The Fordham University Solidarity Alliance held an event on Sept. 25 to discuss “Organizing Under Authoritarianism.” The event, sponsored by the American studies department, hosted speakers including former United States Representative Jamaal Bowman, a “Bronx for Zohran” community organizer, a Columbia University student organizer and members of the Immigration Advocacy Coalition at Lincoln Center.
This event was one of a series of teach-ins by the coalition, according to Diane Detournay, Ph.D., senior lecturer at Fordham.
“We’re a group that ormed in response to the attacks on the University and the attacks on International Students last year,” she said. “What’s nice about our group is that its faculty, its graduate students, its undergrads, its alumni – we work across various orders in the university.”
Students, alumni and professors attended the event, which was held in Keating Hall 3rd. Over the course of two hours, six different speakers presented, including Bowman, Professor Christopher Dietrich and the President of the Immigration Advocacy Coalition, Eva Lee, FCLC ’27.
Dietrich kicked off the event with a 10-minute history of Islamophobia in the U.S., where he highlighted what he called the ‘institutionalization’ of American Islamophobia.
Mark Naison, one of the professors who organized the event, brought in speakers involved with Zohran Mamdani’s campaign for New York City Mayor.
“A number of my former students have been very involved in the Zohran campaign, so I’m excited that they’re here to talk a little about their experience,” he said. “I haven’t seen as many of my students and former students involved in a political campaign since Barack Obama’s first run for the presidency in 2008, so that grabbed my attention.”
The event hosted several people involved with both Mamdani’s campaign and New York City Democratic Socialists.
“As a democratic socialist, I wanted to come to support my comrade Cihan Tekay Liu, who is an organizer with NYC-DSA,” said Matthew Smith, FCRH ’27, an attendee. “And then of course to meet community members who are interested in organizing.”
Bowman was supposed to attend in person but was called to D.C.; he joined the event via Zoom.
“The power of your voice cannot be overstated,” he said, referring to the assembled students. “We need you, the world needs you, and we need each other.”
The event gathered around 60 attendees, the majority of whom were students.
Sophie Maier, FCRH ’23, works as a teacher on the Roosevelt Educational Campus and attended the event.
“I came today because Dr. Naison shared the information about the talk with me [because I want to know] what these movements have looked like in the past and what they look like now,” she said.
The goal of the event was to foster a sense of community among students, professors and organizers.
“A lot of professors are excited by this and interested in seeing what this means in this pretty fraught time in American history,” Naison said.
The Immigration Advocacy Coalition wrapped up the event by sharing the goals of their organization and their recent successes.
“We just wanted to create a safe space for undocumented students and for families,” Lee said. “I am so proud to say we have seen the biggest population of students attending our meetings than ever before, and given this climate, that is so encouraging.”
Currently, the coalition doesn’t have any solid plans for future events, but they intend to continue hosting events like these.
“We hope to continue teach-ins that have to do with the current political conditions and responding to the repression of student activists in particular,” Detournay said. “We are particularly concerned about what’s happening in relation to Palestine justice organizations on campus and the ways it has a really silencing effect … on student activism. So we wanted to connect students to organizers and help them see what is happening in our communities, and there’s a way to get plugged in.”
