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

[Mike Alewitz <alewitzm@xxxxxxxx>]

Please Post and Distribute:




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 Nixon¹s 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, I¹ve had the good fortune to
travel and paint murals in some extraordinary places.  And wherever I¹ve
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.  ³They shot Sandy,² he said.   ³Who?² I said.  Sandy!  Who? Sandy!
It wouldn¹t 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 women¹s 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.²
That is the legacy of Kent and Jackson ­ the legacy of our martyrs.

I can still see the spark in Sandy Scheuer¹s 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.



_______________________________


LaBOR aRT & MuRAL PRoJECT



Help LaMP use art as a weapon in support of international working-class
struggles for social and economic justice.  Become a the LaBOR aRT & MuRAL
PRoJECT sponsor! 


___ I/ My organization would like to become a Labor Art & Mural Project
sponsor. 


Name: __________________________________

Email: __________________________________

Address: ________________________________

Phone: _________________________________

Organization:_____________________________

Additional comments:




Reply to alewitzm@xxxxxxxx


LaBOR aRT & MuRAL PRoJECT
c/o Department of Art
Central Connecticut State University
1615 Stanley Street
New Britain, Connecticut 06050

Phone: 860.832.2359

To subscribe to AgitProp News:
subscribe-agitprop@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism