On Saturday April 6, a collective of concerned Wellesley students protested against the opening of the Hillary Rodham Clinton Center for Leadership, Citizenship, and Democracy. We organized this action to reject the notion that Hillary Clinton should be welcomed by the Wellesley community as a beacon of feminism and democracy. Clinton’s abetment of the Israeli genocide of Palestinians and her facilitation of imperialist military operations around the world — from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Haiti and Honduras — speaks to her lasting legacy of war crimes, as shared in the zines addressed to “Hillary Clinton: Wellesley’s Most Beloved War Criminal.”
We protested the “Renewing Democracy” Summit because of the gross hypocrisy and farcical representation of Clinton’s purported legacy, as well as the Center for Citizenship, Leadership, and Democracy named in her honor. Clinton claims to be a champion of women’s rights while perpetrating a genocide fueled by the imperialist, racist and patriarchal US regime. To invite a war criminal to preach democracy is beyond hypocritical; it illuminates the college’s institutional role in the war machine and encourages students to follow Hillary’s genocidal footsteps.
The Wellesley administration adds a further layer of hypocrisy through the continued repression of student dissent, even as their Summit and Center preach “civil discourse.” In reality, there was already a lack of “civil discourse” involved in the event. Civic Action Fellows invited to a lunch with Hillary Clinton were shut down when they asked questions regarding her politics on Palestine. Wellesley’s administration preemptively issued warnings of Honor Code charges for anyone inside the event attempting to protest, limiting signs to 8 x 11 printer paper. Identifying students’ outside demonstration as appropriate “civil discourse,” because of our adherence to College policy, while condemning the actions of inside disruptors, inherently implies that Wellesley College believes that “civil discourse” only includes speech the College sanctions.
We reject the establishment of the Hillary Rodham Clinton Center, the very existence of which is materially intertwined with the genocide of Palestinians. It is funded by Sue Wagner — a Wellesley alum and the co-founder of BlackRock, an investment company that profits off war and genocide by funneling billions of dollars into the military-industrial complex. BlackRock invests in Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman, among other companies manufacturing weapons for Israel.
As Wellesley students, often associated with Clinton’s image, we condemn her role in imperialist slaughter. We reject her whitewashed legacy that Wellesley College relentlessly promotes.
