The Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter at Florida International University unequivocally condemns the vile, antisemitic group which was allowed to table on campus today at Graham Center lawns, and we demand answers from administration on how this was able to happen.

 Today, February 10th at approximately 2 PM, a group of far-right activists set up a table with a banner reading “Ye is Right: Change my Mind” and took footage of students who approached the table.  This is in reference to recent antisemitic comments by rapper Kanye West, in which include him saying that he “loves” Adolf Hitler and claiming that the Holocaust did not happen as historically documented.  Multiple FIU campus police watched as the group tabled, but did not intervene.  It wasn’t until members of the YDSA at FIU began a peaceful counterprotest which included playing music from a speaker that the police intervened to ask our members to shut the speaker off.

 This is not the first time this group has spewed their bile on a Florida campus.  They have tabled at Florida Atlantic University and the University of Florida in previous weeks.  At FAU, campus police escorted the neo-Nazis away as they were non-students who did not reserve the table space.  At UF, Jewish students formed a counterprotest and drowned out the neo-Nazis with a loudspeaker.  At FIU, campus police allowed the neo-Nazis to table and interfered with our protest.

 When Governor DeSantis attacked the freedom of speech of professors through his “Stop WOKE Act,” FIU President Kenneth Jessel sent an email to professors in July to tell them how to remain in “compliance” with the law, rather than standing up for our faculty.  Neither Jessel nor the Board of Trustees have stood up to any of DeSantis’ attacks on public education since then.  Yet, when neo-Nazis come to campus, the FIU police are in full force to defend their right to spread antisemitic rhetoric and deny genocide.  In Florida, we have “freedom of speech” for fascists and authoritarian rule for the working class; this cannot stand.

 We demand from President Jessel and the Board of Trustees:

1. Issue a public statement condemning antisemitism and apologizing to the campus community, particularly Jewish students and workers, for allowing the neo-Nazis to table on campus.
2. Publicly state that the academic freedom of professors will be respected, and that FIU will refuse to enforce the unconstitutional “Stop WOKE” Act.
3. Provide us with answers: Did the neo-Nazis reserve a space on GC lawns?  If so, which student or campus organization provided them with the space?  If not, why didn’t FIU police escort them out?