Denver SDS protests repression against pro-Palestine students
Denver, CO – On August 28, Denver Students for a Democratic Society held a rally and march against the repression of student organizers who have been demanding that the Metropolitan State University of Denver and the University of Colorado – Denver cut financial ties with Israel.
The Universities have placed SDS on interim probation, refusing to reinstate the group’s status as a registered student organization. SDS has also been barred from leafleting and having meetings on campus, and the administration is pursuing conduct violations against student organizers. Many members have been placed on academic probation, and three students have been given suspensions.
Khalid Hamu, an organizer with Denver SDS, spoke: “For standing on the side of progress, for showing our seriousness in cutting ties to genocide, our admin has brought attack after attack on us. The repression from our administration is an attempt to hinder the student movement, but they will see that all their efforts will amount to is attempting to put a lid on a boiling pot already overflowing.”
“Palestine impacts us, impacts our lives, because we know that all of our tuition that’s going to kill people in Palestine could be going to our schools, could be going to places for us to live, better resources for students,” said Lucia Feast, another Denver SDS organizer. “They can’t stop us from showing up on this campus. We belong on this campus.”
The speeches were interspersed with chants of “While students are on hard times, admin’s funding war crimes” and “Bans won’t knock us off our feet, students have a right to meet.”
Students marched to show their administration that they demand an end to the repression of free speech, and that the people will not back down from the struggle to end their universities’ complicity in genocide.