Student Committee for Defense and Solidarity and People’s Defense Front-Northern Appalachia
On Saturday, April 27, local working people and students poured into the streets of downtown State College to march for a liberated Palestine on the occasion of May Day (also known as International Workers’ Day). A number of workers’ and students’ organizations — including the Student Committee for Defense and Solidarity, People’s Defense Front, Penn State Students for Justice in Palestine, United Socialists at Penn State, Centre County Democratic Socialists of America, and Deep Roots Collective — united to host the march. Below is a report back on the march from organizers on the ground.
A Collective Show of Strength
May Day 2024 began as a rally at the Allen Street Gates. 300–400 workers, students, and community members emerged in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle against the genocide war on Gaza. This is a marked increase from the estimated 50 in attendance at last year’s May Day march. Rising international consciousness surrounding the Zionist occupation of Palestine, in addition to campaigns for Palestinian liberation waged for years by local organizations, have paved the way for this revolutionary upsurge.
This year’s May Day celebration was also focused on Palestine not just because of its immediate relevance, but because workers have always stood with Palestine and against Israeli occupation. Workers and oppressed people share a common enemy: imperialists. Imperialists are monopoly capitalists. They are the CEOs of the largest corporations of the world — people like Jeff Bezos, Donald Trump, and Bill Gates. In imperialist countries like the US, they exploit workers directly for profits at production plants, in the fields, and in the service industry. Imperialists also try to expand their profits into markets in other countries, where they can pair labor exploitation with national oppression — with the assistance of the military. In other words, corporations based in the US, Europe, Israel, Russia, China, and other imperialist countries exploit Palestinian labor in addition to oppressing Palestinians for existing as Palestinians. This double oppression is key to why anti-colonial revolutions have shaken the world since the twentieth century. It is essential for workers in the US to unite with these struggles, especially right now in Palestine, to defeat the ruling US imperialist class from all sides.
As attendees joined the rally, the crowd quickly swelled to overtake the entire area in front of the Gates. Protestors raised flags and signs, wore keffiyehs, and unfurled banners reading “WORKERS & STUDENTS UNITE FOR A FREE PALESTINE!” and “STOP THE PENN STATE WAR MACHINE // ARL OFF CAMPUS”. Palestinian students, families, and children; the local Muslim community; student allies; Penn State faculty and staff; and local working people stood side-by-side as speeches were delivered.
During the rally, locally known MAGA Zionist “Jim Harpster” arrived across the street to eye up the growing protest. Harpster has preyed upon pro-Palestine demonstrations since last fall, regularly collaborating with police to violently harass attendees and disrupt the popular movement. However, seeing the discipline of the hundreds of protesters, Harpster soon left the scene, reluctant to approach the protest when confronted with its size and militancy. This is yet another lesson that the only way we can prevent reactionaries, fascists, and zionists from sabotaging demonstrations is through mobilizing the masses and strengthening our organization.
Workers and Students Take the Streets
After 45 minutes of rallying and snapping photographs, protesters entered College Avenue. The protest was organized without the permission of Penn State Administrators or the State College Police Department, and no permit was requested to approve the march route with the local government. Instead, protesters took matters into their own hands, blocking intersections to ensure the march could move to its targets. The march took place during a time when traffic was the most congested and several events were taking place in State College, including a larger pop country concert at Beaver Stadium. The choice to protest during this time was meant to send a message that we have a duty to disrupt business as usual when a genocide is unfolding that the US funds and local institutions like Penn State directly support.
The march continued down College Avenue until it reached Atherton Street, the largest thoroughfare in State College, which protesters took for the first time since the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. Several organizers who helped organize those protests in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd learned march tactics through the May Uprisings and the following summer of unrest. And just as protesters and attendees learned from the 2020 protests, the police again played the same role of attempting to prevent justice and stifle protest. Marchers this year were undeterred and did not allow the police to dictate their movements.
Protesters Confront Penn State’s Support of Genocide
After marching downtown, with megaphones booming between apartment complexes, protesters descended on Penn State’s campus and proceeded toward the so-called Applied Research Laboratory. The ARL was founded as the “Ordnance Research Laboratory” after World War II to develop military weaponry, much of which is “tested” first on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and then brought back to the US and given to police departments. This includes AI facial recognition and surveillance, drones, “less than lethal” weapons which cause permanent disability and death, chemical weapons, and more.
For years students have spoken out against the ARL, most notably in the 2020 pamphlet Penn State and the War Machine. To our knowledge, this was the first time in decades that protesters in an organized manner marched on the ARL to confront it in all its ugliness. Some protesters delivered speeches detailing the war crimes of the AR, while others held up flyers showing pictures from Israel’s genocide of Palestine foregrounded in front of the ARL’s pristine building sign. Others taped these same flyers documenting Penn State’s funding of genocide to the trunks of nearby trees to showcase how the ARL and Penn State play a direct role in the butchering of Palestinian people.
Police Caught by Surprise
The police were evidently unprepared for this turn of events. As students approached the ARL, a disorganized gang of three police officers raced to protect Penn State’s genocide lab. In fact, the front doors were apparently unlocked and those three officers were the only thing preventing the protesters from doing with the ARL what they felt it deserved. Only minutes later did reinforcements arrive, as bike cops nervously formed a loose perimeter. Protesters highlighted how the police were protecting the ARL and taking a stand in favor of genocide. These are the same police who violently protected neofascist Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes in 2022 and murdered Osaze Osagie in 2019.
The police, however, have tried to distort reality by claiming to the media that they were the ones in control. Ken Shaffer, SCPD patrol officer who led the police response against May Day, told the Centre Daily Times that “it is a criminal violation to block a roadway like that, but we do give some leeway at times as long as no one is being hurt […] I’m not sure if that’ll be the case moving forward here, and that’s a decision that’s made every time by our administration.” This is a laughable attempt to save face in light of their failure to maintain the facade of “Happy Valley” during the idyllic graduation season. We thank the SCPD and University Police for the opportunity to prove once again that they are useless and only serve the interests of the very imperialists whom the protest was calling out for funding the genocide of Palestinians.
To End Genocide, Get Organized!
Finally, the protesters marched through campus to arrive at Old Main. Protesters there continued to rally for over an hour, taping evidence of Penn State’s support of genocide to the front doors of Old Main and delivering final speeches. The key takeaway from this moment was that in order to sever Penn State from US imperialism and Israel’s genocide, in order to stand in material solidarity with the people of Palestine, progressive people must get organized to shut down imperialism at home to assist those fighting it abroad. Our enemies — Penn State Administrators, the police, the US government, the Israeli Occupation Forces — are all organized, and they count on the people remaining dispersed, separated, and isolated. In addition, those reactionary institutions try to separate revolutionary organizations from the workers of the world, who alone have the ability to end the genocide in Palestine and create a new world in their image.
This article has been written just as the school year is winding down and students around the world are righteously occupying their campuses. We fully support the struggles of students and workers, especially at Columbia, Yale, USC, and UCLA, to name just a handful of schools. We condemn the cowardly actions of those schools’ administrators in directing mass arrests and enabling Zionists to attack students. We hope that revolutionaries, organizers, and progressive people continue to see what side administrators, the police, and the whole US government stand on and learn from these ongoing struggles, from Palestine to the US. By uniting students and workers for a free Palestine, by connecting the struggles in Centre County with those waged around the world, by finding those who want to understand the world in order to change it, May Day 2024 was a resolute success!
Penn State Admin, you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide!
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!
The working class will have our day, long live the First of May!
