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.
New Orleans, LA – On Saturday, March 9, over a 100 people rallied in front of the gates of Louis Armstrong Park in New Orleans to mark International Women’s Day. Over eight organizations united to demand that people everywhere stand with the women of Palestine as they witness genocide and struggle against Zionist occupation.
Lafayette, LA – On September 15, over 30 protesters from all across southern Louisiana gathered outside the state’s second governor’s debate. While the night’s debate gathered the race’s top seven candidates to discuss policy, the demonstrators came to make one thing clear: Republican frontrunner Jeff Landry and his attacks would not be tolerated.
Los Angeles, CA – On July 23, hundreds of protesters marched down Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles for the People’s State of the Nation Address. The PSONA is an annual protest to counter the Filipino president’s state of the nation address and expose the real struggles of the Filipino people. This year it highlighted the issues under the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. presidency, including record high inflation and miserable wages, intense political repression with prosecution and killings, and increased U.S. military presence.
Los Angeles, CA – Chants of “Who are we? Teamsters!” and “Union power!” filled the street on July 19 at the UPS Olympic hub during a strike solidarity rally.
Los Angeles, CA – On June 30, the Boyle Heights community turned out in mass at a Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council’s (BHNC) special meeting to protest and demand the neighborhood council vote no on a big market rate housing development project by Tiao LLC. Proposed in the heart of Boyle Heights on the Cesar Chavez Avenue and Chicago Street block, the six-story 50-unit housing complex would evict and displace many local tenants and businesses, one of whom is a family of four generations who have been living there for 30 years.
Los Angeles, CA – Workers at a local McDonald's went on strike June 9, as part of a weeklong struggle by employees to bring to light the heinous working conditions they have been forced to endure. The strikers called for an end to harassment from management, for union representation, and justice for Berta Montes, a McDonald's employee whose death many coworkers attribute to management's negligence and overall lack of interest in their worker's health and safety.
New Orleans, LA – On March 8, killer cops Derek Chauvin and Michael Mattioli’s original trial date, the New Orleans Freedom Road Socialist Organization hosted a socially distant march for George Floyd and Joel Acevedo. Twenty protesters and four community organizations gathered in solidarity at Duncan Plaza.
Los Angeles, CA – On March 7, Centro CSO: Community Service Organization hosted a celebration of el Día Internacional de la Mujer (International Women’s Day), filled with poetry, singing and political discussion at the Benjamin Franklin Branch Library in Boyle Heights. This year’s event, the third that Centro CSO has put on, honored the women of Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles who have fought back against the privatization of public education, police terror, sexism and transphobia.
