Message to the pro-Palestinian University movement.
As Crisis Mirror (Copenhagen, Denmark) we would like to send our solidarity to the pro-Palestinian university protests that have erupted in the USA and are currently expanding globally. We fully support their core demands for divesting away from companies supporting the genocide in Gaza, cutting ties with Israeli companies as well as a total immediate ceasefire.
The start of the movement could not have been more historically symbolic. On April 17th 2024, the students and staff of Columbia University, just like those in 1968, took over the academic space, liberating, even for a little, from the capitalist domination and giving it it’s natural meaning; a space of struggle. The university grounds are occupied by their students and staff, classes are cancelled, and demonstrators protest for peace in Palestine and defend themselves against the state oppression mechanisms. Since then, over 40 other universities in the USA have followed Columbia’s example, while the protests have started spreading towards Europe (Paris, Berlin) and other places around the world. The establishment, as predictable as ever, has responded with propaganda and in many cases brute force. The police have attacked and arrested many protestors and of course, where the police truncheon falls short, the libelous accusations of “anti-semitism” take over.
The movement however is not just limited in the just struggle for peace in Palestine. Students in the NY area have included in their demands, cutting ties with the NYPD, supporting low-income Harlem residents, and of course the complete amnesty of all arrested and prosecuted demonstrators. The plurality of this massive movement sends once more a message that we tend to forget. That the university space can be so much more than a playground for capitalist interests. Universities can be space for radical transformation of our societies and students and staff together can be at the forefront of the movements leading this transformation.
From our side we can only express our total solidarity to those participating in this historical movement and can only wish that it spreads like wildfire in every corner of the world, Denmark included.
Crisis Mirror,
Copenhagen, Denmark,
April 2024
