Taking Deals and Selling Out: NU Organizers Betray The Movement

In a fantastic act of cowardice, a small handful of organizers from the Northwestern Occupation/Liberated Zone negotiated an agreement with the university’s administration to take down tents and scale down the protest. Here’s what happened, why it sucks ass, and what to do now:

On April 26, a team of self-appointed leaders met with NU administration. Less than fifty hours after the protest began, this group accepted the following concessions:

– Protests becoming authorized/normalized, i.e. agreeing not to send police

– Considering establishing a MENA/Muslim center on campus

– Looking into ending contracts with Starbucks and Sabra

– Starting a Gaza exchange student program

– Holding more meetings with the board of trustees and promising student representation in overseeing the endowment

All these empty gestures and backhanded bribes for the high price of the campus movement itself. The administration’s demands were the following:

– De-escalating and visibly reducing the encampment, which at its peak drew about 2,000 people and had more than 80 tents.

– Non-students can no longer sleep over or camp.

– Establishing “quiet hours” so that the encampment is not disruptive to the university.

The strategic flaws in these proposals are obvious to anyone who cares to look. Organizers of this defanged occupation have compromised the agency and autonomy of those they invited as supporters – while happily taking credit for their labor. Students acquired and coordinated supplies thinking they would be occupying the space for as long as it took to divest from apartheid. Protesters self-organized resources like a medic tent, zine table, art station, and more. While hundreds of people worked tirelessly to support the encampment, this tiny group of organizers conspired to fight for crumbs. Obsessed with a pre-existing narrative of how the occupation should unfold, they repeatedly took down parts of the camp going so far as to physically dismantle other people’s tents without their consent. It’s clear that they weren’t basing their actions on what it would take for the university to divest. Instead, these organizers made plans to negotiate the end of the encampment before it even began. They never intended to win.

What is more unnerving still is the lack of transparency around these agreements. Organizers have repeatedly withheld critical information about their negotiations from the rest of the occupation.

While there have been many students involved in planning efforts, it seems like only a small adhoc committee ever wanted and consented to these new terms. On the other hand, voices of dissent inside and outside meetings encouraged organizers not to yield. In fact, it is hard to tell who even wants this deal at the moment since decisions have been kept mostly under wraps. The broader community often only hears requests for support. How might people have reconsidered their involvement if they knew the truth about these backroom deals? How is any of this different from the way the administration treats its students, as dollar signs, bodies to be herded with no decision-making power?

The irony of these extractive requests is twofold. First, the occupation would not have survived it’s first morning without the brave students, faculty, and community members who ignored orders to stand down in front of cops. Meanwhile, the negotiators and marshals routinely overemphasized the risk of arrest and spread unnecessary fear. For example, when police threatened citations for trespassing and unlawful assembly, marshals communicated that arrests were imminent. While it is true that bigger charges are always a risk, a citation is as serious as a parking ticket, and in mass arrest situations charges are frequently dropped.

Nevertheless, people stood their ground and formed defensive lines to resist the cops. The university police were totally unprepared for this response. They were outnumbered, surrounded and pushed back and forth. These weak-ass cop maneuvers show us that protesters could have done so much more. Instead, whenever individuals acted autonomously, the yellow-vests came in and policed their actions.

The second, most obscene, irony is that the supplies and money that have poured into the occupation could have been better spent helping families get out of Gaza or supporting efforts to give direct aid to Palestinians. It’s simply embarrassing how much attention this protest has gotten for how limited its ambitions have become.

So what can be done?

Northwestern doesn’t need new leaders or a different negotiation team. What this fight needs is action. If you’re reading this and you’re feeling disappointed, pissed-off, confused – you’re not alone. It doesn’t have to be over. There’s still time to turn this around. You came to this protest because you wanted to do something to stop the genocide in Gaza, for a free Palestine. Think about what it will take. What will make the administration recognize our collective power and tremble? How can you jeopardize their money, time, reputation or anything else they actually care about? If you’ve got an idea for something you want to do, get a crew together and do it! You can carry out any number of actions like barricading buildings, scaling roofs, interrupting meetings, chasing off cops, re-decorating campus, or showing up at the homes of administration members. Not only do you already have the numbers, when people see what you’re up to more of them will join. Just remember: keep yourself and your friends safe, cover your face and identifiable features, don’t bring your phone, don’t brag or talk about what you do. You’ve got this!

Submitted Anonymously