Our spirited May Day march through Cambridge ended at the locked Harvard Yard gate with acclaim from the anti-genocide in Gaza encampment inside Harvard.
Along the march, our militant chants were "Arab, Jewish, Black, and White or Asian, Latin, Black and White, Workers of the World Unite”, “Joe Biden you can't hide, we charge you with genocide," "Smash racist deportations, working people have no nation." Many passersby took our leaflets and quite a few thanked us for our action. One person joined the march and wanted to work with our party.
After the Boston and State Cops destroyed the Northeastern University encampment early this morning, arresting over 100 protesters, a Northeastern student gave a stirring speech at our picket line through the Harvard gate, cheered by the Harvard anti-genocide protesters.
The student said "They can arrest the protesters but they can't stop the movement...We students of Northeastern stand in solidarity with the students of Harvard ... denounce the genocide ...We support the brave Northeastern staff who will almost certainly be fired for protesting,...We cannot rely on the police or the government to keep us safe! We keep us safe! Northeastern is more concerned with their ties to Raytheon and other companies complicit in genocide than with their students...power to the working class ..."
Another speaker remembered the first anti-Vietnam War demonstration in the U.S., by the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) in 1962, about the same size as our rally today. At that demo, a speaker said, "The Vietnam War marks the beginning of the end of U.S. imperialism." It led to the Worker-Student alliance and the spread of militant action against imperialist war. Only a few years later, the anti-Vietnam War movement spread to millions upon millions, from campuses to workplaces to the U.S. military itself, with rebellions by U.S. soldiers against the war. This anti-genocide movement will also spread. It's critical that the anti-nationalism, anti-capitalism and antiracism line of PLP be put in the lead of these protests.
Some of the marchers overcame fear and demonstrated in public for the first time in their lives! A member of the Boston Teachers Union (BTU), who is also a Harvard student, warmly greeted a fellow BTU member at our picket line.
We passed out bunches of leaflets and CHALLENGE newspapers through the locked Harvard gate to the demonstrators inside as we chanted along with them, fists in the air, “Disclose, Divest, We will not stop, We will not rest.”
Soon after the march, one of the marchers joined our Party. We want to make that one new member the next step as we grow into thousands and millions, to tear down worldwide capitalism and build a communist world!