Baltimore’s May Day joins student encampment for Gaza

This year, the Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly held its annual International Workers’ Day celebration at the newly established Palestine solidarity encampment at Johns Hopkins University. About a hundred already supporting the encampment were joined by hundreds more.  

Originally planned at the War Memorial Plaza in front of Baltimore City Hall, this May Day was held in honor of Palestinian workers and the immigrant workers who died in the Key Bridge collapse.

The student organizers of the solidarity encampment were enthused when PPA organizers asked if they would welcome the May Day event. Not only were the students looking for an opportunity to raise the working class and its connections to Palestine, they knew it would be uplifting for morale.

The May Day program taught about the working-class origins of May Day and its relevance to the anti-imperialist movement we are currently witnessing for a free Palestine. The relevance, of course, is that the working class is crucial to winning the fight against imperialism. The anti-imperialist struggle is itself a class struggle.  

Speakers represented the Peoples Power Assembly, Socialist Unity Party Baltimore branch, Palestinian Youth Movement, Starbucks Workers United, Unemployed Workers Union, Prisoner Solidarity Committee, Party for Socialism and Liberation Baltimore branch, CPUSA Baltimore Club, and West Wednesdays Coalition. All gave important educational talks about an aspect of May Day, the working class struggle, and the liberation of Palestine.

As the program ended, speakers representing the Peoples Power Assembly encouraged students to hold strong in their encampment and for everyone to mobilize as often as possible to be there in support.