At the Socialism 2025 conference this past July 4th weekend, New York University Professor Chenjerai Kumanyika greeted his audience with a chant: “Money for books and education, not for war and occupation!” The roomful of masked “comrades,” some clapping and raising their fists, repeated the words back to him, call-and-response style.
Kumanyika didn’t say which “war and occupation” he was referring to, but his keffiyeh said the “war” was the war in Gaza and the “occupier” was Israel. Keffiyehs were on display at the three-day gathering of radical leftists — worn by presenters and people in the audience, even draped over a conference table. In panels and discussions that ranged from “DIY abortion” to abolishing the police, the keffiyehs were a constant reminder of the coalition between radical socialists and anti-Israel activists — the so-called red-green alliance.
A YouTube video of one of the conference panels is embedded below. However, rather than subjecting yourself to it, I recommend reading @thestustustudio’s superb reporting of the event. Stu has compiled great threads highlighting the conference on X.
Continuing with Legal Insurrection’s coverage of the American Association of University Professors, I watched two panels featuring Kumanyika, a member of the AAUP governing Council.
The AAUP used to be the gold standard for academic freedom, but now, for all practical purposes, it’s an ultra-progressive labor union. The scholarly group historically stood firmly against academic boycotts as assaults on the free exchange of ideas, but that has changed as anti-Israel activists have captured its agenda. I’ve written about the AAUP’s anti-Zionist transformation here, here, and here.
Kumanyika organizes for the AAUP and is also a member of NYU’s Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine.
Here “in one snapshot,” he presents the picture of the red-green alliance radicalizing higher ed:
Kumanyika led a panel about coalition-building against, among other things, Trump’s “attacks” on universities, i.e., universities that unlawfully allowed antisemitism to run wild on their campuses and are finally facing consequences.
After October 7th, he says, [29:22] the problem wasn’t that the campus protests were extreme — but that they weren’t strategic. “It was courageous, inspiring — but also unsustainable. … We need to re-center it around organizing”:
Time and again, the panel pivoted to the Palestinian struggle: “A lot of our conversations don’t happen without the Palestinian Liberation Movement,” panelist Jason Wozniak said. [48:21] “We owe it to our brothers and sisters in Palestine … to fight for a better university and for a better world.” [1:26:44]
Earlier, Kumanyika nodded in agreement with a member of CUNY’s FSJP who argued “the fight around academic freedom is the fight for Palestinian liberation.” [59:55]
Another member applauded the AAUP’s reversal on academic boycotts — a boon to the BDS (boycott, divest, and sanction) movement — and its webinar on “scholasticide” in Gaza. A recent uptick in AAUP membership proved “you can speak about Palestine and still grow your union.” [1:15:58]
The same thing happened at a second panel about abolishing the police. Kumanyika appeared on it with Chicago organizer Brian Bean, author of Their End is Our Beginning: Cops, Capitalism, and Abolition; and Palestine: A Socialist Introduction.
They started, predictably, with dismantling the system: “If we want to be serious about abolishing the police,” said Bean, “we have to be serious about abolishing the capitalist state and replacing it with a new system of socialism, communism, how do we want to call it.” [8:15]
“All these racist cops — we don’t need them,” Kumanyika continued:
But once more, the conversation came back to Palestine. “How do you see the role of the student uprisings in the Palestine solidarity movement against the abolition of police?” one member asked. Kumanyika didn’t respond directly — he rarely did, I noticed. Instead, he recommended everyone enjoy the evening activity: a showing of The Encampments, a documentary featuring Mahmoud Khalil in a sympathetic portrayal of the anti-Israel campus “tentifadas.” [1:08:42]
Earlier, Kumanyika worried aloud about being watched by the capitalist State they plan to abolish.
“I just saw — I’m not even gonna say because I think we livestreaming … but I see government officials tweeting about us. … Yeah, they tuned in:”
The panelists at Socialism 2025 were being watched, by none other than Leo Terrell, head of the Department of Justice’s Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism:
Terrell has marching orders from Trump to eliminate campus antisemitism.
Perhaps mindful of this, in parting with his audience, Kumanyika left some words unspoken: “I want to signal to my comrades,” he said, briefly lifting his keffiyeh, “I’m here; we here.” But if his message was cryptic, its meaning was clear: It was an expression of solidarity with his comrades in the red-green alliance — an alliance that feeds on a reliable grievance against an age-old enemy.
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