The Evolution of Student Protest
A collaborative essay
Over the past 9 months, student movements and protests have accelerated. What follows is an account of the evolution of student protests spreading our different countries, continents, and contexts. We hope you will glean from these reflections across time (1942 to 1976 to 2011 to 2024) that the communication tools and organization methods have only continued to mobilize students around the world.
As adrienne maree brown said in a session on Emergent Strategy at the 2023 Collective Trauma Summit, we need a generation of earthworms and composters to slow down and harness all this data. This is already happening, and we have been inspired by the likes of Andre Henry’s piece on encampment strategies using lessons learned from the Occupy Movement.
On November 18, 2011, I was a graduate student living in Davis, California with my undergrad partner only a quarter mile away from the UC Davis campus. That afternoon, he called me to tell me a group of students were demonstrating in our quad for the Occupy movement, the cops had arrived, and things were getting tense. I felt my heart pine to be there with them because I knew something big was about to happen.
Then he called me again. The cops had moved in to remove the peaceful student protestors with bear spray.
As soon as I got home from my job as a researcher, I flipped on the news, correctly assuming that it would make it to national primetime. I was taken aback by the photo of the altercation the channel was sharing: a row of students sitting peacefully with their arms linked and a UCD cop named Lt. John Pike spraying them directly in their faces. Something about the way Pike carried himself in the photo was terrifying; his nonchalant body language was in direct contrast to the violent act it was carrying out, and the dichotomy was jarring.
The photo started circulating on Facebook. Although the Occupy movement had been popping up here and there on my feed, it was mostly contained to the few outspoken activists in my friendship circle. But once this photo hit the internet, some of the people who had previously kept their opinions quiet had reposted it, and I was shocked to see how many people I knew had been supporting the students all along.
It was the first time I witnessed students harnessing the power of social media to share injustices, and it was happening in my own backyard (literally.)
Pike was (rightfully) fired, and some credit the wave of photoshopping that followed to launching meme culture. But I remember it uniting the students at UCD, the rallies, and protests that followed, the support I got once I started posting about it on Facebook, and the moment I realized social media was about to change the way students organize and mobilize.
The memes that followed the incident now make me nauseated. There is nothing funny about the violence that spawned them. These early memes represent the ever-present police state aggression against peaceful student protestors that we also witnessed this year with student encampments against the genocide in Gaza.
But during the student encampments earlier this year, social media - despite its faults - also created a solidarity that we didn’t have back during the Pike meme days. It prompted encampments across student quads all over the world. Whether we continue to use social media to aid us in revolutionizing our current system remains to be seen, but I am hopeful.
The momentum with which the student protests spread across the globe earlier this year is simply astonishing and absolutely a testament to our times of interconnectedness via social media. It’s no wonder that the U.S. government is afraid of TikTok. Not only have we been able to receive live footage, background information, and in-depth education about Palestine and the ongoing genocide of its people, never before in history have students worldwide been able to coordinate and plan their activities with such speed.
We’ve certainly come a long way since the 1940s anti-Hitler protests at my own Alma Mater, the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (Germany): “The White Rose” resistance was a group of five students (Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl, Willi Graf, Alexander Schmorell, Christoph Probst) and one faculty member (Professor Kurt Huber) who started as a book club reading banned literature. Their choice of medium was 6 carefully crafted leaflets (written and distributed in the summer of 1942 and early 1943) and their circulation was a few thousand. Towards the end of February 1943, multiple other German campuses joined the movement. “We are really getting to work here, the stone is set in motion” Willi Graf noted in his diary on January 13, 1943. By February 22, 1943, they had all been arrested by the Gestapo and executed shortly thereafter.1
White Rose monuments mark this university at every corner. The two main squares in front of the main building of the LMU are famously named “Prof.-Huber-Platz” (Square of Professor Huber) and “Geschwister-Scholl-Platz” (Square of the Siblings Scholl). These same spaces are where we see today’s protest camps calling for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine, divestment of Israeli funding, and Germany’s complicity in yet another genocide.
