This May Day, the largest in years, was an expression working-class resistance — the foil to the attacks of Trump in the past months. Like the millions who filled the streets during recent No Kings Marches, on May 1 thousands of workers and students decried Trump, the billionaire class, the war on Iran, attacks on immigrants at home, and the repression of the Left.
In New York City, the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Professional Staff Congress (PSC) union marched with 700 members, and were joined by the Immigrant Solidarity Working Groups (ISWG) of various campuses. The Graduate Center PSC had its own contingent: at a chapter meeting, the campus’s ISWG proposed three demands for the contingent, which were overwhelmingly approved: Full Rights for Immigrants, Defeat of U.S. imperialism in Iran, Palestine and beyond, and to reinstate the Fired Fourth, the CUNY adjunct who was fired for their Palestine activism last year.
Below, we compile another installment of Voices From CUNY, where students and workers share their reflections from the contingent and May Day.
Student at the CUNY Graduate Center
I decided to march with the Graduate Center PSC because I’m a student and part of the Immigrant Solidarity Working Group. I consider it to be really important for labor and for students to organize together, to see what the conditions and the injustices at the university and beyond are, and bring our forces together and unite. I was there in solidarity with staff and faculty to make demands for the Graduate Center PSC and the Immigrant Solidarity Working Group.
We had our slogan of Full Rights for Immigrants, and I think that slogan is really important because it brings us into a new phase of organizing, moving from this moment of crisis that we are still in to the next phase. We had resistance across labor and student movements in reaction to the injustices happening and federal forces in Minneapolis. We are seeing an increase in state violence, both in the targeting of immigrants by ICE and Homeland Security Investigations.
Much like Minneapolis, New York City has so much strength to fight back. And while we’re fighting against that state violence that is kidnapping our neighbors, beating them up so hard that they get taken to the Wyckoff Hospital, we also have to make positive demands — what is the future that we are fighting for, what is the world that we want to build? In socialism, what would a society that fully embraces immigrants look like?
That demand at May Day was really important because labor and students are coming together under the umbrella of full rights for immigrants. What are the public benefits that we are demanding? The freedom of movement? The right to protest? These are all things that are important for the labor, student, and immigrant rights movements.
The march was incredible. It was really amazing to walk up to Washington Square Park and to have it be completely overflowing with the quantity of people that were there. For some reason, after more than a decade of organizing, I had just never been to a massive May Day march. So it felt really special to be there as part of a massive march.
It felt like our contingent was our home base. The PSC contingent — both the Grad Center PSC and the PSC as a whole — had such strong chanting and fervor for our demands. So much energy around the the Fired Fourth, so much energy around anti-imperialism in Iran and Palestine and beyond. And this demand for Full Rights for Immigrants. It was such a refreshing energy: the drums, the chanting, and really coming together behind the banners of our demands.
For me, a highlight of our contingent was that it helped me to place myself in the experience that I’m going through. I’m a new student and I’ve always seen the student movement as so strong and important to the changes we’ve seen in this country. Being there at May Day and being part of this contingent with the PSC really made me feel like part of this.
My favorite part was this chant was someone would say, “Whose CUNY?” and then the crowd would respond, “Our CUNY,” and I was leading that chant. I swear I went into this deep repetition that flowed through itself, and in that moment it was this realization of, “this is mine” — a belongingness to CUNY and a university system that has such an incredible legacy of student organizing alongside the labor movement. That’s something I’m really proud of.
CCNY Adjunct Faculty Member
After chatting with some of my students at City College (CCNY) about May Day’s international history, I headed down to Washington Square park, where I met with fellow members of CCNY’s Adjunct Organizing Committee, Immigrant Solidarity Committee, and Adjuncts Against AI, to join the PSC’s contingent. It was an auspiciously beautiful spring afternoon, and there was a palpable electric quality in the air that felt hopeful and optimistic. I think part of that was to do with the nature of the PSC contingent’s slogans; the recent push for full rights for immigrants felt bolder and more generative than the somewhat limited calls to “abolish ICE” that we’ve all grown familiar with.
