Activist Beth Massey Returns to Columbia University for Gaza Solidarity Protests

Some 56 years after she participated in a student movement at Columbia University in 1968, Beth Massey returned to participate in solidarity protests with Gaza the day before yesterday, Saturday, April 27, 2024, at an American university .

A video clip recorded Massey’s speech during the solidarity protest, where she praised the current student movement, explaining that the country had not seen a student movement of this magnitude since the 1960s movement at during the war against Vietnam.

🇵🇸 Beth Massey, one of the original activists at the Columbia job in 1968, speaks at the Northwest Gaza Solidarity Camp.

“We are the majority and all I can say is keep going!”

Just as students and friends across the country are inspired by the heroic struggle… pic.twitter.com/Y03tiKIEQm

– Party for Socialism and Freedom (@pslnational) 27/04/2024

“Just as students across the country were inspired by the heroic struggle of the Palestinian people against the armed and funded genocide by the United States, the students at Columbia University in 1968 were similarly inspired with Vietnam’s struggle against brutal American aggression,” Massey said.

“Now, in the face of police and university repression, just as they did in 1968, students are demonstrating at universities asking them to abandon the warlords and the beneficiaries of genocide,” she said.

In an article published on the Liberation News website, a spokesperson for the Socialist and Freedom Party of America, Massey commented that the Gaza Loyalty Camp at Columbia University has become a source of inspiration for university students across the country “a to fight against the role of universities. play in promoting the Palestinian occupation which has been going on for 76 years.

She emphasized, “These brave activists are at risk of arrest as the Columbia University administration aims to stop protests against the war on Gaza, and intimidation on students from insisting that the university must end their involvement by withdrawing from the racist genocide in Palestine. .”

“I and thousands of Barnard and Columbia students went through almost the same thing in 1968,” Massey recalled of the protests against the Vietnam War in the 1960s “I saw on social media that the current camp inspired by our strike.

She said, “The idea that our buildings will play a role in fueling a similar struggle 56 years later is very encouraging to me. finish.”

“In 1968, we were outraged that the university had given permission to one of the research centers that collaborated on mass bombing and the use of napalm against the Vietnamese people, the Institute for Defense Analysis, to work on campus. At the same time, the administration planned to expropriate public land in Harlem to build a gymnasium,” she continued.

The activist said that the current “American empire” fears that the same will apply to the actions of Columbia University students in 2024 regarding Palestine her speech by saying, “We are the some and all I can say is carry on.”

Women play an important role

Regarding the difference between yesterday’s struggle and today’s struggle, Massey says, “Although there is still war and racism, there have been remarkable changes in the inter-conflict years, with women playing a more prominent role now, according to the pictures. “

“Another change is the understanding of the Palestinian struggle and the need for solidarity,” she said. “My awakening came while I was in Colombia when his parents made him leave the house, and they walked with him in their arms to Lebanon.

The Socialist and Freedom Party, in which Massey published her official article, was founded in June 2004 when its members split from the International Workers’ Party, a Marxist-Leninist party.

Famous party members include Gloria la Riva, Michael Preysner, Eugene Poirier, and Claudia de la Cruz. By 2022, the party said it has members in more than 100 American cities.

April 17: The spark of protests explodes

Returning to the Gaza sympathizer demonstrations on American universities, pro-Palestinian demonstrators set up their tents on the Columbia University campus in New York in the early morning of April 17th.

Among their demands was that the university end its contracts with companies that support Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.

On April 24, matters escalated when Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told protesters that Columbia University President Nemat Shafik should resign “if you cannot bring order to this chaos .”

“If this is not contained quickly,” Johnson said, “it’s a good time for the National Guard.”

In 1968, Columbia University students took over several buildings on campus to protest the mass bombing and use of napalm against the Vietnamese people, prompting other American universities to follow suit.