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P 2. SOLIDARITY P25

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fier over 40,000 mareyrs, seven months, and 75 years, the movement to Free
Ani imperial core has reached a watershed moment. We have been
marching, chanting, engaging in mass protest and direct action for decades, trying
0 show the world that our people in Gaza are worthy of life as they bear witness 0
75 years of genocide. Yet it was the steadfastnes of the Palesinian people and their
resistance forces who won the support of the global majority:

Over forty thousand martyrs and seven months have largely demonstrated that the
actics and stracegy of the movement in the imperial core has hit is ciling. Large
marches, milqueroas specches from celebritis, hall-hearted solidarity from organiza-
tions thatare not committed 10 our liberation have taken us as far as we can go. None
of it has been enough. None ofit has stopped the bombs from dropping or led the
stomachs of Palesenians being starved by the ionist entity: In fact, sewlers have only.
grown more brazen in their violence—from the West Bank where they are regularly
burning Palestinian homes to Gaza where they are committing unfathomable acts
of horror against men, women, and children. Our cause has always been rightcous,
but now the image is clear to anyone looking that we are facing 2 monstrous setler
colony committed o our annihilation s a people.

Asingle Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire
Yer, there are glimmers of hope in the belly of the beast. Our first real glimpse was
April 15, 2 coordinated yet decentralized action that drove people all over the world
0 take action against points of production and logistics neworks including pors,
bridges, weapons manufacturers, financial instiutions and more. The day of action
was framed as “a shift from symbolic action” to materialy effective

Over the past seven months of non-stop mobilization, the repression exerted by po-
lice, administracors, and politicians that we collctively have faced in all sectors o life
has expanded and intensified. Death threats and dossing have become the norm for
people of conscience since October 7th. Unions have come under aeack for express-
ing simple thetorical (and not material) solidaricy with Palestine. Mobilizations are
ofen indistinguishable from cop riot, with drone surveillance, arests of youth, and
epeated incidents of cops pulling off womens hijabs quickly becoming routine. And
et have been domed, harssicd. xuspendz‘d, qudled‘. iaed, subjected
o physical viokence for supporting the rights of an exiled people to return to their
homeland.

Although the universities, police forces, and politicians intend to force the people
into submission with this wave of repression—to force us o accepr that this genocide
is inevitable and that we must allow it o proceed or ese face severe consequences—it
has done exactly the opposite. Seven months of this brutal repression have lad clear
the task ac hand and has forced all of us to become fearless. Protestors are not

fightend b he prospet o st as ey usd 0 b, udns hve b doed nd
have no reason to bit their tongues. As we confront zionism and imperialism, we are
forced to confront the face that we are not free at all and that any mobilicy we have
within a dying empire can be stripped away in a hearcbeat. So what s there left to dot

W A AllOuside Aghators /1 3
“The students of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) coalition
swered this question on Wednesday, Aprl 17, when they set up the Gaza Solidarity
Encampment on campus at 4 AM, insisting that they were not leaving unil their
demands were met. Columbia administation has shut down the university’s SJP and
JVP chapters; suspended and evicted students; called the NYPD, FBI, Homeland
Security, and even private investigators o surveil organizers; and allowed them to.
face a violent chemical artack committed by former IOF soldiers with no serious
repercussions against the perpetrators. Columbia administration made it so decply
clear o it students that it does not stand with them and that its allgiance fully lies
with the violenc zionist project.

“The struggle at the Gaza Solidarity Encampment has been historic, powerfil, and
awe-inspiring to todays students across the country and those of 1968, who inspired
the idea for a iberated zone on the lawn. CUAD has brought in students from other
universiies, dozens of organizations, and every day people who want to support what
is scen not only as 2 srious escalation in movement suategy but a model for how the
student movement can force power to concede 1o its demands._In only a few day
encampments have popped up all over the county from Cal Polytech to the City.
Universiy of New York, from the ivy league to the public universiy. Within Our
Lifetime salutes every student of every Gaza Solidarity Encampment and liberated
zone and encourages everyone from all walks of lfe o plug into your local projects
and suppor them however possible.

Confronting the Enemy
There is no further symbolic vietory to be gained, there is no more “proving” that the
Palestinian liberation struggle s just. There is no institation of power to appeal to,
because every instiution of power from the UN 1o the IC] to our city councils and
university administrations are corrupt and rotten to the core. Decades of electoral
pandering has produced nothing butsellout polti

forces and our student organizing any chance they have. Years of appealing to the
United Nations has produced international court rulings that are fundamentally in-
capable of stopping the bombs from raining on our people.

s who demonize our resistance.

