SJSU pro-Palestine students disrupt career fair with a silent action
San Jose, CA – On September 10, San Jose Students for a Democratic Society alongside various other SJSU students held a silent protest outside a career fair where Lockheed Martin, notorious weapons manufacturer and supporter of the Gaza genocide, had a table.
San Jose State University held the “Business, Financial Services and Logistics Job and Internship Fair” at 11 a.m. in the Student Union Ballroom. The career fair on the school’s website claims to attract over 600 students. Lockheed Martin was present at the event, intent on recruiting students to participate in what they call “defense,” which is in fact the design and manufacture of warplanes, helicopters and munitions which are used by the Israeli military to bomb and murder thousands of Palestinians a month.
At the start of the career fair, four members of SDS entered, with photographs of men, women and children murdered in the genocide. These images were accompanied by slogans such as “Cut ties with Lockheed now,” and “Do not be complicit, Lockheed kills.” The activists stood beside the line of students entering the career fair.
Immediately, SJSU administration confronted the students holding signs and called the university police, attempting to contrive excuses to detain the students. The police refused to make any arrests, citing that no laws were being violated and the student union was a public space.
Admin attempted to make several escalations, verbally threatening the activists with conduct charges, and other unspecified “consequences.” They repeatedly demanded that the students move their action outside the Student Union. The students refused to move.
SDS remained throughout the duration of the career fair, and eventually grew from the initial four activists to ten students overall, drawing in students unaffiliated with the organization.
More and more members of SJSU administration appeared in attempts to get the students to move out of the building, demanding their names and ID numbers. Dean of Students Heather French repeatedly cited the TPM (for “time place manner”) policy as a reason that the activist had to move out of the Student Union. One student responded by asking about her thoughts on the ongoing genocide. French said she “would not comment on that.”
Ultimately, the action ended when the career fair came to a close.
Students for a Democratic Society at SJSU has had an ongoing campaign, in collaboration with Students for Justice in Palestine, to push admin to disclose its financial ties and end the ongoing partnership with Lockheed, which they have thus far refused to do. Documents released by the SJSU Tower Foundation regarding investments have been opaque. Meanwhile, Lockheed continues to attend career fairs like the one disrupted on September 10, as well as enjoying employee-exclusive classes and programs as part of their ongoing partnership with SJSU.
So long as this arrangement continues, SDS, SJP and other student activists and groups are likely to continue agitation and protest to call for the termination of this “partnership.”