There were also calls to reinstate the Fired Fourth and firm condemnations of U.S. imperialism in Iran, Lebanon, and Palestine. The beauty of these slogans was the seamless way in which discussions of each demand seemed to bleed organically into conversations about the others. There seemed to be a real collective understanding of the ways in which all these fights are connected.
Once we stepped off, the march itself remained spirited and energetic, growing as it progressed. Chants of “Up, up with education; down with deportation” naturally synced up with an enthusiastic drumline that cheered the PSC on as we surged through the streets amongst thousands of other workers. Local tenants leaned out of windows overhead, waving flags and shouting their support. Pedestrians cheered from the sidewalk, and motorists honked their horns in solidarity.
Perhaps the most moving sight of the afternoon was a small child wearing a red PSC bandana and a UNION POWER pin, sitting proudly on her father’s shoulders, pumping her fist in the air, and smiling from ear to ear. I couldn’t help imagining her years from now as a grown-up union member, marching on her own two feet with her fellow workers, maybe even with a child of her own in tow. Seeing motivated young people marching side by side with aging veterans of the labor movement served as a powerful testament to the resilience and intergenerationality of our collective efforts.
I know I wasn’t the only one feeling inspired. Various adjuncts who are new to movement work eagerly collected the literature we were distributing, and several asked to be plugged into organizing initiatives and working groups. The energy on the street was undeniable, and the best thing to do now is to keep that momentum going and channel it into our ongoing fights for immigrants’ rights and against imperialist war.
CUNY Graduate Student
On May Day, hundreds of PSC members marched alongside thousands of workers from Washington Square Park to Foley Square. Many of these comrades joined a contingent organized by the Graduate Center PSC chapter, Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, CUNY for Palestine, and the PSC Immigrant Solidarity Working Group with demands to reinstate the Fired Fourth, end U.S. imperialism in Iran, Lebanon, Palestine, and beyond, and win full rights for immigrants. The march was very large and full of energy as we chanted, drummed, and carried signs and banners though the streets of Manhattan on a sunny May afternoon.
As a rank-and-file CUNY worker, I was struck that as I marched alongside workers from across the university, seemingly everyone knew about and supported the fight for the fired four, a clear example of how this counter-repression campaign has shifted the political terrain in the union.
In a moment of immense imperialist and racist violence, standing together in solidarity gave me a great feeling of hope in the power of collective struggle.
Left Voice Member, CCNY Faculty
I marched with the Graduate Center PSC because their chapter voted to support several demands that I also support. While my campus’s ISWG did not officially co-endorse their demands, several of us marched with the Graduate Center folks with our banner.
While the demands might seem quite different from one another, they’re actually closely related. The connection between opposing U.S. imperialism and the demand to reinstate the Fired Fourth is the most obvious, since the Fired Four were targeted for their pro-Palestine activism, but the call for full rights for immigrants is related to both of these, too. Immigrants don’t enjoy the same free speech protections as U.S. citizens, and for some types of visas, the ability to stay in the U.S. is linked to employment. When faculty are getting fired for their political speech, immigrant faculty are especially vulnerable. And U.S. imperialism over the decades has shaped immigration patterns a lot, often by making things worse in people’s countries of origin. The U.S. creates conditions that shape people’s decision to move here, then treats them badly once they’re here. So in that way, job security and academic freedom, imperialism, and full rights for immigrants are connected to each other.
It was the biggest May Day march I’ve ever been to, and the PSC had one of the biggest contingents. It feels good to march with my union and know that other people are marching all over the country and the world. In my home state, North Carolina, 22 counties had to close the schools because so many teachers called out to go to their May Day march. Even though we were marching in different places, I felt close to them too, as a fellow education worker.
My favorite part was when we were doing a “whose CUNY? Our CUNY!” chant and the chant leader was moving around holding up the megaphone to lots of different people to really emphasize the “our” element of Our CUNY. To me this emphasized the ground-up, rank-and-file nature of the contingent and that we, the students and workers, are what make CUNY what it is, not the administration.
The post Voices from CUNY: Students and Workers Demand Full Rights for Immigrants, Defeat of U.S. Imperialism, and Reinstatement of the Fired Fourth on May Day appeared first on Left Voice.
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