Letter to the Editor: ‘The university has obfuscated the reasoning behind our fifteen demands’

Editor’s note: This letter remains in the condition in which it was sent.

Dear community members,

We, the organizers of the Communist Student League, have observed that the university has obfuscated the reasoning behind our fifteen demands - leading to some confusion among the community. First among these are questions relating to the topic of Zionism, white supremacy, and Jewish institutions of religious and cultural heritage.

When we use the term “Zionism” with the term “white supremacy” it is because individuals holding the specific ideology of Zionism in both Israel and the United States are working to displace, erase the culture of, and otherwise ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their homeland and to replace them with white settlers from Europe and the United States. The use of force to remove an Indigenous people from their land is a form of white supremacy that uses colonial violence as its primary tool. Furthermore, the Israeli military’s program of forced sterilization of both Black and Arab descended Jews and of many Palestinians is again a form of white supremacist colonial violence. Opposing Zionism has been a central struggle for many working class and oppressed Jewish people for over a century, and one which we ally ourselves alongside.  

To be clear, the concern here is not with the Jewish community - which constitutes a multinational community of people bonded together by one set of cultural and religious traditions and a history of oppression - but rather with the use of settler violence to create and vastly expand a new state in the interests of NATO, big petroleum, and the ruling class at large. As previously pointed out, this is done at the expense of both the working class Jewish community and Palestinians as a whole - with Palestinians experiencing the brunt of the devastation.

When we called for the expulsion of “white nationalists and Zionists” a few weeks ago, we were specifically referring to those students and staff who wish for harm to come to the Muslim and West Asian (“Middle Eastern”) members of our community. We are referring to those who, instead of joining with the Jewish Voices for Peace or any other community institution which aims to bring and end to the genocide, firmly support the military and political forces who are killing families, UN officials, medical personelle, reporters and media support crew, and others in occupied Palestine and southern Lebanon. We also refer to those members of the university community who quote Hitler, and who attack persons belonging to historically oppressed groups.

We support all of our working class and oppressed community members who do not participate in reactionary rhetoric and violence. We condemn the university for continually obfuscating this issue with statements meant to protect the university instead of protecting those in our community who have faced bigotry or violence of all flavors including but not limited to racism, sexism, transphobia, and Islamophobia. The university has demonstrated their true thoughts on the subject of white supremacy when they authorized the use of police violence on our siblings - especially our Muslim siblings - on May 1st of 2024. At that same event, they also demonstrated their thoughts on anti-semitism when they attacked members of the Jewish community who came out to support all the various organizers and community members protesting for an end to the university’s complicity in genocide.

Calling for an abolition of “white supremacy and Zionism” is not calling for an abolition of Judaism. Rather it is calling for an expansion of solidarity between the working class and oppressed peoples of all faiths and ethnic backgrounds. It is calling for an end to settler-colonialism and imperialist violence. And lastly, it is calling for an end to the profit driven system which uses police and military might to exploit and harm many for the benefit of the few.

As communists, we are on the side of revolutionary love and power to the people. We exist to serve the working class and historically oppressed members of our community. It is our promise to serve until we are no longer able to. In this spirit we reiterate once again the demand for the university to stop stealing money and labor from students, staff, and community members, and using us for profit; and to instead put this money back into the university and the community to meet our needs - as is your responsibility.

Sincerely,

The Communist Student League