Baton Rouge, LA – On October 9, Louisiana State University’s Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) held a panel on the Tulane and Loyola University encampments for Gaza as part of their October 7 Week of Rage. LSU SDS invited members of Tulane and Loyola SDS and a member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) from New Orleans. They highlighted their wins and explored lessons learned from planning and implementing the encampment.

Last spring, the National Students for a Democratic Society put out a call for campuses across the country to enact encampments for Gaza on their universities’ lawns to escalate the fight for divestment. On April 29, SDS chapters from both New Orleans campuses proposed a plan of action. The encampment began with a Loyola and Tulane SDS joint rally and march that gathered around 300 people.

After rallying, the students began establishing their encampment in front of the Tulane admissions building. However, they were immediately met with police repression from both campus police and the New Orleans Police Department. The response from the police was very quick compared to other universities. As the encampment continued, police on horses charged the crowd, while others attacked protesters, tackling some to the ground. The Gaza encampment was met with militarized police, and seven people were arrested that day, with others to follow the next night.

Ryan Spalt of LSU SDS began the panel by introducing the panelists. He asked them questions about how they decided to have an encampment, why administration was so harsh in punishing the students involved, and what strategies they utilized to create a successful legal campaign.

“How did leadership decide that the Loyola and Tulane student body were ready for an encampment? How did you address the fears of repercussions?” Spalt asked.

“National SDS put out a call and said you should do it [an encampment] too, and we talked about it. I’ll be honest, I was scared, there were repercussions that would come with such an act of defiance,” Juleea Berthelot of Loyola SDS explained how they and others from the student contingent in New Orleans decided to hold an encampment.

“Why do you think the administration was so harsh in punishing their students and sending militarized police to the encampment in the middle of the night?” Spalt continued.

“Tulane is a very difficult target for divestment, and I think that’s why the response was so militarized and also because our Governor is Jeff Landry,” Rory Macdonald of Tulane SDS answered. They went on to explain why the militarized police response was so quick compared to other encampments across the country. “Because of the political conditions [of being in a red state] here, at Tulane and in Louisiana – at Columbia, for example, it took them a long time to get to the level of military police that we saw in under 48 hours.” Macdonald explained the tense political atmosphere of the state caused the quick response from police.

“What strategies were utilized to create a successful legal campaign? Were there disagreements on what avenues should be used between the defendants and the lawyers? If yes, how did you decide what to do?” Spalt followed.

Carson Cruse of FRSO and Loyola SDS explained that any trial involved in organizing is inherently a political trial. Cruse went on to say, “to build a successful legal strategy we have to have a successful political strategy.” He explained the need to inform the public of the true political nature of the trial.

“We need all sorts of mass movements to combat political repression. We had members of Freedom Road, we had members of SDS, we had members of New Orleans Stop Helping Israel’s Ports, NOCOP ]New Orleans for Community Oversight of the Police], all these different organizations were affected by this political repression,” Cruse told the audience. This united front of mass movements gave them the power to fight back against this political repression.

Students at LSU felt inspired by the panel, and Loyola and Tulane SDS were able to share their experiences with them. These lessons learned from administration’s repression only worked to strengthen the student movement and create dedicated student activists across multiple Louisiana campuses.

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