The irony of putting this piece together is not lost on me. In fact, the irony of growing up with an impersonal guilty conscience in “Never Again!”-Germany, learning about how to identify propaganda of any flavor early, and studying the socio-economic-political circumstances that led to WW2 has been screaming me in the face, every single day since Oct 7. In this culture of self-congratulation, U.S. liberal celebration of German reparations to the newly formed state of Israel and our “Vergangenheitsbewältigung” (phrase for Germany’s coming to terms with the past) seems almost laughable at a time of intense Islamophobia, the growing mistrust of refugees of all cultures and complexions, and the rise of Europe-wide nationalism. Everything seems upside down here: our chancellor has declared “the protection of Jewish life” our German “reason of state” (“Staatsräson”), calling for a Free Palestine is considered highly antisemitic, and “Never Again is Now” is used in anti-student-camp protests by Zionists nationwide. Germany –as a culture, as a collective– seems to be stuck in a deadly cycle of shame and guilt.
While this year’s global student protests fill me with immense hope—precisely because U.S. student protests are few and far between, in the grand scheme of history (see a short European history of campus protests to compare here - I also worry, because the German government, for example, has effectively disbanded the largest encampments already, or is about to dissolve the remaining small ones.
I can only cling to these words which The White Rose published on their “II. Flugblatt” (2nd leaflet):
“Aber wenn diese Katastrophe uns zum Heile dienen soll, so doch nur dadurch: Durch das Leid gereinigt zu werden, aus der tiefsten Nacht heraus das Licht zu ersehnen, sich aufzuraffen und endlich mitzuhelfen, das Joch abzuschütteln, das die Welt bedrückt.”
→ in English: "But if this catastrophe is to serve as our salvation, then it can only be by this means: by being purified through suffering, longing for the light from the deepest night, rousing oneself, and finally helping to cast off the yoke that oppresses the world."
I don't know what to tell you about June 16, 1976, in South Africa nor its global effects. Yet another law of oppression was introduced, this time to make Afrikaans the language of instruction for core subjects in schools, like maths and science — the effect being children having to learn in a language they could not effectively reason in.
I know it as Youth Day, the day the school learners walked out of their classrooms together, and were joined by countless others, across Soweto. I know it's seen as the beginning of South African apartheid's end. What I am still learning about is how it connects across time. This is what I've found so far:
The Arch, Desmond Tutu, had called Afrikaans the language of the oppressor. In this instance Afrikaans was being used as a tool of oppression, but the first instances of what we know as Afrikaans (written in Arabic lettering) was in itself a creative act of resistance against slave masters forcing the transported slaves of the early Cape to speak Dutch.
There had already been many decades of activism and protest by young and old across South Africa. The Rivonia Trial had placed Nelson Mandela in prison, the Sharpeville Massacre had taken place 16 years earlier, and violent forced removals were in progress.
The power and attendance of this protest were supported by the already growing Black Consciousness Movement (inspired by the work of W.E.B. Du Bois) and the South African Students Organisation. There's no guarantee that any one action will necessarily result in a monumental shift, but to use the undercurrents of organisation and support to sustain and enable the moments of mobilisation seems to lie beneath many of these big occasions.
It's not clear how many lives were lost on June 16, 1976. However many, it is too many. It is also not this one event that caused the loss of life, but the same police force that killed countless people in such cruel and violent ways. The violence and threat of violence was present regardless of this protest and yet the news and images from this protest is what caused global outrage.
In my reading, I have come across the idea of 'violent evolution' as related to the apartheid state. I understand this to have something to do with the way these outbursts of violence result in fundamental shifts and changes that bring about a new era. After this event, the violence only increased — structural violence, physical violence, resistance. It was not the first nor the last massacre in the state where what had begun decades earlier as non-violent protests progressively adopted more violent tactics. It seems clear to me that we are not done with violence and violence is not done with us. It lives in the air around us. It is embedded into our days and lives because it was placed there during slavery, during the Scramble for Africa (in the mandate to civilize, to convert, to extract under the guise of 'economic development'), and in the ongoing new faces colonization wears.
If you’ve been inspired by these pieces and are wondering where to start, you could look for local community organisations that host events or require help. The other thing that will be important is to know, to remember, to think and build a practice of ‘reading’ (audiobook or physical). This week South Africa Celebrates Youth Day on the 16th and 17th of June to commemorate the day of the Soweto Uprisings. To celebrate along with us, we invite you to look through the images, resources, and materials we have compiled as a starting place for your practice. We hope you find generative places to direct this energy, even if it starts only with letting these stories take up more space in your thoughts.
