City University of New York faculty, staff and their allies held a rally near City Hall Monday to defend public education and condemn the MAGA attacks prior to Congressional hearings on Tuesday, where CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez and leaders from the University of California and Georgetown testified. 

“The thing in Washington is a bullshit sham and we should keep fighting for our values,” said Assemblymember Harvey Epstein (D-East Village). 

James Davis, president of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), the union local that represents 30,000 faculty and staff at CUNY, stood behind a “Say NO to the New McCarthyism” poster and defended his members.   

“This hearing is another cynical attempt to use real anxiety about rising antisemitism to ambush university leaders, smear faculty, slash funding, and delegitimize institutions that are essential for a working democracy,” he said. 

Throughout the press conference, MAGA supporters and pro-genocide disrupters tried to drown out the speakers but failed. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander took the mic and shouted them down.  

State Senator Jabari Brisport (D-Central Brooklyn), referenced the 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Va., and Trump’s defense of those participants when he said that the Republican Party has never cared about marginalized people. He urged the crowd to remember that “we have the power” and to fight.  

According to figures provided by the PSC, CUNY drives New York’s economy.  

• CUNY employs 40,000 people. 
  
• Nearly 300,000 matriculating students attend CUNY.  
  
• Dozens of current elected officials got their start at CUNY. 
  
• CUNY alumni earn $57 billion annually and pay $4.2 billion in state income taxes. 
  
• CUNY leads the nation in helping low-income students achieve middle-class incomes. 
  
• CUNY produces half of the city’s new nurses and a third of its new teachers annually. 

Representatives for Public Advocate Jumaane Williams’ and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan) were also present at the rally.

The Indypendent is reader-funded. We publish a free monthly newspaper, a website, a weekly radio show on WBAI-99.5 FM and more. To make a one-time or recurring monthly donation, click here.