By: Fernando David Márquez Duarte

On November 24th, the online panel about what policies to press and what to expect in the new government was held. In this online discussion four PhD students of the University of California Riverside (UCR) shared their insights about the topic, moderated by Fernando David Márquez Duarte, a PhD student in Political Science, as well as the Legal Advocacy Officer of the Graduate Students Association of UCR. The participants were: Maricruz Osorio, a PhD candidate in Political Science who talked about immigration; she researches latinxs and immigrant’s politics in the USA. Sarah Hayes, a Master’s degree student in Political Science and an electoral organizer for the Democratic party who talked about racism and violence; she researches ethnic and race politics, especially black politics. Heba Hodaly, a PhD candidate in Political Science who talked about police abolition; she researches economic justice/redefining justice. Pao Wasantwisut, a PhD student in Chemical and Environmental Engineering and the UAW 2865 Chair at UCR who talked about international students’ issues.

The panel began with the land acknowledgement, where Fernando acknowledged that the land in which UCR stands belongs historically to the indigenous groups of Cahuilla, Tongva, Luiseño and Serrano, he also acknowledged the use of the land of where he is from (Mexicali, México), which historically belongs to the Cucapáh indigenous group. He mentioned that the objective of the land acknowledgement is not sharing empty words but recognizing the oppression that indigenous group have suffered and the land that has been taken from them, so people are aware and can press on for institutions to make the reparations that indigenous people deserve.

The first topic addressed was immigration. About this topic Maricruz acknowledged that is a difficult topic. She pointed out that there is an advantage of Biden being a former Vice-President (VP) since we have an idea of what to expect, like the appointment of Mayorkas for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). She also said she was skeptic of Biden policies in this issue because Obama was the one that laid deportation structure that Trump continued. However she recognizes that we could expect Biden to support DACA and the dreamers program, because it was also laid by Obama.

Regarding issues to press on, she argued that it is necessary to pass a full time program protection, not just a temporary one and a program that is accessible for everyone, because with the cost of the DACA processes it is not really accessible. Maricruz highlighted that “if we want to see the radical kind of policy making we expect, we need to be pushing”. Other issues to press on, she argued, are the abolition of ICE, of the detention centers. She also pointed out the lack of oversee of the Border Patrol, which commits all kinds of atrocities against immigrants, she also added “If we were to keep those institutions we should ensure that there is proper oversight and punishment for misbehavior”.

The second topic was racism and violence. About this issue Sarah began to explain the historical precedents of violence against black and brown communities in the US. She explained that in the summer of 2020 the violence against black people by the police was put on the national and international focus by the resurgence of the BLM (Black Lives Matter) movement, which actually was founded in 2013 by radical Marxists black activists; she explained that BLM has had the objective of eradicating white supremacy, not only fighting police brutality, she added that “the focus on structural racism was put in the spotlight in this summer by the movement, against racial disparities and police violence against black people, in ways that haven’t been brought into the mass public”. She highlighted the racial solidarity that the movement showed. On the other hand she highlighted that Trump’s government violently repressed the movement and caused the emergence of white supremacy groups to incite more violence in the movement.

Regarding what to expect from the Biden administration she agreed with Maricruz in that Biden is not progressive and doesn’t want to dismantle structural racism, and also agreed in the necessity to exert continuous pressure from the social movements. She shared that Biden just released a 100 billion dollar plan to address economic inequalities, from which a 10% goes to racial disparities: “it is good, but I’m worried about leading acts of representation of tokenized folks without really having the power to advance the racial causes”. She added that if we don’t change the capitalist system the disparities won’t change.

The third topic addressed was police abolition. In this issue Heba began by saying that 1000 people are murdered by police every year in the US, and black people are 2.5 times more likely to be murdered than white people. She also pointed out that only 5% of arrests of the 10 million arrests that happen in the US are from serious crimes, 95% are for things like having marihuana and traffic violations, thus, are opportunities for the police to harass civilians.  She added that “we know that the system is violent and inherently racist, that is why much of the work of abolition happens on the ground, in city council, the schoolboard, I think these are the places we should apply pressure for the changes”.

Regarding proposal she added that the first step for abolition is pulling funds from policing to put them in program of social uplift. She pointed out some strategies to press on from the critical resistance toolbook: 1) Defund the police from city council and local officials, like what happened in Minneapolis with the Black Visions collective 2) End militarized policing programs which increased after 9/11; in San Francisco there have been efforts to stop the Urban Shield program 3) End gang enforcement tactics that target BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) people 4) Getting cops off Campus; ending the presence of police corps on campus 5) End community policing 6) Getting cops off transit.

Lastly, Pao talked about the issues that affect international students. He began by sharing how the UAW 2865 (the student workers union) works in issues related with the topics discussed, like working for defunding the police at the UC and fighting racism and discrimination against international students and immigrants. One issue that affects international students and the union has been working in solving is the work from abroad issue; due to the COVID shutdown, instruction was transferred to online modality and many international students returned to their countries due to the COVID pandemic. Some departments, like the physics department at UCR denied student workers to work from abroad, even rescinding contracts that were already agreed, even if there isn’t any law that restricts this: “We gathered 60 people signing the letter in the Physics Department and the physics department took down that policy, they agreed to hire the international TAs (Teaching Assistants) and reimbursed the expenses included and respected the job offers and contracts working from abroad”. Another example of the work from the UAW is the NRT (Non-Resident tuition) issue, in which thanks to the pressure, the university agreed to revise the restriction of time of 5 years, which means that if an international student takes more than that time he/she has to pay NRT and this causes a lot if inequality. He pointed out that at UC Davis & Berkeley they extended this for one year, but that a state-wide solution is necessary.

After each presentation, the public had a chance to ask questions. When asked of forms to press on these issues the panelist answered that bottom-up and grassroots movements, and having progressive people in office and in the Congress is one way; voting out the “dinosaurs” of the Democratic party was also mentioned; going to city councils meetings and holding legislators accountable; it was also argued that there is a necessity for imagination in the resistance circles, to imagine what society do we want; lastly, it was argued the importance of alliances with groups in and outside the state to press collectively having more power.