I listened to news last night and this morning about the police emptying students from Columbia, CUNY (my alma mater), and UCLA after demonstrations and encampments calling for a ceasefire and divestment from Israel. Reports of violence breaking out between pro-Palestinian and Jewish students and the rising tide of anti-semitism, which concerns me also.
There’s also talk about “outside agitators.” In the sixties, there were the same accusations against the anti-war movement across the country where students were pummeled, arrested, and also died. In many cases these agitators were later proven to be CIA operatives and informants looking to discredit the movement by creating chaos and turning public opinion against the students.
Now we are hearing that agitators are responsible for campus violence, a fact which hasn’t been proven to my satisfaction. I’d also like to better understand the nature of this violence. The news reports tell me that terrorists are responsible and turn up at many of the same demonstrations doing what?
Whatever the situation, I am hoping it’s not impossible for demonstrators to coalesce around one message. Their actions, whether fueled by agitators or not, are most likely assisting Anthony Blinken and others negotiate a hostage agreement. I am hoping what is happening will turn into a new anti-war movement. They have the eyes of the public and the world upon them, similar to the last tide of U.S. student demonstrations.
The student takeover of Columbia issued the Port Huron statement (thanks Wikipedia), a 1962 manifesto by the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), proposing a new form of “participatory democracy” to rescue modern society from destructive militarism and cultural alienation. Berkeley’s Free Speech Movement of 1964 protested the university restricting political activities on campus. In 1969, when I was a student at CCNY (City College of New York), black and Puerto Rican students shut down the university calling for five basic demands, an event which has been made into a film. Young people throughout this country rallied after the death of George Floyd and called for a different kind of law enforcement and fueled a national Black Lives Matter movement.
If different factions of the current national student movement are able to unite, then my hope for this country is renewed. Let them be an example for our fractious world that can do nothing but argue. Change always comes from young people.