NYU Asian American Political Activism Coalition

In one voice we will read poetry and the Preamble to the Indian Constitution in solidarity with student protests in India and in celebration of 60 days of Shaheen Bagh TODAY, KIMMEL STEPS (60 WASHINGTON SQUARE, 4PM

Happening tomorrow! Raise is hosting a journalling and storytelling workshop for As-Am undocumented youth. If you wanna go be sure to register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/freeing-our-thoughts-journalin

We, the NYU Asian American Political Activism Coalition, join our comrades the NYU Student Labor Action Movement in solidarity with workers worldwide against forced labor. As an organization fighting for the collective liberation of Asian peoples in the diaspora and the motherlands, we stress the imperative for solidarity, especially as the vast majority of enslaved labor in the UAE is from South and Southeast Asian peoples. The story of the UAE is one built through forced mi...grant labor from the Global South. In 2009, NYU used forced labor to build NYUAD. We know that workers often had their passports withheld. We know that their recruitment fees were left unpaid, forcing them to accrue large amounts of debt outweighing their salaries. We know, and so does NYU. It has been 10 years since, NYU and UAE Govt's Tamkeen Group has failed to fairly compensate the people who built our campus. While NYU students afford a subsidized education at NYUAD, workers on their campus continue to face fair labor violations and forced labor conditions. NYUAD and their office of compliance continue to hire biased, ineffective, and non-publicly vetted investigators and re-interpret the anti-forced labor compliance standards that other American companies in the region including Apple and Walmart abide by to in a concerted effort to implement fair labor measures. While the NYUAD Institute, UAE propaganda, and Office of Compliance exploit student silence, stifle worker voices, and hide behind the fallacy of multiculturalism, the NYU Student Labor Action Movement is here to tell you that facilities and opportunities for students should not come at the cost of unfree labor. Forced Labor is not a matter of cultural difference. It is a product of neoliberalism, of uneven global development, of neocolonialism, of racism, and of Global North imperialism. We will always stand in solidarity with the workers who make education possible while our institution benefits from turning a blind eye to the abuses these workers faced & continue to face. This fight has been ongoing since 2009, and as NYUAD celebrates its 10th anniversary, we remember and call on the 10 years of struggle that NYUAD workers and NYC campus students and faculty have put into righting NYU’s wrongs. We learn and work at NYU. We pay to attend and are subsequently put hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to NYU.

Join GSOC and NYUtoo at a rally to keep the pressure on NYU to meet our demands for the university to fire Avital Ronell, implement Title IX reform, and increase support for survivors of sexual harassment and assault. Read and the sign the petition here: https://tinyurl.com/NYUtooPetition

TOMORROW from 6:00 pm-8:00 pm NYU APAC and the Asian Prisoner Support Committee invites YOU + your friends to APSC for a screening of Breathin’: The Eddy Zheng Story (2016) in Kimmel Room 804 - CMEP Conference Room. DOCUMENTARY BACKGROUND: At age 16, Eddy Zheng, a Chinese immigrant, became the youngest prisoner at San Quentin State Prison. Having to navigate the prison system for more than 20 years as a Chinese immigrant, Eddy learned English, earned his college degree, ...and became an advocate for Ethnic Studies in the prison college curriculum. Breathin’ paints an intimate portrait of Eddy -- the prisoner, the immigrant, the son, the activist -- on his journey to freedom, rehabilitation, and redemption. With the recent passing of borough-based jails, the Breathin’ documentary stresses the fight for prison abolition as a fight towards the freedom of all marginalized people. After the documentary, please stay for an eye-opening discussion with the director of the film, Ben Wang, alongside Peejay AI from ASPC. This event is free and open to the public. THERE WILL BE FOOD! COME! BRING FRIENDS!

We, the NYU Asian American Political Activism Coalition, join NYUtoo and GSOC-UAW Local 2110 in strongly opposing the return of Avital Ronell, professor of Comparative Literature and German, who was found guilty in a Title IX investigation of verbal and physical sexual harassment of a graduate student. She is currently undergoing a one-year suspension and will return to her teaching and research duties in fall 2019. As an organization, we are committed to believing survivors ...and to practicing transformative justice. People who have never taken accountability for committing abuse, and who have gaslighted and accused survivors of lying, are never welcome here. Allowing Ronell to return to NYU demonstrates the university’s complicity in reproducing the structures that produce harassment and exclusion. https://docs.google.com//1FAIpQLSfOW25bEFV1K964Qi/viewform

Yesterday, we joined Chinatown Art Brigade , No New Jails NYC, Wing On Wo & Co., and Decolonize This Place in demanding that the Museum of Chinese in America be accountable for colluding with Margaret Chin’s vote to expand jails. Chin made concessions for a MOCA community theatre in exchange for the expansion of the prison industrial complex. We demand the immediate closure of Rikers and #NoNewJails. Photo credits: Diane Wong and Harry Burke. ASIAN AMERICAN POLI...TICAL ACTIVISM COALITION IS A RADICAL QUEER ASIAN WOMEN LED GROUP OF STUDENTS AND ACTIVISTS COMMITTED TO RACIAL, ECONOMIC, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE! WE ARE FIGHTING FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE RACIST CARCERAL STATE BECAUSE JAILS HARM ALL COMMUNITIES IN NEW YORK, PARTICULARLY WORKING-CLASS AND IMMIGRANT BLACK, NATIVE, LATINE, AND ASIAN COMMUNITIES. AS STUDENTS WE CONDEMN THE USE OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS COLLUDING WITH THE CARCERAL STATE FOR PROFIT. THE IDEA OF A MOCA SPACE IN A JAIL BEING A GOOD THING IS ABSURD AND INSULTING. REJECT THE MONEY THAT COMES DIRECTLY FROM THE COFFERS OF OUR OPPRESSORS. WE WILL NOT EVER BE WEAPONS FOR ANTI-BLACKNESS. WE HAVE AGENCY IN DEMANDING PRISON ABOLITION FOR OUR SIBLINGS AND OUR ELDERS AND THE GENERATIONS TO COME. WE COME FROM A GENEALOGY OF STRUGGLE, ELDERS WHO HAVE FOUGHT FOR US TO BE ALIVE TODAY HAVE FOUGHT AGAINST THE PRISON SYSTEM. MARGARET CHIN MUST RESIGN FOR HER MORAL CRIMES FOR SELLING OUT THE CONSTITUENTS SHE HAS PLEDGED TO PROTECT AND SERVE. APAC WILL ACCEPT NOTHING SHORT OF A TOTAL REJECTION OF THE CORRUPT AND HARMFUL CARCERAL STATE. RIKERS MUST BE SHUT DOWN NO NEW JAILS CAN BE BUILT ON STOLEN LAND. THERE CAN BE NO CAPITULATION OR INTEGRATION INTO THE CARCERAL STATE. WE STAND HERE TODAY IN THE MOVEMENT FORGED BY THE FIRES OF WORKING CLASS ASIAN AMERICAN STRUGGLE AND WE WILL IMAGINE AND WORK TOWARDS A WORLD BEYOND PRISONS.