Videos of the May 4 event:
Click Link for FB event: The Kent State Massacre and the Global Fight for Socialism
Video collection: Revolutionary Socialist Network on Youtube
On May 4, 1970, National Guardsmen opened fire on peaceful antiwar protesters at Kent State University in Ohio, killing four students and wounding nine others. Ten days later, police fired at a demonstration at Jackson State University in Mississippi, leaving two dead and an unknown number of wounded.
The students were protesting against the U.S. invasion of Cambodia—a major escalation of the war in Vietnam. The invasion and shootings sparked an unprecedented national student strike involving millions of students. Over 400 campuses in the United States were occupied.
This May 4 commemoration will be a tribute to the 1970 martyrs from several generations of activists. Among the online participants will be antiwar GIs and student and labor antiwar activists, including those fighting in frontline struggles today. Program speakers will be announced when finalized.
The event will be anchored by Mike Alewitz, chairman of the Kent Student Mobilization Committee to End the War (SMC) and an eyewitness to the May 4 massacre. He addressed the May 9, 1970, emergency national demonstration in Washington, D.C., of over 100,000 people, along with Jane Fonda, Dr. Benjamin Spock, and Coretta Scott King. During the student strike, Alewitz spoke at numerous rallies throughout the U.S. and Canada. He was later subpoenaed and testified before the Presidential Commission on Campus Unrest (The Scranton Commission).
Commenting on the commemoration, Alewitz stated recently:
“Today we face an unprecedented medical, ecological, social and economic crisis. We cannot continue to pour trillions of dollars into an insatiable war machine while health-care workers go begging for masks and lines at food pantries stretch for miles. The finances and resources of society must be changed to go toward healing our planet and ourselves. The memory of the martyrs of Kent and Jackson cries out for us to continue the struggle for which they gave their lives—to demand money for jobs, health care and education—not for war”
Watch presentations from:
Mike Alewitz, Kent State, May 4 massacre eyewitness, Student Mobilization Committee
Kipp Dawson, Student Mobilization Committee National Leader
Manuel Berrara, Chicano movement and Anti-war Activist
Cleve Andrew Pulley, Vietnam Anti-war GI
Valia Dimitrakopoulou, OKDE-Spartakos, Student Leader, Athens, Greece
Marine Dageville , Anticapitalisme et Revolution (NPA), Student Leader, Paris, France
Thano Paris, Solidarity, Atlanta, GA
Ed Jurenas, Vietnam Anti-War GI
Mitch Linck, Iraq vet and 350 CT Climate Justice Activist
César Bowley Castillo – La Voz/Workers Voice
This event is sponsored by the Revolutionary Socialist Network, a collective of independent organizations and activists working together to build the socialist movement.