Salt Lake City, UT – On Thursday, October 24, over 40 students and community members gathered in protest on the University of Utah campus to defend diversity in higher education. The protesters demanded that the school reopen the resource centers for Black, women and LGBTQ students closed by HB 261, the Utah Republicans’ bill attacking diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

The teach-in for diversity countered a racist event held by Young Americans for Freedom, a small and unpopular student group supported by Republicans. Despite the chilly temperatures, that group’s turnout was dwarfed by students chanting and listening as leaders from affected student groups and movements explained how HB 261 and racist attacks on education impact their organizations and constituencies.

“You can’t have true equality until you have equity,” said Nevaeh Parker of the Black Student Union. Parker explained that the BSU chose to end official sponsorship with the University of Utah due to its failures to Black students in the wake of HB 261. Protesters chanted, “Education is a right, not just for the rich and white!”

Alisi Fihaki of the Pacific Islander Student Association also sharply criticized the Republican bill, calling it a “flawed attempt that gives a variety of restrictions and consequences to students of color on campus.”

Speakers from MEChA de U of U also pointed out that the University of Utah went above the required steps to comply with HB 261, citing other Utah colleges which have maintained student resource centers. They called on students to protest the administration to win back DEI on campus.

As the night grew cold, hand-warmers were distributed to the crowd to maintain morale as speakers from the LGBTQ movement spoke on the Republican efforts to erase their presence on campus.

Ien Zielinski, the leader of the Utah Student Pride Center, said, “I started the Student Pride Center to show people that we all belong here.” Celeste Wallin of Utah Students for a Democratic Society said that “unlike the community centers, trans people are still here and always will be here. We can never be erased!”

Ruby Bollinger of Utah SDS ended the night, saying, “If we organize and protest, we can get the women's center back and all the other resources that we have lost. In fact, it is necessary that we do so.”

The teach-in was organized by the Black Student Union, the Pacific Islander Student Association, the Student Pride Center, MEChA de U of U, and Utah SDS.

#SaltLakeCityUT #UT #StudentMovement #SDS #BSU #Mecha #DEI

Salt Lake City, UT – On October 3, 50 students and community members gathered on the campus of the University of Utah to demand an end to the school’s study abroad program with the University of Haifa, an Israeli military college that practices discrimination against its Arab and Muslim students. Organizers also called for the University of Utah’s full divestment from companies involved in the Israeli genocide in Gaza, reinvestment in student resources, and for the University of Utah to respect students’ right to protest for Palestine.

The rally also celebrated the Palestinian resistance. Chris Loera-Peña of Mecha de U of U said, “It’s been a year of genocide, but also a year of non-stop resistance and fighting from the Palestinian people and the entire world.”

The student movement successfully pressured the university to publicly suspend study abroad with the University of Haifa for the academic year, although organizers demand a full severing of the relationship. The victory comes after Utah youth and students held campus speakouts and educational tabling events against the study abroad program and genocide profiteering on campus since the start of the fall semester.

“When we show up together and join the struggle for a free Palestine, we will be heard,” said Polly Redd of MECHA de U of U. “We are calling for our school to end its study abroad program with the University of Haifa and divest from Israel entirely.”

Students chanted, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” and “Not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel’s crimes!” Despite undercover campus police attempting to intimidate the rally participants, the speakers were greeted with loud cheers.

“The money currently spent on genocide and war should be reinvested in student services and resource centers,” said Sebastian Miscenich of Utah Students for a Democratic Society. “Tuition has gone up and up, yet DEI, student resources, and affirmative action in higher education have all been slashed by the Republicans.”

After the speeches, the rally marched two miles through the Utah heat, waving Palestinian flags and holding banners reading “Disclose and divest.” Chants of “There is only one solution – intifada, revolution!” filled the campus as the protesters reached Legacy Bridge, where they displayed their signs and banners to the honks of passing cars.

The rally was organized by Mecha de U of U, Utah Students for a Democratic Society, and the Vote Socialist 2024 Presidential campaign.

#SaltLakeCityUT #UT #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #Mecha #SDS #Feature

Chicago, IL – On January 24, over 60 people crowded the Latino Cultural Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) to join a discussion with Juan González of the Great Cities Institute and David Ramirez of the Cuban Embassy around the current immigrant crisis and its root causes. The discussion was co-hosted by two campus groups: New Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at UIC and Mexican Students de Aztlán (MeSA) at UIC.

SDS is a national grassroots organization fighting for progressive change on campus, led by and for students. Members of SDS continually work to fight against U.S. wars and interventions, racist discrimination, police crimes, homophobic and transphobic attacks, attacks on women, attacks on reproductive rights and more through mobilizing protests and campaigns. MeSA is a Chicano, Latino, community-based organization that was established in 1993. MeSA emerged primarily to address pressing problems and issues affecting the Mexican, Chicano and the Latino communities. Young student activists and representatives from six other organizations also got the opportunity to chime in and speak at this extremely insightful gathering.

