On May 1, hundreds of Brown and Providence community members gathered on the steps of the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library before marching down to the Rhode Island State House. At the “May Day” rally, protestors called for an end to the war in Iran, criticized the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and called on the University to voluntarily recognize graduate fellow unionization.
The Providence mobilization — which was part of the nationwide “May Day Strong” movement — also called for a general strike against schools, businesses and work, according to Kenneth Kalu ’27, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation and a speaker at the rally.
Kalu described the national day of action as “a diverse coalition of groups” coming together to “reject ICE, reject the war in Iran and reject the dominance of society by the ruling class.”
The protest at the Rock was organized by activist groups including the Student Labor Alliance, the Brown Divest Coalition, the Deportation Defense Network and more, according to Kalu.
In a speech to gathered protesters, Kalu criticized ICE agents for continuously conducting “operations to kidnap people” in Providence.
ICE did not immediately respond to The Herald’s request for comment.
In another student speech, Ashe Shirazi ’28, a member of the Brown Divest Coalition, called for an end to the ongoing conflict in Palestine, along with recent U.S. and Israel airstrikes on Iran.
“The genocide in Gaza is the intersection of all the horrors of imperialism, capitalism and fascism that plague the United States,” she said.
The White House did not immediately respond to The Herald’s request for comment.
Several speakers also acknowledged the ongoing unprecedented unionization efforts led by Brown graduate fellows.
“All grads should have protection of a union contract, no matter how our work is funded,” said Mansi Kumar GS, a first-year biomedical engineering Ph.D. student who spoke at the rally.
Graduate fellows “receive funding exclusively in support of their academic work, with no exchange of services performed for the University, and are therefore not employees,” University Spokesperson Brian Clark wrote in an email to The Herald. He cited the National Labor Relations Act, “which applies to private-sector employers such as Brown,” as a legal framework that “preempts the application of state labor relations statutes in this context.”
“Accordingly, the provisions of the Rhode Island Labor Relations Act that the Union cited in its request do not govern the determination of employee status or collective bargaining obligations for fellows at Brown,” Clark added.
Kumar alleged that after receiving approved time off to recover from a concussion, she began receiving “belittling and hostile communications” from a supervisor and was placed on academic probation. Kumar said that “when a grad is bullied and harassed,” a union could provide graduate fellows with “a fair system for accountability and justice.”
Leo Buffalo, a first-year student at RISD, attended the protest at the Rock, and was “excited” by the turnout.
“The fact that there is this much activity shows that there’s people who are fighting for this, and are going to pull in more people to fight as well.”
At around 4:00 p.m., rallyers marched down College Street to join hundreds more at the State House. The rally was organized by over 30 groups including the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the American Federation of Teachers and RIFT-AFT Local 6516 — the parent group of Brown’s Graduate Labor Organization, according to Lee Clasper-Torch, an organizer with Indivisible Metro RI.
“Today, we flex and develop our muscle as a community by practicing the withdrawing of our consent, our time, our labor, our money, our participation and obedience from this unjust, corrupt and authoritarian system,” Torch said at the rally.
Santiago Rodriguez, a pastor at the Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, called ICE’s actions “a misappropriation of public funds.”
“Who would have thought we would witness such savagery in the 21st century?” he said. “We do not pay our taxes to tear families apart, exploit our children or mistreat foreigners.”
Victoria Antonetti GS, the vice president of Local 6516 and a fifth-year fellow in applied math, also criticized ICE’s actions and further emphasized graduate fellow unionization efforts in her speech to the crowd.
“This isn’t about appealing to the conscience of our bosses,” she said. “It’s about building power to force change.”
Julian Drix ’08, who is the bridging program director for Health in Partnership, spoke against the “authoritarian playbook” followed by the Trump administration, criticizing the U.S. government’s cuts to Medicaid and firings of thousands of federal workers.
“We need a system that prioritizes people over money and profits,” said Colleen Miller, an attendee and a volunteer with DDN.
“It’s really easy to fall into despair seeing everything that’s going on right now, but I think it's important to take some form of action,” she added. “Don’t let yourself be isolated from your community.”
Michelle Bi is a metro editor covering City Hall & Crime and State Politics & Justice. She is a sophomore from Oak Park, CA and studies English and IAPA. In her free time, you can find her playing guitar, the LA Times crossword or one of her 115 Spotify playlists.
