Minneapolis, MN – On Friday, March 17, over 50 students and community members gathered outside the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and braved the bitter winds to demand the University of Minnesota expand the Native American Promise Tuition Program and fund the American Indian Studies department. University of Minnesota Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) collaborated with the American Indian Student Cultural Center (AISCC) to organize this protest to fight for native students’ rights.

Emcees from AISCC and SDS led chants and introduced the first speakers of the action. “The U of M is a land-grant institution that was part of the Morrill Act of 1862. It was built on stolen Dakota land,” explained Taryn Long, secretary of the AISCC. “Today these universities, including the University of Minnesota, continue to profit off of indigenous homelands.” As Bryce Riesner of SDS explained, despite the revenue and funding generated from this land, “the university established this program to make up for the sins that it has been complicit in since its founding, yet it has only helped 18 freshmen.”

Laila Gourd, outreach coordinator of the AISCC stated, “Our demands include expanding the Native American Tuition Promise Program. Currently it does not include students that were enrolled last year, and we would like the tuition program to expand to include all undergraduate, graduate and professional-level students, as well as including transfer students from any college, not just the tribal colleges.” Gourd also raised the demand for transparency on statistics from the university, and highlighted the need to include all native students, both enrolled and descendants from any and all federal and state-recognized tribes, as currently the program only applies to native students enrolled in a Minnesota tribe.

“The notion of confrontation politics arose part-and-parcel to American Indian Studies in this city. In 1969 the American Indian Studies Department was founded; it is the oldest department in the country, and we’re in the basement of Scott Hall, one of the oldest buildings on campus,” explained Nick Estes, a professor in the American Indian Studies Department. Estes went on to encourage students and faculty from across the University to support the fight, “This isn’t an Indian problem, this is everyone’s problem.”

Speaking for the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, David Gilbert-Pederson, who is also an AFSCME organizer said his union “fought really hard over the last year in bargaining with the university for paid time off for Juneteenth and paid time off to participate in tribal elections. The U fought us every step of the way, but we won, and we know that that wouldn’t have happened without struggle. We know that increasing the tuition promise isn’t gonna happen without struggle. We stand with you, because this isn’t just an issue of broadly racism, this is about national oppression.”

Other speakers included Audrianna Goodwin of the TRUTH project; Anthony Taylor-Gougé, a member of the Anti-War Committee; Rachel Thunder of the American Indian Movement (AIM); a member of the Climate Justice Committee, and Frank Paro, the national chair of AIM.

#MinneapolisMN #IndigenousPeoples #UniversityOfMinnesota

Since before the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court, Students for a Democratic Society has been organizing on campus to protect and expand women’s and reproductive rights. We have organized marches, rallies, call-ins and more to demand immediate action from the university administration, yet you so far have ignored our demands.

President Gabel, when Roe v. Wade was overturned, you made a statement outlining the resources available on campus, like we had called for, but you – as well as those of you on the board of regents – have on the whole remained unresponsive to the demands of students on this issue. The University of Minnesota has a responsibility to stand up for women’s and reproductive rights, and to use its resources to expand them on our campus and in the state.

The state of Minnesota only has 8 abortion clinics and has countless so-called “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” (which do not in fact provide access to resources and care, but manipulate people into not getting abortions, some even promote “abortion reversal” pills, which aren't based in science), with one just a light rail stop away from campus called “First Care Pregnancy Center”. This being said, it is imperative that an institution with the resources of the U of MN, one of the largest medical providers in the state, take action to expand access to these badly needed resources.

In order to protect and expand women’s and reproductive rights on our campus, we are demanding: the establishment of a Reproductive Rights Advocacy Center, which would be akin to the Aurora Center but provide support and resources for those seeking to access reproductive care such as abortions and STD testing; The creation of a reproductive health module for incoming freshman orientation; Boycotting by the University of big-ticket events in states with restrictive heartbeat bill abortion bans, in order to put greater pressure on states that are restricting these rights; and the establishing of an abortion clinic on every single University of Minnesota campus.

