Wash. U. community joins the Occupy movement
The Occupy Wall Street movement has come to St. Louis and members of the Washington University community are getting involved.
The movement originated in New York City last month as a protest of corporate greed and the nation’s current economic policies.
St. Louis residents have claimed Kiener Plaza, in downtown St. Louis at 7th Street and Market Street, as the center of their own Occupy movement. Locals have stationed themselves in the plaza since Oct. 1, with some members staying overnight in tents.
Last Friday, more than 500 people, including students, union leaders and other citizens, marched from Kiener Plaza to the Bank of America headquarters downtown.
Some students at the University have been closely following the progress of both the national and local Occupy movements. Senior Molly Gott has followed the protests since this summer, when she worked in the financial district of Manhattan and heard people discussing the effort.
Gott, who saw the media ignore stirrings of discontent for weeks, saw the parade on Friday as a sign of how much progress the movement has made.
“The original organizers had essentially no organizing experience,” Gott said. “They met on Facebook and met in person for the first time only a couple of nights before the first day of Occupy St. Louis. It’s incredible to see how a lot of people who have been involved with Occupy St. Louis have really stepped up and found power in having their opinions heard.”
Senior Arielle Klagsbrun echoed Gott’s sentiments.
“This started in all cities as a slow, haphazard group, but people committed to it and brought in the media attention,” Klagsbrun said. “If you’re able to have staying power, the media will come around and cover it.”
Others more distantly related to the University have taken active roles in the protests.
Former Adjunct lecturer at the University, Jerome Bauer, who now works with the American Federation of Teachers, has been down at Kiener Plaza every day.
Bauer has been involved with Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment after nearly losing his home to foreclosure a few years ago. While Bauer does not believe that an immediate revolution is feasible, he emphasized the importance of long-term reform.
“I hope to see more people from Wash. U. and from St. Louis turn up to show the world that we can do this right, because it is very important to set an example for the generations to come,” Bauer said. “This is about the future and I think that change does take time. That is why I think it is worthwhile for people to come out and support this.”
Bauer praised the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s response to the protests, which he believes has been much more receptive and less aggressive than the New York and Boston police departments.
“We have all realized that it’s in everyone’s best interest to keep the protest civil and nonviolent,” he said.
Various on-campus supporters of Occupy St. Louis have different priorities in backing the movement. While Gott and Bauer are concerned about unfair foreclosures, Klagsbrun worries about corporate America’s influence on environmental issues.
Gott and Klagsbrun agree that media criticism over the movement’s lack of a unified message misses the point of Occupy Wall Street.
“The media seems to be treating it as if there should have been a unified message from day one, where part of the importance of this movement is a commitment to the process of coming up with messages together and hearing all people’s voices before deciding on demands,” Gott said.
Chris Singer, a graduate student in the engineering school, agreed that the movement makes an important statement.
“The economic system we live within is the reason why we constantly have to fight these battles around environmental issues,” Singer said. “It is the root cause and Wall Street is the place to make that message clear.”
He emphasized the importance of the movement for future generations, specifically the generation currently enrolled in college that will be competing for jobs in the future.
“Students have a large vested interest in coming to Occupy St. Louis,” Singer said. “This is about shaping what the future of the U.S. and the world is about. This is incredibly unique in that there has been widespread, open outrage against the most harmful economic system in the entire world.”
Maybe Japan would be btteer off defaulting . Perhaps, but would any lessons be learned? Chances are, the same old, same, old people would turn around and start doing the same thing all over again. And the rest of the population would let them. A recent TV debate on TPP made absolutely no mention of whether the government should be making decisions about who will or will not sell or buy what at what price. Only then will people begin thinking about common objectives, rather than keep with the pervasive mentality of self-preservation on a sinking ship. A minor quibble, but common objectives is the smokescreen put up by groups to hide their grab for power. Isn’t the problem, rather, that people do not see their true LONG-TERM self-interest with enough clarity?I look forward to more posts.
Boy, five thumbs down and three thumbs down! Somebody is paying attention. I forgot to mention that the flyer I tried to hand out read “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” a classic Gil Scott Heron quote. I also forgot to include the flip side of my letter to Wrighton, with a detailed reform proposal, as much as will fit on a flyer:
Lecturers need a teaching track,
Adjuncts need a union
LECTURER’S POLICY REFORM 1) a real teaching track in an autonomous college 2) better grievance procedures and appeal process 3) sabbatical and medical leave
FAIRER DEALS FOR ADJUNCTS 1) $8,000 for a 3cr class 2) inter-school collective bargaining 3) health care
4. Library privileges at all local colleges between adjunct jobs. 5. An end to “reasonable assurance” fraud to deny us unemployment compensation benefits between jobs. 6, Retention of courtesy titles at all local colleges. 7. Break the code of silence over faculty salaries, benefits, or lack of benefits, to educate the public.
