The mass killing operations of Israel are there for all to see but the military objectives of the Zionist onslaught have not been met. Even in the confined quarters of the Gaza enclave, a year of unrestrained criminality hasn’t subdued the armed resistance. Even if all out regional conflict takes place with direct US involvement, imperialism will reap what it sows.

One of the key challenges facing us today is not only that unions neglect international solidarity outright, but that there are increasingly fewer spaces where members can talk about international issues and practice solidarity. Advancing the struggle for Palestine in our unions then is also critical to building a more democratic labour movement.

Serbia’s Jadar region is home to one of Europe’s largest untapped lithium deposits, and President Alexander Vučić recently inked a series of deals with the European Union “granting the EU and European carmakers exclusive access to Serbian lithium and paving the way for the construction of one of the largest lithium mines on the continent.”

Different approaches are needed to counter today’s containment strategies. Governments are less likely to be moved by displays of our potential power. Huge rallies and days of action are an essential part of building movements and campaigns, but this is a period when ongoing social action and indefinite strikes will be needed to turn back attacks and win our demands.

Time and again, the McGill University administration, along with provincial government officials, has refused dialogue with student protesters, preferring to make a violent show of power over activists who remain steadfast in their aim: to make this summer a freedom summer aimed at contributing to ending genocide, occupation and colonialism.

Our encampment did not have to end in violence. Students from other institutions continue to maintain peaceful encampments on campuses across Canada. We cannot allow police impunity to embolden further acts of violence against student encampments. We demand accountability for the inexcusable acts of police brutality that took place that night.

The fight for Palestinian freedom—as well as for Canadian democracy—will be long and arduous. And it will require our collective resistance to evolving tactics of censorship. The TMU law students, and all the students setting up encampments around the world (including in Israel), have had an immense impact.

The corporate state must be destroyed if we are to restore our open society and save our planet. Its security apparatus must be dismantled. The mandarins who manage corporate totalitarianism, including the leaders of the two major political parties, fatuous academics, pundits and a bankrupt media, must be driven from the temples of power.

Students protesting worldwide aren’t a threat to anyone’s safety, writes University of Waterloo student Nadia Khan, they are simply standing up for the Palestinians in Gaza who’ve been denied it. We deserve a say in where our tuition dollars go, and until our institutions take our demands seriously, we’re not going anywhere.

We need to contend with the intersections of capitalism, patriarchy, colonialism, racism, and democracy, and raise fundamental questions about whether what has been called the “imperial mode of living” is the best and only way to live, especially since the privileged way of life in the Global North comes at the expense of other people elsewhere in the world and at the cost of our planet.