Newark, NJ—“Money for jobs and education- not for imperialist war and occupation!” This chant captured the spirit of May Day— the day we celebrate the solidarity of the international working class. Students in Newark and around the world are occupying capitalist education institutions complicit in the slaughter of workers in Palestine and worldwide. Students, teachers, and workers see the connection between these international attacks and their local conditions living under capitalism.
The Newark Solidarity Coalition, which includes students, teachers, community organizers, and members of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP), set up an encampment on the Rutgers Newark campus to protest the ongoing genocide of workers in Palestine. PLers distributed dozens of CHALLENGEs at both the Rutgers Newark and New Brunswick campuses and built connections with the organizers and participants. These encampments are part of an ever-growing movement across college campuses worldwide to demand an end to the slaughter of workers in Palestine.
Billions of U.S. dollars have been given to Israel—a racist apartheid state —to displace, starve, and slaughter 38,000 Palestinians…. Some of the demands of the Rutgers Coalition include, but aren’t limited to Rutgers divesting (severing financial ties) from Tel-Aviv University, or any company or corporation profiting off of the genocide. These demands demonstrate growing consciousness among students and workers exposing the U.S. capitalist institutions that are all part of the imperialist war machine, fueling the attacks on workers abroad. It also exposed how reforms can be used to try and demobilize and keep workers from fighting back. This happened in the Rutgers New Brunswick campus where promises of dead-end reforms were accepted in exchange for ending solidarity encampments (NJ Spotlight News, 5/6).
In fact, there has been no shortage of reformist politicians, organizations, and misleaders present at these encampments and rallies. Organizations such as DSA and politicians such as Larry Hamm showed up to convince workers to try and solve the genocide in Palestine at the ballot box. Students and workers sent Hamm away, showing they are starting to realize it is the capitalist system that is the problem and not just specific leaders like Donald Trump or Joe Biden.
As the Newark encampment kicked off with a rally, members of the coalition led with chants of “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest!”, “From Palestine to Mexico, all the borders have to go!”, “Money for jobs and education, not for war and occupation!”, and “Not another nickel, not another crime, no more money for Israel’s crimes!” Later that afternoon, workers involved with the Cosecha Movement joined in the rally. The courage of all these workers, students, and teachers - to the dismay of the U.S. and Israeli bosses - is contagious. The chants show that this is not only about Gaza, but about growing imperialist slaughter and reflects the effort to link Gaza’s struggle with the racist disinvestment of Newark and its majority Black working-class neighborhoods.
Speakers at the rally made sharp connections linking the struggle in Gaza to the struggles in Newark, pointing out that gentrification is contributing to the city’s ridiculously high rents and homelessness. One speaker pointed out that the Halo Tower currently being built in Newark is owned by Acier Holdings, a privately owned developing company whose President, Jake Glatzer, is a Zionist. Acier Holdings has a history of mismanaging funds and exploiting workers.
After 96 hours of encampment Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway, ordered the New Brunswick encampment be taken down, with the main demand of - divestment going unmet. However, students in Newark have been more militant in their demands, suggesting that Rutgers turn their 6,000 acres of land into affordable housing, a demand that is considered too radical for the liberal fascist Holloway and Rutgers Newark Chancellor Nancy Cantor, who sent an insincere display of support for the encampment. As the Newark encampment enters its third week, and after multiple meetings of negotiation between the Newark Solidarity Coalition and the Chancellor, the demands have still not been met. This is the administration’s strategy: tedious sit-downs and negotiations rather than admitting that these capitalist institutions are more concerned with serving their fascist donors than making any decision that benefits students and workers.
It is clear that in this Dark Night period, some light is shining through. The worldwide campus protests against the genocide in Palestine shows what workers and students are capable of when they recognize the power of organizing and collective rage. The bosses already recognize that power, which is why they’re sending their foot soldiers to break up these encampments while using suppression, surveillance, and violence to discredit our movements. It is not enough to call for divestments, it is not enough to call for a ceasefire, or reinvestments in the community. As long as capitalism and its institutions are upheld, workers will never be safe. The only answer to toppling capitalism is to build an international, antiracist, antisexist, communist movement. Only under communism where profits are abolished will we be able to win a world without genocide where the lives of the international working class are precious, and the needs of the people— not profits— will come first. Join us!
