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A group that advocates for the “new communism” disrupted a Yale University professor’s class Thursday.
Nonstudent members of the Revolutionary Communist Party, or Revcoms, walked into the classroom of Timothy Snyder, the Richard C. Levin Professor of History and Global Affairs. The Revcoms posted a video on their website.
“No class as usual today. There is a state of emergency, a state of emergency caused by this capitalist, imperialist system,” Revcom member Raymond Lotta said before mentioning the “genocide in Gaza,” loss of abortion rights and “climate catastrophe.”
Lotta told the students that Snyder is “brainwashing you with lies and slanders about communism” as others stood beside him holding signs. Lotta told Inside Higher Ed that 10 people took part.
The video ends with someone—Lotta said it was Snyder—saying, “You don’t have the right to film me” and seemingly grabbing whatever recording device was capturing the video.
The Yale Daily News student newspaper, which previously reported on the incident, said Snyder and his students left the classroom and resumed the lecture in another room. Lotta said that security eventually kicked the Revcoms off campus.
“He was the one who decided to evacuate, to call off his class and take it somewhere else,” Lotta said of Snyder, “and he has refused to debate these questions of the true history of communism.”
The Revcoms’ website says, “Being a communist today means following Bob Avakian and the new path that he has forged,” and includes numerous references to the founder of the Revolutionary Communist Party.
Snyder didn’t respond to a request for comment Monday. In an email, a Yale spokesperson said, “The university takes the disruption of campus activities and student safety seriously.”
In a statement, Kristen Shahverdian, senior manager of free expression and education for PEN America, said that “protest should never disrupt classroom instruction. If students actually wanted to debate the professor there are other forums to do so. This action robbed other students of the right to attend classes and learn.”
