hall were so violent and
milicarized. They ordered a standing army
to attack us because our demand
undermines the foundation of the
institution itself, not because they are
simply mean and unfair. While
divestment s a feasible reform and display
of symbolic solidarity ata handful of
smallliberal ars colleges with less of a
monetary and ideological investment in
US empire, divestment from Zionism at
Columbia or any of the major universities
would necessitate the total restructuring
of these institutions and the entire
university system.

Calling on Columbia University, a war
profitcering Ivy League, to divest from US
imperialism and the Zionist
settler-colonial client state isa
revolutionary desire couched ina
scemingly reformist demand. In order to
pursue this political abjective, one that is
worthy of every ounce of our effort and
tenacity, we would need to shift our
political orientation from one of mere
institutional reform to one of
revolutionary upheaval.

Asan apparatus of the state, the university
answers to only two things: capital and
organized force from below, most of

‘which is clasified as violent by
settlr-colonial legality. For the enemy,
property is sacrosanct—to destroy it or to
violate their property relations is
tantamount to committing acts of
violence on the settler class. When
understood in its proper context within
the US, legal action has limitations that
we cannot respect without condemning
ourselves to defeat. 1 am not suggesting.
that everyone must participate in alllevels

of activity at chis time but the

feishization of legality i a direct
impediment to victory. Above board
action that appeals to the morality of the
state is incapable of stopping a
13.6-billion-dollar war profiteering
endowment i ts tracks. Columbia
University is an elite socio-cultural
appendage of the USA and its war
machine, there is no reason to believe that
the university has the ethical capacity to
bend towards “justice” on the issue of
genocidal Zionism, even if only to save
face

If the radical flank of the Student Intifada
is to advance to the level of struggle that is
necessary to win, there will need to be a
profound shiftin our cultural values and
how those values relate to our
organizations, strategy and tactics. In
other words, a cultural revolution is in
‘order and the changes that are required of
us will throw wrench in the gears of our
own subjectivity: If our demand s that
the universities divest from US empire,
then we must also divest from the lies that
they sellus
So much of the work thatis classified as
“leftist” now is predicated on the
hyper-visibility and commadification of
the individual. This phenomenon is
intimately connected to the
professionalization of the left through the
NGO sphere and the proliferation of
armehair Marsist public intellectuals
More than anything, thisis a liabiliy. It
exposes us to heightened surveillance,
network mapping and repression from
the police state that we seck to dismantle
The task is to become comfortable with
being one of the many, swimming
amongst the people like a fish in the sea
Not to borough under, not yer, but to
blend—to hide in plain sight. This runs
contrary to every habit instilled and
beaten into us and to every financial
incentive associated with the liberal left, it
problematizes our use of the internet and
the impulse to share obsessively. On this
front, our exit must be total if we are to

A shift away from the need to be
perceived as individuals will change our
tactics and our engagement with the
creation and dissemination of
propaganda—it will deepen our ties to
collective organizing and help sow the
sceds for party formations. Our
engagement with more high-risk activity
can shift away from spectacular one-off
actions and ino sustained long-term
resistance. Through this practice we can
build out capacity and infrastructure. But
s0 much of these longterm visions and
the success of the Student Intifada hinges
on an exit from this cult of visibilicy.

Tfwe are to continue on the trajectory laid
out before us and carry this momentum
into sustained struggle, we wil need to
undergo deep cultural transformation
that goes against the grain of our western
subjectivity. The Gaza solidarity
encampment opened up the space and
time needed to experiment with this
cultural transformation, and it led us to
the discipline required to seize Hamilton
Hall with only 46 people.

