News and Views from the People's Struggle
Minneapolis, MN – On November 18, three University of Minnesota Twin Cities student organizations; (Students for a Democratic Society, Young Democratic Socialists of America, and Students for Justice in Palestine) held a rally and march starting in front of the Humphrey School of Public affairs on UMN campus.
St Paul, MN – 100 people rallied at the weekly Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) bannering at rush hour at the intersection of Snelling and Summit Avenues, November 17. People gathered to show their outrage of against the Israeli bombings on children, hospitals, homes and schools.
Tallahassee, FL – On November 10, approximately 30 students at Florida State University attended FSU’s Board of Trustees meeting to demand the university divest from Israel. The students were organized by the Florida state chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (FSU SDS).
New Orleans, LA – On November 9, over 100 students from Tulane and Loyola Universities held a march for the national “Shut it Down for Palestine” day of action.
At 1 p.m., students walked off their campuses and gathered for a march. Before marching, the crowd practiced chants and took up signs from the organizers while listening to the first speech of the day. “They have the nerve to accuse us of hate speech, when Israel says Palestinians are human animals?” said Serena Sojic-Borne, a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization in response to the baseless accusations made by enemies of the Palestinian liberation struggle.
Colorado Springs, CO – On November 5 and 6, the Colorado Springs People’s Coalition organized two days of noise demonstrations that sent a powerful message that Colorado Springs stands in solidarity with all Palestinians in their struggle for freedom. The Colorado Autonomous Brown Berets and Partido Nacional de La Raza Unida also endorsed the event, showcasing the unity between the Palestinian and Chicano people.
Austin, TX – On Thursday, November 9, students at UT Austin held multiple Palestine solidarity actions in response to the national day of action to Shut it Down for Palestine.
San Jose, CA – Student activist Gia Davila of the Tampa 5 visited San Jose on October 26, as part of the Justice for the Tampa 5 national speaking tour. She spoke at two events about how the Tampa 5’s struggle against systems of repression became personal when they were brutalized by the police and betrayed by the justice system.
Madison, WI – On Monday, November 6, a group of 100 people gathered at the intersection of South Butler and King Streets in Madison to demand that U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin vote against U.S. aid for Israel’s brutal attack on Gaza, stop taking money from pro-Israel lobbyists, and end U.S. financial support for the military detention of Palestinian children.
Minneapolis, MN – Over 500 University of Minnesota community members gathered on the Northrop Mall and inside of Morrill Hall over the course of two days for a public reading of the known names of thousands of Palestinian civilians killed during the ongoing genocide in Gaza since October 7.
New Orleans, LA – On November 3, about 150 protesters gathered outside the Sheraton on Canal Street to protest the annual State of the Port address. This address, given to port stakeholders who paid a $240 registration fee, took place in the hotel around 11 a.m. Protesters condemned the port’s collaboration with Israel, which includes a so-called “innovation embassy” enabling relationships between tech startups in New Orleans and Ashdod, which is located in Israeli-occupied Palestine.
Madison, WI – On November 6, nearly 80 students and community members gathered outside Shannon Hall on the University of Wisconsin (UW) campus to protest the reactionary Ben Shapiro's visit. The focus of the protest was squarely on Palestine and on trans rights, both issues which Shapiro has disgusting views on and both topics which the university and the Wisconsin state government have a checkered record on.
Appleton, WI – On Sunday, October 29, the Lawrence University Democrats, the student organization of the Democratic Party, hosted a visit by Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin, with State Representative Lee Snodgrass also in attendance. This event came only days after the October 26 unanimous passing of Senate resolution 418 which condemned the nationally organized student protests in support of Palestinian resistance.
Denver, CO – On October 27, Laura Rodriguez of the Tampa 5 continued her speaking tour with a stop in Denver, Colorado. The purpose of the tour is to combat political repression in the form of the felony charges that would put her and her fellow Tampa 5 organizers in prison for five to ten years.
These felony charges come against the Tampa 5 after they were shoved to the ground, brutalized, groped and arrested by police officers during their protest against Governor Ron DeSantis’ attacks on diversity and equity programs at the University of South Florida.
Rodriguez addressed a crowd of 50 community members, union organizers and student organizers.
The event consisted of two panels. The first panel highlighted different organizers and their own perspectives when it comes to the different barriers they have faced in education and organizing. The panel featured Jacob Marshall of SDS; Miah Ntepp, Denver NAACP vice president and leader at MSU’s Black Student Alliance; and Candi CdeBaca, a tireless advocate for Denver communities and former city councilperson.
Kat Draken, a shop steward for Teamsters Local 455 in Denver and former student organizer in Tallahassee, Florida talked about her experiences when her fellow organizers were arrested for protesting a few years before, “You have to be persistent and annoying, you have to keep holding events and keep up the pressure, if they figure out that they can just wait you out and let the momentum die, that’s what they are going to do.”
