POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN
The following call to action is being distributed by an ad hoc national faculty group, Ad Hoc Committee of Scholars 4 COLA.
The Ad Hoc Committee of Scholars 4 COLA Presents:
WEEK OF ACTION FOR UC STRIKERS AND PUBLIC EDUCATION EVERYWHERE!
March 9-13, 2020
SUPPORT THE STRIKERS, FROM UC TO UCU!
FULL FUNDING FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION!
REINSTATE FIRED GRAD STUDENT WORKERS, OR WE BOYCOTT UC!
Monday and Tuesday, March 9-10: Solidarity with the UC Wildcats!
Mass actions: #Call4COLA! Call the UC President, UCSC Provost, and California Governor (see below for more info).
Contribute to the Support Fund for Striking Workers at UCSC!
Sign on to the Letter from UC Faculty to President Janet Napolitano!
If you’re in California, join the pickets/protests at UC; if not, organize solidarity demonstrations and actions wherever you are.
Wednesday, March 11: Solidarity with the UCU!
Mass action: Contribute to the UCU Fighting Fund!
If you’re in the UK, join the pickets; if not, organize solidarity demonstrations and actions wherever you are.
Thursday, March 12: Solidarity with CUNY!
Mass action: Join the Day of Action: Fight for Full Funding for CUNY!
If you’re in New York City, join one of the planned actions; if not, organize solidarity demonstrations and actions or call/email NY lawmakers in support
Friday, March 13: Global Call for Solidarity and Action: TIME’S UP FOR THE UC ADMINISTRATION!
Mass action: If the 80+ fired UCSC graduate student workers have not been reinstated by today, the Ad Hoc Committee of Scholars 4 COLA will launch a boycott of UC!
Call for solidarity actions/protests pickets in support of UC strikers and public education everywhere—SPREAD THE STRIKE
More Info on the #Call4COLA Campaign:
Supporters of the strikers at UC and elsewhere have launched the #Call4COLA campaign. The goal is to flood the offices of UC President Janet Napolitano, UCSC Provost/Executive Vice Chancellor Lori G. Kletzer, and California Governor Gavin Newsome in support of COLA and particularly to demand the reinstatement of striking students who have been fired. Here’s the basic info–please call today!
UC President Janet Napolitano
Phone: (510) 987-9074
UCSC Interim Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Lori G. Kletzer
Phone: (831) 459-3885
Governor Gavin Newsom
Phone: (916) 445-2841
You can find a calling script together with other resources here.
Background on the University of California Strikes:
On 7 November 2019, graduate students at UCSC formally delivered a demand for a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA). In Santa Cruz, one of the most expensive cities in the country, graduate workers frequently spend up to 60% of their wages on rent. Given the administration’s lack of response, they began a full “wildcat” teaching strike on 9 December, maintaining a picket line at the base of campus and refusing to submit winter grades until their demands for a COLA were met. Peaceful protests were met with a disproportionate and irresponsible police presence that cost the university $300,000 a day. As a result, 17 students were arrested (and are still undergoing disciplinary hearings) and two students were injured, one with serious head wounds.
On 28 February, 54 graduate students who were withholding fall grades were fired from their spring appointments, a number that now seems closer to 80. Many of their colleagues have pledged to refuse TAships that result from the firing of striking students, jeopardizing their own funding possibilities. In addition to facing financial precarity, international students are risking deportation and chronically ill students will lose health care (at a moment when California has declared a state of emergency because of the COVID-19 pandemic).
The strike is spreading: At UCSB graduate students voted to go on a full strike while students at UCSD and UCD are pursuing a grading strike. At UCLA and UCB, students are organizing to gain the support of ten departments, the minimum needed to declare a strike. On 5 March, the day of a UC-wide “Black Out,” UCSC was shut down and other campuses saw huge rallies and walk-outs. Students across the UCs are rejecting the authoritarian and punitive measures undertaken by the UC administration, which continues to retaliate against students rather than engage in serious negotiations with the strikers.
Resources:
UCSC: Twitter | Instagram | Website | Strike Support Fund
UCSB: Twitter | Instagram | Website
UC Davis: Twitter | Instagram | Website
UC Berkeley: Twitter | Instagram | Website
UCLA: Twitter | Instagram
UCSD: Twitter | Instagram
UC Irvine: Twitter | Instagram
UC Riverside: Twitter | Instagram
UC Merced: Twitter
UCSF: Twitter
Faculty Organizing Group (FOG): Website
COLA4all / The People’s Coalition: Twitter | Instagram | Website
Questions? Want to join the struggle? Join the Ad Hoc Committee of Scholars 4 COLA!
Email: adhoc4cola@gmail.com | Facebook | Twitter
I’m afraid this is all likely going nowhere; moreover, Trump has already won 2020, and 2024 will be a complete GOP domination of all branches. One third of US universities will collapse under the weight of state debt, their own debt, dried up student loan facilities, loss of donations, and other severe externalities, while the rest will downsize, merge or restructure. Striking labor could lose their jobs to thousands of qualified replacements, waiting in the wings (call them “scabs” if you like but they will permanently replace organized labor. For every tenured professor in America, there are literally 200 eminently qualified, immediately available replacements, plus an army of thousands of adjuncts, post-docs, and others ready to go). The AAUP is living is another world, one that no longer exists. They remind me of striking airline pilots–completely unconcerned with the harm they cause, yet have no capability or interest to lead, and easily replaced. As for state funding, I agree, but it will take much more than strikes and organizing. It will take relevant leadership, superb managerial competence and access to material institutional capital. These are not among organized labor strong suits. They will also be forced to accept mandatory binding arbitration, at best, assuming they even survive (including primary and secondary education). Students, families, and corporations just don’t care anymore, and have alternatives. I’m sympathetic, but that is the picture I see increasingly painted by numerous relevant parties involved in higher and other education. With Regards.
More like striking Air Traffic Controllers.