[nat sound: protesters chanting] From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!
GRACE HERZOG: At the Rock on Wednesday, demonstrators encouraged students to boycott class and stand with nationwide pro-Palestine protests and divestment demands. The event occurred on May Day, an international holiday celebrating laborers and the working class.
About 50 people gathered and passed out fliers as others painted the Palestinian flag onto the Rock. Outside Harris Hall, two students taped a poster saying, quote, “Blood on Our Money.”
Protesters arrived at around 9 a.m., chanting as students went to class.
[nat sound: protesters chanting] When Palestine is under attack, leave your class and don’t come back!
EDWARD SIMON CRUZ: The strike comes after Monday’s compromise between the Northwestern Divestment Coalition and the University over the encampment on Deering Meadow. It also follows violent encampment disputes at Columbia, UCLA, and other U.S. universities.
One organizer told WNUR that they were, quote, “autonomous students, faculty, and community members mobilizing together in solidarity with the national call for anyone within university systems to STRIKE.”
The papers handed out contained the words, quote, “NO GRADES. NO CLASS. NO FINALS” written in bold.
At 11 a.m., one protester read “It is with peace,” a poem written by queer anti-war activist Siegfried Sassoon in 1917.
[nat sound: protester reading poem] Pursuing peace has been the best excuse for making war. That peace a quelling. Peace a graveyard. Peace of the heavens of the carpet bombed in ultrablack. Peace of the quiet they require.
HERZOG: Afterward, the same demonstrator asked the group to break into small circles and discuss the meaning of peace.
The poem reading was one of several programs at the strike focusing on art. Later in the day, other protesters sang and taught resistance songs, some in Yiddish.
Throughout the day, some Jewish students observed the strike from afar. Following Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, some Jewish students have expressed concern about an increase in antisemitism on campus.
CRUZ: University administrators arrived at the strike soon after it began. They issued a violation notice from the Office of Community Standards and watched the area from a distance for several hours.
The letter explained that students broke the university’s interim policy and refused requests for identification. The University cited the newly instated rule prohibiting demonstrations at the Rock before 3 p.m.
Instead of leaving, the group taped the notices to lampposts, spray-painting them red with Xs and the saying “[censored] NUPD.”
The letter ended with the following warning, quote: “Failure to comply will result in formal disciplinary action.” However, as of today, the University has not taken action against those striking.
HERZOG: Outside protesters were also in attendance, as multiple members of the Revolutionary Communist Corporation for the Emancipation of Humanity handed out separate flyers to advertise a march in Chicago. One member was also a protester in the 1980s ANTIFA movement. She called for full revolution as the only way to invoke change. Another wore a shirt that said, quote, “America was NEVER great. We need to overthrow this system!”
[nat sound: protesters singing] “Justice to the martyrs, we will not be moved. Glory to the martyrs, will we not be moved.”
CRUZ: Late in the afternoon, protesters moved to Deering Meadow to listen to Professor Wendy Pearlman discuss Palestinian resistance efforts.
HERZOG: As of today, the Rock is still painted with the Palestinian flag.
For WNUR News, I’m Grace Herzog.
CRUZ: And I’m Edward Simon Cruz.
