Today is May Day …. the day radicals on the left celebrate as their version of labor day. The day UW students will proudly fly banners with the UW logo, while faculty fear punishment if they even identify with the UW.
May Day, I have read, memorializes the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago,
1886, when police opened fire on workers striking for the 8 hour work day. International solidarity led to countries across the world calling this day the international day of labor rights. President Grover Cleveland created America’s fall Labor Day in an effort to draw attention from may first, but May Day has remained an international day of left wing solidarity from parades in Moscow’s red square to demonstrations at the UW’s red square.
Whatever your politics, the use of the UW logo to support left wing causes has deep roots in free speech. A link that UW faculty on campus seem not to understand is protected under the First Amendment. Student free speech is limited by the short time students are part of the UW community. Imagine the political effect if the 30,000 long term members of the UW … the faculty and staff … could speak out with a similar strong voice.
May 1st, 2013, SUPER UW joined thousands of demonstrators on the streets of Seattle for International Worker’s Day.
SUPER UW, the UW’s most recent political alliance, is largely an ant Israel organization that paints the Palestinians as victims of corporate, imperialist, Zionist, racism. The picture above and the quotes below are from their website’s celebration of last years’s May Day.
In Seattle, we had the opportunity to show solidarity with this continued fight for immigrant rights and share the interconnected nature of our struggles. Colonialism and Imperialism play an important role in the oppressions which drive systemic and institutionalized inequalities. In Apartheid Israel and the occupied territories as well as right here in the US, the fight for equality requires that we come to terms with our history of genocide and racism and build an organized opposition capable of challenging neoliberal policies, which are at the heart of Imperialist expansions.
SUPER UW joined other student groups CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador), USAS (United Students Against Sweatshops), MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán), Amnesty International UW, ISO UW(International Socialist Organization), and countless other labor rights and social justice activists for an amazing march in support of workers across the globe.