Students Across the Country Were Protesting. We Organized the Tour de Franzia.
September 12 2024
The week before finals last spring, I overheard a student talking about the upcoming student strike for Gaza. I found one Montanans For Palestine Instagram post captioned “NO CLASS. NO GRADES. NO FINALS. STRIKE FOR GAZA ON MAY 1.” When I asked my classmates if they would be participating, not a single one of them had seen the post or heard any word of a strike. They all planned on attending class, which settled it for me — I wouldn’t strike either. Like the rest of my classmates, I would finish out the school week and on Friday, I would participate in the “Tour de Franzia,” a boozy wine-bag-fueled bike race through the neighborhoods of Bozeman.
Everyone I knew had heard of “The Tour,” and by 7 p.m. on Friday, May 3, hundreds of participants had gathered at the starting location to partake in the mass act of binge drinking. It was an impressive display of student unity — one that should make us reexamine our inability to partake in larger movements, especially political ones.
By 7 p.m on May 3, as we gulped cheap wine, student protests against the war on Gaza had already resulted in over 1,000 arrests across the U.S.. The Columbia University encampment, which had been the epicenter of U.S. student demonstrations, had been dismantled by NYPD 2 days prior, after an audacious two weeks of demanding Colombia divest from Israel-linked companies. While our jubilant student body swerved down 11th street, dodging cops with our Bota Boxes in tucked precariously in our armpits, students from the University of Michigan carrying pro-Palestine banners clashed with law enforcement outside the university art museum. On Friday May 3, student-led anti-war movements were dominating national headlines. And on Friday May 3, In Bozeman, Montana, we were hammered.
During my time at MSU, I’ve seen very few on-campus student demonstrations, so the lack of activism last spring didn’t come as a huge surprise. But in light of the national student protests, I had to wonder why word of the “Tour” had spread so swiftly while the “Strike For Gaza” remained effectively off everyone’s radar.
To better understand the scarcity of political activism at MSU, I spoke with Sophia Fortunato, a leader with Montanans For Palestine and a former student at UM. Fortunato, who was heavily involved in activism during her time in Ann Arbor, told me most universities are inherently good places for demonstrations. “They’re big walkable places. Socially, they breed activism. It’s a lot of people coming into a larger understanding of the world, of their place as an adult, of their beliefs.” she said.
What separates UM and MSU is UM’s long-standing precedent for student protests. “Different universities have different systems and structures that can make it easier at an institutional level to support political activism,” Fortunato told me.
This is true. While MSU states that students have the right to peacefully demonstrate, student activism hasn’t been integrated into campus culture. In fact, MSU culture is built around escaping politics. What unites the student body — besides the “Tour de Franzia” — is our shared love for the land, be it through outdoor recreation, agriculture or spirituality. Most of us relish slipping out of phone service. But as Fortunato points out, there is a reason why we feel this need to escape. The world can feel like a pretty tough place, especially when we’re constantly hearing whispers of genocide.
Do we avoid activism because we have the means to sneak off into the wilderness and quietly tend to our own needs? It’s easy to pin a lack of political action on privilege. But Fortunato fears that mindset can foster hostility among activists, which isn’t terribly productive in inspiring any sort of larger movement.
“Shaming people into feeling motivated and passionate about helping other people with nothing in return doesn't work,” she said. “We need to find ways that we can meet people where they’re at. What do they care about? What are their priorities? And is there a way to make those align? Is there a way that we can make it so everyone feels brought into this?”
Of course, activism won’t appeal to everyone – especially at MSU where a patchwork of right and left-wingers, environmentalists, liberationists, libertarians and librarians (not mutually exclusive) share classrooms. But Jonah Henderson, an MSU student and an organizer with Montanans for Palestine, didn't think that melange was an issue. “On all college campuses,” they told me, “especially larger ones like MSU, there’s students and faculty of all backgrounds and educational levels. There’s always going to be opposition towards those who speak out. I don’t think there’s an abnormal amount here. But MSU students are notoriously super busy and there’s not really any prioritization of liberation work.” I agreed with Henderson — the MSU student body generally appears too apathetic to partake in any sort of radical activism.
I told Fortunato this, and while she agreed that the Bozeman community comes across as apathetic, she didn’t think it was necessarily due to indifference. “The core of apathy is a feeling of helplessness,” she said. “We see apathy when things are ongoing. The conflict between Israel and Palestine has been going on for decades. And people are feeling apathy even now, with what has [been happening] in the last few months.” It can be disenchanting, Fortunato explained, to hear about all of these student protests without really seeing any changes being implemented by universities or the government.
I think a lot of people share the attitude of senior environmental science student Olivia Lynch, who told me “I don’t know how much me skipping class is going to cause a ceasefire.” She’s got a point. Despite the ubiquitous protests, student divestment demands haven’t really led anywhere. While a handful of universities have agreed to divest from companies who profit from the conflict in Gaza, most institutional boards have voted against divestment or taken a stance of neutrality.
Students have succeeded, however, in sharpening national attention towards the war on Gaza. Just as student demonstrations against the Vietnam war in the 1960s fueled public dissent towards the conflict, this year’s spring protests have heightened political pressure to end the war on Gaza. As a student body, even if we aren’t demanding university divestment, we, just like any student body, have the capabilities to sway public opinion with our collective voice.
So we have the numbers and if Fortunato is correct, we have the political awareness. What’s missing?
Not much. We simply need to take that first step forward. And, yes, that’s a big step. “When you are protesting, you are inherently bucking up against a power that is bigger than you. That’s really scary,” said Fortunato. “But no one has to protest on their own. Protesting is an inherently community-based action.”
Really, it’s as simple as just showing up. Attending a Montanans for Palestine rally off-campus. Working with a pre-existing activism group. “Be willing to start small,” Fortunato advised. “You don't have to go from a campus that has had nothing into something like what we have been seeing at other universities, like encampments or large campaigns. You can't expect to be the next Columbia or UM, making national headlines right away. But you are a big state school. The ingredients are there.”
So just show up. Although that May 1 strike seemed terribly daunting last spring, I realize now that I wouldn’t have been alone. There is a whole community that would’ve appreciated that extra body. One extra body. We have to start somewhere.