Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) compared pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations with the women’s suffrage movement.
In a joint press conference with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Bush heaped praise on campus protesters across the country, comparing them to several major protest movements across history, including those for suffrage and against the Vietnam War.
“Protest isn’t meant to be comfortable,” she said. “It is meant to be disruptive. And if you don’t want folks to protest, then prioritize humanity over profit, humanity over your donors, humanity over your property. This is how justice is won, though.”
“It was true during the women’s suffrage movement where young women were arrested, jailed, and force-fed, which led to the ratification of the 19th Amendment,” she continued. “It was true during the civil rights movement when students led freedom riots, lunch counter sit-ins, and boycotts, which culminated in the Civil Rights Act of ’64 and the Voting Rights Act of ’65.”
“It was true during the student-led movement against the Vietnam War when organizing at universities, the movement to resist the draft, and the youth-led nationwide movement. Those protests led to the end of the war, and campaigns to divest from South Africa by students led to the end of apartheid,” she added.
Bush also said Israel was committing genocide in Gaza and condemned the attitudes of police and lawmakers toward the college protesters.
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The past few months have seen the largest student protests since the Vietnam War, this time over the war in Gaza. Many of them have culminated in violence between protesters and counterprotesters or police. Riot police have staged high-profile raids against encampments at Columbia University and the University of California, Los Angeles, after their respective situations escalated.
Despite many being forcibly shut down by police across the country, campus protests and encampments continue to operate across the country, bringing many school operations, such as commencement ceremonies, to a halt.