The Time for Worker Action is Now.
On the Abductions of Mahmoud Khalil and Leqaa Kordia, and the Expulsion of Grant Miner
As of 2:30 a.m. local time on March 18, the Zionist entity, violating the terms of the ceasefire agreement, has escalated its violence against Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, Israel has demolished hundreds of homes, forcibly expelling more than 40,000 Palestinians. Meanwhile, the American institutions that facilitate and defend Israel’s total assault on Palestinian life are intensifying their repression of the students and workers protesting this genocide.
The Trump administration now leads this repression on campuses. 60 universities are under threat of federal investigation. At least 40 of these schools were sent demand letters with specific instructions for quelling student protest. Columbia University has become the federal government’s favorite testing ground for what level of repression is permissible, and the school has responded to the government’s advancing demands and funding cuts by escalating retaliation against their students. Less than a week after collaborating with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the abduction of Palestinian student leader Mahmoud Khalil, Columbia expelled Grant Miner, the president of UAW 2710 Student Workers of Columbia (SWC). This expulsion came the day before contract bargaining was set to begin between SWC and Columbia administration. After SWC called an emergency rally in response, the administration—afraid to face hundreds of pro-Palestine workers and union leaders—canceled bargaining.
Columbia is not only capitulating to the Trump administration, but actively enabling its fascist, anti-labor agenda. Before Mahmoud Khalil was detained, the university issued guidance encouraging faculty and staff to allow ICE access to private areas of campus, even without a warrant. On March 13, ICE and DHS detained another Palestinian student, Leqaa Kordia, citing her alleged involvement in Columbia protests, while claiming she overstayed her visa. The university’s longstanding investment in the Zionist project has been redoubled through its craven submission to the Trump administration’s program of racial purging.
The same forces that shape worker struggles everywhere are being weaponized against student work ers fighting for a free Palestine. Under the veneer of higher education, Columbia University is an exploitative landlord—indeed, the largest private landowner in New York City—and a union-busting boss. Mahmoud Khalil was kidnapped from his home, a university-owned apartment building, for speaking out against the genocide of his people. Grant Miner was fired from his job for disrupting the flow of capital by urging divestment from Israel. From the Gaza Solidarity Encampment to the liberation of Hind’s Hall to the recent sit-in that created the Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya Liberated Zone, students have shown us what solidarity from the heart of empire looks like. The White House and U.S. government, in coordination with university administrators, are desperately wielding their power to crush our movement.
Over the last 18 months, SWC has repeatedly voted to demand divestment from the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide, and recently released a statement condemning Barnard for expelling two of its students. Over the last two weeks, Barnard and Columbia expelled nine students for protesting their schools’ complicity in genocide. Repression is the university’s answer to the might of labor power. While these escalations are an affront to our basic civil liberties, it is imperative that we remember why Mahmoud and Leqaa were disappeared and why Grant was expelled: protesting against genocide and calling for divestment from Israel. This assault is only the latest in the U.S. government’s decades-long project to criminalize the movement for Palestinian liberation.
The solidarity statements of major union leaders retreat to flimsy words while failing to call for action and refusing to name the reason why these attacks are happening. We urgently call on every labor union and worker organization to engage in mass protest alongside other concerted labor actions, up to and including strike action, demanding:
- The immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil and Leqaa Kordia, Palestinian political prisoners.
- Reinstatement and amnesty for all expelled and disciplined students, including Grant Miner.
- An end to all forms of collaboration with ICE, DHS, and the NYPD.
- Divestment from all companies profiting off the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people and occupation of Palestinian land.
- Ending partnerships and collaborations with Israeli universities and institutions.
We must remain steadfast in our cause and willing to withhold our labor in order to achieve our demands. As we approach International Workers’ Day on May 1, we urge union members and all workers to consider escalated and collective uprising. Until liberation. Free Palestine.
To endorse this letter, please email labor@wawog.com. Initial Endorsees include:
Labor for Palestine National Network
NYC Labor for Palestine
UAW Labor for Palestine
Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG)
No Tech for Apartheid
Additional Endorsees:
UPTE for Palestine
CUNY for Palestine
CUNY Rank and File Action
UCLA Rank and File for Democratic Union
Green for Falasteen
