After the occupations, things became quieter around the “unibas4palestine” group, also because there were fewer students in Basel from the end of the semester. During this time, the RKP members nevertheless pushed forward the next form of protest organization. They follow the one launched by the national party Strike callwhich in turn is part of an internationally coordinated campaign by communist movements: the unsuccessful occupations are to be followed by a strike at universities and schools, which will make operations impossible until the institutions respond to the demands of the activists.
However, this form of protest did not convince everyone at “unibas4palestine”. One member says: “A strike has an impact when masses of people are really mobilized. Since we as ‘unibasel4palestine’ cannot speak openly about Palestine at the university, mobilization is very difficult.” In order for participants to be motivated to go on strike, there would need to be the prospect of an end to the strike, i.e. demands that could be met. “The strike demands include an end to imperialism, which we do not consider to be realistic.”
Two groups, but the will to achieve a common goal
Meanwhile, “unibas4palestine” is not against the strike, “we actually support it,” as the person emphasizes. But the group currently sees other forms of protest as more appropriate. “As a student movement, we cannot ignore academic dialogue, even if we choose activist forms – it takes both: activism to raise awareness and academic dialogue to understand why we are fighting for Palestinian self-determination.”
However, bringing the discourse to an academic level is difficult because the university management reacts with institutional repression, for example Sanctions. Most recently, representatives of “unibas4palestine” were able to take part in one official university discussion group take part: “We hope that we can finally begin to enter into academic dialogue.” “unibas4palestine” wants to continue its activist work with rallies, workshops, information events and other forms of action.
The impression of division does not help the common cause, as both groups are aware. “strike4palestine” therefore wrote in their strike call: “Not all pro-Palestinian groups agree on everything.” But their differences of opinion are nothing compared to what unites them in their common struggle.
