Taking back our education: International Students’ Day walkout
Photo taken by author.
On Tuesday at 1:00 pm, people gathered outside Murphy Hall for International Students’ Day, despite the formal anniversary having been Monday. Immediately outside the doors to the building, a barricade of campus security officers and their bikes blocked the entryway. Students gradually formed a 150-strong crowd of masked individuals armed with nothing other than colorful banners and cardboard signs asserting their presence.
“We walk out in honor of International Students’ Day to recognize the historic role of the youth and students in fighting for our education and fighting for our futures, especially in the face of escalated fascist attacks on our education and our immigrant communities under the Trump administration,” said a speaker from Anakbayan UCLA, greeting protesters.
Another speaker from Anakbayan explained the history of International Students’ Day: “Every year, we commemorate International Students’ Day in remembrance of the nine leaders from the University of Prague, who were executed for their bravery and fight against fascism in 1939 in the era of Nazi Germany.”
The speaker further explained that the same war is being waged against the Philippines by U.S. imperialism, in which the “the education of Filipino youth is made into a commodity to serve the interests of the ruling class.” They explained how UCLA students are fighting alongside the protest movement of Filipino “university students, out-of-school youth and urban poor youth” who are bravely challenging attacks on their education.
Before the protest mobilized, I spoke briefly with a member of the Defend Migrants Coalition of West L.A. named Ian Ningpi, a third-year undergraduate studying comparative literature. He informed me that the protest formally comprised the Defend Migrants Coalition, UC Divest Coalition, Anakbayan, Students for Socialism, and Student Labor Advocacy Project (SLAP). “We’re waging our ‘Take Back Our Education’ campaign,” said Ningpi.
He summarized the demands of the action, starting with the federal government: “I’m here today to protest against [the] Trump [administration]’s demands that they made this summer in the $1.2 billion settlement [offer].”
In August, the Trump administration sent a $1.2 billion settlement offer to UCLA for alleged antisemitism after trying to suspend $584 billion in research grants at UCLA in July. On Friday, November 14, a federal judge blocked Trump from freezing these federal funds. The ruling marks a significant pushback against Trump’s mission to punish institutions he finds too liberal.
Ningpi explained the implications of Trump’s attempt to control funding, “They’re attacking G.I. initiatives, transgender healthcare, international students, and also enforc[ing] some ambiguous guidelines that make it easier for ICE presence on campus. And we’re here together standing in solidarity to show that we want to hold the UC accountable and not capitulate to these demands.”
Ningpi then made clear that even if the UC appears to take a stance against Trump, the regents are executing the same agenda of immobilizing student action through budget cuts: “We also want to protest against the UC Regents as well, who are putting the profit over people. They’re discussing possible tuition raises, while they’re approving [their] own salary increases. They’re discussing budget cuts while our student services are being jeopardized, and they’re often the first to go, [like what happened with] SPEAR and SPACE. They’ve already laid off their student initiative project directors. And so, we feel that’s already just like the first domino falling, and it’s gonna be threatening other resources like the Latinx Resource Center, the Black Bruin Resource Center and the LGBTQ+ Resource Center and all those other crucial services that…protect our marginalized communities and uphold them.”
The UC Board of Regents comprises 26 members, 18 of whom were appointed by (and not voted in) by the state governor for 12-year terms. The regents meeting, taking place at UCLA on November 18-20, will discuss the tuition hike, which will maintain the status quo of year-by-year tuition increases on each class of incoming students by 5%, as well as decrease the amount of tuition fees distributed to financial aid from 45% to 40% across the UC system.
Before we concluded the interview, Ningpi reminded me of the most recent and direct infringement of UCLA students’ free speech: Time, Place and Manner (TPM) policies. “I’d like to add the Time, Place and Manner policies that UCLA has already enforced, and [they’ve] been very restrictive with our right to protest and our free speech. And so, [we’re] also out here demonstrating our right to that, and expressing…that fundamental First Amendment.” He confirmed that this protest was organized in accordance with TPM policies.
My brief interview with Ningpi set the tone for the next hour spent alongside protestors, as they marched from Murphy Hall to Dickson Court, and then outside Luskin Conference center, where the first day of the UC regents meeting was taking place. Various speakers from Anakbayan, UC Divest, Samahang and other organizations came forward, each echoing different dimensions of the demands Ningpi explained to me.
Photo taken by author.
Protesters used a slew of call and response chants to make their demands clear and known to passersby:
From Palestine to the Philippines / Stop the U.S. war machine
A speaker from the UC Divest Coalition connected the university’s budget cuts and divestment from education to its investment in the ongoing genocide in Palestine: “The regents sit on dividends of $18 billion in war alone, while students and staff [living] on tips struggle to make ends! Admin promises guaranteed housing, while investing in Blackstone, which fuels rent hikes and displacement here and in Palestine.” The speaker urged protesters to mobilize at Wednesday’s early morning 8:30am public comment session during the regents’ meeting in the Luskin Conference Center.
Money for jobs and education / Not for wars and occupation
A speaker who identified herself as Jasmine, a peer counselor on the Samahang Pilipino Student Initiated Retention Project (SPEAR) gave an account of the consequences of budget cuts on the Samahang Pilipino (SP) community and the UC’s failure to serve its student body. She spoke, “They understand our needs from a top-down bureaucratic point of view, homegenizing us into resources and services they provide. And when this happens, its communities like SP that are among the first to be overlooked.”
Jasmine explained how SPEAR, as a student-led project, is a symptom of the university’s chronic neglect of culturally relevant resources and services. While SPEAR has drastically increased the retention rate of the Filipino community in the last 35 years, the UC has further threatened the longevity of the project. “This past summer…the funding already thought to be secured by generations of students before was being pulled, claiming to sustain our projects, they let go of our projects’ directors, the official hosting of new student staff and made all of these decisions behind closed doors,” Jasmine spoke. In doing so, students were left to carry the burden of their directors’ 40-hour work weeks in their mission to help marginalized students’ retention rates.
Photo taken by author.
When worker’s rights are under attack, what do we do? / Stand up, fight back!
The crowd of students demonstrated their solidarity with ongoing worker strikes of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) 3299 union; AFSCME 3299 demonstrated the same solidarity with students. The International Students’ Day walkout joined the marching line of picketers in Bruin Plaza, each joining in on the same chants. The two protests eventually broke off but another small group of picketing workers joined the students’, even directing the megaphone at the UCPD officers standing idly on the other side of the immense system of gates barring Luskin. Later on, once the International Student’s Day had formally concluded, most of the student protestors joined the workers’ picket line at the entrance of the Luskin Conference Center, where the UC regents were hopefully within ear shot of chants.
UC, UC, you can’t hide / We can see your greedy side
