10 universities in California announce start of strike in support of Palestine

WASHINGTON, May 18 (YPA) – 48 thousand workers at 10 universities affiliated with the “University of California System” and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the US state of California voted on Saturday to begin a strike in defense of the right to protest for Palestine.

This comes after the arrest campaigns and attacks on students in tents, who are demanding an end to the Zionist aggression against Gaza, and after the failure of the university administration to address complaints regarding the handling of pro-Palestinian protests.

Activists considered that the vote of the university workers union to begin a strike next Monday constitutes a historic decision that may push unions in other universities and labor federations to strike in defense of the students’ right to protest for the Palestinian cause.

The strike announcement comes two days after academic workers at the University of California voted, as the union considered that this came after the university system changed policies related to freedom of expression and discrimination in pro-Palestinian speeches and allowed attacks on demonstrators during their sit-in.

In this context, high schools in the state of Wisconsin, preceded by schools in the state of Illinois, joined the student protests at American universities by leaving the classrooms after the second or third period and organizing marches inside the schools to demand an end to the aggression against Gaza.

YPA