Oppose Cornell’s moves to suspend Momodou Taal for participating in anti-genocide protest!

As the Socialist Equality Party’s candidate for president, I denounce the anti-democratic moves by Cornell University to suspend academic worker and international student Momodou Taal. His suspension and imminent deportation for participating in Palestinian solidarity protests on campus is a flagrant attack on free speech and democratic rights. This act of repression must be opposed by all workers and students.

Taal, a British-Gambian international student and instructor at Cornell, has been targeted for his vocal opposition to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, supported by the US and its imperialist allies. On September 18, Taal joined a protest of over 100 students who disrupted a career fair at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, where defense contractors such as Boeing and L3Harris were recruiting. These companies profit directly from the Israeli military’s war crimes against the Palestinian people, and the students were protesting Cornell’s complicity in these crimes.

In response to the protest, Cornell’s administration wasted no time in carrying out reprisals. Taal was handed a no-trespass order, suspended from the university, and informed that his F-1 visa would be revoked. The university administration claims that Taal violated campus policies by participating in “unreasonably loud” chants and refusing orders from campus police. However, Taal has made clear that these allegations are false. He entered the career fair briefly and left without incident.

There has been an outpouring of opposition at Cornell and beyond to the vindictive actions against Taal. On Wednesday, Taal reported on X that he has “yet to receive the final confirmation of my withdrawal [from the University], which I was told would be yesterday or today. In addition, I have been informed by the university that no change will be made to my visa status, and my F1 visa remains open until the appeal process has been exhausted.”

Taal added, “I am still on a temporary suspension, so please keep up the pressure.”

The real reason Taal has been targeted is his outspoken opposition to Israel’s war on Gaza and his defense of the Palestinian people. As he explained, “They are doing this to shift the focus away from their complicity in genocide. It’s telling that they think it’s more important to suspend me than taking seriously their investment in the slaughter of thousands of innocent civilians.”

Taal’s treatment is an outrage. He has been denied due process, and his basic democratic rights have been trampled upon. The administration is taking actions that would lead to the revocation of his visa, effectively expelling him from the US, a tactic aimed at silencing him and intimidating others.

This case is part of a broader nationwide assault on free speech and democratic rights on college campuses. University administrations, in collaboration with the Biden-Harris administration, state governments, and the police, are cracking down on protests opposing the US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza. Across the country, students and faculty who speak out against Israel’s war crimes face repression, including suspensions, expulsions, and criminal charges.

At the University of California, Santa Cruz, more than 100 students and faculty were arrested last semester for protesting the war in Gaza, prompting a lawsuit by the ACLU. In Michigan, Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel is pressing felony charges against 11 University of Michigan students for participating in pro-Palestinian protests. Earlier this month, Ann Arbor police, following the actions of a Zionist professor, barred Socialist Equality Party supporters from distributing leaflets on campus about our election campaign.

Taal’s suspension follows his earlier punishment for protesting the war in Gaza. He was suspended during the spring semester for his involvement in a pro-Palestinian encampment at Cornell, part of a nationwide series of protests demanding an end to US support for Israel’s crimes. For international students like Taal, these suspensions carry even more devastating consequences, as they result in the loss of their visas, forcing them to leave the country.

The crackdown on Taal and other pro-Palestinian protesters is part of a larger strategy aimed at silencing any opposition to US imperialism’s wars abroad. The Biden administration, while hypocritically claiming to defend “democracy” and “human rights,” has overseen an intensifying war on dissent, targeting anyone who opposes the government’s foreign policy agenda. The aim is to suppress opposition to US imperialism’s wars in Gaza, Ukraine, and elsewhere, and to prepare for broader conflicts, particularly against Iran and China.

The attack on Taal’s rights at Cornell is particularly significant as it exposes the deep integration of universities into the apparatus of state repression. Far from being institutions dedicated to free inquiry and the pursuit of truth, universities like Cornell are increasingly functioning as enforcers of political orthodoxy, cracking down on those who challenge the interests of US imperialism and its allies. Defense contractors like Boeing and L3Harris, with their deep ties to the US war machine, are welcomed on campus, while students who protest against war are criminalized and expelled.

The SEP and our election campaign stand in full solidarity with Momodou Taal. We demand his immediate reinstatement at Cornell and the end to threats to revoke his visa. We call for the dropping of all charges against pro-Palestinian protesters at Michigan, Santa Cruz, and across the country.

The repression of Taal and other students is a warning of what is to come. The ruling class is preparing for far greater attacks on democratic rights as it escalates its wars abroad and confronts rising social opposition at home.

The battle cannot be waged on the campuses alone. The social power of the working class must be mobilized to defend democratic rights and oppose war, in opposition to the two parties of the ruling class, the Democrats and Republicans, and the capitalist system that they defend.