Anti-war signs and Palestinian flags were raised high by around 60 members of the Iowa City community, who gathered on the Pentacrest and marched throughout the University of Iowa campus on April 10 in protest against the UI’s relationship with weapon manufacturing companies.
Members of the organization Iowa City Action for Palestine led protesters in chants, saying “The people, united, will never be defeated” and calling for the UI to end ties with companies like American Ordinance and Collins Aerospace, which perform military contracting for the U.S. and Israeli militaries.
The rally was part of an ongoing campaign called “Israel Bombs Iowa Builds.”
A petition by Iowa City Action for Palestine calls for the UI to cut ties with American Ordinance entirely and to respond to criticism from its students and community organizations. The petition currently has 658 signatures.
First-year UI student and Revolutionary Communists of America organizer Jonah Cornelisse participated in the protest and had previously organized a rally in Iowa City, immediately following the U.S. strikes on Iran.
He said that while local protests like this one might not reach higher levels of government, it is important for informing members of the community, especially when it involves local institutions.
“We’re definitely looking for people to make the connection that imperialism like this is connected to capitalism,” Cornelisse said. “You can’t separate the two. You can’t separate the two. I think there is room to do local things, like for the university to disaffiliate from arms manufacturers. I think that’s a very limited win, but nonetheless, good to see.”
Rasmus Schlutter, a UI graduate student and member of Iowa City Action for Palestine, attended the rally and said American Ordinance is a local example of “imperialist influence”, and that by calling it out, it denormalizes the presence of organizations like it.
Schlutter said that uniting through an organization is essential for making these ideas known.
“An organization is an instrument of belief,” Schlutter said. “It’s our collective way of saying ‘We have these shared beliefs, and we’re translating them to action through our shared hours. It’s translating that moral belief in that cultural principle into tangible action. For me, the organization is the way we do that.”
Iowa City resident Anna Blaedel, 44, is a member of Iowa City Action for Palestine and a chaplain at the Sacred Collective. Blaedel said the education system needs to practice and encourage the ideas of freedom for its students, rather than involving itself in international conflict. She said that everyone has something to offer to reach a collective sense of freedom.
“Any time the university is in contract with and encourages participation in weapons manufacturing, and in this case, complicit in genocide,” Blaedel said. “We have a duty and responsibility to engage, to resist, and to transform the system.”