Fight Back! News

News and Views from the People's Struggle

Student Movement

By Silas Gillett

Tulane SDS members die-in  at Tulane University during Bookfest. | Fight Back! News/staff

New Orleans – On March 16, 13 courageous members of Tulane Students for a Democratic Society carried out a die-in on campus to protest the school’s partnership with Israel. The demonstrators occupied the school’s central building during the nationally attended and Tulane-hosted New Orleans Bookfest. The festival is hosted by the university once a year and brings in thousands of attendees to watch panels and talks by well-known authors and public figures.

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By staff

Walter Isaacson grabs Rory MacDonald's arm and pushes them. | Fight Back! News/staff

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following March 14 statement from Tulane Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

Official Statement on Battery of Tulane Student by Professor Walter Isaacson

On March 13th, a Tulane student and member of Students for a Democratic Society, Rory Macdonald, was assaulted by Walter Isaacson, a Tulane professor and board member. Macdonald was protesting a Tulane-sponsored New Orleans Entrepreneurship Week panel titled “Energy Innovation at Scale” featuring Louisiana State University, ExxonMobil, and Halliburton. Isaacson, an audience member, grabbed Rory and cursed at them, battering them and leaving them with bruises on their arm and scratches on their back. The encounter was captured in multiple videos. Tulane has done nothing to protect Arab students and members of SDS from repeated harassment and threats from Zionist students, and now one of our members has been assaulted by a member of the faculty.

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By Ren Wischmann

Minneapolis – On March 12, just 16 hours after being notified that the Consul General of Israel Yinam Cohen was meeting with University of Minnesota Vice President Croson, along with a group of Zionist community leaders, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) pulled together an emergency protest and march starting outside of the Coffman Student Union. Protesters demanded an end to the ties between the university and the state of Israel.

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By Dane Snudden

Green Bay, WI- On March 7, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) met with Chancellor Michael Alexander to discuss the university’s position on the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

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By staff

Pro-Palestine Palestine protest by Students for Justice in Palestine and Students for a Democratic Society on the Twin Cities UMN campus. | Fight Back! News/staff

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from University of Minnesota Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

SDS and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) have just been made aware that the Consul General of Israel Yinam Cohen will reportedly be meeting with University of Minnesota Vice President Croson along with a group of Zionist community leaders. Given various factors: the climate of repression of Pro-Palestine activism on campus, the genocide being carried out by the illegal Israeli occupation, and an ongoing Department of Education investigation into false claims of anti-semitism, this meeting is shameful complicity in Israel’s crimes.

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By staff

Macalester College students hold die-in demanding the school end relations with educational institutions in apartheid Israel. | Fight Back! News/staff

St. Paul, MN – On March 5, students belonging to the Mac for Palestine Coalition staged a die-in at the Macalester Center for Study Away. The students continued to occupy the building for the next 48 hours, a marked escalation in their months-long campaign to pressure the college to cut its institutional ties with Israeli universities.

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By Cassia Laham

University of Central Florida SDS shuts down Lockheed Martin event on campus. | Fight Back! News/Cassia Laham

Orlando, FL – 25 students gathered at the University of Central Florida, March 4, to protest the presence of Lockheed Martin on their campus. UCF Students for a Democratic Society organized the rally outside of what was meant to be a “Diversity Panel” hosted by the weapons manufacturer, which has supplied weapons to Israel for the ongoing occupation and war against the people of Palestine.

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By Cassia Laham

Protesters hold a banner that reads "Lockheed Martin Bombs Hospitals"

Orlando, FL – 25 students gathered at the University of Central Florida, March 4, to protest the presence of Lockheed Martin on their campus. UCF Students for a Democratic Society organized the rally outside of what was meant to be a “Diversity Panel” hosted by the weapons manufacturer, which has supplied weapons to Israel for the ongoing occupation and war against the people of Palestine.

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By Chisara Amanze

Students rally at Florida State University in support of Rafah. | Fight Back! News/Cas Casanova

Tallahassee, FL – On March 1, around 50 people joined Tallahassee Students of a Democratic Society (SDS) in a rally at Florida State University for a “Hands off Rafah!” national day of action called by National SDS. The event opposed ongoing Israeli attacks on Palestinians in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah.

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By Victoria Hinckley

Tampa students rally to defend diversity. | Fight Back! News/staff

Tampa, FL – On Tuesday, February 27, a group of around 15 students joined together in front of the Marshall Student Center at the University of South Florida to demand that the university defend diversity.

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