Opinion | by a Columbia student
The $400 million federal funding cut was announced by the Trump administration on 03/07 and comes after a week of intense Palestine solidarity actions on Columbia’s campus and its affiliate Barnard College. The cuts serve a dual purpose: they continue the trend of austerity measures across the federal government under the guise of ideological attacks while pressuring the university administration to unleash more terror in the vain hope of drowning out the student resistance with state violence. In their blind rage, the imperialists and their administrators do not see that the students draw their inspiration from the heroic Palestinian resistance, which has educated the rebelling masses the world over in the spirit to never submit or yield.
The funding cut is coupled with announcements from the State Department that it will begin to use AI to comb through the social media and internet presence of those with student visas to deport any they suspect as being “jihadist” – in other words, anyone who has stood in solidarity with Palestine. Already on March 8, the Department of Homeland Security detained one student activist, Mahmoud Khalil, after Columbia updated its protocol to cooperate with ICE. DHS officers barged into his apartment which he shares with his pregnant wife, claiming that the state department revoked his green card and took him in for detention.
These attacks are a continuation and acceleration of the policies of the former imperialist-in-chief Genocide Joe, both nourished by the same decomposing imperialist system. Imperialism, which is monopoly capitalism, results in the increased concentration of wealth and power in fewer hands, which means the state must in turn become increasingly militarized and centralized to defend and dictate the interests of the smaller circle of imperialists—regardless of who the face of the state may be. It was under the Biden administration that we saw the massive police deployment against students and demonstrators across the country, the first threats of student deportations, banning pro-Palestine groups and the congressional witch-hunt under the specter of antisemitism—not to mention the chief perpetrator of the genocide itself. The Trump administration is just taking these further, hoping his cheap gimmicks and naked terror will be enough to suffocate the students’ rebellion. Trump—as well as Columbia’s administration—have no other options but to intensify what they are already doing, a sign of their weakness.
The imperialist class and their administrators are desperately trying to shore up legitimacy to delay the end of their putrid rule—and this is just as true as the university administration as well. While the Trump administration has increasingly discarded the guise of democratic rule for the image of a benevolent autocrat, the Columbia and Barnard administrations try to hide their crimes behind appeals of liberal demagoguery, a flowery form without substance, and both fall flat in their attempts. Why? Talk is one thing, the material consequences are another; these puppets are hoping they can distract us for long enough with what they say to ignore what they are doing, that their liberal platitudes can mesmerize us in the face of their tear gas and terror. The university president calls for “freedom of expression”, but for whom? The freedom for DHS to carry out raids and detain students? The freedom of the police to beat and arrest students? A recent poll of the student body by the Student Affairs Committee at Columbia shows the majority of students oppose police presence on campus—yet despite the “freedom” to express this, the school has taken no steps. It is not just the freedom of expression that we want, but the freedom of decision, and that is something we must seize.
The university administration is caught between a rock and a hard place—divestment will cost the university money, while its refusal to divest will procure its own costs—both through the direct action of students and its repercussions in admissions and donors. The task of the student movement is to make the costs imposed by students more than its Zionist blood money, using its twisted blood calculus against them. For that reason we celebrate the federal cuts just as we celebrated billionaires withdrawing their funds last year.
Columbia is both a business and a university—so disinvestment from it means that the imperialist ruling class is increasingly wary of its ability to gain returns on their investment, both in terms of profitability and generating the next generation of faithful administrators. They see a student body that has turned against them, and this is something to celebrate and accelerate. Take advantage of these contradictions among the enemy and let the administration be pummeled on both sides.
In the aftermath of the 1968-1969 anti-imperialist and anti-segregation movement at Columbia, the university administration claimed that it took 20 years to financially recover. This speaks to the extent that the students had to go to win their demands—and serves as a gauge for how much further they will have to go now.
Sign the petition demanding the immediate release of Palestinian Student Activist Mahmoud Khalil from DHS detention here.
image: The Columbia University Solidarity Encampment in April 2024, Wikimedia Commons
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