Takes up: middle school students protesting the ban of a symphony honoring the Stonewall Uprising; a protest in Australia against gender-affirming care restrictions; and a lawsuit in Botswana to make same-sex marriage legal.
students
Eyes on Education đź‘€: Backlash growing against tech in education
May 7, 2026AI is drastically changing education. Pausing its use and respecting educators’ experience with students is urgently needed. The April 21 resolution to implement major limits on educational technology in Los Angeles is an example of parents and educators working together for quality education.
Eyes on Educationđź‘€: March 2026
March 5, 2026Takes up: a whitewashed required curriculum for introductory sociology in Florida’s 28 public community colleges; a loan-limit policy by the Federal Student Loan Program that could have disastrous implications for the medical field; and implications of Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” in Indiana colleges.
Oakland in solidarity with Minneapolis: ICE OUT!
February 7, 2026Participant’s report of a demonstration at Fruitvale Bart station, one of many actions in solidarity with the general strike in Minneapolis that took place around the San Francisco Bay Area on January 30.
Eyes on educationđź‘€: Education 2025–Creating resistance for 2026
February 5, 2026In Oklahoma, Maine, Florida and Chicago, Van Gelder gives us a view of battles in defense of public and higher education. The rightist moves against state and local K-12 school districts and even individual teachers, staff, parents and students attempts to instill fascism and Christian Nationalism from the cradle.
Handicap This! February 2026
February 1, 2026Takes up: the situation of people with disabilities in Gaza; the opening of an accessible playground at Ella Baker Global Studies and Humanities Magnet School in Minneapolis; and World Disabilities Day 2025.
In-person report: The People’s Conference for Palestine
September 28, 2025The second annual People’s Conference for Palestine brought 4,500 Palestinian and U.S. student-activists and their allies together in Detroit, focused on the urgent need to stop Israel’s genocide in Palestine and to end the suffering in Gaza and the West Bank.
Young Voices from the Second People’s Conference for Palestine
A collection of participants’ voices in the the second annual People’s Conference for Palestine, which took place in Detroit August 29-31.
World in View: Bangladesh one year after
August 8, 2025A year ago, a massive student-led movement overthrew the dictatorial rule of Sheikh Hasina. One year on, where does Bangladesh stand? Women’s experiences show that Bangladesh has a long way to go.
Columbia University settles with fascism
August 3, 2025Columbia University acquiesced to the Trump administration which restores their federal funding and grant money but agreed to punish students exercising their free speech against the genocide in Gaza. In addition, Columbia will have to pay $221 million to the federal government. This “is a disaster for higher education,” says Todd Wolfson, National President of the American Association of University Presidents.
Memphis demonstrations against Trump/Musk continue
May 27, 2025On April 19, over 300 people demonstrated against Trump and Musk in Memphis, Tenn. People of all ages were there, including families with children and many students. These ongoing demonstrations show optimism and a desire for solidarity in these times that are frightening for the whole country.
Draft Perspectives 2025-2026, Part I: The sound of bootheels
May 2, 2025From immigrants to Transgender people, from workers to students to women, no one is safe. Attacks on many fronts are part and parcel of what is widely recognized as a Trump/Musk coup, but is usually portrayed as normal politics in the media. Institutions cannot be trusted to save us and they need to feel the pressure from people fighting back.
Harvard 1, Trump 0—but it’s not over
April 21, 2025Harvard’s rejection of Trump administration demands has become a focus for resistance. However, the silence on Israel’s genocide in Gaza reveals an anti-Palestinian bias at Harvard despite a strong presence of Jewish students and faculty who reject equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
Women World Wide: April 2025
April 5, 2025Takes up: the life of feminist philosopher Sandra G. Harding, who coined the term “standpoint theory”; researched effects of online misogyny on British primary and secondary school students; and increasing global rates of incarceration of women.
Destroy Columbia University? Because they can
March 14, 2025On March 7, a task force created by Trump’s executive order cut $400 million in grants from Columbia University, accussing it of continued failure to protect Jewish students “from antisemitic harassment”, and of denying them learning opportunities. This is part of an ongoing repression since last spring’s campus protests against Israel war on Gaza.
Students, superintendents resist erasing history
March 6, 2025Superintendents, teachers and students resist attempts to destroy K-12 education. We refuse to be less than wholly human, and to give up on the “power and richness of the whole” in education.
Detroit immigration raids and resistance
February 11, 2025Susan van Gelder presents a mix of reports, information, commentary and dialogue about the ICE raids against immigrants in Southwest Detroit, as well as the actions to resist it.
Detroit braces for Trump’s ICE invasion
February 4, 2025Rumors about ICE are spreading in Southwest Detroit. In a school, student absences are already elevated. Meanwhile communities are gathering resources and planning activities. The sooner we gather, more people can be helped.
