GSU Walk-Out/Teach-In on June 3

Dear Friends,

We are excited to have you join us on Zoom for our GSU Walk-out/Teach-in about organizing for racial justice in Hyde Park tomorrow, June 3!

Tomorrow’s teach-in has been organized to explicitly highlight black voices and issues of racial justice within our own community, including speakers from Care Not Cops, the Reparations Working Group, and activists from the campaign for a South Side Trauma Center. Now more than ever, we are especially grateful to be hearing from these much-needed organizations in our community. Political education is an essential tool for liberation and mobilization, and we will be providing information and resources for how grad students can support protesters and local organizations throughout the day, and discussions will focus on how grads at UChicago can work for racial and economic justice at UChicago and beyond.

Without racial justice, the needs of graduate workers cannot be fully met. We believe that supporting GSU also means standing in solidarity with community organizations across Chicago and around the globe. Moreover, the University of Chicago’s historical relationship to slavery, systematic destruction of black and working class communities on the south side, and maintenance of the UCPD, a private militarized police force which was deployed against peaceful protesters in Hyde Park this weekend, means that the struggle for a more just and democratic campus is intimately related to larger struggles against police brutality and racial inequality. Graduate student organization is one of the ways that we can pressure the administration to defund the UCPD and invest in south side community resources. The fight against exploitation in our community is not bounded by campus walls.

There are many ways for graduate workers and allies to participate in the walk-out through actions of solidarity, political education, and mutual aid. We fully support all our members who will be engaging in direct action, protest, and mutual aid on Wednesday, and hope that our teach-in can be another venue for movement building and working towards parallel goals. Wednesday will also be a time for angry and anxious grad workers to come together when so many have been so isolated.

You can find all the information about the walk-out/teach-in, the full schedule of synchronous and asynchronous events, and how you can show solidarity here: http://bit.ly/GSUWalkOutInfo

For those interested in sharing the Facebook Live details, it will be telecast live at our event link here: http://bit.ly/GSULive

We have sent Zoom details in a GSU newsletter sent to your email addresses on June 2. Otherwise, email us at gsu [DOT] riseup [DOT] net.