An Important Update and Call to Action from Solidarity, not Silence!
If you live in the DC region, you are invited to a documentary viewing and discussion panel to connect with other radical educators and engage in collective political self-education about Palestine.
The work of the Solidarity, not Silence! has not stopped since the last protest we hosted. Our work has only become more urgent as we watch Israel attempt to widen their genocide in Palestine to a full-blown regional war. At home, Columbia University just sicced the cops on nearly 100 students protesting against the genocide in Gaza.
As workers, we have more power than we realize to put a stop to this madness, especially when we get organized. That is why our work to protect educator freedom of speech, push mainstream teachers’ unions to take action for a permanent ceasefire, and to hinder U.S. imperialist complicity in Israel’s crimes will continue until we win. You can read more about our efforts so far here:
Toward that end, Teachers Against Genocide and IWW DMV EWOC are taking the lead on hosting a documentary viewing, followed by a panel discussion led by local radical educators. If you are a student, education worker, or a supportive community member, you are cordially invited to our showing of The Palestine Exception.
Please share this flyer within your networks. We also invite you to share this article with people so they have the full context of our work. Each share goes much further than you realize. If you do not live in the DMV, consider copying our efforts, adapted for your local area, and share this flier with anyone you know who lives in or around Rockville, Maryland.
Rockville Memorial Library
1st Floor Meeting Room
May 23, 6:30-7:30 pm
About The Palestine Exception
The Palestine Exception was created and produced by Fault Lines, a program on Al Jazeera news. It is 25 minutes long. You can find the documentary on Al Jazeera’s website. We have also quoted Fault Lines’ description of their documentary:
Fault Lines investigates what the crackdown on Palestine advocacy means for academic freedom in the United States.
Doxxing. Blacklists. Terminations. Investigations. Hate mail and death threats. And accusations of anti-Semitism and material support for terrorism. These are some of the ways in which pro-Israel advocacy groups have tried to silence and intimidate pro-Palestinian voices in the US for years.
But since October 7, these kinds of attacks have intensified. Constitutional rights advocates have called this a McCarthy-era moment for speech, suppression, and university campuses are on the front lines.
Needless to say, this is an important documentary to unpack collectively as it is directly relevant to our situation as education workers and students. Even if you cannot come to our collective viewing and panel, please watch it on your own time and make sure to share it!
What is Solidarity, not Silence?
An ad hoc coalition of educators from revolutionary unions and other activist groups in the Washington DC area (commonly known as the DMV). We are engaged in a free speech fight to have educators suspended for pro-Palestine advocacy reinstated. More broadly, our struggle is to force the mainstream teachers’ unions to bargain directly over employers’ social media and speech policies.
A politicized core of militants is emerging among the rank-and-file of mainstream teachers’ unions—the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA)—that are demanding their unions definitively call for a permanent ceasefire and take action to make it happen. We hope to push this as far as we can. AFT and NEA members are strongly encouraged to withhold their PAC donations and to call for their unions to un-endorse President Biden until a permanent ceasefire is secured.
Thank you for reading! If you want to support our work, please share this article so we can get the word out to as many interested educators as possible!
Get in touch:
solidaritynotsilence2023@gmail.com
301.802.1926
DMVeducationworkers@protonmail.com