Pro-Palestinian, labor rights groups hold May Day protest Sunday at UT Tower

On a Sunday May morning at the University of Texas, students popped champagne in the fountain, pose for pictures with friends and family, and stroll peacefully through the otherwise quiet campus. The calm morning is easy to mistake for any other, except there were several groups of police officers, the wandering media, and orange and white boundaries marking the Tower Plaza as "closed."

Pro-Palestinian protesters, including families, children, students, staff and community members, started trickling in about 10 minutes before noon to the South Mall for a planned protest for May Day to call on UT to divest from weapons manufacturing companies that contribute to Israel. By the time protesters began speaking, hundreds of people had gathered.

"Today is coming out really in support of our labor organizers," Rawan Channaa, a UT senior who led chants at the rally, told the American-Statesman. "We know very well that our struggles are interconnected. UT could not function without the labor of its student faculty and staff, and people are demanding that UT divest."

More than a dozen organizations came together to plan the May Day protest at the UT Tower to show unity between workers' rights and Palestinian rights. The organizations, which included UT groups, local groups and national pro-Palestinian groups and labor groups, had originally organized the May Day protest for Wednesday — just two days after the April 29 surprise encampment on the South Mall resulted in 79 arrests — but it was later rescheduled to Sunday.

Read more: https://www.statesman.com/story/news/education/2024/05/05/ut-austin-protest-pro-palestine-texas-college-students-israel-hamas-war/73578259007/