On Friday, the Champaign-Urbana chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation will organize a student and worker walkout and march to the Caterpillar Innovation Lab in response to the Shut It Down for Palestine global call.
According to the Shut it Down for Palestine website, “there is a growing global movement for a Free Palestine. Across the world, millions of people are engaging in demonstrations and organizing major marches in solidarity with Palestine.”
The organization also calls for “an immediate ceasefire, cutting all aid to Israel, and lifting the siege on Gaza.”
In addition to marching, demonstrators will wear Palestinian colors and keffiyehs, shut down their businesses and refuse to buy, produce or sell goods.
According to the press release, the University has ties with Caterpillar, which produces military hardware for Israel.
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“Caterpillar bulldozers have been used to displace tens of thousands of Palestinian families,” the press release said. “The Israeli military has also repeatedly used them to bulldoze over peaceful protestors.”
The community will join together for the march behind the Ikenberry Commons at 1:30 p.m. Demonstrators will then march to the Caterpillar research facility, where they will demand that the University divest from Caterpillar.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 11,000 people since the war began on Oct. 7, with two-thirds of the deaths being children and women, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
“The Gaza death toll has been subject to debate among US and Israeli officials,” The New York Times stated. “Some, including President Biden, have cast doubt on the figures from health officials in Gaza given Hamas’s control over the territory.”
“There can be no business as usual while a genocide occurs in real time,” organizers with PSL stated in the press release.
