The Encampment is gone and the Quad is once again beautiful, lacking tents, litter, and posters of hatred. The only remaining ideological item is a legal sign calling for release of hostages, put up by the U. Chicago Maroons for Israel.
Six or seven security people were roaming the quad, even at 5 a.m., and there were cop cars parked on the streets nearby. The American flag is not yet back up (the protestors hoisted the Palestinian flag and then taped down the ropes to prevent its removal, but the University cops took down that flag).
I have a feeling that this period of peace will not last long, but of course I am always pessimistic.
it’s funny – the absence of protest is itself a kind of protest…
… or so one might think from reading On Contradiction (Mao Zedong, 1937) too much.
#Hermetic alchemy
#The Spring 2024 U. Chicago Campus Protest did not take place
Well, hopefully, if the protestors re-emerge and try to set up an encampment, the University will act expeditiously to stop them.
Or…just assure that it is set up and maintained within university policy guidelines….maintaining freedom of speech and expression under the Chicago Principles.
Meanwhile, at Auschwitz: https://www.thejc.com/news/world/protesters-disrupt-auschwitz-march-of-the-living-on-yom-hashoah-o3nstn38
“If anyone believes that this latest wave of anti-Zionism isn’t just antisemitism, would someone please explain to me why they’re interrupting a march honoring the victims of the Holocaust?”
Good Auschwitz reference article: “…and the importance of continuing Holocaust remembrance and education…”. Thanks
Sickening. These people have no shame.
Jerry, Thank you for covering from the beginning through yesterday’s administrative actions and this morning’s dénouement. It is sad to me, though I disagree with the encampment’s message, that had they not engaged in such bullying, intimidating behavior and disregard for university safety and security guidelines, they could still be promoting their message today. Note the lone sentinel of the U Chicago Maroons for Israel sign still standing. The encampers, had they stayed within the university’s prescribed policies, could still be on the quad grass this morning holding their signs and conveying their message. I guess it comes down to a binary of making a loud scene or strategically communicating a message.
Nice!
Enjoy it while it lasts!
Thanks to Jerry for his Chronicle.
My main observation is that the protest-occupation didn’t work. The University did not accede to any of the protest’s demands: divestment or severing academic ties with Israel, an additional demand being made by other encampments, so this counts as a victory. The protesters may not have suffered the consequences they should have but that reflects the weak hand the University seems to have held. The important thing is the protest failed despite publicly voiced internal efforts to undermine the university’s position. You done good.
This leads me to ask: What are protests for? What do they accomplish? Both as expressions of free speech and as effective means of changing the minds of policy makers, two separate questions. Few minds are changed by any protest. The goal is almost always to get people inconvenienced by a protest, especially one that occupies or blockades an important public service, to pressure the government into acceding to the protest’s demands in order to end the inconvenience and restore the service. Pay the Dane-geld. But people have common sense. The only people who cheerfully pay Dane-geld are the ones who support the Danes….and they want the Danes paid off with other people’s geld. They are reprehensible. Why should they have a say in the matter?
The purpose was to enable Main Stream Media to say the phrase “world-wide protests against Israel.”
… sometimes with the genocide/apartheid trope openly declared …
… to be spread viral on TicToc.
According to Jonathan Chait:
“I don’t think the college protesters believe they can actually starve Israel’s economy into submission through the capital markets. We should take their demands seriously but not literally. And the actual purpose of the demands is to place the university’s imprimatur behind the idea that Israel is a unique source of evil in the world.
“After all, they are not planning divestment campaigns for any other state engaged in violence or repression. They haven’t proposed, and almost certainly wouldn’t accept, any neutral human-rights standard being applied to their endowments’ overseas investments. The purpose is to anathematize support for Israel on the American campus.
“Most of the encampments either formally exclude Zionists or submit them to harassment and surveillance. When they describe themselves as liberated zones, this is the liberation they envision: a community in which endorsing violence against Israelis is normalized and supporting Israel’s continued existence is vilified as a matter of course.”
Source: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/biden-is-correct-speech-holocaust-campus-antisemitism.html
That comes very close to agreeing that demonstrations ought not to be permitted, other than “assemblies” brought to conduct specific business which disperse upon adjournment. Demonstrations attempt to coerce the university into violating its own policy of institutional neutrality, or to influence governments to take actions which must be of no concern to a neutral community of scholars. Private entities and governments should do their utmost to regard demonstrations and occupations created to intimidate as beyond the protection of freedom of speech, from the first tent peg, as PCC(E) puts it. Demonstrations give too much power to the mob.
From a utilitarian point of view, I can’t think of any social good that resulted in a democracy from the idea that demonstrations designed to intimidate, inconvenience, or block production should be legally protected forms of speech or expression, or that laws against them should be struck down.
The only things universities ought to divest themselves of are activist departments, professors, and course offerings that won’t/can’t refrain from making demands on the university to violate its neutrality.
Agree! There are too many kids studying supposed scholarly topics that are actually just political activism.
Israel is about to liberate Rafah.
This will include forced rescue of the hostages, and forced arrest or death of Sinwar and Hamas battlefield structure.
The noise will be deafening, worldwide.
I stand with Israel 🇮🇱