Shella Cervantes, Tehmina Kahn, Kinneret Alexander, James Tracy, Beatriz Herrera
Instructors from City College of San Francisco's Ethnic Studies and Social Justice Departments explain the meaning of attacks on dissident education, ethnic studies and history from below.
Anakhbayan Collective, City College of San Francisco
Students from City College of San Francisco discuss ways to connect local, campus and international solidarity organizing.
Lindsay WeinbergIn this author talk, I'll share some of the main arguments from “Smart University: Student Surveillance in the Digital Age” (2024) as a way of opening up a conversation about how digital technologies are being used in US higher education for surveillance, censorship, and the repression of student and faculty activism. I would also share concrete strategies for how participants can use tactics including open letter writing campaigns, public records requests, and unionization to push back against the repressive digitization of universities. This talk is of relevance not only to those who live, work, or study at universities, but also those who live near universities, given the ways universities directly impact the material conditions of those who live near them, including through the expansion of campus real estate and digitally enhanced campus policing techniques. Furthermore, universities can be sites for either the reproduction or critique of dominant class ideology, which is why all who oppose autocracy should struggle for their independence from far-right regimes. I would plan to speak for 15 minutes about the book’s arguments, 15 minutes sharing concrete strategies participants might make use of, and the remainder of the time facilitating conversation about participants’ own experiences navigating authoritarian attacks on higher education.
Sasha Coleman, Aryn Far, Marc Lispi, Blanca Missé
Under the Trump administration, we are witnessing a coordinated assault on public education at every level — from K-12 schools to colleges and universities. Budget cuts, book bans, attacks on curriculum, targeting of critical thought, going after undocumented students and families — this is all part of a broader authoritarian agenda to suppress dissent and impose a racist, reactionary ideology. From the defunding of public schools, to the attacks on unions, to the erosion of tenure and academic freedom in higher education, this offensive is designed to weaken working class access to education and criminalize dissent of any form. Against these attacks, the response cannot be fragmented. Now more than ever, we need unity across the entire education sector: students, teachers, staff, parents, and faculty must organize collectively, from elementary classrooms to graduate programs, to defend our communities from these attacks, and fight for a free, inclusive, and quality education for all. Our struggles are interconnected, and only together can we fight back.
Michelle Markel and Anne Broyles
Children need empowering true stories about protest - now more than ever. They can be inspired by stories that demonstrate how any one of us can- and should- speak out for human rights. Two award-winning authors will have a conversation about the making of their recent biographies: I’m Gonna Paint: Ralph Fasanella, Artist of the People (Holiday House, 2023); and Fearless Benjamin: The Quaker Dwarf Who Fought Slavery (PM Press, 2025).
