Campus Activism

There are many precedents as students join the nation-wide encampments to support Palestinians. The situation on campuses raises a plethora of issues unrelated to immediately stopping the bloodshed in the Middle East. Why? This is the Frankenstein of past protests, an AI social-movement generated by a garble of history, theory, and ideology.

To illustrate, a possible chronology starts in Red Square in Seattle (which was the site of anti-Vietnam War protests and likely a reference to its namesake in the former Soviet Republic), then references the Anti-Globalization movement (which was deep in ideology, caused massive disruption, and ended with a fizzle), a strike at UNAM in Mexico occurred around a moment of revived democracy but direct correlation is elusive. The Occupy protests in the USA were a similar tactic to the current campus situations but created unsafe living conditions. Free-speech on campuses has lead to violence, as seen in 2017 at UW during a provocative speech. As always, the current movement in the US is coordinated but also vulnerable to outside influence.

A view of Red Square on the University of Washington campus, Seattle, Washington, USA in 1999, where many demonstrations took place over the years.

A University of Washington march during the World Trade Organization meeting moves towards downtown from the University District in Seattle, Washington, USA in 1999.

College students on strike at UNAM in Mexico City, Mexico in 2000.

Administrators of UNAM in Mexico City, Mexico, including rector Juan Ramón de la Fuente Ramírez (center), present a resolution to the 1999-2000 strike in January 2000.

A man is too sick to raise his head at the Occupy camp in Seattle, Washington, USA on November 19, 2011.

Moments after a man was shot outside a speech by Milo Yiannopoulos at Kane Hall on the University of Washington campus in Seattle, Washington, USA on January 20, 2017.

Moments after a man was shot outside a speech by Milo Yiannopoulos at Kane Hall on the University of Washington campus in Seattle, Washington, USA on January 20, 2017.

Activists gather in Dempsey Hall on the University of Washington campus during a Board of Regents meeting in Seattle, Washington, USA on January 11, 2024.

Activists gather in Dempsey Hall on the University of Washington campus during a Board of Regents meeting in Seattle, Washington, USA on January 11, 2024.