SQE teach-in event highlights ties between resistance movements and campus activism.
By Rafael Rodriguez, Staff Reporter
For many Toro activists, the fight for socioeconomic and political liberation is not isolated to one place or people or community, but part of a larger, interconnected struggle shaped by shared histories of resistance to oppression. This idea was the focus of the “Liberty in Unity” teach-in event organized on Apr. 17 by the group Students for Quality Education—a campus advocacy organization with chapters across the California State University system.
The teach-in at Loker Student Union featured a five-person panel discussion on political education and global solidarity. Some of the topics explored included food insecurity, the displacement of peoples due to colonization, and political repression.
The goal of the event, according to organizers, was to foster community and action by linking broader geopolitics to local concerns. SQE members at CSUDH have helped to organize rallies calling for lower tuition, greater administrative transparency, and support for faculty and staff affected by recent CSU budget cuts.
“Liberation is not an individual war—it’s about people’s power,” said panelist Roz Silvia, a regional coordinator for Kabataan Alliance, an organization that serves Filipino communities in the United States and the Philippines. “If we get close to victory or liberation, the attacks will get worse. We have to be politically educated.”
Silvia criticized the U.S. for its military expenditures, which reached $997 billion 2024, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute—a nearly 6-percent increase from the previous year.
“If we hadn’t sent that money, a studio apartment wouldn’t cost $2,000, and this campus wouldn’t need to lay off any staff,” she told the audience. Isaiah Meeks, another panelist, echoed Silvia, saying material comforts do not guarantee freedoms.
“To buy a house and exist somewhere doesn’t necessarily encourage or guarantee my protection from any state repression,” said Meeks, a CSUDH alumni who once organized on campus as part of the group Students For Collective Liberation. “It’s more than just individual freedom—it’s about acting in one’s community to protect each other.”
Vincent Mansoor of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network encouraged attendees to approach liberation with clarity and purpose.
“You have to be clear on where you stand,” Mansoor said. “Let them be authors of confusion … we educate ourselves and we share that with someone else.”
The panelists also discussed how histories of displacement and survival are tied to basic needs like food and land. Chicana food activist Jahaira Galvan rooted her perspective in the lasting impacts of colonialism.
“Without food, there is no history, and there is no survival,” Galvan said. “How can we actually create liberation if we’re not all operating under the same definition of it?”
The conversation also turned to the ways systemic oppression persists across different political administrations. Ricci Sergienko, an organizer for the activist collective People’s City Council, noted that while policies and leaders change, the structures of injustice often remain the same.
“Joe Biden deported more people in his four years than [Donald] Trump,” Sergienko said.
Journalism student Jessica Valencia told The Bulletin she attended the panel to deepen her understanding of global issues. She said such events can be beneficial, “especially during this time of uncertainty and division.”
“This teach-in helped me understand how all the struggles within the world are intertwined,” she said. “They helped shift my perspective and understanding not only of Palestine, but of the world.”