What these brave students have shown the world is tha there are no alies within en-
emy instiutions, no more appeals to be made, and cercainly no more negoriating the
terms of our existence and resistance. There i only an enemy to fight and a struggle
that secks victory. What is crucial in suscaining this moment is identifying clearly
who our friends and enemies are

On the morning of the second day of Columbia’s Gaza Solidarity Encampmen,
President Minouche Shefik called on the NYPD to sweep the site and arrest the
protestors. This same response was repeated at NYU, UT Austin, USC, Emerson,
and more. At the time this statement is written, CUNY students are engaged in a
standoff with the NYPD and CUNY Public Safety. On the firs day of the CUNY.
encampment, CUNY students and community members successfully pushed ouc
CUNY Public Safety from the encampment who had attacked members of the en-
campment with no justification. On the same day, CUNY Public Safety abducted
2 member of the encampment on the same day, a tcenager, turned her over to the
cops, and charged her with a felony for the erime of allegedly spraypainting the

ground.

40 Wiaha Ous Lifime
As the movement grows into a new phase, the terms of engagement with these enc-
mies must be made clear. We canno treat them as anything but hoseile to our goals
ofending the genocide of the people of Palstine, This is why we have made an effort
o study; track, and report on the activites and capabilities of the New York Police
Deparcment. If they'e willing to throw us in jail and put us in the hospical every
night for the egregious crime of sing a megaphone without a permit, what would
they do if we were on the precipice of truly throwing wrenches in the gears of the
ongoing genocide? I s no use chanting “NYPD KKK IDF Youre All the Same” if
we ignore the role of the US police forces in maintaining the status quo - which, for
over 75 years, has included the genocide of our people. We understand the police as
a functionary of US imperialism, and we understand that the zionist stae wouldc
lasta Palestinian summer without the never-ending spigot of military and diplomatic
aid provided to it by the US empire. I the police can quash the Paleseinian solidaricy
movement on the streetsof the UL.S., that ensures that spigot does not have 2 domes-
tic threat and

continue unabated.

At the same time 25 we assess who the forces of epression ae, we must simultancous-
Iy be cautious not to lt opporcunists co-op these spaces of revolutionary potential
for photo-ops. Already, we have seen a number of individuals—many of whom have
explicity condemned the Palestinian resistance or even support the zionist entity’s
existence—come and take photos, or even make speeches a the Gaza Solidariy En-
campment. In New York, we've seen sell-outslike Alexa Aviles play revolutionary and
take pictures a the Columbia encampment a year aftr helping evict Mexican and
Latin American workers from Plaza Proletaria in Sunset Park. We'e seen Alexandria
Ocasio Corter tweet in support of the encampments while demonzing ‘outside agi-
tators” and condemning our resistance fightersin Palestine. Well-known intellectuals
get on the mic and admonish us for daring to chant from the river to the sca, and.
implore us to consider the legitimacy of a setler-colonial sate.

“They are not our allies and they do not stand in solidarity with any of us. The
tempt a co-optation by politcians,celebrites, and nonproit organizations is a c
erinsurgency strategy to de-escalte the encampments, de-fang the movemen,
de-mobilize the momentum we have been building for so long,

Enough with De-Escalation Trainings; Where are the Escalation
Trainings!
“The movement wips over tself o provide endless tainings, webinars and infograph-
ics on de-escalation tactics to avoid bad press and antagonisms with police, zionist
agitators, and universiy administrators. Thisis not inherenly a bad thing and we are
quite aware of the need to avoid pointless confrontation in order to build our camps
and consolidate our forces. We ourselves have provided Know Your Rights tainings,
for example, and employed this approach in specific protests and conditions. But
like everything, we have a choice in what we prioritize and a responsibility to adapt
to meet the moment. We need Know Your Rights trainings: but we also need Know
Your Enemy tsainings. We can choose o prioritize de-escalation trinings,or we can
choose to prioriize escalation trainings. We can choose to lear how to build cffec-
des, how o link arms most effectivel to resist police atacks, o what type
of expanding foam works best on the kind of doorknobs present in our universitics.
ot thetoric — thisis an urgent need. We willallshare the inspiring images
coming from Cal Polytech — but who will commit to studying and adaping those

tive bari

W A All Ouside Agistrs /5
lessons o fit ourconisions? These quesionsarea prioy ifwe aesrious sbout
turning this movement from one that tries to advance our chetorical position on
solidarity and morality to convince power brokers of the rightcousness of our
cause, to a movement that becomes a power broker ourselves.

