A call for united action against fascist threats in Buffalo
www.workers.org
Buffalo In an Oct. 17, 2024, article in Workers World, this writer discussed an event called the State of the People where various progressive groups came together to rally against the University at Buffalo’s (UB) corruption and complicity in the genocide in Palestine. (workers.org/2024/10/81433/

On the evening of Nov.6, a group of nine individuals — most of whom were wearing MAGA hats — went to the Global Gender and Sexuality Studies (GGSS) department in Clemens Hall on UB’s north campus. The GGSS department historically attracts many transgender scholars as well as other women.

These nine individuals went through the department, harassing students and staff, with a special focus on gender minorities. They trashed several classrooms by turning over bookshelves, upturning tables and throwing chairs around the room. The UB Police Department was quickly notified of these events, but all reports seem to indicate that the UBPD officers decided to stay in their office monitoring the camera feeds until the Trump supporters were gone.

The university president issued a statement the next day stating that students and staff should report these kinds of incidents to the UBPD and that the campus police are there to “protect and serve.” This empty public relations statement from the president was countered by another statement from the CSL, wherein the individuals who attacked the GGSS department were called out, the community was urged to report instances of fascist activities to progressive forces for the purpose of community solidarity and antifascist action, and the university was condemned for once again failing to protect women (cisgender, transgender and demigender) and other gender oppressed persons on campus from right-wing violence. (tinyurl.com/NovStmtCSL)

Build worker solidarity!

On Nov 7, many professors and graduate students in the humanities departments at UB were privately urged to work from behind closed and locked doors “as if you are under a modified lockdown,” to quote one professor who wishes to remain anonymous.

On the same day, many Black students at Buff State were receiving copies of a racist mass text which was sent out to students of color nationwide. Once again the administration, this time of Buff State, issued a message to the university community saying that the FCC and FBI are handling things and that the university community doesn’t need to worry. This event was also discussed and condemned in the CSL letter from Nov. 7 cited above.

Between the continued genocidal devastation of occupied Palestine and southern Lebanon, U.S. imperialism’s continued aggression against Russia and China and the U.S. fascist movement gaining the win of a second Trump presidency, it has become clear that united action of progressive forces is necessary to overcome the choke hold of fascist violence and decaying capitalism.

In Buffalo, as in many other cities, in the interests of community solidarity against capitalism, white supremacy and cis-hetero-patriarchy, as well as in solidarity with our oppressed siblings abroad, a variety of progressive forces — including the CSL and Workers World Party’s Buffalo branch — are working together to organize upcoming actions, educate members of the working class and empower our fellow working-class and oppressed folks to exercise our power together.

(Emphasis original.)