KKE leader in New York backs Columbia student protesters
The leader of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) has used a visit to New York to express his solidarity with students at Columbia University protesting in opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza.
Dimitris Koutsoubas, who is leading a KKE delegation on a ten day-long tour of Canada and the US the visit to the US and Canada until Saturday, visited the university on Friday.
“We are here at Columbia to express our solidarity with the students who are fighting for freedom in Palestine, to stop this barbaric, unjust war, the genocide of the Palestinian people,” he said.
“This has turned into a major student uprising that already embraces dozens of universities across the US and thousands of students are on the streets in solidarity, also in Europe,” he said, adding that the wave of protests across the US has “fascinated” him.
The Israel-Gaza war has sparked tensions on US college campuses and inspired a wave of students to erect protest encampments at universities across the country in recent days.
At Columbia, the epicenter of the US protest movement, university officials are locked in a stalemate with students over the removal of a tent encampment set up two weeks ago as a protest against the Israeli offensive.
The administration, which has already allowed an initial deadline for an agreement with students to lapse, has given protesters until Friday to strike a deal.
Other universities appear determined to prevent similar, long-running demonstrations to take root, opting to work with police to shut them down quickly and in some cases, with force.
Overall, nearly 550 arrests have been made in the last week across major US universities in relation to protests over Gaza, according to a Reuters tally. University authorities have said the demonstrations are often unauthorized and called on police to clear them. [902.gr/Reuters]
