Out of bounds, no constraints, feeling rebellious!!!
United Students Against Sweatshops
USAS was the first RSO I joined during my first fall quarter at UW. Primarily a labor rights organization, USAS' then-campaign surrounded lobbying UW to cancel their contract with Correctional Industries (CI) that operates in WA State prisons, paying incarcerated workers $1.60 an hour to build dormitory furniture. In response to this call to action, President Cauce referenced the 13th Amendment as a defense of CI paying their workers starvation wages. This campaign was integral to opening my eyes to the grave injustices at UW and the lengths that the administration will take to justify the status quo.
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In my junior year, USAS focused on a multitude of solidarity campaigns, including pressuring the UW Libraries to open their doors to the public and resist the normalization of restricting public spaces to non-UW students. We rallied with Anakbayan UW to protest U.S. Representative Adam Smith's speech at the Jackson School for his support of selling arms to the fascist Duterte administration in the Philippines. USAS and its partner organizations were instrumental in sharpening my political awareness and understandings, particularly instilling in me an intrinsic distrust for any authority and attempts to work within the system.
Subvert U District
Founded in the summer 2020, Subvert UD was originally "UW BLM," a Black-led coalition of UW students and community members that worked to enact the seven demands of the UW Black Student Union by staging a month-long protest at the George Washington statue.
At the start of September 2020, UW BLM changed its name and mission, turning to mutual aid to serve community in the U District. During this time, we began offering free, home-cooked meals to community members at U Heights every Sunday morning, while developing political educational materials and events to explore the dimensions of systemic poverty and state violence.
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It was a tough operation, especially in the beginning, to organize storage, transport of materials, cooking full course meals, and clean-up every week, but Subvert UD was one of the most loving and supportive community I found during my time at UW. As it was out of the bounds of the university, we were a coalition of students and non-students alike, meeting the material needs of anyone who asked. It taught me the importance of community care, the failures of the state, and trust among comrades.
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Resist U.S.-Led War Seattle
In Summer 2022, a coalition of students, workers, and other organizers formed the first U.S. regional chapter of the global Resist U.S.-Led War movement, focusing our campaign on UW cutting ties with Boeing, which is the third-largest weapons manufacturer in the world. Attempting to divorce the university from one of its biggest and most lucrative donors is a gargantuan task, but my experience as a member of Resist has underscored the necessity of international solidarity with all working people of the world and that my role as a student in the belly of the imperial beast is to take back my education from war profiteers!
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On May 23rd, 2023, the Seattle chapter of Resist U.S.-Led War and its allies disrupted and ultimately shut down a UW Mechanical Engineering Department-sponsored talk from Melissa Orme, the Vice President of Additive Manufacturing at Boeing. Both the university and Boeing rely upon the grooming of UW engineers to become Boeing employees after graduation, and to stop this relationship, it is paramount that students know of Boeing's profit margins made off of selling weapons that kill working people abroad.
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