Displacement is wrong from Portland to Palestine
Solidarity with Refaat Alareer Memorial Library Occupation at Portland State University
Students at Portland State University (PSU) have held an encampment protest outside of the campus library for almost a week; most recently escalating to a full blown occupation inside the library. Since then, encampments and occupations have started at two other Portland universities; including Reed College and Lewis and Clark College. The protests are part of a student movement sweeping the nation calling on universities to end their complicity with the Israeli occupation of Palestine and ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.
Displacement is an injustice; both the displacement of Palestinians through Israeli occupation and the displacement of people living outside through camping bans and sweeps. People’s homes are being destroyed daily; meanwhile, the wealthy elite are allowing it to continue and worse: profiting off it.
Students are demanding PSU cut all ties with Boeing due to their manufacturing of weapons used to aid Israeli occupation and genocide. President Joe Biden, in 2021, gave them the green light to sell $735 million worth of weapons to Israel. And that is just one example. Boeing is making millions, likely billions, profiting off of genocide – a horrifying display of the inhumanity that drives the capitalist war machine.
Meanwhile, Portland contracts with Rapid Response Bio Clean to conduct sweeps. Rapid Response receives nearly $10 million annually through their contracts with the City of Portland; this does not include the money received from private property owners and surrounding municipalities. This is millions of dollars regularly used to throw away people’s tents and other items necessary for survival. We are not exaggerating when we say: sweeps kill.
We are also deeply concerned with how the same legal framework for enforcing camping bans and sweeps is now being extended to ‘regulate’ (or more accurately.. suppress) free speech activities such as encampment protests.
Portland State University President, Ann Cudd, released a statement last week which included the following passage in regards to free speech:
Our focus is on drawing a bright line between protecting freedom of speech and activities including discrimination, harassment, intimidation, property damage and assault. We have reasonable time, place and manner restrictions in place — these are community standards so that our university can continue to be a place for learning, teaching, working and living.
We have emphasized in bold the use of the phrase ‘reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions’. This is the exact language used in HB 3115, the state law which governs how cities in Oregon are allowed to enforce their camping bans. The state law, which the City of Portland is currently using to rework their camping ban in order to begin enforcement again.
At a recent city council meeting regarding Portland’s amended camping ban there was discussion about how the camping ban would be enforced in situations such as 2011’s Occupy encampment protests.
Not only is the camping ban a tool to criminalize homelessness, we are simultaneously witnessing how it is being used to suppress protests as well.
Portland’s camping ban ordinance is under that of ‘Title 14 Public Order and Police’. Title 14 consists of laws which govern how public space is used, or more accurately, how these public spaces are to be policed. It should come as no surprise Title 14 and its associated laws will be weaponized against protests.
Camping bans come from a long legacy of banishment, such as Jim Crow, Sundown Towns, Anti-Okie, and Ugly laws. All of these laws existed to banish specific groups of people from public spaces.
The Nakba of 1948 resulted in hundreds of thousands of Palestinians expelled from their homelands. Palestinians often describe what is happening in Gaza today as a continuation of Nakba — another legacy of banishment.
Finally, it is not lost on us the significance of students occupying the campus library. The Portland State library used to be open to the public — a commons where anyone could visit, regardless of whether you are a student or not. It was a refuge for many homeless people who would use the library during the daytime and access its various resources. The campus was also one of the few places where people could use the bathroom in downtown without having to pay.
In recent years, PSU has locked all of the publicly accessible buildings, making it so only students, faculty, and staff with card access could use the buildings — going so far as to place turnstiles in the library entrance.
To reiterate, these buildings were previously open to the public — for anyone to use. There were often events open to anyone, allowing students to build community with people from all walks of life across the city. As it should be, considering PSU often touts how its an ‘urban campus’, and allegedly seeks to integrate the campus with the community at large.
PSU has instead actively made it a space where fewer and fewer people can gather; the antithesis of their motto ‘let knowledge serve the city’. We appreciate the students currently occupying the library and opening up these spaces to everyone once again.
Our encampments exist in a city that is plagued by displacement, hunger, and state violence. If we limit our encampments to students alone, and on narrow demands that ignore the material context where we live - where our neighbors struggle and die - we are bound to fail. But if we force open the gates of the university, share our struggles, understand we have a common enemy and build out respective capacities to fight them on and off campus - the universities are ours for the taking. — Within Our Lifetime
Stop the Sweeps PDX stands in solidarity with Palestinians and the growing encampment protests and occupations at universities locally and nationally.
Free Palestine! Because none of us are free until all of us are free.
As of this writing students are still occupying the PSU library. They are looking for people to show up and help hold the space. If you are able to go down and support, PLEASE go down
For more info on the ongoing protests check out @occupypsu4freepalestine on Instagram
Below is a zine version of this solidarity statement if you would like to print and share:
Well said. Can't agree more. Thank you.