FROM NEGOTIATION
TO ESCALATION: THE
SEIZURE OF
HAMILTON HALL

The campus was on strict lockdown and
anyone without a CUID couldn’t enter or
exit. There was no sex, no drugs and no
taking photos without each other’s
consent, we were encouraged to cover our
faces. During the days comrades on the
outside would print out and smuggle in
boxes of radical literature from different
encampments and movements across the
‘world—students who had never heard of
Humboldt, CA or Cop City or Basel
Al-Araj from Al-Walaja were suddenly
saturated in the politics from these
regions. The radical partisans took control
of political education—teach-ins about
the revolutionary struggle of the Korean
people, Leila Khaled and how to build
barricades took place in between calls to

prayer.
Day n and day out, the administration
dragged a representative from the camp
into hours long negotiating meetings
‘where they would give him the run
around and offer bread crumb
concessions to pacify the unruly mass
festering on their lawn. This
representative would then go back to a
very small, unclected, group of students in
the camp to relay the news and strategize.
This ad ho group attempred to dictate
the will of the entirety of the
encampment with very little
accountability to anyone outside of their
circle

Tt became clear that Columbia was trying
to tire us out and buy us off. Escalation
was the word on everyone’s minds, and
this was met with reactionary
fearmongering from the negotiating
group. They were scared that if we rubbed.
university authorities the wrong way, it
‘would cause them to give us a bad deal in
negoriations—as if Shafik and Co. were
ever coming to the table in good faith
anyway. Out of cither naiveté or
‘opportunism they secmed to believe that 2
demand as audacious as full divestment
from Isracl could be won through
conversations with power and peaceful
means alone.

The encampment was not threatening
enough on its own to force the hand of
the administration but after the first
round of mass arrests and the subsequent
backlash from the broader public, the
university wasn’t ready to come in with a
second raid. We were ata stalemate. The

radical partisans began to meetin secrecy
across the campus. In tents,in basements,
under churches, in empry offices and
sunken gardens. The plan: seize Hamilton
Hall. Just like 68 except this time, a
surgical operation planned down to the
minute. We would not be spontancous,
we would be disciplined cadre,

Negotiations continued to go nowhere.
Columbia attempted to fake us out witha
loose threat to callin the National Guard.
A group of three freshmen asked me what
Kent State was. I told them, they were
frightened but said they would make their
‘own sling shots out of sticks. The camp
didn’t move an inch. On multiple
occasions false alarms about imminent
police raids spread through the camp. The
rads with the most experience demanded
that everyone remain calm. Nobody
moved an inch.

Atthe nightly camp wide meetings,
young students began to demand
transparency and accountability about the
negotiation process. They were
dissatisfied with what we all understood as
attempts at containment from the clique
‘who was negotiating on everyone’s behalf
behind closed doors. The radical partisans
continued to plan. We smuggled in crow
bars, chain, angle grinders, bolt cutters,
hammers. Pockets of inexperienced
protestors got curious about the
possibility of taking 2 building. We started
gathering our numbersinside the camp. A
Barnard grad made an announcement
that we needed to break open the gates
andlet all of Harlem inside, she was
promply recruited.

Astime wore on, the culture of the entire
encampment shified away from one of
compromise and negotiation to one of
resolve and militancy. The partisans
decided we would all wear head-to-toe
Columbia merchandise and ski masks as
ourblack bloc. The CU merch was a big
Fuck you from the outside agitators. We
did multiple undercover passes of the
inside of Hamilton and the tunnels that
ran beneath it. Every camera was
accounted for, every door drawn out,
every floor of the building mapped with
an inventory of exact numbers of useable
Furniture items for barricades

We continued to put pressure on the ad
ho negotiating group to get the green
light to move forward with our escalation.
They rejected and rejected and rejected.
They too were trying to tire us out. Ina
situation like this never back down, no
matter who they are. We struggled them
relentlessly and fought hard for unity
because it was important to us that our
militancy was not articulated as
undisciplined people “doing whatever
they want.” In our minds, the only
legitimate escalation was one that moved
the way the resistance moved.

On April 29, we woke up o a threat of a
sweep from the administration. We
decided we would go through with the
plan that night, no matter what. Our
numbers were small, only 46 as opposed

o the spontancous 1968 accupation
when hundreds flooded Hamilton.

