Oppose pro-genocide purges on US college campuses!

In response to student and faculty outrage over the ongoing genocide in Gaza, a veritable purge is taking place on college campuses across the United States. Administrations are suspending, evicting, firing and otherwise trampling on the democratic rights of faculty and students protesting the ongoing carnage.

New York Police Department officers detain a pro-Palestinian supporter during a picket outside Barnard College, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

This crackdown is taking place at some of the country’s most prestigious universities, which have deep ties to the Democratic Party. Last Friday, about 25 Harvard University faculty members were suspended from Widener Library for two weeks after conducting a silent “study-in” protest in solidarity with students who were suspended for conducting a similar protest a month earlier.

Kicking faculty members out of the library for simply showing pieces of paper containing innocuous phrases such as “Adopt diverse perspectives” is an unprecedented act of disciplinary action. Harvard cited “library policy” to justify barring faculty members from the university’s main library, which would seriously impact their ability to conduct their own work.

In addition to more than two dozen faculty members, according to Harvard Crimson, more than 60 students who had previously conducted silent anti-genocide “teachings” in the Widener Library were also banned from entering the main campus library for two weeks.

Similar anti-democratic activities are taking place on many other campuses:

On University of Pittsburghat least 17 students and community members are on trial for participating in Solidarity camps in Gaza. After police attacked the encampments, arrested protesters were charged with inflated charges, including crimes. They also received “persona non grata” notices, essentially barring them from the University of Pittsburgh campus.
On University of Chicago Last week, university officials sent police to evict and suspend an Arab student who had participated in an anti-genocide protest earlier this month. Megan Porter, the student’s attorney, told local news outlets that although her client had not been convicted of a crime, he was still removed from campus. Porter added that he has no family in the state and nowhere to live.
On Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Dr. Maura Finkelstein, herself a Jew, was fired for posting comments on social media expressing opposition to Zionism and ongoing genocide. Interview conducted earlier this month by World socialism websiteFinkelstein noted, “Our campuses are becoming militarized.”
On Cornell Universityadministrators suspended four students for three years for participating in a pro-Palestinian protest on September 18 against military contractors weaponizing genocide. Cornell University Ph.D. student Momodou Taal, a graduate instructor, was nearly deported earlier this month for participating in the Sept. 18 demonstration.
On University of California, Santa Cruzmore than 100 students and faculty have been banned from campus since they were arrested for protesting the Gaza genocide last semester. The ACLU of Northern California Foundation and the Center for Protest Law and Litigation filed a lawsuit against the university, arguing that the mass suspension is unconstitutional.
The University of Michigan brings criminal charges against 11 students for participating in anti-war demonstrations against the war in Gaza last spring. The charges include trespassing and obstructing a police officer, which is a crime punishable by up to two years in prison.

Many of these universities have close ties to the Democratic Party and American imperialism. The Harvard Corporation, Harvard University’s top board, includes former Obama administration officials, billionaires and heads of private investment firms.

Prominent Democrats who are currently members of the Harvard Corporation include: Penny Sue Pritzker, billionaire heiress and U.S. Secretary of Commerce in the Obama administration; Kenneth Chenault, one of several corporate executives who spoke at this year’s Democratic National Convention; and Mariano-Florentino Cuéllara, a former California Supreme Court justice who served in the Clinton and Obama administrations.

Earlier this year, Harvard University named Jennifer O’Connor, a former executive at Northrop Grumman, the world’s sixth-largest arms manufacturer that supplies the Israeli Air Force with missile and laser systems for attack helicopters and combat aircraft, as vice president and general counsel. fighters.

Campus crackdowns are not limited to the United States. Earlier this month, police brutally arrested Western Sydney University students for participating in a peaceful sit-in protest against genocide. Following the brutal arrests, hundreds of scientists and lecturers signed an open letter condemning police brutality. The signatories noted that the brutal police actions “are part of a wider pattern of police repression in Australian universities against those who protest against Israel’s atrocities.”

The International Organization of Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) is calling on students to mobilize against this growing attack on democratic rights. Students must demand that all charges against protesters against genocide – one of the worst war crimes of the 21st century – be dropped. All sanctions and restrictions imposed on students and faculty should be repealed.

Students should seek support from workers in the factories and workplaces that house colleges and universities to mobilize broader support, combining defense of basic democratic rights with opposition to war abroad and war on the working class at home.

The escalating attack on campus protests comes just a week before a U.S. election marked by a collapse in the depths of political reaction. Trump and the Republicans are seeking to build a fascist movement and have pledged to mobilize the police and military against opponents of genocide and any opposition to the policies of the corporate and financial oligarch.

The Democratic Party’s central commitment to persecuting opposition to genocide shows that its claim to protect “democracy” is a cynical fraud. No matter who wins the elections, if the result is indeed clear, the drive towards dictatorship will continue, with the escalation of war and the extreme increase in social inequality.

The Macarthy witch hunt against solidarity demonstrators in the Gaza Strip, the persecution of anti-war activists, and the punitive measures against student and faculty protesters are preparations for even more widespread attacks on the democratic rights of the entire population.

The anti-democratic methods used by the US ruling class during the anti-communist McCarthy witch hunts of the 1950s are being rekindled on a global scale by all imperialist powers. The defense of fundamental democratic rights, including the right to protest against genocide and ethnic cleansing, is inextricably linked to the development of an independent socialist movement among the working class and young people against all imperialist war and its source, the capitalist system.