[Marxism] AGITPROP NEWS: May 4/ We Are Still Marching

["Mike Alewitz" <alewitzm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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LaBOR aRT & MuRAL PRoJECT
AGITPROP NEWS: 5.14.5




In this issue:

We Are Still Marching



----------------------------




May 4, 2005 marked the 35th anniversary of the massacre of four Kent State 
University students by the Ohio National Guard, following Nixon?s invasion of 
Cambodia on April 30, 1970.

The following remarks were delivered by Mike Alewitz, Artistic Director of the 
LaBOR aRT & MuRAL PRoJECT, at the official rally this year.

Alewitz was a central leader of the student antiwar movement at Kent State and 
the national chair of the Committee of Kent State Massacre Eyewitnesses.  He 
was excluded from speaking at the official ceremonies for the past 35 years.  
Alewitz was finally invited to speak this year about his friend Sandy Scheuer.


 * * *


We Are Still Marching


Sisters and Brothers:

IN THE 35 YEARS since I stood on this common, I?ve had the good fortune to 
travel and paint murals in some extraordinary places.  And wherever I?ve gone, 
when you sit down to talk and share, I found that people knew about my friend 
Sandy Scheuer.  Perhaps not by name, but by  deed - by what occurred here on 
May 4, 1970.

In Esteli, Nicaragua, I painted a mural about Ben Linder, a young engineer 
working to provide clean water for poor farmers, who was murdered by US-backed 
contras.  There, where the torturers hand had touched so many families  - 
people knew of what happened here.

In the Arab village of Anata, I painted about Rachel Corrie.  She was a student 
from Evergreen State College in Washington -  murdered by the Israeli Army 
while opposing the demolition of Palestinian homes.   Here too, people knew of 
what happened on this campus 35 years ago.

In the embattled island of Cuba, victims of a cruel embargo that hurts the very 
young and very old - I found students who were so  proud of their school ?  
named The Martyrs of Kent School.  At Chernobyl, where death is invisible and 
silent from their nuclear poison; in the bombed city of Baghdad; in beleaguered 
Ardoyne section of occupied Belfast ? wherever I have gone - people knew of 
what happened here, and shared our loss.


Sandy Scheuer and the Student Movement at Kent

At the time of the massacre, I was a member of the Young Socialist Alliance and 
Chairman of the Kent Student Mobilization Committee Against the War in Vietnam 
(SMC.)  SMC was a national organization that demanded the immediate and 
unconditional withdrawal of the US from SE Asia. The Kent  SMC chapter 
sponsored the largest student demonstrations on this campus prior to the 
shootings.

Sandy, like Allison Krause, would occasionally come to a meeting or help with 
distributing some flyers. She did it because she was my friend.  She did it 
because she could not be silent in the face of great injustice.  I teased her 
about becoming more active.  She laughed and ignored me.

On the day of the shootings, after the Guard had fired, Jerry Persky ran up to 
me.  ?They shot Sandy,? he said.   ?Who?? I said.  Sandy!  Who? Sandy!  It 
wouldn?t sink in.  Why would they shoot Sandy?  I can scarcely believe it today.


National Student Strike

After the shootings, a massive student strike shook the country.  Students 
occupied the universities and ceased all business-as-usual.  I traveled to a 
number of strike rallies.  I saw gatherings where thousands of students were 
meeting, discussing, debating and acting.   I saw the great creativity that was 
unleashed by this mass action.   I began to see that we might win.

Later, I was involved in organizing  in Texas.   Students were pivotal in 
reaching out to soldiers at the many military bases in that state.  On October 
27, 1971,  I watched as twenty thousand protesters marched past the Texas 
statehouse, led by thousands of active-duty GIs, and I began to understand that 
we would win.

And we won.  We forced the US to withdraw.  The army had been won to the 
anti-war movement and was becoming unreliable - refusing to fight.

We succeeded because of the actions of millions.  Not a small group of 
radicals.  Not some liberal politicians.  No ? we did it.  People like you, and 
I.  Sandy Scheuer was part of that.  That is her legacy.

When we act together, millions of us, we can change the world.   Human 
solidarity can defeat corporate greed.  That is the great lesson of our time.


The Legacy of Kent and Jackson

We must not allow the history of our movement to be re-written.  We must not 
allow them to trivialize what we, in our millions accomplished.

Our great movement inspired new struggles ? the women?s movement, gay rights, 
ecology and all the social movements of the 1970s..  More importantly - we laid 
the basis for a more powerful movement against war.  Because this is an ongoing 
effort ? Vietnam and Iraq are only chapters -  of this, the great struggle of 
our epoch.

Today, as we meet here ? we are surrounded by skeletons of once-mighty cities ? 
ruled by leaders whose minds are as empty of ideas or vision as the factories 
are bereft of workers.

Even the pharaohs, with their slavery and cruel overseers, built pyramids and 
created new science.  The robber barons, in their brutality, built railroads 
and industry.  But today we live under a ruling class that produces only death 
and destruction, with leaders devoid of morality or imagination.

In their lust for profits they would balkanize the world ? create a thousand 
wars with millions of deaths.  But we can envision a world without borders.

These children of wealth and privilege, who have never worked, would plunder 
our social security for personal gain. They cannot see a world where labor has 
value and dignity - but we can.

They cannot imagine a world where human needs come before profits.  But we do.

And they would continue to sacrifice our brothers, sisters and children, for 
they are mad with greed. But we can still see a world of peace and we will 
fight for it.


The Anti-War Movement Today

The February demonstrations against the war, prior to the US invasion, were the 
largest anti-war actions in human history.

Today, as we meet here ? major industrial unions have taken positions against 
the occupations. The west coast longshoreman are discussing actions to refuse 
to ship war goods.  Railroad workers in England, Italy and Japan have struck 
against the war.

Today, on May 4, 2005, there is a growing movement of active-duty GIs and their 
families for an end to the bloodshed. Today, all across the country, 
high-school students are organizing to drive military recruiters from their 
schools.

There is a global movement that is saying ?Bring the Troops Home, Now.?  That 
is the legacy of Kent and Jackson ? the legacy of our martyrs.

I can still see the spark in Sandy Scheuer?s eyes as though it was yesterday.  
I have seen that spark on faces across this country and around the world ? 
animated by a collective vision of peace and justice.  I see it in your faces 
today.

I have not come to mourn, but to honor our friends and celebrate that 
collective vision.   I have come to say only that we are here, we will never 
forget, we are marching and we will win.








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