New Orleans, LA – On July 15, at least 13 New Orleanian activists will join thousands to march on the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. This baker’s dozen is a group of leaders and organizers from Black liberation, labor, student and gender liberation movements.

“We are the phantom that haunts them in their sleep”

The coalition is fresh off of protesting Trump’s fundraiser in a New Orleans gated community near Tulane University. They say they’re ready to follow him to Wisconsin.

“I think it’s important to let the Republicans know that even when they leave their strong base in the South, that we’re gonna chase ‘em down and we’re gonna fight them every step of the way,” said Loyola Students for a Democratic Society organizer Jack Saucier. “We are the phantom that haunts them in their sleep. We’re everywhere that they think that we’re not and we’re on ‘em all the time.”

The city’s progressive movements are growing, but facing backlash from a state government dominated by racists and Christian fundamentalists. In June, Louisiana became the first state to require public schools to post the Ten Commandments in all classrooms.

“The attacks we face in Louisiana from the far right are part of the Republicans’ bigoted and undemocratic agenda. It’s important for us to fight those attacks at a local level, but that’s not enough,” said Molly Frayle of the Queer-Trans Community Action Project. “By protesting the RNC, we are sending a message to far-right politicians across the country.”

“It’s important that we keep our foot on these politicians’ necks”

As one of his first decisions in office, Governor Jeff Landry ramped up the Louisiana State Police’s presence in the New Orleans area. Their officers brutalized and arrested student protesters at the Tulane-Loyola Popular University for Gaza encampment in May. The Louisiana State Police can bypass the New Orleans Police Department’s consent decree, reversing decades of progress won by the movement for police accountability.

“It’s important that we keep our foot on these politicians’ necks,” said Kia Thomas of New Orleans for Community Oversight of Police. “They need to know we will not stand down.”

Abbey Lodwig, a barista, who will speak for Starbucks Workers United at the March on the RNC, states, “The Republicans are fighting to strip decades of labor rights the working class has won.”

Lodwig continued, “We’re excited to march on the RNC and we hope to see many union siblings alongside us!”

Palestine solidarity organizations were among the first to sponsor the march. Endorsers include New Orleans Stop Helping Israel’s Ports, NOLA Healthcare Workers for Palestine, and NOLA Artists for Palestine.

#NewOrleansLA #NOLA #FreePalestine #NOCOP #NOSHIP #MarchOnTheRNC #Starbucks #SWU #Loyola #LoyolaSDS #LoyNO #SDS

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from Tulane and Loyola SDS.

At approximately 3:00 am, when students were sleeping and supporters who had gathered to ensure their safety were resting, a militarized coalition consisting of TUPD, NOPD, and Louisiana State Police (LSP) violently disassembled the peaceful encampment. With no dispersal warning, over 100 officers put the safety of students and community members at great risk by brutally arresting 14 unarmed individuals, including 3 bystanders, using riot gear, assault rifles, and armored vehicles. Louisiana State Police specifically targeted student organizers, resulting in two injured students being taken to the hospital.

Tulane and Loyola Students for a Democratic Society condemns President Fitts and Tulane's administration for the excessive, dangerous, and violent action taken against an unarmed, student-led encampment. Tulane claims that free speech is a right, yet in practice, Tulane University would rather brutalize its own students and members of our community than listen to their demands to divest from the apartheid state of Israel.

We would like to remind President Fitts, Tulane administration, TUPD, NOPD, and LSP that though they criminalized us during our encampment, protesting is not a crime! We'd like to remind President Fitts, Tulane administration, alumni, and the larger community that students have been pushing Tulane to divest from war and apartheid since at least the 60s.

We reject the historically revisionist narrative that Tulane and its administration were unaware of our position and demands. Though the administration claims to be oblivious to our demands and organizing, Students for a Democratic Society at Tulane and Loyola have hosted ongoing demonstrations on both campuses for over six months. In all formal correspondence from both administrations regarding our ongoing demonstrations, they blatantly lied, stating the protestors were not Tulane affiliates. Tulane claims the encampment was composed of non-Tulane affiliates, yet numerous Tulane students, faculty, staff, and alumni were present at the encampment and other actions leading up to this larger demonstration. We join the larger network of student organizers around the world who have been facing extreme repression for protesting while genocide is occurring in Gaza, the West Bank, and all of occupied Palestine.

We understand the political undertones of this moment. We understand the student movement is not simply being targeted in response to exercising the right to free speech. We understand this is not a repression of free speech in the abstract, but we are confident that universities across the US are reacting this way because pro-Palestinian speech has material consequences.

We remain steadfast and resolute in our commitment to the Palestinian cause. The ongoing intimidation and violence will only strengthen our resolve to shout for a Free Palestine and for the liberation of all oppressed people. Despite this violent retaliation against unarmed peaceful students, alumni and their supporters, will continue to demand both Tulane and Loyola universities divest from the Zionist entity and disclose connections to any and all genocidal oppressors.

We demand all charges be dropped.

We demand all suspended students and Students for a Democratic Society be reinstated.

