On the 277th Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour (https://www.BerkeleySouthAsian.org/) last weekend, we visited the UC Berkeley Palestine encampment.
Halfway through a story about Indian student protestors in 1975, we stopped to point out the Palestine encampment behind us, and then welcomed our special guests: three students and faculty members active around the encampment. (1/4)
Our guests shared some of their own stories, walked us over to the encampment, and talked about how it fit into the movement to protect Gaza, making connections to imperialism, the role of the academy, and related systems like Hindutva. And then, to our delight, we heard from a middle school student activist on our tour who had helped organize a walkout for Gaza in their Berkeley public school. (2/4)
Participants asked questions, got oriented to the space and safety issues (e.g. not taking recognizable photos of people), explored, and brought back stories and photos they could share with their families and communities.
A huge thank you to our guests and participants, for trusting us. The walking tour uses the past to talk about the present, and it’s important that we can do that by offering both historical context and financial support back to movements doing the work. (3/4)
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