We had one comrade hide in a janitors
closet for hours and after midnight, when
the building was already closed, they ran
down tolet the rest of us ino the
building. At the same time and on the
other side of the campus, we staged a faint
to distract and confuse public safety and
thin them out. All 46 of us invaded the
building and the camera team covered all
the security cameras immediately.

Afier 9pm on April 30 the NYPD
besicged Morningside Heights, locked
down the entirety of Columbia’s campus,
swept the Gaza solidarity encampment
and raided Hind's Hall. A military grade
bearcat was used during the raid, pigs
entered onto the second story with guns
drawn and a shot wasfired. Those of us
defending the barricades had stun
grenades thrown at us and were badly
beaten with fists and sticks. Bones were
broken, protestors were thrown down
stairs and journalists were locked inside
the Pulitzer building so nobody would see
‘what they did to us
The Encampment
Movement leads
the way under
Trump

As social movementsin the U.S. plan
ahead for the Trump administration, we
should look to the campus Palestine
movement for lessons on how to organize
under the repressive conditions we will all

soon fce.

On January 20, Donald Trump was sworn

in for his second term as President of the
United States. As the country recls from
his inauguration and the swecping.
‘excautive orders of his firse week in office,
American progressives are lft grappling
with the implications of a new Trump
Administration, and how our organizing
projects might come under renewed
assault by a hard right Republican trifecta
that controls both houses of Congress
and is well positioned to enactits
legisative agenda.

Many organizations are rightfally
concerned about the repression and
lawfare that Trump's return to the White
House threatens. As the left stands ina
defensive posture, the Palestinian
solidarity movement and s university
student organizers — in Trump’s line of
sight for bis frsc offensives against civil

society — leads the way.

Nimble as circumstances
require

For university student organizers and the
‘campus coalitions that initiated
natiomwide solidarity encampments this
spring, steep university repression — the
bending of rules around public space and
assembly — are not new, and a mere
precursor to the looming repression of
Trump’s second term. In the aftermath of
numerous agreements that ended many
encampments peacefully; students
returned to campuses this fall to
universities that had wiilized the summer

term to prepare for their arrival, and put
in place new institutional obstacles to

public assembly and protes:

At Columbia University, 116th Sereet,
‘which is 2 crucial pedestrian thoroughfare
for Harlem residents and transic
commuters, has been closed to public
access as the university has paralyzed the
‘campus under a tight shurdown since
April. An October 7 walkout, which drew
hundreds of students, was met by the
implementation of strict, 7:00PM curfews
for several days, with all academic
buildings closed to student access.
Nevertheless, student organizers adapted,
holding a number of large protest actions
over the duration of the fallsemester.

For the second year in a row, student
groups descended on the university’s
annual December 6 Christmas Tree
Lighting ceremony, engaging in a
‘coordinated disruption of the festivities
Inanticipation of a protest action,
university administrators moved the event
from 7:00PM to 6:00PM, and cancelled
the lineup of student performances.
Organizers pivoted, dispersing into the
crowd and handing out literature before
convening after the ceremony; gathering a
large mass of people and shutting off the

After organizers circulated plans to hold a
December 9 rally on the lawns of Barnard
College, administrators announced an
unprecedented escalation of campus
closure guidelines, specifying that
Columbia students would not be
permitted onto Barnard's campus unless
there for a class, and further announcing
that security officers would implement
‘random sccuricy checks, where students
‘would be required to provide their bags
for inspection and submit to an
identification. Instagram later suspended
the account for Columbia University
Apartheid Divest (CUAD), but students
were undeterred, amassing hundredsin a
picket outside Barnard gates in pouring
rain, and later successfully recovering the
CUAD account. Other student
organizations lent use of their platforms

to ensure organizers could sill reach the
student body.

