Photo caption. Jill Stein at October 29, 2026 rally by Courthouse, Photo by Alden Williams.
The November 3, 2026 rebuke of the US Republican Party increases the importance of defending Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein. Of 100 people arrested almost 2 ½ years ago during a demonstration for Palestinian rights at Washington University (Wash U) in St. Louis, Stein has been singled out as the only one against whom charges are still being pursued.
The police assault occurred on April 27, 2024 when Joe Biden was president, a fact consistent with the interpretation that the Democratic Party holds more hostility toward the Greens than the Republicans.
While many suspected that charges would be dropped due to the long time span since the 2024 incident, Stein was ordered to appear in a St. Louis court on September 14, 2026 to make a plea and again on October 29 to set a trial date. But the trial date will not actually be set until January 25, 2027.
You can defend our imperiled civil liberties and help Stein right now by going to JillStein.net and signing the petition demanding that Wash U drop the charges against her.
April 27, 2024
Events leading up to the saga were underway by March, 2024 when Stein, who had also been the Green Party presidential candidate in 2012 and 2016, planned a speaking tour through Missouri starting in St. Louis. She arrived at our house the night before her April 27 in St. Louis presentation. The program included representatives from Jewish Students for Palestine, Dar al-Zahra Mosque and Education Center, African People’s Socialist Party, Universal African Peoples Organization, Asians Demanding Justice, Veterans For Peace, Green Party of Illinois, and College Democrats. Shahab Mushtaq spoke on behalf of the sponsoring Green Party of St. Louis (GPStL).
After the event several Wash U students invited Stein to speak at a campus rally for Palestinian rights and she accepted. The protest was peaceful until Wash U ordered mass arrests that included what Stein describes as a violent, unprovoked police attack on her. A video of the encounter is posted on social media.
There, Stein was arrested along with Green Party campaign managers Jason Call and Kelly Merrill. Merrill reported that “This was the first time I understood why so many police are on bicycles. They picked them up and used them as weapons to push people down.”
We had planned a fundraiser that evening at the Uhuru Solidarity Center. Though the GPStL had promised people that they could talk with her there, I had to explain that she was in jail and might have to come late. But Stein was one of the last to be released. GPStL member Barbara Chicherio was not able to pick her up until 3 am in the morning. She then had to get up early to go to her next speaking event in Columbia, Missouri.
Absurd Charges Threaten Free Speech
The farcical nature of charges against Jill Stein should be clear to anyone watching the video of the cop trying to push her down. Clearly the charges seek to turn truth on its head by claiming that Stein was attacking those who assailed her.
At the rally held after Stein’s October 29 court appearance GPStL General Coordinator Rev. Elston McCowan spoke on behalf of the Universal African Peoples Organization (UAPO). He ridiculed the continuation of the court ordeals, saying “If I were the police chief for St. Louis and an officer of mine said that he was intimidated and scared by small Jill Stein, then I would immediately fire that cop.”
Stein was very explicit in why she continues to be a threat to both the Democrat and Republican parties:
“This case is an assault on our most basic freedoms. We all have reason to stand up now for our imperiled civil liberties and for a foreign policy that serves the people. The moral, civil liberties and foreign policy concerns of the 2024 protest have grown all the more urgent. And popular support has surged for the protesters’ demands – ending Israel’s assault on Gaza, ceasing the provision of US weapons enabling it, and defending rights to free speech and protest that are widely under attack.”
“The fundamental question is whether people can peacefully speak out and protest – in this case against the slaughter of children. Or will this violent crackdown on our most basic civil liberties be allowed – adding to a rising tide of authoritarianism in the US?”
The Solidarity Path to Victory
Charges against Stein and many others can be won by cohering groups who oppose slaughter in Palestine and throughout the world, especially those who have been victimized by legal machinations. A core ally is Veterans For Peace (VFP) whose chapters across the US believe that the role of the military should be to protect the people and not the investment oligarchy.
At the rally, Angel Flores described what his organization faced: “Members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation in New Jersey were sued by the Department of Justice for supposedly obstructing access to religious freedom after calling for a protest in an intersection right where a sale of Palestinian land was taking place. A judge dismissed the charges in early October and defended the PSL’s free speech rights. This defeated suit was yet another abuse of the law to persecute and sabotage the leftist movements and organizations that are fighting back.”