This issue and these demands resonate greatly with the students of this university, shown alone by the 10,000 people who joined us to protest the overturning of Roe last June, but also by the continued support students have shown of this campaign throughout the past semester. If you claim to care at all for the interests of students, campus workers, community members, and for reproductive justice at this university, then you have the duty to act immediately. We demand you, President Joan Gabel and the Board of Regents, meet with us to negotiate the implementation of our demands on campus.

Warmest Regards,

Students for a Democratic Society

sdsatumn@gmail.com

For students interested in hearing more about this campaign, follow us on instagram: @umnsds

#MinneapolisMN #UniversityOfMinnesota #StudentsForADemocraticSocietyUOfMN

The crowd, composed of both native and non-native students and members of the surrounding community, rallied outside of the student union before marching through campus to the administrative building.

The event was organized by the university’s American Indian Student Cultural Center (AISCC) as well as the UMN chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

ICWA was signed into law in 1978 and is a vital piece of legislation upholding tribal sovereignty and indigenous control of the future of their own children. AISCC member Carmen Pitt, a third-year student at the university’s American Indian Studies department, explained the legal background of ICWA, which ensures that matters of adoption and foster care of native children are under the jurisdiction of tribal governments.

Before ICWA was signed into law, the vast majority of native children in the foster system were placed into non-native families, against the wishes of indigenous communities and the children themselves, who were removed from their own culture.

The future of ICWA is currently in the hands of the Supreme Court, which may rule against it. ICWA being overturned would be disastrous for indigenous communities across the United States, which would no longer have control over the futures of their own children

Pitt described the effort by reactionaries to eliminate the ICWA as an effort to “to renew colonialism and warfare against native peoples.” She went on to point out that the repeal of ICWA “would further weaken – if not potentially eradicate the legal jurisdictions that tribal nations hold not over citizens, but the land.”

Melanie Yazzie, a faculty member of the University of Minnesota’s American Indian Studies department, stated, “It’s simply another commodification, another theft, of everything. Have you not taken enough from indigenous people?”

The potential repeal of ICWA also has numerous consequences for other areas of the peoples’ struggles. CJ McCormick, a member of the Climate Justice Committee, explained the connections between climate justice and the struggle for indigenous sovereignty, and how the attacks on indigenous sovereignty will exacerbate the climate crisis and bring out ecological disaster.

McCormick further confirmed the solidarity shared by progressive organizations in the struggle for indigenous liberation: “We stand here in solidarity with all of you and we firmly believe that defending native lives means defending every human life as climate change becomes more and more of a growing crisis.”

Other speakers included Delaney Anderson from the Circle of Indigenous Nations, and Perry Fernands, who both denounced the injustice of eliminating the ICWA and the importance of solidarity with indigenous people.

Sorcha Lona, a member of SDS, also confirmed SDS’s stand in solidarity in this struggle, stating, “There is hope for the future, there is revolutionary action that will build a better future.”

#MinneapolisMN #IndigenousPeoples #UniversityOfMinnesota #IndianChildWelfareAct

Minneapolis, MN – AFSCME at the University of Minnesota is holding an informational picket on Monday, October 10, from noon until 2 p.m. at Walter Library on the East Bank campus here. This coincides with a meeting between President Joan Gabel and Twin Cities deans at the same location. They will demand university leadership respond to their demands for raises, respect and racial equity.

Cherrene Horazuk, president of AFSCME 3800 and executive office and administrative specialist at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, said, “AFSCME UMN locals are currently in joint contract negotiations with the U. The university has created a system of haves and have-nots with vast inequities between workers and administration. The U can’t recruit or retain support staff at the current rates of pay. We need our wages raised by $3 an hour. The university’s wage proposal doesn’t even keep up with inflation, and would therefore result in a pay cut for the lowest paid workers at the U.”