‘We keep us safe

As protest actions have accelerated under
escalating university repression, students
have been forced to build substantial
infrastructure for protest safety. While
programs like the National Lawyers
Guild’s Legal Observer initiative have
remained mainstays for protest
movements for years, campus coalitions
have become reliable faces at larger
solidarity actions, with many students
being rained to marshal protests or liaise
with police. With Trump back in office,
and promising to invoke the National
‘Guard against dissident organizations,
rebuilding our protest safety
infrastructure through programs like the
Democratic Socialists of America’s Red
Rabbits grouping will b critical
Organizations across the left must also.
build their ability to spontancously
de-arrest, as students have been forced to
doat both the encampments and at other
large gatherings, such as the Labor Notes

conference.

Navigating repression at our schools and
workplaces, a the right-wing is
emboldened to attack activists with
favorable government at their back, will
also be crucial. At Columbia, CUAD
organizers pioncered a Collecrive Defense
initiative, where students who face
disciplinary notices from administration
can recive support from team of
individuals equipped to explain what
potential violations constitute and how
they can defend themselves. For students
‘who are at particularly high risk in the
event of suspension or arrest, Collective
Defense can help them assess the potential
repercussions of involvement in a given
action. Replicating these structures
‘within our unions, workplaces, and
elsewhere, where we are particularly
vulnerable for our policical work, wil be
crucial over the next four years.

‘The Canadian and American
governments Llacklsting the Samidoun
prisoner network for their Palestinian
solidarity work echoes the impending
persecution of civil society by the Trump
Administration, empowered by the
so-called ‘nonprofitkille bill”. Tramp has
also been transparent about how he
intends to employ lawfare against leftists
and pro-Palestine activists — employing
programs like the Forcign Agents

Registration Act, accelerating
surveillance, counter-insurgency, and

deterring members of the public from
getting organized for fear of retribution.

Hundreds of students across the country
have already been targeted for suspension
or expulsion from their universities, and
many institutions have only escalated
these tactics this semester. At Cornell
University, several organizers, including
the Young Democratic Socialists of
America’s Atakan Derivan, were banned
from their campus for three years,
effectively putting their status on hold.
Activists should anticipate more extensive

litigation under Trump, and be better
prepared to navigate court proceedings
‘whenever they arise. The arrest of three
pro-Palestine activists in Merrimack for a
protest of an Elbit Systems facility is only
the beginning

Collective liberation

We know that the movement for
Palestinian liberation on college campuses
is deeply intertwined with the nation’s
other social movements, such as the fight
for migrant justice. Cornell student
Momodou Taal was threatened with the
loss of his F-1 visa and subsequent
deportation for helping disrupt a campus
career fa over the inclusion of companics
complicitin the Gaza genocide, such as
Bocing. As visa holders come under threat
by Trump and his Cabinet nominces,
international students will b the first
group targeted.

Many institutions, such as the University
of Maryland, asked international students
to retun to the United States prior to
Trump’s inauguration, as students reel
from the prospect of new guidelines that
could threaten their status in the counry.
In 2017, airpores were flooded with
‘olunteers ready to support people
detained by immigration authorities in
the days after Trump’s first inauguration.
This time around, mass ICE raids have
alzcady begun, and heightened
uncertainty around legal status for
students remains
As the spring semester begins, campus
coalitions are preparing to organize
feverishly for their members if need be,
and this work should also provide a model
for the necessary migrant justice work
undertaken by the leftin the years ahead.
This year, it may be Middle Eastern
university students,targeted for their
pro-Palestine advocacy, that are the first to
be unfirly detained at ports of entry, and
we must be prepared to assertively defend
them.

Across the progressive left, organizers
engaged in abolition, environmental
justice, labor, and mutual aid work,
amongst alitany of social movements, are
watching apprehensively as Trump
re-enters the White House with the full
force of the federal government behind
him. As we plan ahead for the next four
years, we should look to those on the
Front lines, and follow the blucprint set by
the student organizers of the movement
for Palestinian liberation.