Steps to Stand Strong and Build Collective Safety in the Shadow of the “Antifa” Order
Learn about the legal mechanisms behind Trump’s repression works, breaking down the use of expanding “emergency” powers, the relationship of recent prosecutions of protestors, to justify the repurposing of statutes to deploy the national guard and military domestically.The last 30 minutes will transition to participants editing two collaborative community readiness documents, where participants can share resources on collective safety strategies that reduce risk in order to sustain and embolden organizing.
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 Weinberg
In 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 will 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 plan to speak for 30 minutes about the book’s arguments, 20 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.
Marc Lispi, Blanca Missé, Michael Hale
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 educators, going after undocumented students and families — this is all part of a broader authoritarian agenda to suppress dissent and impose a racist, reactionary ideology. Already, educators like, Dr. Tom Alter, a tenured professor of history at Texas State University, have been fired without due process, for political comments made not as educators, but as private citizens. 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.
Laura Atkins, Anne Broyles, Innosanto Nagara, Michelle Markel Robert Trujillo
Children need picture books 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. A panel of authors will have a conversation about the making of their books: Alejandria Fights Back; Calling All Future Voters; Fearless Benjamin: The Quaker Dwarf Who Fought Slavery and I’m Gonna Paint: Ralph Fasanella, Artist of the People; My Night in the Planetarium.
