Chapo Trap House - Bonus: UCLA Encampment Update

Episode Date: May 7, 2024

Will talks to Anny Viloria Winnett, a UAW 4811 ASE Trustee, Graduate Student Worker at the UCLA School of Public Health, and an organizer involved with UCLA’s pro-Palestinian encampments. They discuss last week’s violent assaults on the UCLA encampments, first from a group of Zionist vigilantes and subsequently by the LAPD. They then discuss the university’s response, keeping the movement resilient and safe in the face of such opposition, and some answers for all the media who want to know “why are you here?”

All right, joining me now to talk about her experiences at UCLA over the past week is Ani Valoria-Winnett, a UAW 4811 ASE trustee and a graduate student worker at the UCLA School of Public Health. Ani, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Ani, I want to get into your experiences over the past week at the protest encampment at UCLA. But before we get into that, could you past week at the protest encampment at UCLA. But before we get into that, could you just tell our listeners just a little bit about yourself

and how you became to be at UCLA and how you became to be involved in this protest? Yeah, for sure. So I am a PhD student at UCLA. I have been there for five long years. I study and research housing and housing is related to people's health. And being in Los Angeles, I think studying the housing crisis is sort of like an obligation. I've also been involved in my union for quite a while. I signed my union card when I first came for my orientation, but jumped fully on board.

And when we were getting ready for a strike authorization vote in 2022 and having an active organizer in our union, U.S. JABU 4811 since then. My relationship to the encampment and to any other organizing that is for Palestine and for freedom comes because I understand that workers everywhere must stand together if they don't want to fall. I think that's basically a big picture because of my union involvement, but also because I understand it to be part of everybody's liberation to fight for Palestine. Now, Ani, what can you tell our listeners about what you experienced at the UCLA encampment over this past week? I know our listeners have been, a lot of them watching on the internet and elsewhere, scenes of both the police crackdown on this encampment and then also the vigilante assault

on the encampment. So as someone who was there, what can you tell us about what happened over the past week at UCLA? It was the progressive escalation of violence against the encampment. You know, from day one of the encampment on Thursday last week, there had been, at the beginning, a smaller mob of counter protesters who had shown up to be aggressive, to be disruptive. On day two it got a little worse.

On day three on Sunday, counter protesters held a Zionist rally on our campus right outside of the encampment. They installed this massive like jumbotron screen where they were just playing loud music to disrupt people in the encampment day in and day out throughout the night. On Sunday that rally got actually fairly heated. The counter protesters were bold. They were aggressive.

They were pushing us around. They were kicking us around. We I mean, folks like myself and other students and organizers who were on site trying to protect the encampment from what we knew was going to be a disruptive rally. And nothing happened. And nothing happened at that Sunday rally. They were able to do as they wished with us throwing students and community members around with full impunity. And so what happened on Tuesday night, I think, is just the natural progression of this mob

showing up and doing whatever they please, not consequences. Earlier that afternoon of Tuesday, the university had sent an email saying that the encampment was unlawful, that they wanted us to disperse. Once we got that email, we felt it was the university giving permission to whoever wanted to attack, that they could. That evening, I think it was around 10 p.m. when we heard the first fireworks go off. when we heard the first fireworks go off, somebody threw fireworks into the encampment. And from then on, it was mayhem. It was a continuous attack.

There was, like, Zionists were pushing people around. They were trying to break through the barrier. They were macing us. They were just trying to fight anybody who was getting in between them and destroying the encampment. And when all of this was happening, campus police was standing around watching it go down, what the students and student workers inside the encampment were fighting to their

nail to stand. That was a pretty horrible night. Now, yeah, I mean, like whether it's UCLA or any of these other college campuses, the line that you'll hear from the administration and their advocates in the media is that, of course, these encampments are unlawful and they need to be cleared out because it's a safety issue for the students who attend these universities.

What do you make of that line in light of the fact that, as you just described, that campus police and the LA police basically escorted these vigilantes as you just described that campus police and the LA police basically escorted these vigilantes and gave them free rein to attack students for a full night at UCLA. Yeah, I mean, I think it's not the first line that I hear the media that comes in support of this institution paint something for what it's not.

