by Maximillian Alvarez | Nov 6, 2025 | education, Israel, Palestine, Podcast, Politics and Movements: US, Prisons and Policing, Trump, Working People
Life on college campuses has changed dramatically in the last 10 months. While institutions of higher education continue to reel from the Trump administration’s top-down attacks and scramble to adjust, workers on campus say that their universities are simultaneously expanding their own internal repression and surveillance apparatuses to squash dissent. In this episode, we speak with a panel of graduate student workers and union members from Columbia University and the University of Michigan about the chilling new reality on their campuses and what it’s like to live, learn, and work there today.
Panelists include; Vayne, a PhD candidate in history at Columbia University and a member of the bargaining committee for Student Workers of Columbia; Conlan Olson, a PhD student in computer science at Columbia University and a member of the bargaining committee for Student Workers of Columbia; Jared Eno, a grad worker in sociology and public policy at the University of Michigan and a rank-and-file member of the Graduate Employees Organization.
Additional links/info:
Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) website, Instagram, Facebook page, and X page
Student Workers of Columbia-UAW Local 2710 website, Instagram, Facebook page, and X page
Glenn Hedin & Barrett Dolata, The Michigan Daily, “Three pro-Palestine activists arrested for protesting speech given by former Israeli soldiers”
Student Workers of Columbia press release: “Columbia threatens discipline for union picket, extends repression to labor action”
Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / The Real News Network, “‘The raids happened Wednesday, finals started Thursday’: FBI agents raid homes of pro-Palestine students at University of Michigan”
Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “‘Worse’ than McCarthyism: Trump’s war on higher education, free speech, and political dissent”
Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / The Real News Network, “‘A tremendous chilling effect’: Columbia students describe dystopian reality on campus amid
by Marjorie Cohn | Nov 5, 2025 | AB 715, Antisemitism, Biden National Strategy, California, due process, education, First Amendment, Genocide, International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, Israel, News Analysis, Palestine, Zionism
Beginning January 1, 2026, teachers in California classrooms will be looking over their shoulders to avoid running afoul of a frightening new “antisemitism” law. On October 7, despite widespread opposition from civil rights groups, teachers’ unions, and education advocates, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 715, which amends the California Education Code to police what teachers can teach and what…
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by Cassidy Klein | Nov 5, 2025 | Displacement, Home demolitions, Israel, masafer yatta, News, Palestine, Settler Violence, west bank
In the hills of Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank, a small Bedouin community in the village of Umm al-Khair has fought for decades to remain on their land, a rocky landscape dotted with olive trees, where they farm and raise livestock. As a community with a steadfast commitment to nonviolent struggle, they document and fight back against increasing settler violence and land annexation for…
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by Shahad Ali | Nov 3, 2025 | ceasefire, Gaza, Gaza Ceasefire, Israel, News Analysis, Occupation, Palestine
The first phase of the ceasefire agreement, signed by Hamas and Israel in early October after weeks of intense negotiations mediated by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States in Sharm El-Sheikh, resulted in the withdrawal of Israeli forces to what officials referred to as the “Yellow Line.” This initial pullback included areas of Gaza City that the Israeli army had occupied during its military…
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by October Krausch | Nov 2, 2025 | Divestment, education, Higher Education, Immigrants, Israel, News, Palestine, palestine solidarity, Trump Administration
Photos of Palestine solidarity encampments have disappeared from the news, replaced by pictures of immigration agents kidnapping university students and community members, but the campus-based battle to force universities to divest from Israel and weapons manufacturing is still underway. This a long-term, smoldering battle. “The campuses are definitely as active as they were a year ago from…
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by Sharon Zhang | Oct 31, 2025 | Israel, News, Palestine, Prisons, Sde Teiman
Israel’s top military lawyer has resigned after taking responsibility for the leak of a horrific video showing the sexual abuse of a Palestinian prisoner by Israeli guards, after the military launched a investigation into the leak this week. The military announced on Wednesday that it was opening a criminal probe into the leak in order to seek out and punish those responsible…
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