May Day, UC Irvine

Below are two speeches, delivered this past May Day (International Workers' Day) to an enthusiastic crowd of students, staff, faculty and community members assembled in Humanities Court at UC Irvine.

One Struggle, One Fight!

by Tiara R. Na’puti

From here in this place known as Tovaangar (“our world”) where UCI is situated, and out across the expansive Pacific Ocean to the Mariana Islands and Guam/Guåhan (“we have”). That island is a place otherwise considered a U.S. territory, but in reality it is a 21st century colony. These places are deeply connected. "One struggle, one fight. All workers unite!”

Håfa Adai, my name is Tiara Naputi and I am a member of the IFA and associate professor of Global & International Studies at UC Irvine. As an Indigenous Pacific Islander, from Guåhan, I raise voice today because of the threats to our academic freedom, to our international students and workers, and because I am concerned about the top-down funding cuts.

I’ve been listening with the graduate students, postdocs, staff, lecturers, faculty. And, I share the concerns about loss of millions of dollars in research funding at UCI. Cuts already made that halt important research, cuts that jeopardize support for our students and cuts that make it difficult to sustain key projects. 

Today, we gather in support of workers’ rights—commemorating the collective gains and actions toward a better working world, a more just future. In solidarity with the struggles of the labor movement—focusing on justice and standing with immigrant communities.

This matters as we’ve seen international students and workers have had their visa and/or student status terminated across all UC campuses, including here at UC Irvine. Without warning and without any explanation of why this was happening.

We have a responsibility to pay attention and draw connections between fight for worker’s rights and struggle for decolonization. Addressing the systems of colonialism that have deep roots and lasting impacts on all of us. Exploitation of workers in colonized places means we must continue to stand up/to rise—fanohge—against the unconstitutional, militarized, & violent deportations. “One struggle, one fight. All workers unite!”

I have been advocating for immigrant and refugee rights for more than 20 years—marching/working/speaking against several different presidents and U.S. administrations’ deportation actions. Because deportations put our communities at risk, because uncertainty and funding cuts to higher education threaten people’s livelihoods and threaten our access to crucial information, resources, and services we all need to build a better future. We are here standing firmly against inhumane actions and attacks from this administration. “One struggle, one fight. All workers unite!”

We know that lived experience teaches us how we must act in a good way, from a foundation rooted in the principle of reciprocity—inafa’ maolek. We are making good decisions today, May Day and every day, to stand up for the future generations. We know that social science research teaches us how disrupting authoritarian behavior is essential. We know that critical interdisciplinary research teaches us how disrupting colonial power is essential. We know that UCI can do better.  Join and become a member of the IFA; our faculty and the IFA contributes important actions that address this UCI budget crisis and funding cuts, to support our undocumented and international workers. Together we can defend higher education.

We are called upon to uphold commitments and actions for a safe and just future—especially here and now at this very site of knowledge production. Si Yu’os Ma’åse’ for your courage and actions to call out, speak out, reach out to ensure we have a community that truly thrives. Starting here, collectively working toward a university/education that is worthy of us.

There is No Work Which is Beyond Politics

by Alexander Rudenshiold

My name is Alexander Rudenshiold—I’m a Teaching Assistant right here in Film and Media Studies, and a Head Steward with my union: UAW 4811, representing over 48,000 Teaching Assistants, Tutors, Readers, Researchers, and Postdocs across the entire UC system.

I’m here today not just because it’s May Day—or, rather, International Workers’ Day—but because the challenge before us this May 1 has never seemed more daunting, nor been so important that we mount.

Here in the School of Humanities, faculty, staff, and students have become accustomed to bracing for existential, permanent funding cuts year-after-year—so, when we hear from the Dean, that the school is slated to lose 10% of its budget next year: it’s easy to go on about business as usual. While some are already raising the alarm about what this slash-and-burn approach to the public good means for our society—about how this is manufactured or will destroy the fabric of our collective life—I actually want to spend my time today highlighting something else extraordinary about this moment: it’s no longer us here in instruction facing existential cuts alone, it’s everyone.

While permanent cuts to operating budgets in this School have become so common that they have been normalized, hundreds of thousands of research faculty and staff all around Ring Road, around the state, and around the country are facing immediate funding cuts which threaten the very existence of their work as well, potentially for the first time. It is on us, to take advantage of this harrowing moment to organize, and to share the truth of organized labor that an injury to one really is an injury to all with our unorganized coworkers: because the only way we save critical instruction is if we fight arm-in-arm with our colleagues in research, and the only way we save critical research is if we organize!

Additionally, these new cuts have not just been pressed upon us under the regular guise of “responsible austerity”: they have been explicitly motivated by political speech. The Trump regime and a bipartisan coalition bought-and-paid AIPAC cronies are seeking to punish higher education workers and students for speaking out against the ongoing genocide of Palestinians, starting with the most vulnerable among us: international workers. We must stand firm and reject our institutions’ complicity in these efforts. In this, though, the repressive State is in many ways already doing our heaviest lifting for us: demonstrating to our unorganized coworkers exactly how the cause of labor is international—connected across borders—demonstrating that there is no work which is beyond politics.

Make no mistake: if we don’t fight against these new efforts—which, no matter how shocking, are still in their infancy—all is certainly lost. But we are already fighting. We are already organizing. And, when we grow our numbers to undeniable majorities across every job title in every department: our victory is assured!

Money for science and education! [Not for war and occupation!]

When I say union, you say power! Union! [Power!]

Happy international Workers' Day, and Solidarity Forever!

Tiara R. Na’puti is an Associate Professor of Global & International Studies at University of California Irvine. Na’puti is a first-generation college student who received a master’s and doctorate in Communication Studies and a certificate in Native American & Indigenous Studies (NAIS) from The University of Texas at Austin. She is a Chamoru scholar (Guåhan/Guam) who focuses on issues of Indigenous movements, colonialism, and militarism in the Mariana Islands archipelago and throughout Oceania.

Alexander Rudenshiold is a PhD candidate in Film and Media Studies at the University of California–Irvine. He is an elected head steward for his union: UAW 4811.