‘We are inspired by the Cal Polytech students —a student body where a fourth of the
students do not have enough food to eat and have experienced homelessness — who.
were the frst in this current period to take a building and fight off the police. We arc
inspired by the Columbia students who have shown a model on how to re-csablish
a camp afte a police sweep and how to last for days at a time. We are inspired by the
Emerson and Emory students who teach us to link arms in rows and build barricades
o resist police assaules. We are inspired by the USC students who teach us that a
single police car surrounded by hundreds can effectuate a de-artest. These students
are creative and adapt o their conditions and represent a shift in the solidarity move-
ment from one of symbolic power to one that understands cangible power. We call on
New Yorkers o learn these lesons and prepare for the next chaper:

No to Student Power - Yes to People Power
s we wrote nearly cight years ago!, “the student movement can provide revolution-
ary ;mfiy.:y fo 2 gt mvemenc i i g amang b pogrve
seruggles to build power for oppressed people. But if instead the student movement
< Tmsed ihersley v the specife ruggles of sudents (uiton, suden resourcs
exc), or i isolating students from their communitis instead of uniting them, the.
student movement becomes non-revolutionary or even counter-tevolutionary” This
has not been more relevant than today, where new suudent encampments are estab-
lished every single day.

There are several important lessons to draw from the rejection of the suudent pover
line — lessons that have been synthesized decades ago by revolurionaries in the Uit-
ed States and elsewhere, particularly the suudent movement integrated in the ongoing
revolution in the Philipines.

Firsty, we noe that it s crucial to keep our focus and demands on Gaza and the on-
going genocide of the Palesinian people. The protest iself can not be the dominating,
headline. And yet because our analyss of the Palesinian struggle s an international.
istone,part of these demands requices us to make ou encampments and organizing
relevant 1o the majority of New Yorkers who are not Palestinian, Arab or Muslim.
Our encampments exist i city that s plagued by displacement, hunger, and state
Volence, 1ove i o enczm‘pmmhl':vsg\udzm‘: o and o narton demands
that ignore the mateial context where we live — where our neighbors strugele and
die— we are bound to fil. But if we force open the gates of the university, share our
seruggles, understand we have 2 common enemy and build our respective capacities
to fight them on and offthe campus — the universices are ours for the taking

Secondly it s more important than ever that we reject the so-called “outside agitator’
fine theown at us by the right-wing media, cops, university administracion, and so-
calld progressive forces. As the comrades in Cal Polytech teach us’, “the discinction
berween student and non-student only enforces the gates becween the university and
its surrounding communities. By rejectng this differcnce we break open the gates.

- apewolpleine comfsatementslth.soleof youth-sndsedenss - sh iesational ol
225 uios of Uiy by @oceupycalpolyumbolde on nsagran

6 Wiaha Ous Lifime
Emory students in Addanta have declared” “a clearly as possble, we welcome ‘outside
agitators”to our struggle against the ruthless genocide of the Palestinian people” If
we resrit poliical parcicipation t students themselves, and only them, and turn
‘away those at the gates, we are bound to fil. Students did not win in ‘68 by urniny

the people of Harlem who threatened to storm the gates of Columbia, an
neither will we now. In the eyes of our enemies in the bell of the beast, we are all
ouside agitators.

CUNY is for the People
That brings us to today — April 27, 2024. The CUNY encampment has entered
ins dhird day: The City Universiy of New York is the key to New York City. What
happens here determines the fate of the student movement in the rest of the City.
There are nearly 250,000 CUNY students in Nevw York. Somewhere n the neighbor-
hood of 50,000 New Yorkers work in the university system. CUNY has 25 campuses
across 5 boroughs. The vase majority of college students (and their siblings, cousins,
neighbors, coworkers..) attending demonstrations for Palestinian liberation do not
g0 0 the Iy Leagues — they go to CUNYs. The high schoolers walking ou of their
schools for Gaza join the ranks of CUNY senior and community colleges year n an
year out. CUNY was free for the vast majority of is existence — and our predecessors
fought and won for open admissions — so that every New Yorker could go to CUNY.
That all changed when the firt freshman CUNY class was majority non-white. T-
ition and 2 resuictive admissions process was soon introduced, and now we find
ourselves in a system that s desperatly trying to become the UCLA of the East Coast
— public in name only — whose prime beneficiaries are out of state middlc or upper
elass seudents who have no connection to New York or ts people. Now turnsiles,
public safty officrs, Starbucks, wition hikes, and restictive admission policies arc
everywhere you wrn on a CUNY campus. Within Our Lifetime, formerly known as
NYC Students for Jusice in Palestine, was formed specifically out of this reality —
Palestinian and Arab New Yorkers in the CUNY system who saw an isolation of the
student movement and sought to bring the struggle out of the classroom and into.
our neighborhoods.

We encourage CUNY students to take stock of their campuses. Who are the pro-
gressive forces, who can be won over, and who muse be politically isolaced? Which
buidings on your campus have the most favorable conditions to blockade doors and
smuggle in supplies? Will student government and faculy push the administration
0 call off the cops? What of the student representatives in the Board of Trustees?
Will the neighborhood the campus islocated in support our struggle? Have we given
them a reason to?

We salute the courageous CUNY students, ahumi, faculey and community members
who brough the struggle to the CUNY system. We are at you service.

T mm—

W A Al Quside Aghators 7