Think Global, Act Local

When I think about home, I often think about my community. As a queer Filipina American organizer at Stanford, I found my communities with the Filipino and ethnic activist groups in San Jose and at Stanford. I felt comfortable being surrounded by people who had similar moral compasses and life experiences. I understood the global and local context of my work, and I easily saw myself and my role in the larger scheme of things: a child of forced migration, a Filipina American youth, and a radical activist fighting for youth and workers’ rights.

Coming to Cape Town, my global role became much blurrier. Even though I felt comfortable in my own sense of being, I struggled being in a new space where my identities were unclear. My Filipino culture was either non-existent or muffled along with “Chinese,” “Korean,” and “Japanese.” There were no images or representation of South African queer folk. I felt separated from youth activists in South Africa either because of logistical purposes i.e. UCT was not open at the time, or because my classes and service placement rarely addressed youth organizing as a form of service. I had difficulties understanding who I was in the larger global context and how to act with the local community.

            Throughout my growth process, two major components helped develop my understanding of self as an activist in both the local and global picture: (1) Black Sash’s Campaign, and (2) my relationships in the program.

Seeing the Global in the Local

At the Black Sash, I worked on the “Hands Off Our Grants” Campaign. The South African Social Security Assistance (SASSA) has outsourced control of social grants to a third party corporation, Net1. Yet, for years now, social grant beneficiaries, who are mainly working class women, children, and elderly, have found their social grants deducted from the corporation. These grants are supposed to be primary sources to help pay for basic necessities, and these deductions have been a clear form of injustice from both the government and corporations.

Working on the campaign has taught me how global injustices manifest locally. SASSA’s actions to outsource social security have been a clear sign of how neo-liberal policies have led to direct detrimental consequences to peoples’ daily lives. Because global injustice is seen locally, my service experience has taught me how global issues can be fought locally. From community monitoring to local petitions to townhall meetings, I have also learned stories of beneficiaries organizing themselves to fight for their demands against unjust government agencies and business. The powerful local action in the Black Sash headquarters affirmed my own beliefs in how communal mobilization can break down unjust global structures.

Being exposed to how locals organize themselves, I learned to see my activist role in Cape Town as an ally to the local communities. There were many times where I struggled with my own privileges and perspectives as an American student. Even when I did not think of myself that way at all, I often felt stifled by my privilege and even had a hard time understanding local context. There were also many times where I had assumptions about South African activism. I believed I would be taking on the streets, and my campaign experience was very different.

I learned, through many growing pains, that my privilege and perspective should not be paralysis, but as a way to move forward and to support how locals themselves would like to organize, whether it be street protests or critical policy work. Whatever issue or way of organizing, I grew to learn that my global activist role as an ally is to use my access to resources in order to support the local communities around me.

Relationships and Affirmation of My Global Role

Much like with the Black Sash campaign, I have reflected on my personal growth as an activist while being a part of such a diverse program. Living and working with 22 different people has been one of my most challenging and incredible experiences. I have confronted my own insecurities and assumptions while being surrounded by people who have very diverse notions of justice, service, and politics.

Being outside of my comfort zone has smacked my insecurities in my face, and I often found myself in trying to translate my ideas and experiences to various people. I struggled being accessible while also feeling frustrated with the opinions and actions around me. I began doubting myself as an activist, and even had difficulties in seeing the complexities of those in the program.

Now, at the final stretches, I realized that I learned so much about the people in the program. They have challenged me to explain my experiences into accessible concepts to diverse ranges of people, and they have opened my mind to new perspectives in seeing the world. The relationships I made have both tested and reaffirmed my global and local identity in Cape Town as a Filipina organizer. I am so grateful to have an incredible network who have supported me throughout this process, and their stories have ingrained in me a new sense of self.

Moving Forward: Think Globally, Act Locally

Coming out of the program, I hope my growth as an activist can contribute to the larger society. Keeping these relationships, challenges, and experiences in mind, I feel that I have become stronger in serving my home community and in being in solidarity with the groups in Cape Town. My experience working in an international setting has trained me to constantly think and act according to the global and local context, and to become a stronger and braver activist.