The importance of a conversation around the current immigrant crisis was made clear to members of SDS and MeSA after tens of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants began pouring into Chicago after being bused out of states like Texas and Florida by racist right-wing Republican governors Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis. These new arrivals are living in poor conditions inside and outside police districts, local parks, empty lots, and sometimes on street corners and sidewalks. Meanwhile, both major political parties are set to host their national conventions in the summer of 2024 – with the Democratic National Convention taking place in Chicago.

In October 2023, the veteran activist and renowned journalist Juan González published his report titled How U.S. Policy Toward Latin America Has Fueled Historic Numbers of Asylum Seekers. It was then that SDS and MeSA decided to team up with the Chicago Cuba Coalition to organize this educational event. Student activists and representatives from the endorsing organizations were asked to speak about the effects U.S. foreign policy has had on immigration from their respective homelands, as well as what that means for our movement today.

First to speak was Louise Macaraniag from Anakbayan at UIC, a youth activist organization fighting for the liberation of the Philippines through the national democratic movement. Macaraniag drew connections between the newly arrived immigrants from Venezuela to those coming from Mexico, Syria and the Philippines, reminding the crowd that this immigration “is a symptom of U.S. imperialism.” After elaborating on the economic ties between the governments of the Philippines and the U.S., they shared the story of their own family’s forced migration and the trauma that ensued. Macaraniag urged those in attendance to “stand in solidarity with all colonized people across the world to fight against U.S. imperialism.”

Next was the vice-president of the Union of Puerto Rican Students at UIC, Patricia Sepulveda. She began her speech by commending the discussion’s attendees for refusing to stay silent in such turbulent times. Sepulveda shocked the room as she quoted what Puerto Rico’s first civilian governor, Charles Herbert Allen stated in 1901, “Puerto Rico is a beautiful island with its natural resources undeveloped, and its population unfitted to assume the management of their own affairs. With American capital and American energies, the labor of the natives can be utilized to the benefit of all parties.” However, Sepulveda pointed out that what followed was exploitation and destruction of the island in the name of profits, much to the benefit of the U.S. and to the detriment of Puerto Ricans.

Sepulveda concluded that there is an immigrant crisis only because the U.S. has “created a system that leaves people all over Latin America in shambles, and with no choice but to come here, just to be treated like second-class citizens.”

Mahdi Muhamad spoke immediately after on behalf of the Students for Justice in Palestine at UIC, a powerful student organization that promotes justice, human rights and liberation for the Palestinian people. His passionate speech further exposed the heinous crimes that the U.S. government continues to facilitate in Gaza and all of occupied Palestine by sending billions of dollars in “aid” to the genocidal state of Israe. Muhamad closed his remarks with chants of “Free Palestine” that participants proudly echoed.

A co-founder of the newly formed Latine Student Coalition at UIC, Jay Campos, spoke about the brutal exploitation of Latin America by U.S. multinational corporations in the 20th century and the crippling consequences of the coups that they backed against several democratically-elected governments in the region. He also identified the annexation of northern Mexico by the U.S. in 1848 as a “critical point in history” and oppression.

Then, Sol Márquez joined the discussion online to represent Legalization For All (L4A), a large network of organizations and individuals fighting for immigrant rights and legalization for all 12 million undocumented people across the country. Márquez shared what she and others in L4A witnessed during their delegation to the U.S./San Diego border in April 2023, “Policies like NAFTA and embargos like the ones placed on Cuba and Venezuela led to immigration waves from these progressive nations.”

Márquez continued, “We have witnessed protective asylum status for Ukrainian immigrants, and the U.S. fondly referring to them as refugees – but the same gestures are never afforded to immigrants like my Mexican parents or Central American ones.”

The co-hosting student organizations, MeSA and SDS, made their final remarks before segueing to Juan González and David Ramirez. The president of MeSA at UIC, Lucy Arias, called attention to the historic hypocrisy of the U.S. government for their use of Mexican labor via the “Bracero” program implemented during World War II. She said, “Policies have been passed in the United States to both impede and facilitate the flow of immigration, depending on what is most convenient and needed by the United States. We are exposed to exploitation, maltreatment, threats, extortion and more, all because we looked for a new opportunity. They wanted our Braceros, “our brazos” but not our persons and people.”

Sahian Sotelo, a student organizer, emphasized the importance of community and solidarity in their speech on behalf of SDS at UIC. “Recently,” they said, “right-wing reactionary politicians have been having their way as they watch generations of existing Latino communities in Chicago turn against the incoming Venezuelans. The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. In turning against each other, we oppress ourselves and our very own community, when the reality is we are all struggling- and struggling together at that. In the struggle, there should be solidarity. Solidarity to stand up to our true oppressor.” Sotelo left the crowd on a powerful note with the vintage SDS chant, “Dare to struggle, dare to win!”

After the student activists and organizers finished their remarks, keynote speakers Juan González and David Ramirez were set to talk. At this point in the program, they both acknowledged and informed the audience that the youth speakers had energized and fired them up. González, in particular, fondly recalled being a member of the original SDS during his time as a youth activist in the late 1960s. During the presentation of his report on the current immigrant crisis, González repeatedly drew attention to and identified U.S. economic warfare against three specific countries – Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba – as a driving force in the latest migration surge.

