Copland at Columbia and CUNY

Anyone closely following on social media the Columbia University or City University of New York encampments probably knows more about what went down Tuesday night than any on-the-ground correspondent.

Primarily, that’s because of the lengths to which university administrators and the NYPD have gone to limit the number of eyewitnesses. Particularly at Columbia, which was first locked down to outsiders, and then even to existing students and faculty. Tonight, in a huge mobilisation of resources, police locked down the entire campus surrounds.

At barricaded intersections all around the Morningside campus, groups of protesters formed in solidarity with those inside. But they were vastly outnumbered by the cops, leaving those inside almost totally isolated.

Extraordinarily, the counter-terrorism unit was present at one of the barricades on Amsterdam Avenue. The insinuation—more than that, the almost official public announcement—is that students opposing a genocide carried out by a terrorist state are a threat to the public. The gall of city authorities to suggest such a thing.

There were a few scuffles and arrests outside, and plenty of vitriol directed against the cops. But the main game for the authorities was two blocks away, in Hamilton Hall, where officers reportedly arrested dozens before clearing the entire campus.

An almost simultaneous police mobilisation in West Harlem has also resulted in many arrests at the City University of New York. The jam of police vehicles along Amsterdam Avenue stretched for several blocks. (A striking thing about this city is the sheer number of police officers—more than 30,000. So NYPD has the capacity to carry out many mass mobilisations at once.)

One witness said that he saw lines of arrested activists being marched from the encampment. But he wasn’t sure if the whole place had been cleared and locked down like Columbia.

At any rate, it’s a testament to the activists that they have held out for so long. The extent of their political isolation is hard to gauge. But they clearly are isolated—every liberal institution and every institution controlled by New York’s liberal establishment appears to be arrayed against them: from federal senators and congressional representatives, state representatives, city hall, campus administrators, the press, the cops.

And in the face of what was clearly the wipeout of the campus that catalysed students around the US and other parts of the world, the streets tonight could muster at most a couple of hundred in solidarity. It was no contest; an absolute rout. That was true of CUNY as well.

One suspects that, perhaps, behind the scenes, Arab, Muslim and Palestinian “community leaders” from the middle and upper classes have played a few hands to prevent many meaningful expressions of political solidarity with the students.

The New York Times reports that the Columbia administration has requested police stay on campus for several weeks to prevent the encampment’s reestablishment. If that’s true, then Columbia is done as the central site of Palestine solidarity activism in the US, at least for now.

Yet even if that evaluation is right, it might be a case of “the king is dead, long live the king”. Columbia students lit a fire that is yet to be extinguished. The encampment movement in solidarity with Palestine, thanks to Columbia, is alive and growing around the world.

One report in the press today even credits a new encampment in Beirut to the inspiration of what has happened here. That is an extraordinary achievement.

What now in New York? There are more questions to ask than there are answers to give:

Will there be a response from the protesters’ side tomorrow or sometime this week? A mass rally, for example? Or more campus occupations elsewhere?

Will the young students be left high and dry by all the adults in this city? Or will the adults—religious leaders, Arab associations, anti-war coalitions, whoever—call for a mobilisation against these police actions? If they don’t, then the extent of the students’ isolation will be stark.

How important is (was) Columbia to the encampment movement? Will its demise—and the circumstances of its demise—demoralise activists elsewhere? Or will they double down in defiance?

Will other campus administrations strike while the iron is hot and try to clear all the remaining encampments?

And, of course, what about Rafah? Regardless of what happens in New York now, what will happen here if, when, Israel launches an offensive against the last piece of Gaza thus far not totally obliterated?

As always, time will tell.