Op-ed by Farrukh Abadi
On January 2nd, the President of Harvard University Claudine Gay resigned from her post following increasing allegations of plagiarism amid mounting criticism by Zionists regarding her handling of a congressional hearing on antisemitism last month. She has been the second of the three university presidents questioned at the hearing to resign, the first one being Liz Magill of UPenn.
The congressional hearing, which took place on December 6th, saw Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik ask the university presidents leading questions for hours, such as “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn’s rules or code of conduct, yes or no?” The university presidents, all of whom began the hearing with an unprompted denunciation of Palestinian national resistance, evaded providing direct answers to Stefanik’s questions.
The responses of the presidents became the target of attacks from Zionists who picked up on the opportunism of the presidents, who were unwilling to expose the leading questions of the Congresswoman or to even answer the question of opposing calls for the genocide of Jews. The Zionists are unable to win popular support for Israel’s genocide on campus and therefore aim to quell the pro-Palestine protests by placing the most reactionary representatives of imperialism in power in order to restrict basic democratic rights, as has been the case in Israel itself.
Contradiction Among the Imperialists
Some have rushed to the defense of the university presidents, seeing their resignations as the result of attacks on the ongoing pro-Palestine struggle. However, these resignations represent contradictions among the imperialist class in how to handle the suppression of anti-Zionist activism on university campuses, which has reached unprecedented levels.
The more liberal-leaning university presidents, such as those that stepped down, represent the approach of listening to “both sides” while maintaining support for Israel. This approach aims to disarm the mass movement by incorporating it into the university itself, such as the “listening forums’’ hosted by Columbia University. This perspective holds the view that the issue between Israel and Palestine is based in problems of communication that can be resolved if both sides come together and engage in respectful and civil discourse. Behind all of this, these same liberal presidents continue to funnel university funds to invest in Israel and develop educational partnerships that serve to legitimize it. These apologetic imperialists feign sympathy for the masses’ suffering in order to create avenues to redirect popular uprisings into serving imperialism itself.
The other side of this contradiction is made up of the more brazen reactionaries that advocate for open terror. These types make no excuses for imperialism and have no problem defending every massacre and genocide that the imperialists and their puppets carry out. When the carrot fails to reign in the mass movement, the bourgeoisie becomes increasingly reliant on the open use of violence and curbing democratic rights in an attempt to crush the movement.
Those who defend the presidents are hyper-focusing on the contradiction among the bourgeoisie; what they miss is that this contradiction is on the basis of their unity in opposition to Palestinian resistance. It simply represents two different tactics in attempting to crush the demonstrations on campus.
The conflation of defending liberal university presidents and defense of free speech mistakenly views our democratic rights as being granted by the capitalist class rather than something that is fought for and defended by the people. Our rights come from our struggles, and anything the capitalist class “gives” us will be promptly taken away when it no longer suits their interests. The reaction against the pro-Palestine movement has provided abundant examples of individuals losing jobs, being removed from school, being banned from expressing their views inside and outside of their jobs, and being blacklisted, for nothing more than expressing a stance in favor of Palestine and opposing Israeli genocide. To think that it is the bourgeoisie who protects our interests, even the “left” wing of the bourgeoisie, is to place our protection in the very hands of those who direct Zionism.
The “left” wing of the capitalist class serves the further reactionization of the state just as the right does, and in fact prepares the ground for the right to come to power. The sheer opportunism on display at the congressional hearing has only given the right wing ammunition against the pro-Palestine protesters by painting the university presidents as such, despite all of them taking a clear stance against Palestinian national liberation in the first words they uttered at the hearing. Now the billionaires that comprise the leadership of these schools are using this as an opportunity to bring more openly reactionary presidents to power to directly carry out their bidding to suppress progressive struggles.
Handling the Contradiction Among the Imperialists
The job of anti-imperialists is not to defend one camp of the imperialist class against the other, but rather to make use of the contradictions that inevitably intensify among them in order to develop our struggle. The national liberation of Palestine—or the victory of any other struggle for that matter—will not be handed down by one faction of the bourgeoisie in return for running to their aid. Instead, if given the opportunity, they will only utilize the mass movement opportunistically to bolster their power.
The contradictions in the enemy camp, which Comrade Stalin categorizes as “secondary reserves,” are a necessary aspect of navigating the revolutionary process and are at times even “of prime importance for the progress of the revolution.” This contradiction is a political crisis among the bourgeoisie with regard to how they should handle the mounting protests on campuses that have become among the bulwark of defense of Palestine in the US. One result is that the intermediate, vacillating elements—both among faculty and students—will be more receptive to the anti-imperialist position if such forces are capable of making use of it.
Now is the time to increase activity and fight harder to win demands from university administrations. At this moment, they have no clear way of dealing with protests as they have not been able to quell them so far. Activists should utilize this political crisis by studying the specifics of this contradiction among those they are organizing against in order to best understand how to exploit this weakness. At the same time, particular attention should be paid to raising up and winning over those elements that have previously remained disorganized and have become increasingly disillusioned both with the genocide and the imperialists’ suppression of protests here in the US. Increased and more militant struggle allows us to utilize this crisis in the enemy camp to win our demands and develop long-term, revolutionary organizations to continue fighting. Struggle is our only guarantee to defend our rights while continuing to stand in solidarity with Palestinian national resistance.
photo: Claudine Gay at Sept 2023 Inauguration as Harvard president, Charlotte Hysen/Governor’s Press Office
