On Thursday evening, hundreds of members of the City University of New York (CUNY) faculty, staff, and graduate assistant union — the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) — met to debate a resolution in support of several of the demands of the CUNY Gaza Solidarity Encampment , which was violently cleared by the NYPD on April 30. The resolution was put forward to the PSC-CUNY Delegate Assembly (DA) with support from dozens of rank and file members of the union, many of whom were present at the encampment. It correctly described Israel’s assault on Gaza as a genocide and noted the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions’ call for labor unions around the world to take up the cause of the Palestinian people.
It also criticized CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos-Rodriguez and City College President Vincent Boudreau for authorizing the NYPD raid on the encampment; and it condemned the university for its investments in companies like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman that provide weapons to Israel. The resolution also directly called on the university to respond to the original five demands of the student encampment, to refrain from any further violence against protesters, and to advocate for the withdrawal of all charges against those arrested at City College. In addition, it committed the union to endorse the encampment’s demand that the university agree to full financial transparency and divestment from all Israeli companies and institutions, and urged the unio.