We demand that Tulane stop threatening its faculty, students, and staff with disciplinary action.

We will continue our fight because a Free Palestine is a promise and one that we intend to keep.

#NewOrleansLA #SDS #TulaneSDS #LoyolaSDS

New Orleans, LA - On April 15, activists and community members in New Orleans gathered in an emergency rally at the Harol Boggs Federal Building to voice their support for Iran’s calculated and warranted retaliation against Israel’s illegal attack on the Iranian embassy and officials in Damascus, Syria. The protesters further highlighted the need to oppose any U.S. military involvement in the region that could result from Iran’s retaliation.

Organized by New Orleans Stop Helping Israel’s Ports (NOSHIP) and Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), the rally gathered people under the slogans: “When the Middle East is under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!” and “We want justice, you say how? Hands off Iran now!”

“We recognize the Israeli attack on Iran’s embassy in Damascus for what it was. It was a declaration of war, it was a violation of international law, and it was a desperate bid to drag the U.S. into a wider war with Iran,” said Rory Macdonald from Tulane Students for a Democratic Society.

NOSHIP, Tulane SDS, and Loyola SDS – all represented at this rally – are currently focusing their efforts on divestmentcampaigns aiming to stop all U.S. aid to and U.S. investments in Israel. “Just like we are doing divestment campaigns all across the country right now, we will shut down a U.S. war with Iran,” continued Macdonald.

Carson Cruse, Loyola SDS member echoed: “New SDS was founded in 2006 when a bunch of angry students were demanding our government end its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, we are building a militant student movement demanding divestment from Israel and no war with Iran.

New Orleans Healthcare Workers for Palestine spoke further of the prevalent discontent towards institutions complicit with the ongoing genocide. The organization openly condemned U.S. institutions that expect workers to heal patients in front of them while ignoring the millions who have had every right to healthcare or a healthy environment stripped away.

“With the alarming number of Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli forces, it sounds to me like they’re the ones who are acting in self-defense,” said Jasmine Groves from New Orleans for Community Oversight of the Police (NOCOP) in reference to Israel’s ridiculous claims that its current campaign of terror against the Palestinian people is no more than so-called self-defense.

“The fact that our legislature in Louisiana is passing a state bill that both voices support for Israel’s genocide and seeks to criminalize anti-Zionist resistance is a prime example that they know they are exposed and vulnerable,” said FRSO member Quest Riggs.

NOSHIP closed out the rally by urging community members topressure local agencies that are complicit with the ongoingoccupation and genocide and continue demanding that the Port of New Orleans stop any current or potential trade with Israeli entities.

“They are scared. They are so scared that they have resorted to arresting us for simply exercising our right to peacefully provide public comments. We will not stand for this political repression. We will continue to show up and demand for the board to stop all shipments to and from Israel, and to drop all charges against Felix Allen,” said a representative of NOSHIP.

Activists and community members are fired up about the upcoming March on the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 19, which will be marching under the slogan: “Genocide Joe has got to go!”

#NewOrleansLA #NOSHIP #FreePalestine #TulaneSDS #LoyolaSDS #SDS #HandsOffIran #NOCOP

New Orleans, LA – On October 26, over 250 students and community members gathered for a rally near Tulane University’s campus. Despite a counter-protest of obviously intoxicated students shouting Islamophobic and racist slurs, demonstrators outnumbered them and drowned them out. Chants like “Tulane, Tulane you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide!” energized the crowd. 

The newly formed Tulane4Palestine led the demonstration against the deep ties between the university and the state of Israel. “We demand the termination of all contracts with institutions that support the ongoing genocide of Palestinians,” said a member of Tulane4Palestine.

Speakers connected their experiences as Palestinian and Arab Americans to the ongoing struggle for Palestinian liberation. “They had new and advanced Israeli and American war equipment and a Canadian-based PR company, or should I say propaganda machine, so this time we knew they were coming to destroy it all” said Mina Mahfouz, an organizer with Loyola Students for a Democratic Society, condemning the violence perpetrated by Israeli-backed militias in her home country of Sudan.

During the rally, a supporting Palestinian community member and their family drove by, waving a Palestinian flag. A counter-protester threw an Israeli flag into the truck. When they drove by again, a boy in the truck bed apparently tried to light the Israeli flag on fire when Zionist counter-protesters rushed the vehicle. When the driver attempted to defend his vehicle, another protester and member of Jewish Voices for Peace attempted to defuse the situation. Police brutalized and arrested them. Local and national news sources reported incorrectly that Palestinian protesters attacked Jewish students.

After the initial arrest, the driver was arrested when a counter-protester spotted him sitting in his truck down the street from the ongoing rally and alerted the police. Despite the Zionist attack, protesters continued to disrupt business as usual in the university. Tulane, a school that receives large sums of money from Zionist organizations and donors, was shaken to its core by this unprecedentedly large act of defiance. As protesters continued chanting, they also denounced the arrests and demanded the police hold the true instigators of the altercation by held accountable.

#NewOrleansLA #FreePalestine #Tulane #Tulane4Palestine #LoyolaSDS #Loyola #SDS