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

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from New Orleans for Community Oversight of Police, Freedom Road Socialist Organization-New Orleans, Tulane & Loyola Students for a Democratic Society, and New Orleans Stop Helping Israel’s Ports.

New Orleans, LA – March 16, around 12:30 p.m., at a protest against Tulane’s aid to Israel, local activist Toni Jones was arrested for standing in solidarity with Palestine.

Jones, 28, is a lead organizer in New Orleans for Community Oversight of Police, and a Black transgender woman. She faces trumped up charges of battery, obstructing a public place, interfering with a lawful investigation, and resisting/obstructing an officer.

Her only crime is loving the Palestinian people. She was attending a protest that called for Tulane University to denounce professor and board member Walter Isaacson, who assaulted a protester earlier this week. The protest also called for Tulane to end all aid to Israel. Organizers of the protest included Tulane Students for a Democratic Society and New Orleans Stop Helping Israel’s Ports (NOSHIP).

The real criminals are Walter Isaacson, Tulane University, and the Israeli state. On March 13, Isaacson battered Rory Macdonald, a transgender activist who spoke out against New Orleans Entrepreneur Week’s complicity in Israel’s genocide. Alongside its aid to Israeli apartheid, Tulane has a history of repressing Black activists, including students who protested TUPD during the George Floyd Rebellion in 2020. Israel is committing a genocide against the people of Gaza, and resisting all lawful attempts to stop its war crimes.

Toni Jones must be immediately released and all charges against her must be dropped. Tulane University must denounce Walter Isaacson and cut all ties with Israel.

#NewOrleansLA #LA #InJusticeSystem #PoliticalRepression #AntiWarMovement #International #MiddleEast #Palestine #NOSHIP #NOCOP #FRSO #FRSONO #SDS #TulaneSDS #LoyNoSDS #Feature

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.

ExxonMobil, Halliburton, Tulane University and LSU are all benefiting financially off of the genocide of Palestinians, in which more than 30,000 Palestinians have now been killed. Tulane and LSU are partners in the US-Israel Energy Center, an agreement in which they are providing scientists and research to help Israel steal natural gas from the Gaza Marine Field in order to process it into “liquid natural gas” in Louisiana. The panel was also the result of a partnership between Tulane University and Idea Village, which is working to create an “Innovation Embassy” agreement between the Port of New Orleans and the Port of Ashdod in Israel. An “Innovation Embassy” between Israel and Barcelona brought in surveillance technology and biased policing methods which would disproportionately harm African Americans in New Orleans.

We are calling on Tulane University to publicly denounce Walter Isaacson for violently battering a student. We are calling on Walter Isaacson to resign from his post. We are calling on Tulane to acknowledge the violence against Students for a Democratic Society that it has encouraged with its silence. We are calling on Tulane to disclose how their endowment is invested and divest from Israeli corporations and corporations that sell weapons or fuel to Israel. Finally, we are calling on Tulane to put institutional protections for Arab and Palestinian students in place.

#NewOrleansLA #LA #StudentMovement #AntiWarMovement #International #MiddleEast #Palestine #SDS #TulaneSDS