Today, RSU honors the 4 martyrs of Kent State who, 55 years ago today, made the ultimate sacrifice standing up to this country’s genocidal imperialist actions. 

On May 4th, 1970, four students were killed by the National Guard at Kent State University during a protest against the U.S. invasion of Cambodia. Unarmed and standing against war, they were gunned down for daring to resist imperialism. Their names—Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William Schroeder—live on as martyrs who made the ultimate sacrifice. They stood with the oppressed of the world, and their spirit endures in every worker and student who rise, in every struggle waged against imperialism and for revolution.

The memory of the four lives must live on in our struggle. It is also on the anniversary of the May 4th Movement in China, where hundreds of thousands of students stood up to imperialism in China in 1919. The movement was integral in the foundation of the Chinese Communist Party, which would go on to lead one of the most important revolutions in history. which emancipated millions of people. 

The dynamism of the students to remold themselves into conscious agents of the working-class, and the combative and fearless spirit of the Kent students, are lessons we must take to heart. Let’s follow the Chinese student’s example and carry the flag dyed red with the blood shed by Kent students. We must go to the working-class to seek leadership, and develop students into a powerful auxiliary force for this country’s revolution.