CFA-LA Statement of Solidarity with the Cal State LA Student Encampment
Released on May 1, 2024
As faculty at Cal State Los Angeles, we wholeheartedly believe that the right to assemble and protest is vital to a functioning democracy. Therefore, we support the right of students at Cal State LA and from hundreds of other colleges and universities to establish protest encampments to pressure campus administrations to end their investments in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and US Militarism broadly. Students demand that Cal State LA must:
Divest from genocide
Disclose CSU assets
Abolish policing
End CSU silence; and
Boycott Zionist institutions
We know these demands can be met! We have seen the role of student movements in changing global history, in Vietnam in the late 1960s and in South Africa in the late 1970s and early 1980s. We are encouraged that students today at Cal State LA have joined in this deep tradition of solidarity with their Palestinian counterparts to demand that Cal State LA and the CSU divest from its support of war, colonization, and genocide. Over 200 days of relentless destruction in Gaza, all 12 universities and 378 schools, public libraries, laboratories, classrooms, and research facilities, along with countless professors, future scholars, and primary sources have been destroyed. Nearly two million people are at catastrophic risk for famine, and a number of international treaties have been violated. No other political maneuvers have succeeded in stopping this scholasticide or genocide, and so the tactics of resistance on university campuses have escalated.
Starting with the May Day for Palestine rally and Gaza Solidarity Encampment on Wednesday, May 1, we call upon the Cal State LA administration, led by President Eanes, to respect students’ right to protest. President Eanes has stated, “Free speech is the cornerstone of our democracy and a core tenet that all universities and colleges must uphold, as we do here at Cal State LA. We do this by supporting the rights of students and others to assemble peacefully, protest, and have their voices heard.”
Many university administrators who hide behind notions of civility and liberal decorum have not hesitated to deploy militarized police to repress pro-Palestine encampments, followed by the violent arrest, suspension, and expulsion of student organizers and faculty supporters. Arresting or punishing students who protest on our campus would be antithetical to Cal State LA’s mission of being student-centered and in support of academic freedom. As our students rise up and demand justice in Palestine, we will always support them and their basic human rights.
We also call upon our faculty coworkers to support the Cal State LA student encampment. We can do so by joining them in the grassy area in front of the Physical Education building. While they have informed us that the encampment is a student-led space, faculty and staff are encouraged to help with providing food, logistical support, and safety. We ask faculty to wear CFA t-shirts or some other red clothing to distinguish us. It will be important to respect the student leadership by only allowing designated point people to speak with the media or law enforcement.
On Thursday, May 2, at 3:00 PM, we are calling a faculty walkout in solidarity with the students that will meet at King Hall. Join us there so we can march together to the encampment.
This is a monumental historical moment in the fight for justice that our students are leading the way forward.
In Solidarity,
CFA-LA Executive Board