For International Workers Day, also known as May Day, Oregon State University students of various leftist groups came together in solidarity with May Day strikes happening across the nation.
In front of Strand Hall and in sight of an Army ROTC joint service review on the Memorial Union Quad, a group of over 120 students chanted together, giving anti-war, pro-union speeches.
Between protesting students and ROTC cadets, the Quat briefly saw shouting that was de-escalated by OSU protest response staff and continued no further.
“War and bombs, we don’t need em/What we need is peace and freedom,” and “No Trump! No KKK! No fascist USA!” were among the various phrases shouted. Calix Pryor, a cellist who had stumbled upon the rally, played along to the rhythm, using their cello and turning the chanting into a song.
During their time in front of Strand Hall, students in the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the Young Communists League, the Young Democratic Socialists of America and WestM gave speeches and expressed concerns about the environment, war, student power and unionizing.
“Hardly anyone I know can comfortably afford both rent and groceries,” said Lou, an OSU student and member of WestM, in their speech toward the crowd. “Our neighbors are being abducted and terrorized by federal agents, students are being tear gassed in Eugene, people are being shot dead in the streets of Minneapolis … transgender and queer people … (are) targets of increasing hate and violence. And we’re all just fine with this?” The crowd in unison responded with a resounding “No!” to his question.
Following these speeches, the crowd that had gathered in the Quad continued to chant and began their march down to the Benton County Courthouse to join non-student protesters on the lawn.
Here members of the community spoke more on the issues that pushed them to rally and passed out informational papers and strike pledge cards.
When asked to share about their motivations and hopes, Katie Ferguson, an OSU environmental science and climate justice student and member of the YDSA said, “(We want) to represent socialism in the modern world … (to) give a clearer definition … for what socialism is, because that word’s been highly vilified and demonized.”
She emphasized that what she stands for is a better, cleaner, more affordable world for everyone.
Ferguson explained that what happened this May 1st was only a “test strike” to help them prepare and gauge community response for the labor movement’s General Strike in 2028.
She concluded that after the rally, they could better identify “whose voices (were) missing” from the conversation and how to better represent those people.
“We are a small representation of a bigger … international effort … (and) seeing in action just how wide our coalition is becoming here in little old Corvallis … having 11 different organizations on the same page … (was) an amazing feat,” Ferguson said.
During Ferguson’s speech on the Strand Hall steps, she urged the people in her community to consider “What keeps you up at night?” and to that answer, “What gives you hope?”
“The future will be shaped by what we are willing to fight for today,” Ferguson said.
To learn more about the General Strike, you can visit generalstrikeus.com.
