April 23, 2024
Hundreds of students have been arrested
Students organizing against the war in universities across the North East have been targeted by their respective administrations.
The police have been called, students have been ejected in large groups from their programs by the Admin deeming anyone in the protest suspended, which allowed trespass charges to be brought against students protesting on university grounds, and allow arrests.
It is the first time since the 1960s so many student protestors have been arrested on campuses using these aggressive undemocratic tactics.
It is hard to get a full picture, but it looks like hundreds of students (mostly graduate students) have been caught-up in the feeble acts of university presidents' putting their own interests ahead of the academy they supposedly oversee.
- Over 100 arrested at Columbia
- Over 150 arrested at New York University
- Similar actions by administrations and police against students at Harvard, Yale, MIT, Tufts, Emerson and what seems like every university in New York City (of which there are many) to round up students.
The press is getting it wrong on purpose, but given the reporting from student press:
- 15 Jewish students were among the 100 arrested on the Columbia lawn last week supposedly for anti-Semitism.
- The NYU protest included over a hundred students from Jews for Ceasefire who were having a protest Seder dinner inside the occupation areas.
- Books Not Bombs is a major slogan, which is a rather classic anti-war protest call.
- The other broad call is divestment of university funds from Israeli war companies, a rather soft liberal left call.
- Yale College Council (the not particularly vocal student union) has sided with the protesters.
- Yale Law School professors have been giving presentations during the protests.
- One action were people were arrested was an art protest where students use art projects to block intersections.
- Hundreds of members of teaching staff have demonstrated in solidarity with arrested students.
- Protest tents were put back up on campus by others almost as fast as they were taken down by police indicating mass support.
- There seem to be hundreds of students willing to take the place of those arrested, who are then also arrested, only to be replaced again.
- Many are graduate students engaged in anti-war protesting more generally.
- The administration have blocked reporters from being allowed on campus during the police actions against protesters.
- Protesters were charged with Class A Misdemeanors, the strongest misdemeanor charge.
It is gearing-up to be more like the Vietnam-era than the Anti-Apartheid protest times.
And people believed students were less active these days.
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It is bleak reading. Workers continue to be unprotected against easily addressed workplace issues.
The report looks at more than just strictly heat, but it was added as a major concern along with:
- Excessive heat
- UV Radiation
- Extreme weather
- Air pollution
- Vector-borne diseases
- Agrochemicals
More than 2.4 billion workers — or 70% of the global workforce — are exposed to climate change-related health hazards
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The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) has highlighted the need for workplaces to include extreme weather events in their emergency planning
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