Dispatches from the Northwestern University Liberated Zone

Day 1 of calling for divestment.

I began my day yesterday on the Eastern Quad of Loyola University Chicago, joining students, staff, and my fellow faculty in demanding that my employer divest from war profiteering and the state of Israel.

It was a peaceful, relatively small gathering that the cops did not intrude on. After about an hour there, I heard from comrades a few miles north, on the campus of Northwestern University. Their significantly larger encampment was being attacked by the police, so I hopped onto a train and shot my way up to Evanston to offer whatever support I could.

(I was joined by a member of my affinity group, someone who has accompanied me to nearly every protest, rally, illegal road blocking demonstration, and other pro-Palestinian action I’ve attended in the last few months. If you are new to more radical organizing, I strongly recommend you form an autonomous affinity group with a few trusted buds.)

We saw quite a few people carrying banners and wearing keffiyehs on the train. A young man with a Palestinian flag pin on his backpack (alongside a cute Eevee keychain) approached us, and asked if we were headed up to NU’s encampment.