University of Puget Sound Students for a Democratic Society
University of Puget Sound Students for a Democratic Society is a Tacoma based affiliate of New Students for a Democratic Society.
Solidarity with Rafah
On March 20 2024, about 50 people gathered in Tollefson Plaza for a protest in solidarity with Rafah organized by School Of the Arts Students For A Democratic Society (SOTA SDS). Through this action, the protesters stood in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance and demanded an end of U.S. aid to Israel.
During the event, the crowd heard several speeches interspersed with chants. Gemini Gnull, a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, led the demonstrators in chants such as, “Yemen Yemen, make us proud! Turn another ship around!” and “What do we want? What do we really, really want? Justice!”
To start the rally, Xanat Romo, the co-founder of SOTA SDS, said, “Let me tell you this – they’re counting on us to forget about all this for the genocide to be successful. They’re counting on us to gradually get bored and give up on doing what’s right. But if we shut up, they get away with it, but I’ve never been very good at shutting up. I know it. You know it, too, right? I want them to know it.”
Following this, Mantak Singh, a member of University of Washington Progressive Student Union, a chapter of New SDS, said, “ Our government provides billions of dollars in aid, our factories produce the bombs and bullets the IOF uses, and here in Tacoma, they even used the port to load up weapons to send on over. This is not a distant conflict. This is a genocide armed and financed right here, in the U.S.”
After another round of chants, Romo explained how he was inspired to start organizing after attending a disruption of city hall. After connecting with organizers there, she learned about how University of Puget Sound Students for a Democratic Society (UPS SDS) disrupted a speaking event of Derek Kilmer, a Zionist congressman, and how that further inspired him to start an SDS chapter before inviting Lauren Garelick, a member of UPS SDS, to speak.[1]
Anti-Kilmer rally
According to Talison Crosby, on Wednesday, February 21 2024, over 100 students and community members gathered to protest a lecture by a Washington state representative, Derek Kilmer, hosted by the University of Puget Sound. Kilmer was originally scheduled to speak at 7 p.m., however, he never got the opportunity after protesters flooded the auditorium and took the stage.
Killmer's record was laid bare in a statement prepared by members of University of Puget Sound Students for a Democratic Society:
“We requested that the university revoke the invitation” said Lauren Garelick, student and founding member of UPS SDS. “UPS’s President Isaiah Crawford refused to do so.”
The connection between the Israeli occupational forces and police in the U.S. was articulated by UPS SDS member Clem Russel, “As a comrade shouting ‘Free Palestine’ was dragged out of Dallas City Hall on Valentine's Day this past week, the cop apprehending them replied ‘we learned this from Israel.’”
“We replaced a pro-genocide speaker with a group of students all stomping their feet and demanding better,” said UPS SDS member Annika Freeling. “Those moments on the stage showed just how much power we have when we unite.”[2]