Perhaps the best known of recent legal onslaughts targeted the Uhuru 3: African People’s Socialist Party Chairman Omali Yeshitela, African People’s Solidarity Committee Chairwoman Penny Hess and Uhuru Solidarity Movement Chair Jesse Nevel. They were arrested on July 29, 2022 on the ridiculous charge of acting as “unregistered Russian agents.” On December 16, 2024 Jill Stein was with them in support when they were found not guilty.
After Stein’s October 29 court appearance Jesse Nevel said this: “We call for the immediate dismissal of all of the bogus charges against Jill Stein. She has used her powerful voice to express solidarity with African, Palestinian and all oppressed peoples. It is for this reason that she has come under attack. We stand with Jill Stein in fighting back against this political frame-up, ’til victory is won! Fight for anti-colonial free speech! Hands Off Jill Stein!”
Ties are being built which include the left but go beyond it to work with those beginning to understand how capitalism’s insatiable greed for increasing quantities of energy affects their lives. Also speaking at the rally was Luke Adams of the Community Liberation Network: “I was arrested with Jill at Wash U. I’m fighting Clayco, a company that wants to put a huge 350 acre data center in my home town of Festus. The Democrats rely on corporate donations and corporations are relying on these hyper scale data centers.”
Convergence of Free Speech and Anti-Fascism
Stein warns that “These charges threaten us all. The attack manifests a convergence of US/Israeli imperialism and rising fascism at home.” She emphasizes that:
“In the West Bank, settler-terrorists (Ambassador Huckabee’s own words) attack unarmed farmers and families, destroy villages, burn olive trees, attack diplomats and beat reporters like the Washington Post’s Heidi Levine to near death. Meanwhile a new lockdown and surge of demolitions in Hebron are choking off food, supplies and movement, displacing thousands, and creating yet another humanitarian emergency.”
“All of this fuels war in Iran, escalating chaos in the region, hot war between Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and threatens to draw the UAE, Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey among others into an expanding bloodbath.
It is not only in the Middle East where children are needlessly dying. Since 2017, there has been a doubling of infant mortality in Cuba, proving that sanctions can have deadly effects just as bombs and bullets do. The near elimination of fuel coming into the island nation has dramatically interfered with life-preserving measures. An infant may die because the mother cannot get to the hospital in time for the birth. She may arrive but the physician might not. Or the cleaning staff may not have arrived. Or, if there is a birth complication or neonatal care a critical machine may stop because the energy to run it gave out. Others may die due to the inability to transport food from country to city.
These are just the most vivid cases of horrors visited on people who resist colonial domination. Throughout countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America peoples are plundered in the search for corporate profits, especially by the greed for rare earth metals and other raw materials for the exponentially expanding demand for energy.
The Elephant in the Empire: Washington University
Massive global destruction could not increase at its rapacious velocity without the academic leg of what Walter Johnson mentions in The Broken Heart of American: the military-industrial-academic complex. There may be few institutions other than Wash U that more fully exemplify academic cooperation with evil.
For years the St. Louis progressive community, including Wash U student groups, have criticized it for ties to “defense” manufacturing by Boeing. Boeing has a massive presence throughout the St. Louis area. Recently, many have demanded that Wash U cut its ties to study-abroad programs affiliated with Israel. When Stein spoke at the 2024 protest, students presented five demands to Wash U.
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Cut ties with Boeing.
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Boycott Israeli educational institutions.
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Release a statement condemning Palestinian genocide and calling for an immediate ceasefire.
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Drop charges and suspensions against protesters and defund university police.
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Stop buying land in surrounding communities and make payments in lieu of taxes to University City and St. Louis.
The last of these hits me personally since we live in University City, right next to Wash U. When it landgrabs properties its tax-exempt status reduces revenue, forcing the City to lay off employees.
As Stein said, “Washington University was on the wrong side of history when it called in several police departments that violently arrested demonstrators peacefully protesting genocide and the University’s collaboration with the war industry, specifically the Boeing Corporation.”
Speaking for the Veterans For Peace, GPStL member Bob Suberi summed it up neatly: “Wash U should be on trial here today! Not Jill.”
Conclusion. We should remember that this case would be over if Wash U asked the St. Louis prosecutor to withdraw all charges. Jill Stein should not be held hostage by Wash U for committing the crime of being its victim.