Youth
Student strike by Master Genre students, launch of support committee for Palestine: in the face of the genocide perpetrated in Gaza by the State of Israel, students are mobilizing to affirm their solidarity with the self-determination of the Palestinian people.
The launch of a support committee for Palestine at Université Paris Cité:
On Wednesday, October 25th, at the Grands Moulins campus, the first support committee in favor of Palestine was launched. Around forty students from the three campuses of Paris Cité gathered to discuss the situation in Palestine. The students shared their concerns and questions on topics that can polarize, especially as the mainstream media has been completely ignoring the reality of the situation in Palestine since October 7th. The discussions converged towards one central point: there is an urgent need to build solidarity with the Palestinian people within the universities.
The Master Genre students on strike!
This committee was held in a context where any form of solidarity with Palestine, especially within universities, is being criminalized. Despite the bans on gatherings and the threatened sanctions announced by the Minister of Higher Education and relayed by university administrations, the students of Paris Cité are mobilizing.
At the Grands Moulins campus, the students of the Master’s program in Gender Sociology were on strike this week to protest against the massacre in Palestine and the indifference towards the situation. From Wednesday to Friday, they also organized activities such as discussions, film screenings, and workshops for making posters.
For example, the screening of the film “Derrière les fronts, résistance et résilience en Palestine” was a success, despite the fact that certain university presidents prohibit film debates, like at Bordeaux Montaigne where the film “Fedayin,” depicting the struggle of George I. Abdallah, a Lebanese militant for the Palestinian cause and France’s longest-held political prisoner, was banned.
Join the support committees and the demonstration on Saturday!
Among the decisions made during the support committee, there is the distribution of leaflets on the campuses of Paris Cité as well as the organization of poster campaigns to prepare for the mobilization on Saturday, October 28th in Paris. This demonstration follows the gatherings at Place de la République and it is crucial for people to attend in large numbers, especially in a repressive context where the government is attempting to silence any expression of solidarity with the Palestinian people.
These support committees have been launched in several French universities, such as at Mirail on Wednesday, October 23rd, as well as in Spain where a student strike was organized on Thursday, October 26th. They are evidence of the international mobilization of youth in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle. In every country, the student movement must go against the imperialist and colonial discourses propagated by Western governments and instead revive the anti-imperialist tradition of student activism, as exemplified by the historic mobilization that took place in universities against the Vietnam War.
To show your support for the Palestinian people, we invite you to meet the support committee for Palestine. You can reach us through the youth collective Le Poing Levé by contacting us on our social media platforms.
Lastly, let us gather in large numbers this Saturday at 2:00 PM at Châtelet for the Parisian demonstration, demanding an end to the bombings and military operation and an end to the criminalization of support for Palestine!