Claudia Velsasco, dental assistant and AFSCME 3260 bargaining team member, added, “The university administration lauds their diversity and inclusion efforts, but needs to put their money where their mouth is. They are refusing to give raises to workers who help translate for non-English speaking patients. They are refusing to make Juneteenth a paid holiday, even though they announced their intent to do so two years ago. And they refuse to give our American Indian workers time off to participate in tribal elections, while lauding voter participation rates for state and federal elections.”

Lindsay Knoll, senior research veterinary technician in Research Animal Resources, said, “Along with our Teamster-represented coworkers, we do the behind-the-scenes work that ensures faculty can carry out their important and life changing research. The U’s poverty wages and short staffing have led to higher than average injury rates and challenges in keeping research facilities safe, clean and functional.”

Horazuk added, “The university began bargaining by asking for our assistance in addressing recruitment and retention issues. The solution is easy: pay competitive wages and benefits that move us forward rather than backwards – and put action, not lip service, to issues of equity and diversity.”

As university leaders meet inside Walter Library, unionized staff will be conducting informational picketing outside to demand raises and respect for frontline workers.

#MinneapolisMN #UniversityOfMinnesota #AFSCME3800

Minneapolis, MN – On September 22, around 150 AFSCME members at the University of Minnesota held a noon rally calling for the university to listen to their demands and offer real proposals to address issues the workers face around the pandemic and safety, rising costs of living, and racial and social justice at the university. The AFSCME members were joined by supporters from student groups, faculty, and other unions. The union members are fighting for language around several significant issues they face.

The union members are calling for meaningful flexibility around working from home, including a binding appeals process for refused work-from-home requests. The university’s official policy is that they maintain 50% in-person and 50% remote staffing and that they will work with the workers to make flexible plans. Yet most of the worker the union talks to report that they are being told to come in four out of five days and that if they don’t like it, they can quit their jobs. The current system is that if the worker wants to appeal the decision their supervisor makes, they are told to go to their supervisor’s supervisor about it, which has been ineffective in that the workers are appealing it to the same people who already made their decision.

They are also fighting for racial and social justice at the university around issues like hiring practices, to create a university that is more representative of the places in which the campuses are located, and for trans non-binary rights like access to bathrooms that are safe and accessible without having to walk several blocks outside to find a bathroom. The union also has proposals around essential pay for the essential workers who have and continue to risk their lives every day to come to work, and real raises for all that would help to keep up with the bills as inflation and cost of living rises at a rate not seen since the Reagan era.

Bea Chihak was an AFSCME member and clerical worker at the University of Minnesota until recently, when their supervisor informed them they were to report to work in person going forward. Chihak lives with a family member who is dying of cancer and another elderly relative and they let their supervisor know that they cannot safely return in person. Their supervisor told them that they understood and would support them fully if they decide to resign their position. Since then, Chihak has resigned over the lack of flexibility and now is unemployed as a result. Chihak had been performing all of their work duties fully from home until this point and many university clerical workers in many departments continue to do so to this day.

In a statement read aloud at the rally, Chihak said, “My supervisor met with me and a coworker and announced that our positions would be fully in person starting August 30. Outside of having an individual disability and going through the Disability Resource Center, there would be no accommodations. My supervisor told me, ‘If you have to resign from your position to be a caregiver for your mom, don’t feel bad.’ They went on to say, ‘No one should have to quit their job because a relative is dying. ‘Work. With Flexibility.’ [The university’s name for their current policy] is not flexible or humane. It is not getting creative or innovative about the future. It’s upholding a power imbalance between supervisors and workers. There has been no cross-campus dialogue about what equity looks like now, just commands.” Chihak also said, “For a lot of employees, especially lower income ones, the only options the university offers is to individually submit or rebel.”

After the rally, negotiations between the four AFSCME locals at the university continued with bargaining happening on Thursday, September 23, with no clear path to settlement in sight.