Essay: The decades-long struggle for free universal public education
January 11, 2025Facing Trumpist attack on public schools, teacher Susan van Gelder traces history of the struggle in the U.S. for free education, from Reconstruction to the present. She highlights what we must fight for and the forces of retrogression.
A review: Peregrina—Heartbreak and Joy
January 6, 2025Susan van Gelder reviews ‘Peregrina,’ a multimedia 80-minute one-woman performance, telling the story of femicide in Mexico and the movement of Mexican women to combat it.
Handicap This!: December 2024
December 20, 2024Takes up: a program in Southeast Asia to help people with disabilities migrate without barriers; scrutiny of abusive educational practices in England against children with learning disabilities and severe mental disorders; and students with disabilities win a Disabled Student Bill of Rights at the American University in D.C.
Women WorldWide: November 2024
November 30, 2024Takes up: Students in Seoul protest plans by Dongduk Women’s University to become co-ed; London conference by the feminist organization Nordic Model Now!, debunking the sex industry; and a mass demonstration in Rome against violence against women.
World in View: Ayotzinapa: 10 years without justice
September 30, 2024Ten years after a brutal attack by the police and organized crime resulted in the forced disappearance of 43 students from a Rural Teachers’ College in Ayotzinapa, Mexico. What cannot be forgotten is the living social forces that can transform Mexico root and branch–first of all, the parents of the students, who continue searching for their sons.
Featured article: Can Bangladesh’s revolutionary process continue to deepen?
August 24, 2024A massive movement of students overthrew the dictator and aim for deeper social transformation, which needs to encompass various social forces. Can the needed solidarity between students and workers chart a way forward?
Handicap This!: August 2024
August 15, 2024Takes up: Disability services for students in college; the Supreme Court in Japan ruling unconstitutional the Eugenics Protection Law, which prevented people with disabilities from giving birth; and the life of disability rights activist Margot Imdieke Cross.
World in View: Bangladesh student protests a mass movement?
August 3, 2024What started as a student protest at universities has become an expression of profound discontent about life in Bangladesh. Can this mass movement grow and force authentic change?
Lead article: A new generation of radicals against genocide
July 22, 2024Students have poured into protests and encampments because they see a genocide taking place in Palestine. They have shown how intimately their universities are embedded in the military-industrial complex that is arming Israel’s genocidal attack. This movement must be defended, supported and encouraged to develop.
Women WorldWide: June 2024
June 5, 2024Takes up: In memoriam Faith Ringgold, a seven-decade Black American artist; research by Dr. Debby Herbenick about violent sexual behavior among college students; a paper by the Snow Leopard Trust about “Applying a Gender Lens to Biodiversity Conservation in High Asia”; and the documentary ‘You Are Not Alone: Fighting the Wolf Pack’ (2024) about the trial inspiring Spain’s #MeToo movement.
WSU students against genocide
May 31, 2024In-person report of a visit on May 28 to the Wayne State University students’ encampment in Detroit against Israel’s genocide in Gaza
Columbia meets encampments with force
May 9, 2024A participant in the 1968 antiwar student occupation at Columbia University draws parallels to students there protesting genocide now. In both cases, administrators lacking reasoned arguments ordered police assaults that failed to quiet protests and spurred actions on campuses across the U.S. and internationally.
Students against genocide speak for themselves
Interviews with several students from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., about the protest encampment there against the genocide in Gaza.
Draft Perspectives, 2024-2025: Part One, A new generation of radicals stands against genocide
May 4, 2024Part I of the 2024-2025 Draft Perspectives. Takes up the youth Palestine solidarity movement, as well as the genocide in Gaza, its support from the powers that be and the mass resistance from below.
Youth in Action, March 2024: Outcry over death of genderfluid youth
March 8, 2024Nex Benedict, a gender non-conforming youth, was bullied and knocked down in their school restroom hitting the back of their head on the floor. They died the next day. Demonstrations against bullying and in support of LGBTQ+ youth followed. Nex’s mother said the bullying became worse after anti-Trans legislation was passed in Oklahoma showing the known relationship between those two events.
Universities under far-right attack
January 26, 2024The “resignations” of presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard revealed the philosophical failings in academia, which is under attack by the far right for not suppressing criticism of Israel. Why didn’t academia know how to respond to the events in Israel/Palestine?
Queer Notes: January 2024
January 15, 2024Takes up: Transgender Awareness Week 2023 worldwide; Intersex people’s rights; a LGBTQ+ art exhibit in Sao Paulo; the aftermath of the murder of nonbinary Mexican Justice JesĂşs Ociel Baena Saucedo; and the Lynchburg, Va., City School Board rejecting a grant awarded by the “It Gets Better Project” to high school students to create a safe space.
