AN OPEN CALL FROM MIT STUDENTS

Since the start of the second Trump administration, billionaires have waged a war on working people here at home and abroad. Attacks on education have come in many forms, including persecution of international students and their visas, the removal of funding opportunities for graduate students, cancellation of crucial research projects, and more. The Trump administration has terrorized our immigrant communities and killed in cold blood with its ICE deportation machine. They have slashed funds for education, Medicaid, SNAP (food stamps), and scientific research, while handing trillions of dollars to the wealthy in tax breaks and attempting to increase the annual war budget to $1.5 trillion – an increase of $600 billion. They have been attempting to reverse the gains of the labor movement, the Civil Rights movement, the women’s movement, and LGBTQ+ movement, while gutting the Environmental Protection Agency and environmental programs. All while the economy is at its worst point in years, with mass layoffs and rising unemployment – particularly for young workers and college graduates. 

The proposed budget increase of $600 billion, directly funnels money cut from education, healthcare, clean energy, and critical research fields into needless war. Trump has launched an illegal, unprovoked war on Iran, bombing an elementary school and Sharif University (the “MIT of Iran”), among other civilian infrastructure. Over 1700 civilians, including over 250 children, have been killed by these war crimes. This comes shortly after Trump illegally kidnapped the president of Venezuela for oil, and is economically strangling Cuba through an illegal blockade intended to cause mass starvation.

But we have the power to defeat Trump’s agenda!

The historic general strike on January 23rd in Minneapolis, and the national shutdown on January 30th called for by Black student groups at the University of Minnesota defeated Trump’s deployment of 3,000 ICE agents in Minnesota. The recent No Kings Day protest on March 28th was the largest single-day of protest in U.S. history: 8 million people came out to demand an end to the rule of billionaires. We believe that in a movement, solidarity between Black and Brown student groups, allies on their campuses, and the workforce has the power to disrupt the ruling billionaire agenda.  

Now, labor unions and community organizations across the country have called for a national day of “No Work, No School, No Shopping” on May 1, International Workers Day. Inspired by this call, the January strike, and the historic March 4, 1969 “Strike for Peace” led by students and faculty at MIT against the Vietnam War, we call upon students, workers, faculty, tech workers, and scientists across the Boston area and beyond to join us in taking part in the growing national day of action on May 1st!