González also detailed why so many people are fleeing Venezuela; the endless Cuba embargo; the sanctions against Nicaragua; the history of U.S. intervention in Latin America, and practical solutions.

Finally, David Ramirez joined the discussion virtually from Washington, DC to speak on his work at the Cuban Embassy, the historic relations between the governments of the U.S. and Cuba, and Cuba’s tourist economy. Ramirez explained that we need background and context to understand why over 400,000 Cubans have immigrated to the U.S. Southwest border in the last couple years – the vast majority then heading to Florida.

Julie Wolenski spoke on behalf of the Chicago Cuba Coalition and motivated the audience to see Cuba for themselves. She suggested to folks, “Join a May Day delegation or brigade and join the campaign to take Cuba off the SSOT list!”

Afterwards, the students, organizers and community members gathered and held banners to record a short video demanding the U.S. end its blockade against Cuba and lift the sanctions against Venezuela and Nicaragua. The Latino Cultural Center was soon infused with a militant mood as activists broke out in a spirit of solidarity. We chanted “Cuba si! Bloqueo no!” and “El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!” Juan González and David Ramirez reminded those of us in the room that day that things didn’t have to be this way. If we wanted the situation to change, we had to fight for it.

#ChicagoIL #ImmigrantRights #StudentMovement #SDS #MECHa #International #Venezuela #Nicaragua #LatinAmerica #Cuba #L4A

Orange County, CA – On Friday, October 27, over 30 students and community members gathered across two events to listen to Gia Davila of the Tampa 5 on her stop of the Justice for the Tampa 5 speaking tour. The Tampa 5 are a group of students, workers, and community activists who were violently arrested while protesting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ racist attacks on education at the University of South Florida. They are facing up to ten years in prison and are on a speaking tour to call for these unjust charges to be dropped.

Gia Davila, a member of Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), gave context to the current political climate in Florida. She spoke on legislation being proposed that attacks LGBTQ, reproductive, immigrant, union and education rights. She described the bill that Tampa Bay SDS were protesting on the day of the arrests, HB 999, “which effectively banned diversity, equity and inclusion programs from universities. It also had nasty rhetoric about tenure for professors, it attacked Black history, it attacked ethnic studies and multicultural groups.”

Davila continued, “Not only are we innocent, we were doing something good. More students should be protesting on campus to retain these programs and expand these programs of diversity on our campuses.”

The prosecution is threatening them with consequences if they talk to the press, but Davila confidently said, “Of course we are not going to listen to them, that is why I am here.”

The events were put on by CSO Orange County and were co-sponsored by the MEChA de UCI chapter and the Chicana and Chicano Studies Department of CSUF.

Sol Márquez, a member of Centro CSO in Boyle Heights, stated, “The Tampa 5 is much more than specifically people in Tampa, it transcends to all of us who are fighting for what is right.”

Michelle Sanchez, co-chair of MEChA at UCI, highlighted the political repression experienced by students at UCI by saying if they had collaborated with the university to put on this panel, they “would have had to strike some things off of the conversation,” otherwise it would not be approved. She encouraged attendees to get organized in order to fight this repression.

Dr. Marlén Ríos-Hernández, a Chicana studies professor, urged people to take action in this time of heightened political repression, stating, “There will be a time where you have to make up your mind about what you want for the liberation of others, for the liberation of your own people, and decide what it will take for you to be unafraid.”

#OrangeCountyCA #PoliticalRepression #Tampa5 #DeSantis #StudentMovement #SDS #CSO #MECHA

Salt Lake City, UT – On October 23, members of the Salt Lake City community filled a room on the University of Utah campus for a panel against the repression of progressive speech on campus. Chrisley Carpio of the Tampa 5 was the keynote presenter and was joined by MECHA at the University of Utah and Armed Queers SLC.

The Tampa 5 are five members of Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society who were arrested for protesting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s racist attacks on education in that state. They face felony charges from right-wing District Attorney Susan Lopez for the protest. MECHA and Armed Queers SLC joined the panel in solidarity because of the University of Utah’s attempt to shut down a joint event on LGBTQ peoples’ right to self-defense.

Carpio led the crowd in a chant of “Racist, sexist, anti-gay! Ron DeSantis go away!” She said, “We are not sorry, and we are not backing down. We are going to fight these unjust charges because the people of this country oppose Ron DeSantis’s racist, sexist, homophobic agenda!”

Gabriela Merida, the education secretary for MECHA, condemned the university’s attempted repression, saying, “We know this type of repression is not happening to any other org on campus. It is only because we have decided to speak out against the university’s complacency and complicity in the oppression of the LGBTQ+ community and Palestinian and Arab community in the world.”

Ermia Fanaeian of Armed Queers SLC agreed, saying, “The struggle against the repression that left movements face is very real, and growing all over the country. We must recognize that the forces who are holding political prisoners and Palestinian activists are also in charge of pacifying student groups on campus, such as the Tampa 5.”

Organizers from Utah Students for a Democratic Society facilitated questions and answers from the crowd, which raised over $300 for the Tampa 5’s defense fund.

#SaltLakeCityUT #<