Friends,

The University of Minnesota Twin Cities Campus Faculty and Students, UMN Educators for Justice in Palestine, UMN Divest Coalition, MN Free Palestine Coalition, and several Twin Cities Community Organizations Join Coalition for Action in Higher Education (CAHE) for National Day of Action to Defend Higher Education on Thursday, April 17

As the Trump administration continues its all-out war on higher education and Palestine liberation activists, on Thursday, April 17, higher ed faculty, students, and workers across the country united with the Coalition for Action in Higher Education (CAHE) are organizing a National Day of Action. This Thursday, more than 100 actions will take place in communities from coast to coast (as well as Hawai'ii, and Alaska), demanding that our colleges and universities respect academic freedom. At UMN, we demand an end to investments in the Israeli apartheid and genocide, protection of academic freedom and the right to protest, and the protection of all non-citizen students, faculty, and staff.

Details for the National Day of Action to Defend Higher Ed at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis are as follows:

WHEN: April 17, All-Day event

• 10:30-2:30 PM CST: Food Drive
• 4 PM CST: Palestine Solidarity Webinar watch party
• 7-9 PM CST: Rally, die-in, and candlelight vigil

WHERE: Northrop Mall, 84 Church St SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Endorsements: UMN Educators for Justice in Palestine, UMN Students for Justice in Palestine, UMN Students for a Democratic Society, YDSA, Tzedek, Students for the Horn of Africa, UMN Divest Coalition, MN Free Palestine Coalition, AFSCME Local 3800, American Muslims for Palestine, Anti-War Committee, Black Lives Matter, Minnesota, Black Lives Matter, Twin Cities, Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, Twin Cities Coalition for Justice, Twin Cities Jewish Voice for Peace, Twin Cities Healthcare Workers for Palestine, Mizna, Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, Women Against Military Madness, Anti-War Action Network, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Coalition for Action in Higher Ed, Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine Network (National).

WHAT: Rally, Die-in, and Candlelight Vigil; Watch Party, and Food Drive

WHY: April 17 is the Palestinian Prisoners’ Day. According to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ Affairs there are 9,500 Palestinians in Israeli prisons. As Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem are abducted and detained in Israel’s prisons, Israel’s genocide in Gaza has killed 62,614 Palestinians in the past 18 months. Here in the U.S., Palestine speech is censored, student activists are arrested/suspended, and non-citizen student activists are detained by ICE and face deportation.

Higher education budgets have been slashed for decades in favor of tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy. College has been rebranded as a benefit purchased by private individuals in the educational marketplace rather than a public good in American society. The result has placed higher education out of reach for many working-class people and burdened millions with crippling, life-long debt. At the same time, colleges and universities are increasingly run like corporations, with swollen ranks of highly paid administrators going hat in hand to wealthy donors, while imposing austerity conditions on their faculty and students. The current administration pretends to depoliticize “woke” institutions by doing the most political thing imaginable: placing colleges and universities under direct government control. Universities are under investigation by the Department of Justice and Department of Education, while ICE detains students.

Meanwhile, Students’ tuitions and workers’ pensions are invested in weapons manufacturing companies and companies that fund and/or profit from the genocide in Gaza. All universities in Gaza are demolished by Israeli bombs, funded and provided by the U.S. military support. We are overdue to reject this vision. UMN EJP joins join CAHE and over a hundred campuses to stand for the principle that education is a public good and a civil right that benefits the whole of society and should be freely accessible to all. Like many of our colleagues around the country, we believe that free education and freedom of speech are not separate from the Palestinian people's freedom. The money spent on weapons and genocide should be spent on education, food security, affordable housing, and healthcare in the U.S.

On April 17th, we will stand together to demand an end to the genocide in Gaza, the release of all Palestinian prisoners, and the right of return for all Palestinians. We further demand full freedom of speech on our campus and on our social media without the fear of retaliation, and the right for conscience and political dissent on our campuses for all members of our communities- citizen or non-citizen- including migrants, refugees, undocumented people, and international students, faculty, and staff. We demand that the UMN administration protects and defends the safety and the right to learn of non-citizens of the U.S. including those who have been involved in campus organizing for Palestine and other social justice issues.

We reiterate our students' long-standing demand for divestment from weapons manufacturing companies and companies that profit from apartheid and genocide in Palestine. As a part of UMN's adherence to the Principles for Responsible Investment, it is not only unethical, but against the PRI for the University to to invest in a genocide that has displaced 2 million people, killed over 62,000, and denied the right of education to over 90,000 higher ed students.

Our demands also include tuition-free public higher education, and the cancellation of all existing student debt funded through taxation of the wealthy and Wall Street. Our students should not experience food insecurity when the University leadership make disproportionately high salaries and when money for education is being spent on bombs.

We demand union rights for all higher education workers--including faculty (tenured and tenure track, adjunct, and contract faculty), graduate student workers, and all staff and employees -- so that the people who make the deliverables – who make the university operate – have a voice in their institutions.

We call on higher education workers and students, K-12 workers, parents, rank-and-file workers in all industries, social justice organizations and activists to stand together in our common interest and for collective liberation. Join us on April 17th at 7 PM!

• Wear red to show solidarity! Wear a black arm-band to mourn all the martyrs in Palestine.
• Bring a candle if you can (if not, we will have one for you).
• Bring a white sheet if you plan on participating in the die-in.
• Bring your signs!
• Attend a virtual event organized by CAHE. We will be holding a watch party at Murphy Hall, Room 130 at 4 PM CST to watch the Palestine Solidarity Webinar together.

April 17 National Day of Action! 10:30-2:30 @1721 University Ave 4-6 @Murphy Hall, Room 130 7-9 PM @Northrop Mall 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸✊🏽On Thursday, April 17, join UMN Educators for Justice in Palestine, UMN Divest Coalition organizations, MN Free Palestine Coalition organizations, and several community organizations on the National Day of Action for Higher Ed to stand up for Palestinian liberation, immigrant rights, prison abolition, and academic freedom. April 17 is also the Palestinian Prisoners’ Day. We join other academic workers, students, union members, and activists within multiple higher education associations and unions, trade unions, and others across the U.S. for a coordinated national direct action in protest of the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the escalating repression at home. We believe that the liberal notion of academic freedom divorced from Palestine speech is not freedom! We stand against the neoliberal and colonial logic of higher ed that represses speech and academic freedom in the US and enables genocide, carceral tactics, starvation, and the long-running destruction of education and historical memory in Gaza and throughout Palestine. Free Palestine! Hands Off Our Students! Dismantle ICE! Stop Suppressing Palestine Speech! ​ 🚨10:30-2:30 Mutual Aid Food Collective @1721 University Ave SE 🥫🥙 ​ 🚨4-6 PM Palestine Solidarity Movement Webinar Watch Party @130 Murphy Hall, UMN👀 ​ 🚨7-9 PM Rally, Die-in, and Candlelight Vigil @Northrop Mall (Across Halimy Hall) 📣📣📣Wear RED! 🔴 Instagram Post