If they care about people's safety, if they care about our safety, we wouldn't be dealing with the kinds of violations in the workplace that we experience every single day. If the university actually care about safety, something would have happened when back in October I got attacked by Zionists in the parking garage of my own building. If the university care about safety, our Palestinian and Muslim students would have the ability and the space to express their concerns and be backed up by the university. But that's not been the case. So they selectively choose to care about safety and people

when in reality their everyday actions that I have seen them do for the last five years show the exact opposite. You say you were attacked in the parking lot of parking garage of your own house. Was this university housing or was this off campus? And what was the circumstances that led to you being accosted? Oh, yeah, so no, it wasn't it wasn't my it was my building meeting and campus like where I work. We had organized a rally back in late October early November on our campus in support of the Palestinian struggle and even at that rally like six months ago there were already Zionist agitators who were coming up to our campus showing up and attacking our students and as I was walking between my building

and where we were holding the rally, a group of Zionists came up to me, ran me by my kofi, threw me around the ground, stood above me, laughed at me because they knew I was kind of terrified, and then walked away. And this same attacker showed up just 30 minutes later to the rally that we were holding and just

got away with standing there looking at me in the eye as I knew they had just attacked me because campus police did nothing that day. How would you describe the counter protesters, the people who assaulted you? Like, I mean, do you have an idea about where these people like who they are, where they're coming from? Are these local people from Los Angeles? I mean, like, what are the kind of things that they try to say to get a rise out of you?

Like, how do they seek to instigate violence or some sort of response from the people they're attacking? Yeah, it's an interesting crew. I mean, I know there are students in our campus that stand for the same ideology, that outside agitators that are just coming to our campus because they can't just fucking get away with it. What they yell at students, what they have yelled at me,

what they try to come across is that we do not understand what we're talking about, that we for some reason have been like brainwashed to believe something that is not true, as if we could not tell a genocide from watching it live streamed in front of our eyes right now. It's just this delusion that we are just, we meaning all of us who are standing up for Palestine and taking on the streets and taking over our campus when necessary, that we do not know what it is that we're fighting for, when in reality they cannot tell us that what we're watching is not plain face genocide, occupation,

and colonialism. One of the complaints, and by complaints I'm being obviously very generous to the side whose point of view I'm seeking to render here, one of the things that I've heard a lot is that they're saying take your masks off, or like if you were proud of what you're doing, you wouldn't have masks on. What do you make of this this demand to like, and obviously, during the arrest, the police unmasked and like even remove the headscarves of Muslim students like on camera. What do you what do you make of this demand that like to sort of show your face that like, like, what do you make of like,

yeah, people who are sitting there to attack you or ruin your future, asking you to show your face if you're so proud of what you're protesting? What would you respond? What would you say to that? I think that when you understand that the state is complicit, and the state is not going to take any action, even though though these are the folks who are standing for genocide, for violence, for attacking our students. They're pretty bold and they get to call out, or they get to have this kind of claims

that they wanted to be amassed and reveal who you are because they understand that they can do that and have no consequences. But those of us who are fighting on the front lines will face the consequences either from our bosses, from the university, from society at large. Like doxing is something that has been happening, has been happening all throughout this time. So, I mean, I think it just goes to show their understanding of who is going to

get away with that. And now, obviously, like,, we've you've described examples of the violence that they've meted out to people who are protesting for Palestine and against war. But like, how do you knowing full well that like any, any incident of violence, like they can fire fireworks at you beat you with clubs mace you and then like, oh, like this this largely gets ignored or swept under the rug. How do you balance like a need to like actually defend yourselves and

like create like safety for your students and fellow protesters with the like this knowledge that like anytime you hit back or defend yourself, it will be portrayed as like an example of horrific barbaric violence being carried out by anti-semitic mobs. I think my answer to this question comes from my training as a good labor organizer, safety in the numbers. The more of us we stand together, the more of us are willing to take bold stances, the more of us were ready to put things on the line. That's how we keep each other safe. It is actually not hard to get those numbers.

It's not hard to get people to support us. I mean, there is many more of you than there are of them. Exactly. And I think that's why that they are resorting to this, you know, thuggish violence. Now, that was that was a night in which like, you know, you described the sort of count these outside agitators, these these, you know, counter protesters seeking to like, you know, cause violence and disrupt and intimidate people. But then like the following night, the police had their turn, they had their go at doing the exact same thing, but they did it with even more sophisticated weapons. Could you describe like the police response that followed the attack on the encampment by vigilantes. What happened that night? What did you see?

