Charlottesville, Va.
We are a collective of autonomous actors consisting of students and community members from the UVA encampment for Gaza. We write this letter as a letter of consolation for our comrades, to whom we owe an explanation for the presence of cops and admin when we arrived on April 30th. We should have said this much earlier. We offer it now for reference as we step into this struggle for the long haul. We offer it to bring you comfort when you have to make difficult decisions about those who you thought were comrades.
1. No Peace Police
UVA Apartheid Divest (UVAAD) management and SJP at UVA became aware of plans for the encampment because a Palestinian student (who was part of a trusted community organization that had been called upon for support) broke an oath of confidentiality in an attempt to stop an encampment from forming. UVAAD, without the consent of the over 40+ organizations in the coalition, and SJP released a statement in community information channels explicitly disaffiliating themselves, condemning the escalation, weaponizing the concept of safety, and ironically, spreading a lie that white people organized the encampment.
The plan to occupy our campus was devised by trusted networks of primarily Black and brown students and community members, including Palestinians, that have been cultivated through long histories of organizing for Palestine and against state violence and abandonment in Charlottesville. Plans for an encampment occurred autonomously outside of the UVAAD structure.
UVAAD and SJP leaders decided, solely on the basis that they were not privy to details, that the encampment organizers were unprepared to address the threat of administrators deploying cops (as had been observed happening at encampments across the nation). Rather than recognize that it would be University administrators and police who would endanger folks at the encampment, UVAAD, and SJP leaders explicitly discouraged other students, faculty, and community members from joining in the escalation for Palestine—blaming the encampment
organizers preemptively for the escalatory actions of state actors and painting the organizers as those creating an “unsafe” environment. Down to the moment when they saw their former comrades being brutalized and taken away by riot police, UVAAD students were de-escalating this protest by telling the administration they would negotiate on behalf of an encampment they were never a part of and by getting on megaphones and telling energized student protestors to leave the area instead of continuing pressure or protecting the encampment, again under the guise of being a “leader”.
Safety means disrupting state violence and risking comfort for the possibility of a universe where safety can truly exist. To be undisruptive is to wait for the state to turn its weapon toward you.
2. Accomplices, not authorities: against any collaboration with the state or police
Abolition of violence, like genocide and settler occupation, means never cooperating with those that wield state violence—police or university leadership, who are the ones to make the call for violence at every single student protest.
The actor who positioned himself as UVAAD de facto Coalition Chair built relationships with Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Marsh Pattie and UVA Chief of Police Tim Longo and told them of protest routes and action plans. When confronted with concerns about security culture and state surveillance/violence, this same leader and those who supported him disregarded those concerns, thereby placing themself beyond reproach. The students who put their bodies on the line and were arrested and disciplined by those same administrators were
told that students like this SJP leader were cooperative and that they are the example of the “acceptable” student organizer. This makes them the ineffective student organizer, as the administrator admitted UVA never felt pressure from their collaborator.
Students who support collaborating with admin pose one of the greatest security risks to our movement organizing. In a post-9/11 Amerikkka, the use of “safety” as an excuse for increased policing can not be a tactic we fall for anymore. Admin lies and will call upon riot cops to protect their interests. The police state’s and University administration’s interests are not and will never be aligned with our interests and goals for liberation. What the police state and the University of Virginia are interested in is de-escalating us and our movement—their interest is in upholding empire, draining you, and infiltrating us. Anyone who builds relationships with the administration and police is actively working for the state and thus betraying our liberation movements. Further, safety cannot exist in the same universe where genocide occurs, but we believe we keep us safe, and the cost of inaction is too high for Palestinians in Gaza who are actively being murdered and calling for us to continue escalation within empire. WHERE IS OUR FUCKING RAGE.
3. Against Leadership: the movement must be self-activated, based on principles, and not dependent on personalities or politicians
When the police arrive at an action, their first question is always, “Who’s in charge?” This is not because leadership is essential to organizing but because it presents a vulnerability—a target to be infiltrated, weaponized, something to make an example out of, and spread rot in the movement from the inside out.
The desire to turn toward leadership organizational structures reinforces the oppressive system of “representation” in which participants of an organization become complicit in the leader/follower power dynamic, failing to take initiative or think critically about their leader’s actions. In this movement, we must begin creating collective decision-making structures promoting autonomy and self-determination. We must cultivate practices of self-defense and confidence in our principles that hold would-be rulers at bay. We recognize this is new, scary, and a way of organizing that requires imagination and intentional practice.
Organizers involved in planning actions in support of Palestinian liberation at UVA this year have watched a white Jewish student organizer in SJP position himself as the UVAAD de facto Coalition Chair. His self-appointed leadership took on a white savior role and people fell into the dangerous comfort of complicity as he made unilateral decisions for the coalition of over 40 student organizations, largely organizations of students of color. His decisions actively put the movement and those aligned with the Palestinian resistance in danger of authoritarian violence (police and administrators, the same) through peace policing and engaging with administrators to plan direct actions.
When BIPOC students, who were carrying a bulk of labor in the coalition, raised concerns about organizational structure and collaborating with the University administration in direct conversations and UVAAD coalition meetings, the white savior met their concerns with belittlement, paternalism, and laughter. This white man invalidated the lived experiences of Black and brown students, community organizers, and mentors—who know intimately the violence of empire—by calling into question their motivations to escalate for Palestine. He felt
emboldened to do so partially because he was coopting and manipulating the sentiments of several Palestinian students in SJP at UVA. Despite having reasonable concerns for their personal security, these Palestinian students were ultimately conflating their identities with a political praxis/organizing experience and thus felt comfortable peace policing others who were ready to escalate for Palestine.
Let us be clear: we don’t need saviors, and we don’t need leaders. We cannot offer leaders to be targeted. Collectivity is integral to our movement. While this sentiment was originally the intent of BIPOC students who formed a coalition effort for Palestine, it ended with those same students being alienated from the organization by this white leader.
Conclusion
Undoubtedly, there will be continue to be students who would rather be collaborators with university admin and the state. However, we speak to those who understand the need for disruptive tactics in the fight for Palestine, who understand courageous escalation is the only way to move towards liberation. You do not need to feel wedded to a structure like the UVAAD coalition, just because it exists, or because you were part of it. We must be willing to burn and regenerate, to compost what hurt us and our movement. Do not be afraid to change your
formation.
Do not underestimate the networks of community on this Monacan land. Solidarity is our strength. Our commitment to our principles and this struggle is our strength. This is why we established a solidarity encampment, where self-determination and autonomous escalation were encouraged without collaboration with cops and the University administration. To be in solidarity with Gaza and Palestine at large, we must understand that the state will never willingly choose the side of Palestinian liberation. We feel the urgency for mobilization more than ever.
We call upon UVA community members to stay grounded in the need for escalation and endurance.
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