The sounds of chants, trumpets and speeches marked the anniversary remembrance of the 1886 Haymarket Affair on campus. The Non-Tenure Faculty Coalition, Graduate Employees’ Organization and Service Employees International Union rallied to celebrate workers on campus and international students’ and workers’ rights.
Various sociopolitical organizations participated in solidarity, including the University chapters of Young Democratic Socialists of America and Faculty for Justice in Palestine.
One hundred thirty-nine years ago, Chicago workers at Haymarket Square joined a national movement advocating for a standardized eight-hour workday. The initially peaceful rally turned violent when a homemade fragmentation bomb was thrown into the path of arriving police officers. This culminated in a shootout and the deaths of four workers and seven officers.
The tragedy became a global holiday and a symbol for labor activism and workers’ rights. Augustus Wood, assistant professor in Labor and Employment Relations, spoke about the importance of the Haymarket Affair, connecting it to current events.
“We’re taking their memory (of the Haymarket Square) and what they stood for so we can develop our vision for the liberation for all working people,” Wood said. “A lot of what the Haymarket Square workers were protesting are the same things we’re going through today.”
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Wood stated that today’s issues range from the long hours workers endure to the “repression of academic freedom and freedom of speech” students face from the Trump administration.
As for the University’s response to the Trump administration, the University Senate recently passed a resolution in favor of joining the Big Ten Mutual Academic Defense Compact. The pact includes over 15 universities pledging financial and legal support for one another in the face of mounting hostility from the Trump administration. Last Monday, University Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs John Coleman also confirmed the visa reactivation for 48 international University community members, including 30 students.
However, graduate student workers, faculty and undergraduate students alike criticized the lukewarm support from University administration at the rally. This came amid the federal assaults against academic institutions and international university communities across America.
“While we do appreciate the University of Illinois administration speaking somewhat in favor of something related to the resolution, they have not come out firmly and stated that there will be a zero-tolerance policy against repression of … anybody that works in this university,” Wood said. “(Staff can’t do their jobs) if our spaces are unstable because we’re worried about deportation (and) violence.”
Pete Shungu, assistant professor in FAA and the “emcee” of the event, likewise explained how the University could be doing more.
“One of the main demands is that there are specific ways that universities legally can stand up if the federal government is threatening international students’ rights,” Shungu said. “The University hasn’t really been exercising those rights.”
Ricky Baldwin of SEIU gave a speech criticizing the Trump administration’s policies on international student protesters.
“The First Amendment is being burned before our very eyes,” Baldwin said. “In recent weeks, the administration has threatened university funding (and) arrested foreign graduate students with little or no explanation.”
While the school year draws near its end and the time for campus-wide community engagement closes, organizers like Chelsea Birchmier, GEO member and steward for the psychology department, believe the work of their solidarity committee and immigration group will continue to pressure University administration to listen to their demands.
“(The national situation) is chaotic; there’s no information, no transparency … but coming together in our unions, in our student organizations, is what challenges that sense of hopelessness,” Birchmier said. “There’s so many levels that people can get involved in those organizations, even if they don’t feel comfortable coming out publicly … That’s the way that we have the power to fight back.”
Baldwin ended his speech with a cry of support for the working class.
“We do not organize people to have events; we hold events to organize people,” Baldwin said. “Nothing happens without workers. Nothing in the world moves without working people.”
