The first National Student Strike Against War was called by Socialist and Communist student organizations for April 13, 1934 .

‘Mass Anti-War Strikes Sweep Colleges’ from the Daily Worker. Vol. 11 No. 90. April 14, 1934.

15,000 Students Out in New York, Students’ United Front Defy Administrations, Police in Strikes

NEW YORK. The anti–war movement in the high schools and colleges of the United States reached the proportions of a nation-wide mass movement as thousands of students poured out of their classrooms at 11 a.m. yesterday in a protest strike against war and war preparations. In New York alone, about 15,000 high school and college students went on strike. The simultaneous strike of the students was organized by the National Student League and the Student League for Industrial Democracy, participating in a united front with the full support and cooperation of the American League Against War and Fascism.

C.C.N.Y. Students Defy Administration

Defying the threats of the administration to punish any student who strikes, 1,500 students of City College in New York massed into the center of the campus at 11 a.m. to hear student speakers speak against imperialist war and condemn the administration and members of the faculty who had done all in their power to halt the strike. Hundreds more disregarded their lecturers in the classrooms and looked on at the mass below.

Dean Morton Gottschall, attempting to emulate the peculiar behaviour of his chief, President Robinson who attacked a student anti-R.O.T.C. demonstration with an umbrella last Spring, charged into the students gathered around the flagpole flanked by several plainclothesmen. In frenzied rage he tore the banners and attacked Edwin Alexander, a member of the N.S.L., who was speaking at the time.

The angry roar of the students who surged forward when their leader was attacked, halted the Dean and the detectives from breaking up the meeting. Several cars filled with police arrived. The cops charged the meeting and tried to disperse the students.

Norman Tallentire, secretary of the American League, addressed the students for several minutes, while Gottschall confronted him and tried to keep him from speaking.

Thousands Strike in Brooklyn

In Brooklyn College 3,500 out of the 6,000 students who attend marched out of the various divisions of the school in a body promptly at 11 o’clock and united with 300 students from Long Island University and 250 from Seth Low Junior College. They marched to L.I.U. where a meeting was held for an hour guarded by 400 police. The strike led by the N.S.L. and the L.I.D. received the full support of the Student Council and faculty.

Over a thousand students gathered in the park at the Washington Square branch of New York University and heard Robert Gessner and several other instructors and students speak against war. The speakers represented the National Student League, the American League Against War and Fascism, the Menorah Club and several other school societies. Attempts by police to disrupt the meeting on the excuse that the flag was too small, failed. Many instructors dismissed their classes and urged the students to join in the strike.

CCNY Students Arrested

Over 700 students in the 23rd St. branch of City College streamed out of their classrooms in response to a strike call issued by the National Student League yesterday and gathered in Madison Square Park to hear speakers denounce the R.O.T.C., demand the reinstatement of the students expelled for anti-R.O.T.C. activity, and demand that the dean cease his intimidation of students.

More than a hundred students of Townsend Harris High School joined in the demonstration and strike. Earlier in the morning police arrested two students who were distributing strike leaflets.

Hunter Girls Strike

In the Bronx annex of Hunter College the girl students distributed leaflets in the morning calling on the students to strike against war and war preparations. Many gathered in a picket line around the school carrying placards. The police, called by the school administration, tore the placards away from the girls and attempted to disperse the strikers. Despite this, 400 students left their classrooms and joined in the mass meeting outside.

The Student Council had voted against the strike when the president of the college had threatened to expel anybody who struck.

1,200 At Columbia

On the Columbia campus at 11 o’clock when faculty members and student leaders of the Social Problems Club, branch of the National Student League, addressed a meeting of about 1,200 students.

A short distance away 200 curious others listened skeptically to an outside small fascist leader rail at Jews, Communists, Irish and foreigners in general.

Intimidation by administrations was especially strong in the high school, but the students defied the school authorities and police called by them and held several successful strike meetings outside the school.

A.M. Clark, principal of De Witt Clinton, attempting to outwit the students by calling an assembly just before 11 a.m. in which he threatened to expel any student who struck. When the students gathered in front of the library and walk they were met by several plainclothesmen and five police cars, who forcibly kept them inside the building.

High School Students Hit War

About 1,000 students of Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn marched out of their classrooms a little after 11 a.m. in defiance of 32 policemen called by the principal, and held mass picketing in front of the schools. The demonstration swelled to double its size as workers of the neighborhood joined in.

Eight youths, arrested Thursday evening at the New Lots Evening High School where police attacked 2,000 students and young workers who were demonstrating against war, came up in court yesterday morning. Six were freed and two were held for disorderly conduct. They were defended by Attorney Goldberg of the International Labor Defense.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n090-apr-14-1934-DW-LOC.pdf