On Mayday (May 1), protesters assembled for a press conference at 56th and Fowler near USF. First up was a press conference, which was heavily attended by the corporate press. There was so much corporate press in fact, I was mistaken for one of these liars by one of our good people! Some of the questions they asked were quite hostile, crap about what parents would think of disrupted graduations etc. Well, nobody gets to graduate from a bombed university in Gaza, especially from under the rubble!
After the presser came a march. This time around,we went past the usual turnaround point for 56th and Fowler Palestine marches, going all the way to the big entrance to USF that goes to the library and MLK Plaza. Cops made a showy entry to campus at that point but the massive march had them heavily outnumbered. Awaiting orders that never came, they stood and watched as hundreds of marchers (maybe more) swarmed onto the campus.
Marching up almost the same approach route used on Monday save that it began at Fowler, protesters marched straight to MLK Plaza, scene of the previous days tear gas, rubber bullets, knee on neck incident et all.
Once on MLK Plaza, Muslim evening prayers were held. This was probably one of the things the administration least wanted to see on the Plaza. Any attempt to break this up by force would have been potentially very ugly international news, like cops raiding a church but between different religions. Even US embassy protests and/or rioting in US allies in the Middle East would not have been out of the question! After concluding prayers, protesters marched out in a single strong unit, staying together and leaving no stragglers for cops or other violent Zionists to pick off.
No attempt was made to pitch tents and stay the night. Doing so would have required very strong logistics support combined with shields and gas masks, not the sort of protest people want to bring their kids to. Since this was a family-friendly event, pushing that far was off the table, but this does not mean it was impossible by any means.
This was a “thunder run” against USF, a show of force to drive the flag of Palestine back onto campus and put the supporters of genocide in their place. This was a real “who run Bartertown? moment as in Mad Max for Tampa’s Mayor and IOF trained cops.
Note that Tampa has one of the largest Palestinian populations in the entire US, and for Palestinian students at USF this fight is existential.