Mizzou Solidarity Statement

To our comrades at the University of Missouri,

We write to you as NYC SJP, a group of students and community members in New York City in solidarity with the Palestinian cause for self-determination and liberation.  We salute your inspiring struggle against the current effects and past legacy of racism and white supremacy at your university.  We wish to extend our firmest solidarity in this time of great victory but also of serious repression.

The University is a key place of ideological struggle with the white supremacist system.  It is where the next generation of professionals is ideologically solidified to enforce the interests of the ruling class.  As such, any dissent from those who challenge the white supremacist nature of our educational system will inevitably face repression as we have seen from our own experience organizing at the City University of New York (CUNY) where our members have been harassed, suspended, arrested, and beaten for attempting to liberate our university. We join our comrades in Missouri in their struggle to build an educational program which serves the needs of the oppressed nationalities of this country, equipping them with the tools they need to liberate themselves from this oppressive system.

There is no question that the U.S. was built on the backs of African Americans, and continues to thrive on anti-black racism. For far too long Black people have been abused for the benefit of the capitalist system instead of being treated as human beings. Indeed it was the forced labor of exploited Black slaves that provided the monetary base from which the United States was able to imperialize the world. It is the continued super-exploitation of Black people through the system of mass incarceration, among others, that allows this empire to continue.  Similar racist strategies play out around the world for the benefit of the US empire, specifically in Palestine where the occupying israeli Defence Force tests repressive weapons against the Palestinian people and then shares resources, and strategies with their counterparts in the NYPD and the Ferguson Police Department.

It is imperative we understand that the policies that allow for the genocide of the Palestinian people halfway across the world are part of the same system that is responsible for the daily harassment, discrimination, and murder of Black people in the United States. Both in israel and the United States we see how this racist system works, attacking the oppressed masses with their police, armies, and racist shock troops: be they the IDF or the NYPD, Settlers in the West Bank or the KKK.

We understand that we cannot fight for Palestinian liberation without committing ourselves fully to the Black struggle and call on all allies in the Palestinian solidarity movement to actively combat anti-black racism in our communities, campuses, and workplaces and to enthusiastically support the Black liberation movement.

We urge you to continue your struggle despite the disgusting, racist repression you are facing, and as you mobilize and push your victories to higher limits know that people around this country and around this world have your back.

DOWN WITH THE RACIST STATE AND THE KU KLUX KLAN!

LONG LIVE THOSE WHO STRUGGLE FOR THEIR LIBERATION!

LIBERATION TO ALL OPPRESSED PEOPLES FROM PALESTINE TO MISSOURI!