4Cs SEIU 1973, a higher education union in Connecticut, just passed a resolution calling for an immediate arms embargo on Israel and divestment from entities complicit in the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and occupation of Palestine.
The resolution calls for the State of Connecticut to divest public pension funds from these same entities and to avoid future investments. The resolution also calls for the cessation of aid and diplomatic assistance to Israel and any country that is committing war crimes and violating international law. It asks other state and national labor organizations to take similar stands and refrain from supporting political candidates whose positions conflict with these human rights principles.
4Cs SEIU 1973 represents higher education faculty and staff across Connecticut State Community College, the University of Hartford, and Charter Oak State College. 4Cs SEIU 1973 passed this resolution as part of our commitment to fighting for higher education students, faculty, and staff. We also passed it as part of our commitment to fighting for the working class and fighting for racial and economic justice. We understand that the fight for public education—and public higher education—is a racial and economic justice fight.
The goal of the resolution is to support the worldwide efforts to end the genocide and occupation in Palestine. It’s also aimed at protecting the rights of students across higher education institutions to exercise free speech and to protest while also protecting our higher education institutions and faculty that are under attack.
Following Oct. 7, 2023, college and university students led the movement to protest Israeli military actions and U.S. government support for Israel. Students across the nation set up Gaza encampments to demand a ceasefire, highlight the decades-long oppression of Palestinians, and demand institutions divest from Israeli corporations.
The Biden administration and corporate media misled the public by mischaracterizing the overwhelmingly peaceful campus protests as violent and antisemitic. University administrators responded by colluding with state and federal governments to brutalize and criminalize student protestors. Universities later adopted restrictive student conduct policies to limit students’ right to protest on their campuses.
The Trump administration vastly expanded this crackdown by using Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to kidnap graduate students protesting for Palestinian rights. Two well-documented cases are Mahmoud Khalil from Columbia University and Rumeysa Ozturk from Tufts University.
Trump then unleashed an unprecedented attack on international students by withholding and threatening to withhold the visas of thousands. International students now have their social media accounts monitored and can have their visas revoked if they make any social media post critical of Israel or U.S. foreign policy.
The Trump administration’s attack on international students serves multiple purposes and is part of a broader attack on immigrants and higher education generally. The social media surveillance is designed to instill fear, restrict free speech, and silence criticism of Israel or U.S. imperialist foreign policy. But the much broader goal of challenging and revoking thousands of student visas is to drastically reduce the number of international students studying in the United States.
Higher education institutions significantly rely on tuition dollars from international students, so reducing international enrollment directly hurts college budgets. But much worse, the Trump administration’s attack on international students is destroying the U.S.’s reputation for leading the world in higher education. International students with outstanding talents and abilities who normally would bring their talents here are today choosing to study in other countries.
4Cs SEIU 1973 passed this resolution because higher education unions cannot be silent when our students are under attack. We must fight back for our students because that is the moral and just thing to do. But we also must fight back because attacks on our students will inevitably hurt us as workers.
We are already seeing the negative impact across the country where international student enrollment has declined. A recent report, NAFSA: Association of International Educators Fall 2025 International Student Enrollment Outlook and Economic Impact, projects a 30-40% decline in the number of international students pursuing higher education in the United States. A decline of this magnitude would result in 150,000 fewer international students, our national economy suffering a loss of $7 billion, and the evaporation of as many as 60,000 jobs across higher education industry.
Higher education unions similarly cannot be silent in the face of the attacks on our faculty and academic freedom. Today, faculty across the U.S. are being targeted, criminalized, and silenced for teaching subjects critical of Israel and U.S. imperialist foreign policy. For example, many higher education institutions, through both pressure and complicity with the Trump administration, have elected to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism into their anti-discrimination policies.
This IHRA definition of antisemitism basically equates any criticism of Israel or criticism of Zionist ideology as antisemitic behavior. Faculty can be brought up on charges of discrimination if they teach any subjects that are critical of Israel or Zionism. Professors are losing their jobs, resigning from positions, canceling courses they planned to teach, or having their courses canceled by administrators. Faculty are also changing what and how they teach—effectively self-silencing themselves—in response. The attacks on our institutions and faculty today are the most direct attacks on institutional independence and academic freedom since the McCarthyism era.
Ultimately, the Trump administration’s attack on higher education is part of the assault on our democracy and the push towards authoritarianism and fascism. Higher education institutions, labor unions, the free press, and an independent judiciary—each exist as democratic sources of power and checks on state power. The Trump administration is directly following the model of prior authoritarian regimes to attack and weaken these institutions to consolidate corporate and state power. All of this must be fought vigorously by our labor unions and by all working people.
4Cs SEIU 1973 is joining the global labor movement to demand an end to the genocide and occupation of Palestine. We call for an end to our tax dollars funding this war, and we call for our state governments and municipalities to divest public money and pension funds from companies profiting from apartheid, occupation, and genocide.
We ask every worker to understand how our students, faculty, and higher education institutions are being attacked. And we ask every worker to see the direct relationship between our government’s investment in war and the disinvestment in education, employment, health care, and housing for working people. We call on fellow labor unions to join on to this demand and together let’s fight for a better future for all of us.
As with all op-eds published by People’s World, the views reflected here are those of the author.
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