Episode 20

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Published on:

16th Mar 2025

The War on Student Protest

Suchitra, Bhakti, and Madhuri take on the alarming escalation of state repression against pro-Palestinian student protesters in the U.S. The episode unpacks how legal frameworks, university complicity, and media narratives have converged to criminalize dissent on campus. From ICE raids to administrative gag orders, they break down how universities have transformed into enforcement arms of the state, silencing student activists under the guise of “safety” and “neutrality.”

They examine the weaponization of outdated laws like the McCarran Act, the use of AI-generated accusations to justify dismissals, and the absurd contradictions of free speech protections in the U.S.—where hate speech against Palestinians is permissible, but calls for divestment are met with police crackdowns. The episode also takes aim at the media’s role in this repression. While liberal outlets have covered the protests, their language is riddled with caveats, implying that student activists are extremists or Hamas sympathizers. 

What does it mean when institutions built to foster debate become sites of surveillance, punishment, and exile? How do we make sense of universities that prioritize financial ties to weapons manufacturers over the safety of their own students? And why does the state fear student movements so much? The hosts argue that history has already answered that question: because student protests always win.

Key Takeaways

  • Universities have become state enforcement tools. Instead of protecting students, elite institutions are inviting police and ICE onto campuses, facilitating arrests, and even revoking degrees.
  • Laws from the McCarthy era are being revived to justify deportations. The McCarran Act—once used to target communists—is now being wielded against pro-Palestinian students, criminalizing their activism.
  • The media subtly discredits student protests. Liberal outlets report on campus crackdowns but hedge their support with language that casts doubt on protesters’ legitimacy, subtly aligning with state repression.
  • Free speech protections are selectively applied. Hate speech against Palestinians is tolerated as “political discourse,” but calls for divestment from arms manufacturers are met with police violence.

Keywords

Student protests, campus repression, Palestine solidarity, McCarran Act, ICE raids, Columbia University, academic freedom, free speech hypocrisy, divestment, surveillance state, media complicity, legacy media, Zionist lobbying, university funding, policing dissent, historical student movements.

Hosted by Suchitra Vijayan, Bhakti Shringarpure, and Madhuri Sastry

A podcast by The Polis Project www.thepolisproject.com

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About the Podcast

It's Not You, It's The Media
Resist media gaslighting
It's Not You, It's The Media! unpacks the ways that the media manipulates narratives and makes you question your reality. You're being gaslighted. Suchitra Vijayan, Bhakti Shringarpure and Madhuri Sastry eviscerate the propaganda, set the record straight and offer moral clarity.

Suchitra Vijayan is a writer, photographer and activist. She is the founder and Executive Director of The Polis Project. For her first book, The Midnight's Border: A People's History of India, Suchitra traveled across the 9000-mile Indian border. A barrister by training, she previously worked for the United Nations war crimes tribunals in Yugoslavia and Rwanda before co-founding the Resettlement Legal Aid Project in Cairo, which gives legal aid to Iraqi refugees. She is the co-author of How Long Can the Moon Be Caged? Voices of Indian Political Prisoners (2023) which offers a lens into today's India through the lived experiences of political prisoners.

Bhakti Shringarpure is a writer and editor. She is the co-founder of Warscapes magazine which transitioned into the Radical Books Collective, a multi-faceted community building project that creates an alternative, inclusive and non-commercial approach to books and reading. Bhakti is the author of Cold War Assemblages: Decolonization to Digital (2019) and editor of Literary Sudans: An Anthology of Literature from Sudan and South Sudan (2017), Imagine Africa (2017) Mediterranean: Migrant Crossings (2018) and most recently, Insurgent Feminisms: Writing War (2023).

Madhuri Sastry is a former lawyer, specializing in international and human rights law. She was the publisher of Guernica Magazine. Her political writing, cultural criticism, interviews and essays have appeared in several publications including The Nation, Guernica, Slate, Bitch and New York Magazine. She is on the editorial board at the Polis Project.