In Chancellor Frenk’s statement released Wednesday, deceptively titled “A Stand Against Violence in Our Community,” it was clear that he did not intend to respond to the real violence inflicted upon students and workers by administration and its collaborators. Instead, he moved to suspend SJP and Graduate SJP in a chilling crackdown on free expression.
UCLA has failed to support undocumented students in the face of escalating attacks by the Trump administration. Students and workers must call upon Chancellor Julio Frenk to take concrete action and protect our community.
The UC’s repression of Palestine solidarity protest and neglect of workers’ welfare are not disparate injustices: they are products of the callous, corporate ordering of our university. But when students and workers bear the brunt of the UC’s violences, there is power where our struggles converge.
There are the next four years, and then there is the lifetime that comes after. When Trump is inaugurated as President in January, millions of Americans will be thrust into new, cruel states of precarity. Now more than ever, we must unite in struggle: community is how we resist.
Our Editorial Board reflects on the past, present and future of Palestine as we pass one year of the genocide in Gaza.