The recent pro-Palestine protests occurring on college campuses across the country, including UCLA’s own Palestinian Solidarity Encampment (PSE), have garnered widespread criticism and have been met with extreme police responses. Student protests of the past and present continue to prove that freedom movements will persist so long as systemic issues go unaddressed by those in power. Understanding this history on both a local and national scale can emphasize the importance of questioning dominant narratives, the power of community-building and actions of solidarity.

Since May 22, members of the Korean Metal Workers Union are being assaulted by police due to their occupation in the auto plant. Protesting mass layoffs of about three thousand workers, approximately 600 sit-down strikers have endured raids by police and company-hired strikebreakers. Since July 20, strikers…