By Barley Lewis-McCabe

On Oct. 7, roughly 60 irate Cal Poly Humboldt students gathered on the steps of Art B to protest the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Under the watchful eye of the Free Speech Response Team, student activists passed flyers and scrawled calls for peace on cardboard until the speakers passed around the megaphone and kicked off the speeches.

“As you heard before, today marks three years of the most blatant, obvious genocide that we have seen in the 21st century,” Dakota Hirschensohn, Humboldt Youth Democratic Socialists of America president said. “Resistance against Israel, inside and outside of Palestine, is growing. It is our job as Americans to support them in their struggle.”

The conversation quickly shifted to focus on the history of Palestinian resistance. The next speaker, student activist Jarrett Whitlow, placed the devastation of Gaza in the perspective of an 80-year settler colonial campaign waged by Israel.

“In 1948, the first war for the preservation of Palestinian independence began,” Whitlow said. “Laid by the advances of nationalist, Israeli militias and the Zionists behind them that planned from the beginning to conquer all of Palestine for themselves.”

An event organizer gave the safety talk as the crowd spilled from the Art Quad into the streets of Arcata. Organizers pointed out designated police and media representatives, made sure people knew who to get water from and, most importantly, that they wouldn’t let anyone fall behind. They ensured the crowd wasn’t loose, but a dense brigade marching through campus and into the city, meeting fellow protesters and speakers in the Arcata Plaza.

“We will be visible and we will be loud,” Sally, an event organizer who requested their last name be omitted for safety reasons, said. “We have safety in numbers.”

Ear-piercing chants echoed through Arcata, underscored by the ever-reliable car horn.

“You hear honking and you don’t know if it’s in support or against us,” a marcher turned to his friend and said. “So we just assume it’s pro.”

Hirschensohn discussed the goals for that day’s action, hoping that they can help kick off change that goes beyond the Redwood Curtain.

“We don’t think — from Humboldt — we can end the genocide,” Hirschensohn said. “But if we put enough pressure on the CSU system, Cal State admin, we can push things in the right direction.”

Barley is the good-timing Editor In Chief of The Lumberjack, as well as a jack of all trades news writer. Contact him for any reason at bl258@humboldt.edu