Denver SDS marches on Regent Spiegel, students face down Zionist reactionaries

Englewood, CO – On June 16, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) held a march to the home of University of Colorado Regent and chair of the Governance Committee, Ilana D. Spiegel. Spiegel, a Democrat, was elected to the University of Colorado Board of Regents 6th Congressional seat in late 2020.

Members of the student organization marched to protest the university’s continued refusal to divest from the genocide in Palestine. Students brought signs and banners, formed a picket line, and chanted loudly against U.S. support for genocide and its funding and arming of Israel.

In response, a large crowd of Zionist reactionaries confronted the students. The pro-genocide bigots attempted to physically intimidate the students, shouting slurs at queer, Black and other oppressed nationalities, as well as the Jewish students who oppose the U.S./Israeli genocide. The Zionists attempted to assault one protester. Still, the students persisted, refusing to be silenced.

Two weeks before, on Saturday, June 1, the Students for a Democratic Society held a march at the home of CU Regent Callie Rennison. Zionists shouted, verbally abused, and shoved members of SDS to the ground at that protest, and even tried to run a protester over with a car.

The students’ demands are simple: disclose all university financial ties to companies that operate in the apartheid state of Israel and divest from companies that profit off of the genocide of the Palestinian people.

At both marches, the Zionist reactionaries were aggressive and threatening, sometimes violent. The student activists stood their ground in the face of this. Students are confronting the warmakers and exercising their First Amendment right to free speech. SDS leaders say that they won’t be silent while the university funds a genocide.

In response to their marches on regents’ homes to demand disclosure and divestment from Israel, SDS has been met with severe media backlash, including doxing and baseless accusations of antisemitism.

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