The Palestine Solidarity Coalition’s (PSC) May Day for Palestine event drew about 75 people to UNH’s Great Lawn on Friday afternoon, one year and one day after the arrest of 12 people at a pro-Palestinian protest at Thompson Hall.
The purpose of the gathering was twofold: to serve as both a community event and a political rally in support of Palestine, according to PSC President Emory Stevens. The rally featured refreshments and live music from three bands: Two Thousands, Alchemy, and Five Feet. In addition, members from the New Hampshire Party for Socialist Liberation, New Hampshire Congress of Workers’ Organizations, and New Hampshire Peace Action had tables set up at the event to provide attendees with information about their organizations.
“Palestine calls, and the student community answers. To all who may hear us today, we demand an end to this madness. We call on UNH to divest from genocide and immediately declare a sanctuary campus. We call on President Chilton to condemn the genocide and clear the names of all student protestors whose reputation was unruly damaged by the actions of the university on May 1,” said Stevens during PSC’s introductory speech.
While the PSC’s core principles have remained the same over the last year, they have begun to champion an additional cause in light of the Trump Administration’s recent moves: making UNH a sanctuary campus. In the eyes of the PSC, this means that UNH should “very publicly stand firm and declare that unlawful ICE abductions will not be held on this campus,” according to Stevens. They see this as a necessary step that the university should take in order to protect their international students.
Stevens reiterated this point in their speech and condemned UNH for “[refusing] to even enforce the bare minimum legal requirement of requiring a judicial warrant to grant ICE access to nonpublic areas on campus.”
“‘We keep each other safe’ has never meant more right now than it has when our own university reneges on its duty to properly inform and protect its constituents. For an institution that claims its identity is tied to a commitment to serving the public good, it sure has a hell of a way of showing it,” said Stevens.
Additionally, the PSC is now a recognized student organization through the Memorial Union Building, which means they are funded through the student activity fee, according to Stevens. However, they continue to face challenges with organizing student protests due to safety concerns.
“I would say that the mood hasn’t shifted with our movement. If anything, we’re more fired up, but on campus, it’s been hard to get people to mobilize. They’re scared about repression from the university, and they’re scared about police presence, so we like to do as much as we can to mitigate that fear… we’ve had ‘know your rights training’ and we do teach people how to cooperate peacefully with the police. We really want to keep our community safe. Their fears are definitely real, and we understand that,” said Stevens.
Additionally, according to videos posted on the PSC’s official Instagram page, during the event, a group of about a dozen protestors walked down Main Street to UNH President Elizabeth Chilton’s house and left a tent. The PSC said leaving the tent was an ode to the demonstrators’ tents placed and subsequently torn down during last year’s arrests on T-Hall lawn.
