GEO Statement of Solidarity with Northwestern University Community Not Cops (NUCNC)
On Oct. 31st, abolitionist student activists at Northwestern University were pepper sprayed, beaten, and arrested by heavily armed Evanston police during a protest demanding the abolition of campus police on Northwestern’s campus and divestment from law enforcement entities. This instance is, unfortunately, only one in a longstanding history of police violence both on and off college campuses, and a glaring example of the growing police militarization and draconian tactics across the country. Police brutality is unacceptable. We condemn Evanston Police for their actions, and Northwestern University for not protecting their students from police violence. Indeed, Northwestern University President Morton Schapiro has refused to issue any substantive response about the repression perpetrated by local and campus police, and has even condemned student protesters' demands to address police violence and anti-Blackness on NU’s campus.
The GEO supports the work of abolition in our union and community, and is organizing alongside undergrads, faculty, and community members to remove cops from our campus at UIUC. We stand in unwavering solidarity with Northwestern University Community Not Cops and the Northwestern Graduate Workers Union campaign to disarm, defund, and disband police at Northwestern University. The University of Illinois Police Department has consistently surveilled and repressed GEO members when we take direct action demanding fair wages and working conditions from UIUC, and also routinely overpolices and surveills Black and Brown students on our campus. We recognize that our struggle is directly intertwined with students at NU and the larger community of Evanston, as they suffer from a similar pattern of disinvestment in social and mental health services and a general atmosphere of classism, racism and anti-Blackness that the university enables by refusing to substantively address its root causes and allowing police budgets to consume an ever-increasing share of resources that could otherwise go towards the students, faculty, and workers who actually make our universities run.
Since it has become painfully clear that these institutions value policing and surveillance more than our health, safety and educational opportunities, we must stand together, now more than ever, and care and support one another as we move toward a society without prisons and police--toward one based in mutual aid and transformative justice rather than capitalist exploitation and carceral logics. As the events of this past weekend so clearly demonstrate, police have no place on our campuses or in our communities.
Ways to provide support:
Funds can be donated through a Venmo Account: @ NorthwesternGW. Put "NUCNC Organizer Support Fund" in the description!
Follow @copsoutofNU and @nu_abolition Twitter for updates and like/share/amplify their content.
Sign the petition by NU students calling for an investment in Black students and divestment from law enforcement.
Act locally: join the campaign for police divestment and abolition at UIUC. Follow @defundUIPD or email defundUIPD@protonmail.com to get involved.
The Graduate Employees’ Organization, AFT/IFT Local 6300, AFL-CIO, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, represents approximately 2,700 Teaching and Graduate Assistants on the UIUC Campus. In November 2009 and in February 2018, over 1,000 GEO members and allies participated in a strike to secure a fair contract and more accessible UIUC campus. With an active presence in the community, the GEO continues to work for high-quality and accessible public education in Illinois.
For more information, please contact geo@uigeo.org. More information can also be found on GEO’s website at www.uiucgeo.org.
Twitter: @geo_uiuc
Facebook: @uigeo @geosolcomm
Instagram: @geo_uiuc