At Wayne State encampment, spirits are high

A visit to Wayne State encampment, May 24, 2024.

Detroit

May 24 – Students at Wayne State University in Detroit are now on the third day of their encampment, which was set up in front of David Adamany Undergraduate Library to demand that the university divest from Israel.

Students played music, sang and chanted for Palestine. Muslim students conducted prayer. Spirits are high. The encampment, which functions like a small city, is supplied with food and dining areas, medical tents, and even an outdoor movie theater that students are using to screen documentaries about Gaza. 

The encampment is fortified on all sides, with students showing no sign of leaving.

After getting a tour of the grounds, Workers World spoke with some of these students. They’ve received much material support from the community, from food and water to barricades. But they said what they need the most is ultimately more people to join them.

University repression teaches resistance

 Looking at the encampment, it appears as if it’s been there for weeks. Students explained that the encampment was able to be established so quickly, because many of the students had experience supporting the University of Michigan encampment, which lasted for about three weeks and was finally cleared out on May 22.

A student told WW: “The police are just basically teaching us how to organize and defend these encampments.  Each time the police clear out an encampment, students are able to quickly reassemble it somewhere else. They can crush one, and another will pop up. They can’t take away the skills we’ve learned in the struggle.”

The full effects of the movement on the consciousness of today’s youth have yet to be seen. The universities that are so often the breeding ground of liberal indoctrination have become schools of resistance and struggle, like at Wayne State.