World Pulse | 'Education Under Attack': Massive NYC Protest Targets Trump’s Crackdown on Campuses - video Dailymotion

Asianet News English

Hundreds gathered at Foley Square, NYC, on April 17 to protest President Donald Trump’s harsh stance on U.S. universities. Demonstrators condemned political repression and censorship, especially in response to pro-Palestinian student protests after the 2023 Gaza conflict. Trump labeled major institutions like Harvard 'a disgrace' and accused them of spreading radical ideology. Protesters say academic freedom is at stake and vow to resist what they call a dangerous crackdown.<br>&nbsp;

Transcript

00:00Because I think Harvard's a disgrace. I think what they did was a disgrace.

00:12What the government is doing has absolutely nothing to do with security.

00:16It is entirely about repression.

00:30We welcome back our identities.

00:34Hands up!

00:39We got AUP into protest.

00:44What they were doing, when you see the way they took care of events,

00:48when you watch that woman, that horrendous president that ruined the image of Harvard,

00:54maybe permanently, in Congress, in the halls of Congress,

00:58when you take a look at what happened there, it's...

01:04Because I think Harvard's a disgrace.

01:06I think what they did was a disgrace.

01:08They're obviously anti-Semitic.

01:10What do we do?

01:11Stand up right back!

01:12Higher education?

01:14Hands off!

01:15Our identities?

01:16Hands off!

01:18We got in the building right now!

01:23We win!

01:24We win!

01:27Hands off!

01:28Our students?

01:29Hands off!

01:30Freedom of expression?

01:31Hands off!

01:32This is amazing.

01:33When higher education is under attack, what do we do?

01:37Stand up right back!

01:38And when our international students, and our international colleagues who are here on visas,

01:42have it now as a purge, and we need to fight back.

01:45Hands off!

01:46Hands off!

01:47Hands off!

01:48Hands off!

01:49Hands off our students!

01:50We say yes to a free university.

01:53Yes!

01:54Open and accessible to all.

01:56A university where you can get a scientific education that faces up to the environmental catastrophe

02:03we've unleashed on the world.

02:04Yes!

02:05Yes!

02:06We say to a university where you can get an education in history.

02:10Yes!

02:11One that confronts the histories of racism and slavery, exploitation and empire, and of

02:17the people who fought back.

02:19Yes!

02:20These histories are being censored and suppressed by the government today.

02:24Shame!

02:25Even the dead aren't safe.

02:27We say yes to it.

02:28That's a little Walter Benjamin.

02:29We say yes to a university where you can get a political education.

02:37Yes!

02:38Where something's not being taught in the classroom or the laboratory.

02:42If thinking and learning is being foreclosed, students can pitch their tents on the quad

02:48and teach each other and teach their teachers.

02:55What the government is doing has absolutely nothing to do with security.

03:00It is entirely about repression.

03:03That's right!

03:04The US government is using every tool in its massive arsenal to arrest, to detain, to deport

03:13and in the case of universities to defund these institutions simply because they disagree

03:19with US foreign policy and have the humanity, let alone the temerity, to stand up for Palestinian

03:26human rights and oppose a genocide in Gaza.

03:32Fear of speech is authoritarianism.

03:36Fear of freedom is authoritarian.

03:39And it's being done under this false guise of a false definition of anti-Semitism, which,

03:49given the Nazi sympathizers in the administration, is obviously preposterous pretext.

03:55The true goal is to weaponize this ideological orthodoxy, to dismantle the very institutions

04:02that undergird our democracy, courts, lawyers, civil society, and universities.

04:11And to suggest that due process is optional is, again, the hallmark of authoritarianism.

04:20Their strategy depends on testing us and shocking us to see if we will give up.

04:26Their strategy depends on dividing us so we cannot support each other.

04:33Will we let that happen?

04:35No!

04:36Will we stand together?

04:38Yes!

04:39Will we be silenced?

04:40No!

04:41No!

04:42No!

04:43No!

04:44It's up!

04:45No words up!

04:46We want them back!

04:47We want them back!

04:48We're Police def 줄ers.

04:49We want them back!

04:50We know that Donald Trump is disgraceful and shameful.

04:54That's right.

04:55I'm sadden to say that Mayor Eric Adams is disgraceful and shameful.

05:03I'm sad to see law firms like Paul Weiss shrink – no!

05:07be disgraceful and shameful.

05:10I'm sad to see institutions like Columbia shrink when they should have stepped up.

05:16And I saw our Columbia University journalism students.

05:19I want to thank you so much for having the courage to step forward when your president and your leadership let you down.

05:28I'm part of the America that has always fought back and always pushed forward

05:33and always said we will not let this happen while we're on our watch.

05:40And I want to thank all the leaders of the institutions of higher learning coming forward and say you will not erase history.

05:48Our identities?

05:49Hands up!

05:53We got AUP NYT Manhattan chapter.

World Pulse | 'Education Under Attack': Massive NYC Protest Targets Trump’s Crackdown on Campuses

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