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #UniversityOfMinnesota #AFSCME

Critics of the proposal from Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) point out that, despite repeated efforts and demands by students at large, the Campus Safety Committee had no mechanism for ensuring the cultural and racial representation of the university community members who have been historically harmed by police force.

The proposed committee was relegated only to a consultative role and did not: review UMPD officer misconduct, give its members the power to hire and fire UMPD officers, allow for general election of its members, or come from a framework that centers Black voices. The failed proposal contrasts with that of SDS, which calls for a Campus Civilian Accountability Council, or Campus CPAC, that has authoritative powers over the police force and representation across campus cultural and Black, Latino, indigenous and other oppressed nationality groups.

The proposal for the Campus Safety Committee even garnered concern from the Senate Professionals and Administrators Consultative committee, writing: “We are concerned that critical voices which may need to be heard have not been, while also creating a disconnect between the work of this group and the respective bodies of University Governance.”

The failed ‘campus safety’ proposal was another example of insufficient, bureaucratic university responses to the underlying systemic causes of George Floyd’s murder, among other victims of police terror. Additionally, this meeting was not advertised to the university community nor was there an ability for public viewers to ask questions or leave chat comments during the meeting’s YouTube live stream.

SDS Members and activists Fanta Diallo, Jae-Lah Lymon and Olivia Crull joined the meeting to point out the inadequacies before the proposal for the committee ultimately failed with only 80 out of the 269 voting members approving the amendment.

“You can’t say you are committed to dismantling institutionalized racism then lack any representation of BIPOC on your committee. We don’t want another powerless oversight committee,” stated Fanta Diallo.

“We are on the frontlines, we are mobilizing hundreds of students, protesting every week, listen to our voices, listen to Black voices,” said Jae-Lah Lymon.

“There is no ensured mechanism for this committee to not be an elected body of white students, “Olivia Crull stated. “We are concerned about the lack of consultation from undergraduate students on this proposal, specifically our requests as well as the request from MSA [Muslim Students Association] members who were not answered by authors of this proposal.”

This failed proposal is an example of how direct, community-driven change is needed to address systemic issues of UMN bureaucracy and its policing at large. SDS stands in support of the Campus CPAC and pushes for further consultation among university leaders for its establishment along with disarmament and defunding of the University of Minnesota Police Department.

#MinneapolisMN #StudentMovement #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #UniversityOfMinnesota #StudentsForADemocraticSocietyUOfMN #UniversityOfMinnesotaPoliceDepartment

Exact details were not laid out and some things remained uncertain as the exact impact of the pandemic is not fully known yet. The regents did announce some initial plans around where the impacts would land from their reduced revenue.

University President Joan Gabel announced a largely symbolic pay cut to her own salary. Gabel recently took over as U president and signed a five-year $3.2 million contract. Her current salary is $640,000 per year. She announced that she will forgo 10% of her salary during the pandemic. 10% of one year of salary for President Gabel is $64,000 dollars which would still leave her with a $576,000 salary if she takes that reduction for an entire year.

One measure that the regents and president are taking to balance their books is that frontline workers who are non-union will see a pay freeze go into effect, with no raises or bonuses. Departments will also be asked to look at ways to cut spending. In the past that has typically resulted in staff being cut on a departmental level by supervisors and workloads increased for the remaining workers. How they will handle it this year is yet to be seen.

Clerical, technical and healthcare workers at the University are represented by AFSCME and service and maintenance workers are Teamsters. Because they are union members, these workers have legal protections as well as a strong organized voice which the non-union workers do not have. Union members at the university will receive their legally negotiated contract raises and lump sums on their scheduled dates. The university cannot change the terms of a union contract unilaterally.

The union members have protections and a grievance process to ensure that systems for working from home, proper full pay and fair and safe working conditions are in place throughout the pandemic. Additionally, the union members who are in positions deemed essential and who must go to work in person will receive hazard pay for all hours worked in person.

Interest in joining or forming unions has risen sharply during the pandemic and appears likely to continue to rise.

