Location Change for Solidarity Not Silence Protest
The school board cancelled their meeting, so educators, students, and supportive community members are rallying nearby at the Courthouse Square Park in Rockville, Maryland, instead.
Protest location change
The next protest we are hosting is still on Tuesday, March 19, with a slight time change from 5:15 to 5:30pm. However, the MCPS Board cancelled their meeting, so we are moving the location to:
Courthouse Square Park
Maryland Avenue and West Montgomery Avenue,
Rockville, Maryland.
It’s just outside the Rockville Metro Station. Here’s help with directions:
What is Solidarity, not Silence?
An ad hoc coalition of educators from revolutionary unions and other activist groups in the Washington DC area (commonly known as the DMV). We are engaged in a free speech fight to have educators suspended for pro-Palestine advocacy reinstated. More broadly, our struggle is to force the mainstream teachers’ unions to bargain directly over employers’ social media and speech policies.
A politicized core of militants is emerging among the rank-and-file of mainstream teachers’ unions—the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA)—that are demanding their unions definitively call for a permanent ceasefire and take action to make it happen. We hope to push this as far as we can. AFT and NEA members are strongly encouraged to withhold their PAC donations and to call for their unions to un-endorse President Biden until a permanent ceasefire is secured.
If you are in the region, please consider attending our upcoming rally at the Courthouse Plaza park in Rockville, Maryland. Otherwise, please sign and share our petition and flyer with your networks.
Demands
To the community:
Take action against the censoring of students and teachers during their out of classroom political activities
Take action to demand rules against book bans and against persecution of workers for out of work political activities
Demand a free Palestine and an end to US funding of Israeli military campaigns
Stand up for the political actions of solidarity made by workers in the education community.
Take a stand against police violence against pro Palestine student protesters in Italy.
To the Montgomery County council:
stop the silence and complicity about the stifling of out of classroom dissent among teachers and students
Demand a free Palestine and an end to US funding of Israeli military campaigns
Defend free speech for all state employees outside of work.
Take a stand against police violence against pro Palestine student protesters in Italy.
For Montgomery County Public Schools:
Reinstate all MCPS teachers put on administrative leave for showing support of Palestinians, and/or for opposing the ongoing violence committed by the Israeli government.
Implement Restorative Justice where necessary, and for any new scenarios (rather than placing teachers on administrative leave immediately upon receiving a complaint).
End the conflation of anti-zionism and antisemitism.
Use Labor Notes or other neutral, widely known organizations to teach people about anti-Arab hate, Islamophobia, and antisemitism.
Reaffirm teachers’ 1st amendment rights.
Reaffirm the right of teachers to internal due process prior to suspension.
For the Montgomery County Education Association:
Reaffirm collective bargaining rights to craft the social media policy owed to MCEA and the right of union teachers to call for a ceasefire.
Take a firm stand against the silencing and suppression of teachers' voices.
Take a firm stand against teachers being put on administrative leave, especially while other real/serious accusations don’t end up putting teachers on administrative leave.
Be in solidarity with workers affected by colonialism and empire and call for a ceasefire at least if not Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the westbank.
More information
Read the original call to action for our full statement, petition, and demands:
Call to Action from Solidarity, not Silence!
Introduction This is a call to action from an ad hoc coalition of educators from revolutionary unions and other activist groups in the Washington DC area (commonly known as the DMV). We are engaged in a free speech fight to have educators suspended for pro-Palestine advocacy reinstated. More broadly, our struggle is to force the mainstream teachers’ unio…
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