Cal State Fullerton’s Student Quality Education Club organized a Town Hall meeting on Wednesday to discuss current issues, education and local solutions.
Chesca Palomar and Ava Estrada led the meeting explaining the effects imperialism has on students.
“We need to understand that capitalism is entirely connected to imperialism,” Palomar said. “Imperialism is actually the last and highest stage of capitalism because imperialism has actually existed for a long time. Right now, we are actually living in the last stage of capitalism.”
The club interns gave examples in a presentation about monopoly capitalism through companies, explaining how all brands are connected and have control over the economy and politics. Some brands mentioned in the presentation were Amazon, Apple, Meta and Google.
“These are companies literally being used on our campus and these are all kind of the faces of elites,” Palomar said. “Their whole job is to literally swallow up all these smaller companies so they can have a bigger influence.”
RJ Abesamis, a CSUF student, learned about imperialism while serving as an organizer for Bayanihan Kollective. Abesamis wrote a poem called “Miss Philippines,” and presented it at the club’s meeting, addressing the imperialism and colonization happening in the Philippines, their “motherland.”
“For you are the embodiment of land and water together in harmony,” Abesamis said in their poem. “A native speaker of mother nature herself, and you speak with wealth and luxury, but be careful, po, because as far as I can see, there are capitalist pigs who are out there obsessed with their image of power in their sick fantasy.”
Estrada provided intel on the definition of fascism and tied it back to the importance of students’ education at CSUF.
Fascism was defined as a far-right ideology and movement which principles are rooted in imperialism, authoritarianism, nationalism, militarism and nation/dictators’ goals over individuals.
The interns condemned the CSU’s protest regulations, known as the Time, Place and Manner Policy, claiming that the system has suppressed the voice of students and their opinions.
The Time, Place and Manner policy states when protests can happen on campus, the locations that are open to the public and how a protest or demonstration can happen in order to ensure the safety of students and educational mission.
The presentation also condemned the lack of transparency with systemwide tuition increases, budget prioritization and for not declaring CSU as a sanctuary for undocumented and minority students.
The presentation goals are to educate students on how to make their voices heard and for CSUF students to advocate for educational rights.
The event ended with a Town Hall meeting, where students came together and addressed their concerns for the CSUF campus.