Youth in Action: May-June 2023
June 9, 2023Takes up: students at 300 schools in 42 states and D.C. participated in a national walkout against gun violence on April 5; at Boston University’s commencement ceremony on May 21 students booed the CEO and president of Warner Brothers, whose one year salary exceeds the sum of raises demanded by his 11,000 writers who are now on strike; and after days of protesting, grad students in Delhi, India, succeeded in blocking a 200% tuition hike at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute.
School workers strike across Canada
June 5, 2023School support workers in Halifax with Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 5047 have been out on strike for three weeks as of May 26. They are demanding more than the retrogressive 6.5% raise over three years they have been offered.
World in View: Ortega attacks Nicaraguan human rights
March 21, 2023Fearing defeat in the 2021 Presidential elections, Ortega’s solution was to jail or deport every possible presidential candidate, along with others opposing his rule, including ex-Sandinistas from the revolution like well-known Sandinista Comandante Dora MarĂa TĂ©llez.
Youth in Action: March-April 2023
Students from 47 schools in Iowa walk out of class on March 1 to protest “Don’t Say Gay” bills; state legislatures are rolling back child labor laws; Scottish youth protest cuts to a youth assistance and engagement program.
Police murder of Tyre Nichols puts U.S. civilization on trial yet again
March 16, 2023The murder of Tyre Nichols by Memphis police reveals the racism permeating police departments and sparked protests across the U.S. calling into question the system in which the violence is rooted. The police murder of tree-sitter Tortuguita in Atlanta showed how deep the rot is and the uprooting needs to become.
The revolution in Iran continues to develop
The revolution in Iran has been continuous since the funeral of Jina (Mahsa) Amini on Sept. 17, 2022. To the dismay of the Iranian rulers, new strata of the population keep joining the revolt, which was already tremendously diverse.
Youth in Action: January-February 2023
January 24, 2023Takes up: graduate researchers and academic student employees’ strike of the University of California’s campuses won a contract on Dec. 23, 2022; Students at Benito Juarez Community Academy in Chicago walked out of class on Dec. 19, 2022, to protest gun violence; and DACA recipients and other young in Phoenix, Arizona, made 60,000 phone calls and knocked on 4,000 doors to pass ballot measure 308.
El régimen iranà teme la revolución, las mujeres lideran el camino
December 15, 2022El rĂ©gimen iranĂ deberĂa tener mucho miedo. Los gritos de: “¡Mujeres, vida y libertad!” “¡Muerte al hijab!” “¡Muerte al dictador!” llenan las calles. Las mujeres iranĂes han inspirado al mundo y han advertido a los oligarcas de Irán que su rĂ©gimen represivo está en grave peligro.
Women Worldwide: November-December 2022
November 11, 2022Women students protest rape culture at Stanford; feminists in Gaza face backlash for campaigning against family violence against young women; Tunisian feminists protest male-dominated election structure; first woman appointed to Yemen’s Supreme Judicial Council, and women activists there win passport rights.
Youth in Action: November-December 2022
U. of Florida students protest choice of reactionary Ben Sasse as university president; Virginia high school students protests anti-Trans plan; Greek students protest police sent onto campuses by the government.
Iranian regime fears revolution while women lead the way to total change
October 22, 2022The Iranian hard-line regime should be very afraid. The cries of: “Women, life and freedom!” “Death to the head scarf!” “Death to the dictator!” fill the streets. Iranian women have inspired the world and put Iran’s oligarchs on notice that their repressive regime is in grave danger.
‘Women, Life, Freedom!’ The transformation of Iran
September 28, 2022The Iranian hardline regime should be very afraid. The cries of: “Women, life and freedom!” “Death to the head scarf!” “Death to the dictator!” fill the streets. Iranian women have inspired the world and put Iran’s oligarchs on notice that their repressive regime is in grave danger.
Handicap This!: September-October 2022
September 13, 2022Handicap This! on disabled dancer Rodney Bell Ngati Maniapoto; disabled students’ fight for rights at California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and Ireland’s first Disability Pride and Power Festival in July.
Women WorldWide: June 2022
May 30, 2022Takes up: in a groundbreaking ruling a Tokyo Court ordered Juntendo University to compensate women because they were rejected from medical school which had tampered with their exam scores and set stricter requirements for women; women in refugee camps in Somalia created their own credit lending system; Sandbach High School’s feminist club in Cheshire, UK, launched a petition calling for the government to ban sales of school uniforms in sex shops and their use in porn videos; and the girls’ track team at Albany High School in New York launched a petition to “Stop Gender Biased Dress Codes: Allow the Girls Track Team to Wear Sports Bras.”
Youth in Action: May-June 2022
May 19, 2022Takes up: student workers at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, who struck on March 3 to protest the elimination of a farm residency program; graduate students at Indiana University went on strike April 13 for better wages, benefits, and to stop fee hikes, and for recognition of their union; and on April 25, about 20 students at Tufts U. held a protest against General Dynamics recruiting on campus.