On May Day Demonstrators Chant "Stop Shopping" as they March through Stanford Shopping Center

Photos: Steve Chan, ProBonoPhoto
Please credit the photographer if you use these photos

On May Day, demonstrators in Palo Alto joined those calling for No Work, No School, No Shopping.

They met up in front of the Tesla showroom in Stanford Shopping Center at 5pm and started with singing led by the Mitchell Park Band. The Raging Grannies and the May Day Singers revved up the mood with songs of solidarity. Then...a brisk walk through the center. A few of the Grannies, most in their 70's and 80's, had trouble keeping up but caught their breath in time to educate mall patrons with songs for the occasion when the procession paused in the mall center.

Some of their lyrics came from a modern version of the classic protest song Solidarity Forever including this stanza they revised to reference the ICE protests in Minneapolis.

If we all unite for Freedom and we all stand fast for peace

We can show the System that we want to see the killing cease

And we won't be stopped by taunts and jeers nor guns of the police

For together we are strong

Menlo Park based protest group The Wolves and the Palo Alto based Raging Grannies coordinate a march regularly through this large mall in Palo Alto every Saturday from noon to 2pm. Mall management recognizes their right to hold peaceful demonstrations on the property based on a US Supreme Court ruling.

The court's decision issued on June 9, 1980 affirmed the decision of the California Supreme Court in a case that arose out of a free speech dispute between the Pruneyard Shopping Center in the Bay Area city of Campbell, California and several demonstrators. Student activists sued the shopping center for violating their rights under the First Amendment, as well as their right to "petition government for redress of grievances" under the California state constitution.

See the link here to learn more about Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins.