Occupations, sit-ins, study-ins. Headlines and handcuffs. Sounds like USAS in the springtime!
This year, USAS-affiliated groups organized 13 occupations in university presidents offices, and those university presidents ordered a total of 76 arrests of USAS activists who were simply expressing their view that our schools must respect the rights of workers and students. (CHECK OUT THE LIST OF OCCUPATIONS BELOW!) Our actions stood on the shoulders of a long tradition of USAS engaging in non-violent direct action when our administrators leave us no other choice. (In 2008, over 50 USAS activists were arrested during a wave of anti-sweatshop sit-ins.)
But that’s only part of the story. In February, USAS’s oldest affiliate, SLAC at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, mobilized thousands of undergrads to join the now-historic occupation of the Wisconsin State Capitol protesting Governor Scott Walker’s bill to strip public workers’ right to negotiate collectively. This amazing act of solidarity, paired with ongoing outrageous attacks from corporate-backed politicians in states across the nation, (not to mention the hard work and passion of countless student organizers,) provoked the largest spike in militant student action for economic justice since the era of the massive student-labor protests against the WTO and corporate globalization.
Civil disobedience has been been central to the student movement for social justice ever since the 1960 Greensboro sit-ins sparked a national student movement for racial justice, the Student National Coordinating Committee, and inspired civil rights activists everywhere. With this spring’s actions, USAS groups mobilized and trained literally hundreds of students to engage in non-violent direct action for the first time ever. Corporations, their pet politicians and university administrators better recognize there’s a new generation of pissed off student organizers that has gained the skills to take action and win!
Here’s a quick list, with links to press articles, of all the action that happened! And if you haven’t seen it yet, check out the video on spring 2011 USAS actions!
1. |
April 20, College of William & Mary: Five students were arrested when President Taylor Reveley ordered police to shut down a 16-hour sit-in by the Living Wage Coalition, a broad array of student groups supporting campus housekeepers’ campaign for livable pay. (LWC) |
2. |
April 21, Tulane University: More than 20 Tulane students occupied President Scott Cowen’s office over his refusal to take any concrete steps to address a series of human rights violations by the university’s dining contractor, Sodexo, against its workers on campus, elsewhere in the U.S., and overseas. Tulane itself faced federal charges for abetting Sodexo by unlawfully removing and harassing supporters of the dining hall workers’ union efforts. (TUPAC) |
3. |
April 25, Emory University: Emory University in Atlanta arrests 7 students to shut down a peaceful “tent city” protesting the university’s contract with Sodexo, just days after Emory police removed dozens of students from a peaceful sit-in at President James Wagner’s office. (SWS) |
4. |
April 26, University of Wisconsin, Madison: As action continued at the Wisconsin State Capitol down the street, the Student Labor Action Coalition — the nation’s oldest USAS affiliate — led a sit-in to protest the privatization scheme being pushed by Governor Scott Walker and Chancellor Biddy Martin. After the sit-in, the plan to separate and privatize UW-Madison fizzled, although some negative aspects still snuck through due to the 11 lobbyists hired specifically for this task. (SLAC) |
5. |
April 27, Rutgers University: One week after organizing a 600-student walk out, Rutgers USAS led a 2-day occupation of their administration building to protest tuition hikes, cuts to campus workers, and the school’s financial support for the Nike-sponsored “Fair” Labor Association. After the “Rutgers 9″ made NY Times headlines, the university agreed to the lowest tuition hike in two decades (1.6 percent) and President Richard McCormick resigned. (RUSAS) |
6. |
April 29, University of Texas, Austin: UT-Austin rakes in more money from college-logo apparel than any other university in the world, yet it is one of the last major U.S. universities still refusing take a serious stand against sweatshops by affiliating with the Worker Rights Consortium. UT Students Against Sweatshops staged a sit-in immediately following a meeting where President William Powers outright refused to join the anti-sweatshop consortium. (UT SAS) |
7. |
May 11, University of Washington: University of Washington arrests 27 students staging a peaceful sit-in at the office of President Phyllis Wise to demand she finally terminate the university’s contract with Sodexo. (UW USAS) |
8. |
May 11, Cornell University: Students staged a study-in to protest President David Skorton’s continued refusal to heed students’ pleas to sever the university’s financial ties with the Nike-sponsored “Fair Labor Association”, a group that courts university funding only to white-wash the very apparel corporations it purports to “monitor” as these same companies control its board. (CSAS/COLA) |
9. |
May 13, University of Maryland, College Park: Students staged a study-in at President Wallace Loh’s office for over 6 hours protesting the university’s contract with union-busting cleaning supplies company Daycon, which had been found guilty of violating federal labor law just months earlier during an ongoing strike by Daycon workers. (FWB) |
10. |
May 19, University of Washington: University of Washington arrests 13 more students occupying the office of Athletics Director Scott Woodward to urge an end to that department’s stadium concessions contract with Sodexo. (UW USAS) |
11. |
May 23, Ohio State University: Ohio State arrests 9 students during a nonviolent sit-in at President Gordon Gee’s office to end Sodexo’s contract with OSU’s controversy-plagued Athletics department. (Ohio State USAS) |
12. |
June 1, University of Washington: University of Washington arrests 15 students during a sit-in at the admissions office to once again demand the university end its contract with Sodexo. (UW USAS) |
13. |
June 2, University of Chicago: University of Chicago students held a study-in urging President Robert Zimmer to stop an outsourcing overhaul that threatened the livelihoods of campus housekeepers who had served the university community for years, even decades. (UChicago SOUL) |
