A single spark can start a prairie fire. Within days of the Student Intifada erupting on Columbia University in April of 2024, campuses across the country, and soon the world, were overtaken by tents, and in some cases, barricades that intensified into building take-overs, as students and community members escalated the struggle for Palestinian liberation within the belly of the imperial beast and brought the war home.

Workshops4Gaza coalesced mere months later, in the wake of the Student Intifada’s collapse. Knowing that a revolutionary movement never dies, but merely goes dormant temporarily, our aim was to continue forefronting the urgency of divestment in its broadest possible sense: to imagine a world beyond the settler-colonial university altogether. Organizing classes and workshops on topics from tatreez to pan-africanism, we have tried to actualize a space where learning is open to all, and education enriches the colonized rather than the colonizer.

Now, the struggle has entered a new phase, and young people are once again leading the way. Dozens of activists and revolutionaries have newly become political prisoners, targeted by the state for their acts of solidarity with the Palestinian cause. But they are continuing the fight from behind bars. The university and the prison are both key sites of u.s.-led imperialism and colonialism, and the time is ripe to merge the fight against both institutions. We will not end u.s.-sponsored genocide abroad without first ending u.s-sponsored genocide at home.

Like our workshops, our weekly drop-in sessions are designed to combine political education with tangible support. We will gather each week to make phone calls and emails in support of any prisoner requesting outside pressure on their facilities. We will also read, discuss, and learn about the material conditions inside u.s. dungeons today.

A luta continua!

Image © Third World Solidarity Front