MIM and RAIL kick off UC divest campaign MIM, RAIL, and Studies for the Liberation of Aztlan and Latin America (SLALA) kicked off a campaign to get the University of California to pull its investments from companies supporting Israeli aggression, with an event at UC Los Angeles in early May. A small but enthusiastic audience listened to speakers from MIM and SLALA lay out the rationale for the campaign, and then participated in a discussion about the issues raised. The speakers explained the historically progressive role played by student divestment campaigns, especially in the case of Vietnam in the 1970s, the 1980s South African campaign (which MIM participated in), and the anti-sweatshop campaign of the 1990s. Once again, students in Amerikan schools have a chance to apply public pressure on university officials to pull their support from an oppressive, U.$.-backed regime. The UC system is an ideal target, because the system invests hundreds of millions of dollars in companies like General Dynamics Corp., General Electric Corp., Honeywell Corp., Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and United Tech Corp., each of which invests heavily in Israel and provide it with helicopters, jet engines, F-16 fighters, M1-A2 Tanks, avionics control systems, rocket launchers, aircraft missiles, launch systems, other missiles and more. The campaign calls on the UC system to investigate the companies it invests in and does business with for ties to the Israeli apartheid state and divest from those companies with large investments in Israel -- especially those involved with the Israeli military. This divestment should continue at least as long as Israel refuses to withdraw from the territory it occupied in 1967. As the SLALA speaker said: "With its declaration of all-out war against the people of Palestine, Israel's recent military invasions into all the major cities in the already occupied West Bank -Including Ramallah, Bethlehem, Nablus and Hebron - has meant mass dislocation, unwarranted search, seizure, thousands of arrests and detentions, and the deaths of hundreds, many of whom died as ambulances were prevented from reaching them, or literally were left to rot on the streets." Audience members signed a petition supporting the demands of the campaign, and took postcards to distribute for others to send to the UC administration. The event also included a film screening of a recent documentary showing the continued expansion of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land after the so-called peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority brokered by former U.$. President Bill Clinton. Palestinians interviewed in the film showed how their homes and land were seized as Israel systematically expanded the areas of greater Jerusalem that are under Israeli control. One family, evicted from their ancestral home by the city of Jerusalem to make way for new settlements, fought a long battle in the courts, and finally won. But instead of getting their home back, they were given a dilapidated bus to live in as compensation. Another man won a court battle saying a certain piece of land seized by Israelis was indeed his, but he was not allowed to re- claim it. Activists from Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), associated with the International Socialist Organization (ISO), are leading a campaign for UC divestment from Israel on the Berkeley campus. There, after a successful sit-in protest led to many arrests, the UC administration has pressed serious criminal charges against student and community activists, and also suspended SJP from campus activities under a brand new "zero tolerance" policy against dissent. (See "No free speech for pro- Palestine group at UC Berkeley," in this issue.) Although the MIM-led movement is not affiliated with SJP or ISO, we support their call for divestment, and also support them in their struggles against repression by the UC administration. To find out to get involved in the UC divest campaign, visit www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/cal.