Readers will have seen the threats of exclusions and violence against student anti-war protesters on university campuses in the US. Joe Biden, Democratic Party incumbent in November’s presidential elections, has condemned the protests as antisemitic. He is desperate to end the protests which are putting pressure on his hopes of re-election.
As even the Washington Post recognises: “The president won young voters by huge margins in 2020 and is looking to replicate that in November with voters under 35, especially in swing states. But Biden’s campaign faces a challenge as it seeks to avoid alienating young and progressive voters demanding an end to the war, as well as independent voters and moderate Republicans, many of whom support continued military aid to Israel.”
Socialist Students, which organises on campuses in England, Wales and Scotland, sends solidarity in the statement (right). Socialist Students has been organising action against the Israeli state terror since October, demanding an end to the siege of Gaza and the withdrawal of the Israeli military.
Socialist Students members stood as anti-war, anti-cuts candidates under the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition emblem in the 2 May local elections, alongside hundreds of trade unionists, socialists and anti-war campaigners. This TUSC stand is a step towards building a working-class political alternative to the pro-war parties – desperately needed here and in the US.
Socialist Students sends our solidarity to the thousands of students occupying universities across the US against the ongoing onslaught on Gaza.
We condemn the brutal police suppression of these protests, and note the rotten role played by university executives and pro-capitalist politicians who have encouraged these attacks on students and staff.
It is not only in the US where students have faced repression for protesting in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
In the UK, the Tory government has given universities the go-ahead to suspend students and student societies protesting against the slaughter in Gaza, like at SOAS university in London. University bosses have hired private security firms to spy on student activists and forcibly break up protests. At Queen Mary University, management authorised security to raid the campus office of the University and Colleges Union (UCU).
To defend against attacks on our safety and right to protest, students need to be organised. We need our own democratic organisations, which link up with the workers’ movement and fight back on all the issues affecting students – including the war on Gaza, but also the cost-of-living crisis, student housing crisis, and cuts to staff.
If you want to organise a protest against the brutal onslaught on Gaza and defend students against the ramping up of repressive measures on campus, then get in touch with Socialist Students.
- To read the text of a leaflet given out by socialists in the US see ‘US Campus protests | It’s not a crime to oppose genocide and war’ at www.socialistworld.net
