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The call to strike comes from from trade unionists across Palestine who remind us that “decent employment should never come at the expense of countless Palestinian lives… an injury to one is truly an injury to all.” Nick Wilson, an undergraduate student at Cornell University, echoed this sentiment in an op-ed after his suspension last week: “In defending himself against charges of disloyalty under the Espionage Act for giving an anti-war speech, [Eugene] Debs says, ‘While there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.’ Here, Debs espouses the fundamental principle of solidarity… that when people are hurting, it becomes a moral imperative for us all to contribute what we can to their liberation.”
Escalation is the word of day, today and until liberation. As the IOF’s death tanks roll towards Rafah, the last place of refuge for more than one million people displaced from their homes in other parts of the Strip, we must not give Gazans false hope. STRIKE. University administrators will argue that work stoppages put a stop to learning. They are wrong. Strikes are a form of knowledge-production. A few nights ago, the famous political prisoner and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal spoke, over the phone and through a megaphone, to the encampment at City College. He was very clear: The Gaza Solidarity Encampments are a “moment of mass education.” STRIKE. To the faculty: learn from Gaza; learn from your students. In heeding their call to withhold your labor, you act, not “for” them, but with them, and within your own self-interest. As CUNY lays off teachers while expanding the number of IOF-trained “peace officers” on campus, we see how zionism distorts academic funding priorities domestically and abroad. Professors at NYU have gotten arrested protecting their students; UT Austin faculty stopped working for 24 hours. STRIKE. To the graduate students: learn from Gaza; learn from each other. Set up rain-proof tents, establish communal libraries, and occupy campus buildings. Thanks to adjunctification, you have more in common with your students than with the administrators who, for decades, have ignored your demands for higher pay. STRIKE. To the students: learn from Gaza; in the meantime, we’ll keep learning from you. Together, we…
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