From: Maddy Elfenbein (melfenb@fas.harvard.edu)
Date: Mon Jul 22 2002 - 14:25:39 EDT
wow, that was definitely a really positive article, and it reminded me of
what an impressive thing the camp-out was. 114 days of strong commitment
accomplished a lot more for our movement than the deal you got at FSU
alone, no doubt; for one thing, it got the attention of liberal types like
Ensley and the readership of the Tallahassee Democrat.
however, i take issue with Ensley's saying that the FSU action and
sweatshop activism in general is somehow nobler than activism based around
campus issues like tuition and affirmative action. these issues are about
access to education and as closely related to justice as anything else.
they also happen to be of much more concern to students who are not white
or wealthy, students who don't fit the media- and textbook-created image
of the American student movement. and yet these are the issues which the
United States Student Association (USSA), the oldest student organization
in the U.S., is committed to working on, under the motto "Education is a
right." USSA and USAS are partner organizations which work together on a
lot of things (like the student role in the anti-war movement, for
instance) and support each other's work, and it's important for us as
student activists to recognize the relatedness of labor rights and access
to education and to stand up publicly for the value of both of these.
it's also up to us not to let the media attempt to divide us from our
allies by suggesting that acts of solidarity by Western students for
sweatshop workers abroad represent a kind of "altruism" preferable to the
"self-serving" agitation of students of color for affirmative action or of
poor students against tuition hikes. i mean, what is that about anyway?
is it less "altruistic" and therefore less noble when sweatshop workers
organize for better wages themselves rather than leaving their fates
completely in the hands of students and professional altruists?
the actions of the students at FSU attest to the fact that our
student-labor movement is about solidarity, not altruism. i hope somebody
says so to Gerald Ensley when they thank him for the nice article he
wrote.
-Maddy Elfenbein
On Sun, 21 Jul 2002, Roger Clarke wrote:
> Howdy, all --
>
> Below is a major mainstream newspaper's editorial
> endorsement of the FSU USAS protest.
>
> --Roger Clarke
>
> SOURCE : Tallahassee Democrat
> AUTHOR : Gerald Ensley
> HEADLINE: Protest at FSU was altruism at tis best
> DATE : 21 July 2002
>
> Protest at FSU was altruism at its best
>
> CounterPunch magazine headlined its story "Berkeley of the South Rises
> Again." Mother Jones magazine ranked Florida State among the nation's
> top 10 radical universities - which led Gabe Pendas to wonder "if
> they've ever been here."
>
> Maybe not. But if it didn't restore FSU's counterculture credentials,
> the 114-day camp-out on Landis Green by Pendas and a few dozen other
> students was inspiring.
>
> It is one thing to protest reductions in affirmative action or tuition
> increases or - to go back to the 1960s and 1970s when FSU was called
> the Berkeley of the South - the war in Vietnam and military draft.
> Those are issues that can directly affect the lives of the protesters.
>
> But it is altruism at its best to protest unfair labor conditions in
> foreign countries that don't directly affect your life, as the tent
> city kids did, simply because you think somebody should.
>
> "I share your admiration for the students," said FSU Provost Larry
> Abele. "I don't think they fully appreciate how proud a lot of us
> are."
>
> Of course, it was Abele and FSU President Sandy D'Alemberte, by phone
> from out of the country, who pulled the plug on tent city last week.
> D'Alemberte agreed to discuss the students' demand that FSU join the
> Workers Rights Consortium that is trying to correct sweatshop abuses
> and help workers in developing nations, and FSU agreed not to suspend
> or expel the 12 students arrested for trespassing when they first
> camped in front of Westcott Hall.
>
> Inasmuch as FSU had no intention of suspending any of the students,
> and inasmuch as FSU is "not likely," Abele said, to join the WRC,
> the settlement was mostly just a face-saver for the students.
>
> Which is a start.
>
> "I think we got something (a discussion) we didn't have 114 days ago,"
> said Pendas, one of the student leaders. "And I think a lot of people
> are aware of an issue they didn't know about 114 days ago."
>
> The only ignoble moments of tent city came from opponents. On March
> 30, fraternity boys terrorized tent city inhabitants by driving cars
> and smashing tents on Landis Green. In the final week, a group
> calling itself Students Against Crazy Hippies protested tent city
> because it interfered with throwing footballs and looking at
> sunbathing "hotties" on Landis Green.
>
> Even in the 1960s and 1970s, there were chuckleheads irritated by
> protest who responded with boorish behavior. Invariably, they grew
> up to be flag-waving, Constitution-thumping, self-described
> patriots - who forgot America was founded on protest.
>
> The great revelation of tent city is that FSU has no "free speech
> zone" - the supposed designation for Landis Green that drove
> protesters from Westcott Hall in the first place. The designation
> brought hoots of amazement from those who recalled D'Alemberte as
> a champion of free speech in his days as a lawyer and legislator.
>
> But Abele said no such zone ever existed.
>
> "It's a mystery where that came from," Abele said. "All of FSU is
> a free speech zone."
>
> Let there be no mystery about this: Tent city was a noble addition
> to FSU's history of student demonstrations, joining such memorable
> incidents as The Pig Knife, Night of the Bayonets, CPE Free
> University and Kent State protests.
>
> Tent city residents were heroes. And crazy hippies everywhere are
> cheering.
>
> --
>
> Gerald Ensley is a senior writer for the Tallahassee Democrat.
> Contact him at (850) 599-2310 or at gensley@taldem.com .
>
>
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