Report Back By Undersigned Organizations
On Sunday, May 7th, eleven community groups hosted the 2023 Centre County May Day Celebration. Around fifty attendees took the streets and marched through downtown State College. Immediately following the march, local organizations hosted a rally and barbecue at Sidney Friedman Park which platformed community organizers and the work they are doing within the community. The May Day celebration brought together workers, tenants, and students of Centre County who stood in solidarity with the international working class and oppressed peoples of the world. Activists voiced their demands with signs and banners stating, “Workers of the world unite,” “Down with United States imperialism, power to colonized people,” “Nazi lives don’t matter,” and “State College Police Department are killer kops,” among other slogans. The participants echoed these demands with chants such as, “In the streets, in the fight, workers of the world unite,” “Workers make everything, we should own everything” and “One solution: revolution.” Songs of worker solidarity could also be heard in between collective chants for worker, tenant, and student power.
At the inception of the march, a few reactionary bigots became offended at the sight of workers, tenants, and students coming together to demonstrate their collective power and solidarity. Instead of moving along, the bigots attempted to intimidate and disrupt the May Day celebration. However, if this was their goal, they didn’t achieve it. As the bigots approached and began to harass attendees, they were met by the event’s self-organized security team who used tactics of deescalation and defense to repel the bigots. The security team drew on the support and solidarity of all attendees to do this work of defending the march. Attendees loudly chanted “Bigots out of town” as the security team directed the bigots away from the march where they were left embarrassed and defeated. The successful removal of these people who came to intimidate or worse to do harm was an act of community defense and abolition. Attendees used their collective power to defend the march and did not have to rely on police for security or safety, which we know the police do not provide workers and oppressed people in the first place.
As the march made its way downtown, a few drivers in the traffic trailing the march began to rev their car engines and lunge at the security team who were working collectively from the outskirts of the march to ensure the safety of the march participants. One driver in particular noticed the aggressive drivers attempting to intimidate and harm march participants and volunteered to position their car as a buffer between the aggressive drivers and the march participants to provide protection. Additional support from the community occurred when a few community members on bikes spontaneously joined the march and aided the security team in blocking off streets to ensure the safety of the march and its participants. The masses could see and hear via our banners, signs, and chants that we are organizing and fighting for them, and in turn they wanted to fight for us. The people of Centre County are fed up with the police and vigilante bigots terrorizing, incarcerating, and murdering our beloved community members, many of whom are working class, Black and Brown, LGBTQ+, and have disabilities. The masses recognize that the best and only way to keep our community safe is to organize for community defense. We protect us!
Later, the march passed by the police station where a speaker explained how the police are enemies of working class people by brutally enforcing unjust laws that discriminate against poor, Black and Brown, and LGBTQ+ individuals and communities. They urged march participants to get organized in the growing community defense network of Centre County with one or multiple organizations co-sponsoring the May Day Celebration. The march wrapped up by visiting a recruitment center for the US military where a speaker talked about the United States’ commitment to capitalism, settler-colonialism, and exploitation of the international working class which is enforced by the U.S. military and police forces. The speaker ended with the chant, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which was echoed by the march participants.
After the march, attendees held a rally and barbecue at a local park. Speakers talked about the work local grassroots organizations are doing to organize workers, tenants, and oppressed people to defend against the local exploiter classes, state violence, and white supremacist and transphobic bigots. Attendees also shared food and built greater community enjoying the day and the company. Many attendees connected with organizations and made commitments to get involved in the work.
The 2023 Centre County May Day Celebration was a demonstration of what can be accomplished when we work together to serve the people and their collective interests. If you are interested in organizing for worker, tenant, and student power against oppressors and bigots, please reach out to us or other co-sponsoring organizations. If you do not see a local organization doing the work you wish to see happen, reach out and we can assist you in organizing whatever it is that you feel is needed to build power for workers and oppressed people.
People’s Defense Front
Student Committee for Defense and Solidarity
International Working Women’s Day Committee
