US student movement: A moral triumph amid global uprisings for Gaza

In recent weeks, the student movement in the US has emerged as a beacon of hope for the working class, marking a moral victory that needs to be translated into a political one.

Pro-Palestine student demonstrations have been gaining traction, with footage of protesters being beaten up and tear-gassed circulating across all social media platforms. These harrowing images highlight a new low in the state of Western democracy, where state policies supportive of Israeli apartheid benefit only a select few, particularly the financial class that profits from war spending and extends colonial policies.

Critics argue that the current state of affairs in the US can hardly be deemed democratic, especially within its academic institutions. These institutions are seen as agencies of the ruling class, a product of the consensus generated by capitalists and their allied classes, who maintain themselves through institutional forms that serve their profit-making ends.

In times of crisis, these institutions reveal their true nature: instruments of the ruling class that suppress even peaceful action objecting to atrocities committed by the Israeli regime. Repression is standard practice in a country where the illusion of choice prevails.

American institutions, with their international reach, suppress dissent at home—such as through mass incarceration of the poor—and abroad through massive war and austerity policies. These actions create conditions of structural genocide, dismal living conditions, and subsequent unnecessary loss of life due to hunger and disease.

Today, the planet heads towards a dead end, all due to a reigning ideology that prioritizes profits over people. Students have proven to be brave in defying school administrators and law enforcement, but the means by which they attempt to reach the goal of divestment has not proven effective thus far.

The issue of student revolt goes beyond achieving success in divesting from "Israel". It lies in the moral connection humans feel with one another and the spinoff of that into novel forms of consciousness and organization that will apply brakes to a system that expands through the destruction of both humanity and nature.

The challenge remains in capturing the moment and allowing it to sustain itself into the future through counter-systemic institutions that will relieve the US and the Third World from the reign of ruling classes. This will push for a new morality centered on a shared future and a sane environment for humanity. (ILKHA)