Milwaukee: UWM students, community members hold press conference on repression at SDS convention
Milwaukee, WI – On Thursday, November 20, students gathered outside the Fire and Safety Building, demanding that the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee administration and the UWM Police Department stop its repression against student and community activists.
The repression and harassment that these students have faced includes getting suspended off campus, being given bogus, hefty fines and charges, and being stalked on personal social media accounts by UWMPD and UWM administrators, and much more.
Led by members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the press conference was a response to the ongoing repression and harassment of UWM students and SDS members alike. The most recent example of repression stems from the recent National SDS Convention that happened across the street from the UWM campus, where eight students and community members were targeted and cited for holding a march in solidarity with Palestine around the campus.
SDS members, both from Milwaukee and Chicago, along with community members rallied, demanding an end to the UWMPD’s and UWM administration’s attacks on students for exercising their right to free speech on campus.
Chris Van Valkenberg from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee SDS spoke on how the citations included either “amplification of sound” or “standing in roadway”, were just another example of the truly bogus attacks that the campus police and administration at UWM subject SDS members and students. Van Valkenberg mentioned that these antagonizers have worked hard to harass us and repress us for the last two years because they know when we fight, we win. As part of UWM SDS, Van Valkenberg noted the success in fighting such charges, especially as a part of the larger National SDS. Van Valkenberg stated that just like our student charges in the past for the Milwaukee chapter of SDS, the students will fight these charges until they are dropped to show that SDS does not get scared of repression; we get stronger because of it.
The next speaker was Diego Garcia of the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (MAARPR), who spoke about how the attacks and harassment of student activists have only made the admin and police look weak in the face of progress and student safety alike. Garcis concluded that while the students advocate for progressive change on their campus, like protesting for a free Palestine, increasing black enrollment, and preserving DEI initiatives, UWMPD and UWM administrators are deathly afraid not only of these topics, but afraid of the students leading the movement on campus. It’s up to the students like those in SDS to remind the student body who is on the right side of history.
Lastly, Ángel Naranjos from the University of Illinois-Chicago SDS (UIC SDS) made it clear that the repression against students is happening across the country. Naranjos emphasized that because of this repression, students like those in Chicago and Milwaukee have chosen to escalate their campaign strategies when it comes to defending DEI initiatives and cultural centers on campus when university administrators refuse to budge despite popular student demand for such. The popularity of demands like these and others is what has made SDS a fighting student force across the country, and why the success of the 2025 National SDS Convention just a month ago in Milwaukee was such a success.
As the Trump administration’s attacks on students continue to grow, students have felt the pressure of this through a loss of educational funding, satellite campuses, research funds, DEI programs, and overall student safety. Much of this pressure is also funneled from the administrations of universities across the country, who are willing to put profits above education at every level. These losses, combined with an increase in campus police presence and intimidation, strict campus free speech laws targeting student activism, and purposefully deregistering and suspending any detracting student organizations, are a call to action for all students on UWM’s campus to call for its administration to end its complicity with Trump’s anti-education and anti-student policies.