#MinneapolisMN #Healthcare #PeoplesStruggles #UniversityOfMinnesota #COVID19 #payFreeze

The reactionaries made their way through the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus “in solidarity with Hong Kong people against oppression on democracy and human rights.” Many of the ‘liberators’ wore black, and the leaders of the demonstration donned yellow armbands and face masks. Their demonstration coincided with the House of Representatives approval of the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019” seen by many as an incursion on Chinese sovereignty.

The two groups converged on the Coffman Student Union and were quickly separated by several campus police officers, who stood between them. Both sides carried flags and signs to reflect their respective messages. Visible on the side of the ‘pro-democracy’ demonstration were the flags of British colonial Hong Kong, Britain, Hong Kong, and the former flag of Tibet, while the opposing rally expressed their own sentiments with dozens of Chinese flags and a large symbolic pair of the five starred red flag and the flag of Hong Kong.

By 4 p.m. a crowd had gathered on the steps overlooking the rival demonstrations, with shows of support for both sides present. The Liberty for Hong Kong March had procured a megaphone. The pro-China counter-demonstration took action and drowned the speaker out with chants of “Shame on you!” “Hong Kong is part of China!” and “Take off your mask!”

Some Chinese students present sang The March of the Volunteers and other patriotic songs, which drew fervent applause from their compatriots. Meanwhile, the Liberty for Hong Kong demonstrators tried to ignore the rival demonstration, with the exception of several members who engaged in bouts of verbal sparring from across the lawn.

By 5 p.m., the Liberty for Hong Kong rally began to disperse and along with it the counter-demonstration. It was a quiet end to a loud and occasionally tense affair and there was very little interaction between the two sides as attendees on both sides trickled out. When asked about the counter-demonstration, one Chinese international student said that the rally was organized on the Chinese social media app WeChat by individual students after learning of the Liberty for Hong Kong March’s announcement on Facebook. He said that they wanted to provide a counter-narrative to prevent the spread of lies and violence. When asked if any particular group had organized the rally, he reiterated that it was organized only by individual students.

With the riots in Hong Kong becoming increasingly violent as popular support wanes, the presence of such demonstrations inside the U.S., as well as the potential passing of U.S. legislation on the riots, show that there will be further U.S. interference in China’s internal affairs.

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #OppressedNationalities #US #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #AsianNationalities #China #UniversityOfMinnesota #PeoplesRepublicOfChina #Socialism #DonaldTrump #HongKong

Minneapolis, MN – On October 4, youth and community members across the country participated in a national day of action to protest Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, and to support survivors of sexual violence. Organized by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), more than 50 people gathered at the University of Minnesota's Coffman Memorial Union, while more than 3000 people gathered in Washington D.C. and scores of cities across the country, to protest Kavanaugh's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

While Republicans in the U.S. Senate appear to want to push through the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh, students and community members rallied to demonstrate the illegitimacy of a process that fails to grapple with credible accusations of sexual assault and to stand with survivors of sexual violence.

Speakers from Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Anti-War Committee (AWC), and Black Lives Matter – Saint Paul spoke alongside Erin Murphy, a progressive gubernatorial hopeful in Minnesota's DFL primary race and politician who has consistently championed 'affirmative consent' laws in the state and on campuses.

Attendees were appalled that Kavanaugh is being pushed through the confirmation process with so little attention to his problematic history – which involves his participation in a much maligned fraternity at Yale – a fraternity which was also sanctioned at the U of MN as a result of a sexual assault in 2010 – and the fact that Kavanaugh represents a stark, reactionary agenda.

Skyler Dorr, with Students for a Democratic Society, said “The FBI won’t stop Kavanaugh. Senators like Lindsey Graham won’t stop Kavanaugh. So who here will? All of us. We’ll follow Students for a Democratic Society’s national lead and protest every day in every corner of this country to say ‘We believe survivors!’”

#MinneapolisMN #StudentMovement