FOUR TRACK THREE TIER TENURE REFORM PROPOSAL for discussion: Seven year tenure for everybody, may be repeated three times, after 21 years of service tenure is permanent, those denied tenure may change tracks and try again; TEACHING TRACK from Lecturer to tenured Senior Lecturer, second tier from Senior Lecturer or previous tenured rank to Professorial Lecturer, third tier from Professorial Lecturer or previous tenured rank to Professor; PRACTICE TRACK for contracted adjunct lecturers, artists, and community builders, first tier from Adjunct Lecturer or Assistant Professor of the Practice to Senior Lecturer or Associate Professor of the Practice, second tier from previous tenured rank to Professor of the Practice, third tier from previous tenured rank to Professor of the Practice; RESEARCH TRACK, first tier Assistant Professor to Associate Professor, second tier from Associate Professor or previous tenured rank to Professor, third tier from Professor or previous tenured rank to Professor; ADMINISTRATIVE TRACK, first tier from Assistant Dean to Associate Dean, second tier from Associate Dean or previous tenured rank to Dean, third tier from Dean or previous tenured rank to Dean. Faster promotion to Vice Chancellor or Distinguished Service Professor may be possible. Faculty hired away from other schools at tenure, or holders of endowed chairs may be ranked University Professor or Distinguished Service Professor, with permanent tenure. This proposal is fair and balanced and will keep us all on our toes, working hard and dreaming up new ways to serve the university community.
Initiative for Lecturer’s Policy Reform and Fairer Deals for Adjuncts
Let Our Testimonials Not Be Flowers On Our Tombstones
****
I expect vigorous opposition from the tenured and tenure track faculty to the reasonable proposal that they be subject to recertification approximately every ten years, like doctors. I expect guarded support from administrators, many of whom have been adjuncts and know the raw deal. Personally, I feel that full time lecturers need a union too, but there will less work for the union to do if we had a real teaching track, with real tenure.
Here is another flyer, containing my Open Letter to our Chancellor Wrighton and the Washington University community, sent by email to Wrighton and the editors of Student Life, and distributed to hundreds of union supporters and union detractors. Our Chancellor did not show up at the labor solidarity march on Friday, unless he was incognito. WUPD and Wash U Public Affairs did not show up either, unless they were incognito. All are welcome at Occupied Kiener Plaza. It is a public park, after all. All are wecome at the people’s assembly, if you follow the rules.
Chancellor Wrighton is Right On When He Stands With Labor
Open Letter to Chancellor Wrighton and the Washington University Community: Please Stand in Solidarity with Labor
Dear Chancellor Wrighton,
Every Labor Day I send a message to our Washington University Cooperative students, in which I remind them that in your 2004 Commencement Address you thanked the Student Worker Alliance for reminding us to treat our workers decently. I read in the 2007 Post-Dispatch article naming you Man of the Year that you took leadership and persuaded the Trustees not to have the 2005 Living Wage Sit-In participants arrested.
I think its time we all remind you why you are still Chancellor: because 400 of us turned out to risk arrest in April 2005, to shield the occupied Admissions Office. Had we been few, the Trustees probably would have prevailed. We would have been arrested, and you would likely have fallen. Because we were many, none of this happened. Thank you for your leadership. It’s time you thank us for ours.
Please take leadership once again, and support publicly the right of all our workers, including service employees, adjuncts, and lecturers, to organize freely on campus, without fear of harassment, intimidation, blacklisting, or termination. Please ensure that Washington University is in full compliance with the labor laws. Please join us as we march in solidarity with the workers of St Louis, this Friday, October 14, from Occupied Kiener Plaza in downtown St Louis, 3:30pm. The Trustees, administrators, faculty, student and alumni body, and general public are invited as well.
This letter is entirely my own initiative, in the free and democratic spirit of Occupy Saint Louis. We are all leaders. So are you all, if you want to be. Please join the assembly, and let all our voices be heard.
Lecturer Dr. Jerome Bauer
–Initiative for Lecturer’s Policy Reform and Fairer Deals for Adjuncts
–Full Time Lecturer with Health Insurance, Washington University, 1999-2007
–Contracted Adjunct Lecturer without Health Insurance, 2001–, Washington University, Fontbonne University, Columbia College in St Louis, Webster University, Saint Louis University, Lindenwood University, and Southwestern Illinois College.
–Member At Large, American Federation of Teachers, Local 6270
Let’s Have a Living Wage, Health Care, and Collective Bargaining for Adjunct Instructors and Lecturers
Thank you for quoting me accurately, and for correctly noting my current affiliation with the American Federation of Teachers and Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment. However, I do not appreciate being called a “former Adjunct lecturer” any more than I appreciated being called a “Former Lecturer” in your spring 2008 article about my activities on and around campus. I am not “distantly connected” to the University, though I may have given your reporter that impression with my comment about how it felt to cross from the Delmar Loop to the Wash U campus, the bubble. Almost everybody on Delmar took a flyer, but everybody on campus politely declined and looked away, until I arrived at the DUC to meet my friends in the Wash U CoOp and Green Action. Wash U is one of the least economically diverse campuses in the nation, so this did not really surprise me.
Here is the text of one flyer:
The authentic left/right alliance: Economic populists standing, marching, and working together
Q: “How Did the Cat Get So Fat?” A: “By taking more than a fair share.” “WE are the ninety nine percent! YOU are the ninety nine percent!” “The People united will never be defeated!” we chant. This page supports the Occupy movement, in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. We are economic populists, left, right, and everywhere. We stand, march, and work together, for liberty and justice. “We are the People, the mighty, mighty People!”
Let our Revolution be civil, polite, and nonviolent. Let our weapons of choice be rhetoric, good humored street theater, and civil disobedience. Let there be no terror or retribution. Let there be truth and reconciliation, and economic justice.
WE ARE THE NINETY-NINE PERCENT. WE ARE THE ONE PERCENT.
WE ARE ONE PEOPLE.
If you agree with any of this, please “like” The 99 Percent on Facebook.
What’s YOUR solution?
Let’s hear it. Let’s make it happen.