by Andres Felix

On the morning of Wednesday, Jan. 24, students and faculty in and around the Gutswurrak Student Activity Center (SAC) stopped their activities and looked towards the quad. They could hear the chants and the drums long before the roughly two dozen demonstrators marched into the quad after beginning their demonstration at the Cal Poly Humboldt’s Children’s Center.

The action was organized in part by Humboldt for Palestine, a collective of individuals from the community to support Palestine and protest apartheid. The demonstrators waved Palestinian flags, held their fists in the air, and held signs reading, “Resistance is not equal to terrorism,” “Don’t look away” and “Mourn the dead, fight like hell for the living.” Alongside this, the crowd chanted led by a demonstrator wielding a microphone.

“Ceasefire now!” The demonstrators chanted. “Free, free Palestine! Gaza, Gaza can’t you see? Palestine will be free! No peace on stolen land!”

After about 15 minutes, the demonstrators continued their march, passing by the library and chanting all the way.

“Let. Gaza. Live!” They chanted to the drums. “No peace on stolen land!”

The demonstrators eventually marched off campus, heading towards Wildberries. Maria Fragoso Calzada, a student who marched in the demonstration, feels that there are many parallels between her struggles growing up in Mexico and the struggles of the Palestinians in Gaza.

“[I want] everyone to be liberated and supported,” Fragoso Calzada said. “[We need to] keep educating, because education is power and it’s liberation.”