The College Fix

No timeline yet for strike, but organizers plan to offer training events, ‘political-education materials’

Not wanting the fervor of the spring protests to “fade away,” a pro-Palestinian student group is planning a nation-wide strike to demand universities divest from Israel.

The plan to skip classes comes from the Young Democratic Socialists of America in a recent resolution, The Free Press reports.

Through the National Student Strike, the socialist group says protesters will be “demanding their school’s divestment from Israel, a ceasefire in Gaza, and free speech on campus,” according to the resolution.

“No one can ignore large swathes of empty classrooms,” YDSA National Coordinating Committee member Erin Lawson wrote on group’s blog. “No one can just turn around and plug their ears when the university can no longer call itself a university.”

What’s more, with a class strike, Lawson said there is less chance for “a high-stress, high-pressure situation, in which arrest and sweeps feel imminent at all times.”

Approximately 3,100 college protesters were arrested during pro-Palestinian demonstrations during the 2023-2024 school year, according to the New York Times.

Although the spring protests garnered a lot of attention, Lawson said most of the pro-Palestinian encampments did not achieve their goals.

“We need disruption—and a strike does just that. When students refuse to go to class, the university cannot function,” Lawson wrote.

The strike also will keep up the protesters’ momentum and prevent the cause from “fad[ing] away,” according to the resolution.

The resolution does not mention a precise time for the strike. It calls for the formation of a “Palestine Committee,” training events to help students organize strikes on their campuses, the distribution of “political-education materials,” and cooperation with other pro-Palestinian groups.

However, a professor at Columbia University, a hotspot of the recent protests, warned students that they “will fail” their courses if they do not show up.

Columbia Business School Professor Ran Kivetz told The Free Press students should be made aware that “there are ramifications.”

However, Kivetz, who is Israeli, also expressed frustration with university leaders’ failure to hold student protesters accountable after they broke into and vandalized a building at Columbia.

“Will they now apply their existing rules?” he told The Free Press. “I hope they will. But I don’t have confidence that they’ll do that.”

Last school year, pro-Palestinian protesters were accused of preventing students from attending classes at a number of campuses. Some universities, including Columbia, canceled in-person classes and commencement ceremonies as a result of the unrest.

Meanwhile, University of California campuses spent at least $29 million on security, clean-up, and repairs related to the spring semester pro-Palestinian encampments.

MORE: Columbia cancels graduation, cites safety issues after hundreds arrested in anti-Israel protest

IMAGE: Butler Students for Justice in Palestine/Instagram

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