Arcata, CA – On Monday, April 22, around 4 p.m., roughly 30 students began a sit-in in Siemens Hall at Cal Poly Humboldt, California, to show solidarity with Palestine and with other campuses that are doing the same. While many students on other campuses are setting up encampments, theirs is the first in the movement to take over a building so far, and an admin building, no less. This also made them the first state university to join the movement.
Green Bay, WI – On March 22, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) interrupted a College Democrats speaking event on campus that had U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin as a guest speaker. The event was promoted in secret on campus to prevent SDS from organizing and was supposed to teach students how to get people to vote for her. SDS found out and decided to mobilize.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from University of Rochester Students for a Democratic Society and Students for Justice in Palestine.
As of April 24, the administration of University of Rochester has announced that UR will move forward with an academic boycott from all ties to Israel. This was a demand of the occupation set up by Students for a Democratic Society and Students for Justice in Palestine, now won by the students.
Minneapolis, MN – On Tuesday, April 23 at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, student activists set up a Gaza Solidarity encampment. This encampment was organized by the UMN Divest Coalition which is made up of Students for a Democratic Society, Students for Justice in Palestine, Young Democratic Socialists of America and Students for Climate Justice. The coalition is pushing for the University of Minnesota to cut ties financially with Israel. This means to divest from weapon manufacturers, stop study abroad trips to Israel and stop having defense companies doing recruitment on campus.
Tampa, FL – Protesters converged in solidarity with the struggle in Gaza to denounce Joe Biden’s visit to the Hillsborough Community College Dale Mabry campus on April 23. Nearly 400 protesters thronged the sidewalks surrounding the entrance, chanting and waving Palestinian flags.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The English translation appeared on the Resistance News Network on Telegram.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine condemns the repressive practices of the administrations of universities in the United States and affirms its support for the struggle of the student movement in support of Palestine.
Minneapolis, MN – On Sunday, April 21, a march of approximately 300 people from the Twin Cities metro area marched, blocking traffic for Earth Day.
The Climate Justice Committee (CJC) and Anti-War Committee (AWC) led the march. It drew attendees from the nearby Little Earth indigenous-preference housing complex, the surrounding East Phillips neighborhood, and Camp Nenookaasi, an encampment of the unhoused which has been forced by the city of Minneapolis to move many times.
Chicago, IL – Thousands of protesters took Michigan Avenue, Saturday afternoon, April 20 and marched to demand an end to U.S. funding for Israeli genocide in Palestine.
Led by the Coalition for Justice in Palestine, this was the 32nd mass mobilization since October 7 and demonstrated that people of Chicago are not intimidated by recent police escalation and repression in Chicago and across the country.
Minneapolis, MN – On Thursday, April 18, about 30 members of the Minnesota Cuba Coalition gathered at U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar’s Minneapolis office, under the banner of “Minnesotans love Cuba,” to call for an end to the U.S. embargo of Cuba
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement by the New Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
While standing in solidarity with Palestine, the student movement has once again escalated protests on campus with the campus encampment movement. Students are calling out their universities and its administrators for their decades’ long support of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians and are demanding that our universities divest and cut all ties to Israel! University administrators have no right to ignore the students as university administrators continue to support the genocide in Gaza and maintain support for Israel.