Were you arrested? Like, I mean, did you see anyone get hurt? What was the police response like? Mm hmm. Our campus was quite literally a battle zone on Wednesday night. I was, I was in the outside of the encampment because after what we experienced on Tuesday night and after we saw what this criminal mob got away with We knew they were going to come back and we knew the camp was under attack

so as union leadership we got together that Early on on Wednesday and we decided that we needed to hold an emergency rally that evening to defend the camp expecting something but not knowing what. Well what happened was that hundreds hundreds of police officers like descended on our campus. There was helicopters all around us. There were buses that were getting ready to arrest people stationed near the camp. The camp was holding the line, holding strong.

We had so many people showed up to our rally. So many people were standing outside. And the one goal that we had for our rally was to protect the camp for as long as possible. Like we said, because we had the numbers, we knew they couldn't just come in if many of us were standing. But, you know, they were ready to wait us out. You know, we were sitting on the steps. We staged a sit-in starting at 5.30 p.m. It was probably around midnight that the armed police actually entered the camp, but they

were turned around. The first time that they entered, they were turned around because the folks who were in the camp just stood together, stood strong, and they kicked them out of the encampment. They had to leave. They had to regroup, but they came back again, just more fierce, more fearless, and broke through the barrier a second time. So I was standing outside the entire time because, again, we just wanted to get,

as many of our community members, supporters, the students, folks who were inside, ready to defend the camp and ready to record what was happening because we knew the narrative of the night was again going to be twisted, again going to be painted at something that it wasn't. And it was, I mean, it was pretty damaging to the university that they allowed something like that happen. But I think it was even more damaging for our students to see that the university much rather sends police to attack peaceful protesters than

negotiate with us in good faith. Honey, this is a question in conducting these interviews with various people involved in these protest movements at universities. This is a question I keep returning to, which is what do you think accounts for the UCLA administration's absurdly disproportionate response to not just protest in general, but this protest in particular and the message of Palestinian solidarity and like a movement of liberation for the people of Palestine. It is very hard for me to imagine the same university would allow fascist mobs or the police to attack,

let's just say, like a regular anti-war protest, for instance, if it was just a war America was directly doing instead of just funding. What do you think accounts for this, this like the really harsh and immediate need to crack down on these protests rather than negotiate even in bad faith to sort of sweep it under the rug? The University of California is a $40 billion institution. It is the largest landlord in the state of California, the largest employer. It is our healthcare provider and it is somehow apparently our education provider. But in reality, the University of California is a massive business that prints diplomas

every now and then for the folks that put themselves through debt to get that diploma. It is very clear to me that the university has an economic interest and economic investment in protecting the kinds of financial returns that they get from their funds that are invested in warmongers, in arms manufacturers. We don't know the extent to which these investments exist because there is simply not transparency. And so the demands that we're putting forward, the demands that the camp is putting forward, the demands that the UC diverse coalition has been putting forward is attacking the bottom line.

So if you ask me what they put up such a big fight is because their money is on the line. It is because their interests are on the line financially. And that's something that they're willing to bring a militarized force into our campus to defend. Now were you arrested by the police and if so could you tell us what that was like and also like if you heard from other people at the protest encampment who were arrested and what can you tell us about what the experience of being arrested by the LAPD was like? I mean are they out now? What sort of are they facing charges and And like, what was the overall how were their

interactions with the LAPD on that night? How would you characterize them? Yeah, I was not arrested that night. I was outside of the encampment the entire time just for support and recording what was happening. We know over 200 of our students, community members, faculty, student workers were arrested. We know the experience where we're horrible. We're horrible. We had students who were shot with this what is it called like belt bullets? rubber bullets, rubber bullets. There we go. student lost a finger students were shot in the in their heads. The violence of

the arrest cannot be understated They there were elderly people they were you know older folks who were you know faculty who were sending solidarity who were arrested and Were basically like dragged out of the encampment without any regard for their safety without any regard for the fact that all of us were unarmed were you know just like students holding fucking like little plastic bags or plastic boxes to defend ourselves. The treatment that people received that night is emblematic of the violence that we know LAPD to be capable of. Everyone was out by the end of the following day,