The second panel featured organizers who have themselves faced political repression or whose work surrounds political repression in some way. Shaine Carroll-Frey from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization spoke on the repression the organization experienced in 2010 when prominent leaders of the FRSO were raided by the FBI in a coordinated attack aimed at destroying the organization. Other speakers included Ryan Stitzel, a community organizer with Denver Aurora Community Action Committee, who organizes against police terror in the Denver Metro area, and Eliza Lucero, a community organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation in Denver, as well as a labor organizer with the Colorado Education Association. Lucero was a leading local organizer of the mass demonstrations against the overturning of Roe v. Wade and in the 2020 uprisings was one of the local leaders targeted by the Aurora Police Department and charged with multiple bogus felonies.
During the keynote speech, Rodriguez stated, “When they asked us to apologize to the police who had beat us up, to apologize to the people who brutalized our friends right in front of our faces and we said, ‘No thank you.’ And then we were charged with additional felonies. So now I face ten years in prison for standing up for what I know is right.”
This event comes at a time when organizers around the country are facing arrests and other forms of suppression surrounding the mass support for Palestine. Just a couple days before, Ron DeSantis’ administration took steps to ban the pro-Palestine group Students for Justice in Palestine from campuses in Florida. This fact was brought up continuously throughout the second panel because of the connection between the political repression the Tampa 5 is facing and the political repression against pro-Palestinian organizers.
The high energy event ended with chants and a sing-along banjo rendition of Free the Tampa 5 by SDS member Jake Newman. Many different organizations attended and participated in the event, including Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Students for Democratic Society, Party for Liberation and Socialism, Boulder Young Democratic Socialists of America, and the Denver-Aurora Community Action Committee.
Washington DC – 300,000 people marched on Washington DC on November 4 in support of the fight to free Palestine. The MN Anti-War Committee (AWC) organized a bus to take Palestinians and community activists to participate in the historic march. Bus riders boarded a bus for 20 hours on Friday evening, headed to Washington DC with their Palestinian regalia, keffiyehs, Palestinian flags and signs expressing their solidarity with the Palestinians who are under attack.
Milwaukee, WI – On November 2, over 50 students at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (UWM) rallied then marched for the National Students for a Democratic Society Day of Action to demand justice for Palestine. The event began and ended in front of the university library, named after Zionist and former Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir.
Milwaukee, WI – 30 students, faculty and others attended a town hall meeting with the new Provost and Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs Dr. Andrew Daire, at the Fireside Lounge on the campus of UW-Milwaukee (UWM) on October 31. Some of those in attendance were mobilized to the meeting by the UWM chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
The purpose of the talk was to present on the current enrollment situation at the university. Numbers have declined steadily since 2010 with nearly 7000 fewer students attending UWM in 2023 than a decade ago. One of the most glaring enrollment statistics is that UWM’s student body is only 6% Black. For context, Milwaukee has a population that is roughly 40% Black, and Milwaukee Public Schools has a student body which is 50% Black.
“The discrepancy between enrollment numbers of Black students at UWM and the population of Milwaukee and the public schools is despicable. It demonstrates that there is an overall lack of commitment from the administration at this university to live up to their claims of being a diverse and inclusive campus,” said Patricia Fish, a leader in SDS.
SDS members grilled the provost with questions about what he and the administration were going to do to address the situation, but Daire proved skillful in spending a lot of time saying nothing of substance and passing the buck on to others, claiming that he “has no power” to make the changes he wants.
The efforts around holding Daire’s feet to the fire are a part of SDS’s broader campaign to increase Black enrollment at UWM, which also includes demands around increasing the hiring of Black faculty and staff, the targeted recruitment of Black students from Milwaukee Public Schools, an increase in the scholarships and other financial aid offered to incoming students as well as for those students already attending UWM to assist with retention, and defending and expanding the funding for the Black Student Cultural Center.
Denver, CO – Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at Metropolitan State University organized a day of action on November 2, to protest the killing of Palestinians and the ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. This came after the United States government requested more funds to be invested into Israel’s siege of Gaza and supplied weapons valued at over $14 billion in the face of the humanitarian catastrophe.
Denver, CO – On November 1, the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) Denver gathered to protest the budget mismanagement by the administration of the Metropolitan State University of Denver.
Los Angeles, CA – On October 28 two events were held to educate and fundraise for five women who were brutally arrested on University of South Florida (USF) campus for protesting against Governor Ron DeSantis’ attacks on public education and diversity. These women, who are now facing felony charges for their activism, are called the Tampa 5.
Orange County, CA – On Friday, October 27, over 30 students and community members gathered across two events to listen to Gia Davila of the Tampa 5 on her stop of the Justice for the Tampa 5 speaking tour. The Tampa 5 are a group of students, workers, and community activists who were violently arrested while protesting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ racist attacks on education at the University of South Florida. They are facing up to ten years in prison and are on a speaking tour to call for these unjust charges to be dropped.