MORE RESOURCES
June 16, 1976 Soweto Youth Uprising
Soweto Blues : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMSwlBGcSRs
The Philosophy of Colonialism: Civilization, Christianity, and Commerce
Reappropriating Empire: A Study of the West African Students' Union (1925-1960)
The 16 June 1976 Soweto students' uprising – as it happened | South Africa Gateway
The June 16 Soweto Youth Uprising - EMBAJADA DE LA REPUBLICA DE SUDAFRICA EN MEXICO
June 16 Year of the Spear
My mothers fathers of my fathers kinsmen
Because I am June 16
And this is not Soweto 1976
I emerge in the asphalt streets of our want
And because 'my memory is surrounded by blood'
My blood has been hammered to liberationsong
And like Rebelo's bullets
And Neto's sacred hope
I am flowering
Over the graves of these goldfanged fascist ghouls
All over this land of mine
2024 Timeline of Protests Worldwide
April 17, 2024: The first major protest began at Columbia University in New York, where students established the Gaza Solidarity Encampment. This protest called for the university to divest from Israel and led to mass arrests on April 18 when the NYPD intervened.
April 23, 2024: Protests at Columbia University resumed with a new encampment. Negotiations with the administration failed on April 29, resulting in the occupation of Hamilton Hall and another police raid on April 30.
May 1, 2024 (traditional :
Students demonstrate outside La Sorbonne university in Paris, France, protesting against the US and EU-backed genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
Anti-genocide protest camps have spread at universities in Britain, including at Oxford and Cambridge.
May 2, 2024:
Protests spread to Swiss universities in Lausanne, Geneva, and Zurich. At the Swiss University of Zurich, students rush the campus, chanting “We are all children of Gaza,” accusing the EU and Switzerland of financing Israel’s genocide.
Students occupy the Geopolis building halls at the University of Lausanne, following a protest by 1,000 people.
May 5, 2024:
Students at various European universities, inspired by ongoing demonstrations at US campuses, begin occupying halls and facilities, demanding an end to partnerships with Israeli institutions because of Israel’s war on Gaza.
May 6, 2024: Protests had spread to more than 140 campuses across the United States, leading to over 1,600 arrests of students and faculty. The protests also extended internationally, affecting universities in the UK, Australia, and Canada
May 7, 2024: European universities saw significant protests, particularly after mass arrests at the University of Amsterdam. This included campus occupations at Leipzig University in Germany, Sciences Po in France, and Ghent University in Belgium
May 8, 2024:
Protests continued to expand, occurring in over 25 countries. Dutch students and university staff participated in a national walkout on May 13, further highlighting the widespread nature of these demonstrations
Growing calls and demonstrations for universities to sever ties with Israel trigger clashes and arrests.
Students at Free University in Berlin, Germany, set up a protest camp in a campus courtyard, which is later cleared by police.
In Austria, dozens of protesters have been camped on the campus of Vienna University, pitching tents and stringing up banners since late Thursday.
May 13, 2024:
Clashes and arrests occur as pro-Palestinian protests spread across European campuses.
Students at various European universities occupy halls and facilities, demanding an end to partnerships with Israeli institutions because of Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Thirteen students are on a hunger strike at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
Protests spread to three universities in Lausanne, Geneva, and Zurich, with the University of Lausanne stating it “considers that there is no reason to cease these relations” with Israeli universities.
May 29, 2024:
Students at the University of Amsterdam set up an encampment on the campus, protesting against the war in Gaza.
Students in the English cities of Leeds, Bristol, and Warwick have also set up tents outside their university buildings to protest the war in Gaza.
Sources:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/29/mapping-pro-palestine-campus-protests-around-the-world
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_pro-Palestinian_protests_on_university_campuses
Mapping pro-Palestine college campus protests around the world
2024 pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses - Wikipedia
Research
Germany
https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/regional/berlin/pro-palaestinensische-aktivisten-hu-berlin-100.html
US Context
https://www.vox.com/politics/24141636/campus-protest-columbia-israel-kent-state-history
https://time.com/6974699/pro-palestinian-protests-spark-on-college-campuses-across-the-globe/
Worldwide History
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