so by the end of Thursday, everybody who had been arrested was out by the end of the following day, so by the end of Thursday, everybody who had been arrested was out. I don't think I know the full extent of all the charges that were brought against them, but I just, I have to say for this point, the kinds of support that we got, again, not from the university, but from our union and from other community people that showed up to provide legal support, legal defense, is what got most of my colleagues through that full day. Ani, I was struck by something you said earlier about your experience as a union organizer in

terms of the safety is in numbers and you don't really need to fight back when there are more of you than there are of them. Then you stand together in numbers, like that is your safety. Is there anything, anything else that you have brought from your experience as a union organizer to this anti-war movement in terms of organization tactics and just overall like like message of solidarity that you think would be helpful to like these ongoing protests? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, like I said, I do feel like all of us who are in the labor movement have many tactics and also many lessons to bring to the table. I think first with the lessons is that we understand our enemy. We understand

the boss. We understand the university. We understand the lengths they're willing to go when it comes to disrespecting the agreements that we come to terms with them in the form of our contract. We understand the kinds of retaliation that we face from the university when we stand up against one of our co-workers' rights being violated. We understand the fact that the university will put out statements that do not reflect the truth of our working conditions. And so because we understand that, I feel like we can come into this student movement

with a sober and clear understanding of what it is, what we're up against. We also have to put up big fights that at some point seem impossible to win. At some point it feels like this is an uphill battle, is it worth fighting for? But as a union organizer we know that when we fight we win, right? That we can stand up with bold claims, we can stand up for what seems impossible, and if we have the numbers, the organization, and the right strategy, we stand to win a lot. So in terms of tactics, you know, first of all, it's mass participatory action, right? We understand that the fight for Palestine is everybody's fight.

And it's not just a minority of unruly students that are putting up a fight. We know that many of people that perhaps were not at the encampment throughout the week, were paying attention, were wanting to be there. So now our tactic as union organizers is to have those conversations in the workplace with everybody that we know.

What do you think is important for us to fight? And what is it gonna take for us to win? Bring more people into the fold, bring more people out into the streets. We make people to the understanding that this fight involves all of us. I mean, ultimately we have the backup of our union in particular, 48,000 workers standing strong together.

Imagine what we could do if all of us actually had had something at stake in this fight. So the labor organizers everywhere should should deploy those tactics and deploy the discipline should deploy their understanding of this battle to advance the struggle that we know we know it's a lengthy one, but like every other contract fight that we have gotten through, like it can be one. Honey, there's the last question I'll ask you. Another thing I've seen a lot in the media this week is this lament about like no one will talk

to us. We just we want to we want to render their their grievances in a you know good faith manner but no one will simply talk to us. We don't know why are they really there. So look I'm in the, you're talking to me. Let me ask you, if someone asks, like, why, why are you and so many others even willing to be arrested, willing to be have, you know, the violent men put their hands on you to be slandered publicly for your conscience? Why are you willing to come back and keep doing this? What what what are you protesting? And why is this movement likely to continue?

It's not likely this movement will continue this movement will not die. Because we understand that the fight for a free Palestine is a fight for our own liberation. I'm out there fighting for Palestine. So you on person as a worker as woman, as an immigrant, as somebody who deeply loves the people struggle. I think that it would be a misunderstanding to say that those of us who are fighting are fighting just because. I think we understand that there is also a war waged at home against the working class,

against single mothers, against all of us who are uninsured, against all of us who cannot afford our medications. So the violence that we're seeing perpetrated against the Palestinian people, condoned by our country, sponsored and financed by our country, is not far removed from the violence that we experience here at home as working class people. And so the connections that we're making, the connections that I'm making that are fueling me to fight are not going to go away. People understand very clearly that it is our role from the belly of the beast to be fighting for liberation and to be fighting for our own liberation in the meantime.

Students have always risen up when the occasion calls for it, so I really do believe that the movement will stay strong. And if media has said that we're not talking to them, if media has said that we don't have enough time to render a story to them, it's because they have actually been a problem. They have been hiding the real issues, hiding the real source of the conflict, hiding the real, you know, who's at fault in this. But we don't we just don't have time to keep talking to media who is unwilling to put out the real story.

Our test right now is to get organized to take over the streets and to fight for Palestine. I mean, I really want to thank you for your time. I want to thank you for your courage and discipline in the face of these, you know violent assaults and Slanders being the least of it, but seriously, thank you for your time and thank you for everything you're doing and good luck going forward Thank you. I appreciate you Thanks for watching!