National SDS celebrates Harvard and Pennsylvania college strike victories

National SDS celebrates the victorious worker and faculty strikes at Harvard and campuses across Pennsylvania. When we dare to strike, we dare to win!

Picket lines graced the Harvard campuses for the first time in over thirty years this semester as Harvard University Dining Service (HUDS) workers voted 591-18 in favor of reviving the strike. HUDS workers drew a line in the sand over proposed health care cuts and the system of cyclical layoffs that leave most dining workers with no source of income for up to four months out of every year. Harvard has already forced similarly abusive contracts on other sectors of the workforce, but the brave individuals that work in Harvard’s dining hall said enough is enough! Workers gave the administration over three months to meet their demands, and when the administrators refused to budge, workers brought out the most powerful tool labor has at its disposal: the strike.

Over the course of the 22-day strike, HUDS workers built a strong united front of students, faculty, and lower-level administrative and clerical staff. Student organizations such as the Student Labor Action Movement (SLAM) and Reclaim Harvard Law held joint student-worker rallies, organized food drives for the striking workers, recruited their classmates to reinforce the picket lines, and called walk-outs that brought hundreds of students out of the classrooms and into the streets. More importantly, however, students at Harvard targeted the individual financiers and corporate elites at the very top of the chain of command-- the Fellows of the Harvard Corporation. Students flooded these individuals’ inboxes, voicemails, and mailboxes with complaints and condemnations of the way the Fellows were exploiting workers, thereby directly disrupting their lives. The final blow in the Harvard campaign came Monday, October 23, when SLAM led hundreds of students in a walk-out and marched on 124 Mt. Auburn, where the contract was being negotiated. By refusing to leave the premises until the administration offered the workers a fair contract, the students helped build direct pressure, and by the end of the evening the workers had a contract that met all of their demands without exception.

Students at West Chester University of Pennsylvania put these same direct action tactics into effect during the statewide faculty strike that kicked off on October 19. The strikers were organized under the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF), a union that represents 14 different campuses across the state. By calling for a statewide strike, the faculty were able to fight back against changes to their healthcare and budget cuts, and to push for higher quality education and fairer wages for the lowest-paid faculty and teaching staff.

Students showed their solidarity with the striking faculty from the very beginning. Members of West Chester Students for a Democratic Society, for example, reinforced the picket lines from the moment they first emerged on their campus. On the first day of the strike, West Chester SDS organized a campus-wide walkout that not only disrupted classes and the normal functioning of the university, but also brought students into direct contact with striking faculty, who were able to discuss their struggle and educate students about the material conditions they were facing.

West Chester SDS also showed support by offering food, transportation, and solidarity to the striking faculty. Several members traveled to the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education headquarters, in Harrisburg, where they directly confronted Chancellor Frank Brogan, forcing him to listen to faculty demands. At 10am on Friday, October 21, students marched into town and met with Mayor Carolyn Comitta, shoring up her support for the strike. Students then marched through campus and confronted Governor Tom Wolf at a local restaurant, where they demanded that the Governor visit West Chester University. Upon learning that Governor Wolf had fled the restaurant through the back door, students marched back to campus and once again joined the picket lines, where SDS helped to lead chants demanding a fair contract. By the end of the day, APSCUF had won a new contract that will help ensure quality education standards across the entire state.

The victories at Harvard and West Chester prove the importance of strong student-worker and student-faculty solidarity, and provide important models for labor struggles on campuses across the country. During a traditional strike, workers are able to shut down production at the factory by withholding their labor. Since our universities don’t rely on production in the same way, our tactics have to change as well. Although faculty workers may be in a unique position, workers are often unable to win a strike by simply withholding their labor; organizers must also apply direct pressure on high level decision-makers through the kinds of direct confrontations exemplified in the West Chester and Harvard strikes.

Students, faculty, and staff must be united in the fight against the corporatization of our education! Cuts to healthcare and salaries for the working class people that keep our campuses running only benefit the top level administrators, and it is our responsibility to unite all who can be united to fight against such measures. All power to campus workers, students, and professors!

National SDS Salutes the Harvard Workers Strike!

National Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) extends its utmost support to the Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) workers in their struggle for a fair contract and their decision to go on strike. As progressive and radical student organizers, we take inspiration from the bravery and determination of the HUDS workers. We know that the struggle to build universities that teach solidarity, and are founded upon racial and economic justice, is a struggle that unites students and workers across the country. We are committed to building power with the hardworking individuals that keep our universities running.

Harvard is emblematic of the ways in which corporate control of our universities directly hurts the working class people that make up our communities. When the administration of the world’s wealthiest university refuses to provide its workers with basic healthcare and a guaranteed minimum annual salary, it is bargaining on behalf of the financial elites that run the Harvard Corporation. When university administrators actively discourage students from supporting the 750 striking workers, they show their true colors.

Students have more in common with the university workers than we do with the administration, and our interests are directly at odds with those of the corporate elites that have controlled our places of learning for far too long. Who benefits from cuts to workers’ healthcare, cyclical layoffs, the contracting out of essential jobs, and the refusal to implement proactive measures to promote racial and gender equity in the workplace? The administration and the corporate elites that sit on Boards of Regents. These anti-worker policies don’t benefit students—that’s why nearly 3,000 Harvard students have already pledged support for the HUDS workers’ strike.

SDS has previously affirmed its solidarity with and support for campus workers, both in 2014 and in 2015. In a 2015 National SDS resolution, for example, we called on student organizers to “deepen their relationships with local unions, on campus and in their communities, and to adopt a working class outlook in all the other organizing they do.” The thousands of students who have declared their support for the strike, and the hundreds who have reinforced the workers’ picket lines with their bodies, are learning—through struggle—how to put their solidarity into practice. These students are working with Boston-area UNITE HERE Local 26 to produce genuine improvements in the material conditions of workers and their families.

National SDS is united with the HUDS workers, and we applaud their decision to revive the strike at Harvard! All power to the workers! May their victory be swift and absolute.

SDS 11th Annual National Convention - REGISTER NOW!

We are happy to announce that Students for a Democratic Society will be holding our tenth National Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 8th and 9th. Registration is now open:

REGISTER FOR THE CONVENTION HERE

SDS Stands Against Police Brutality, Fight for Black Liberation!

Police brutality is an ever-present epidemic in the United States, with the most recent victims these past several weeks being Tyre King, Terence Crutcher, Keith Lamont Scott, and Justin Car. Tyre King was an African American 13 year old shot in Columbus, Ohio by police officer Bryan Mason, who had been involved in another police shooting in 2012. This incident was followed shortly by the police murder of an African American disabled man, Keith Lamon Scott, in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Terence Crutcher's car broke down in Tulsa, Oklahoma when he was approached by three officers. His hands were in the air as he walked towards his SUV, before being tased and shot by Officer Betty Shelby. When the Tulsa Police Department released police videos of the police killing, protests ensued. Under pressure, Officer Shelby was indicted with first degree manslaughter.

Keith Lamon Scott is the one of the more recent victim of police brutality, as he was shot Tuesday night on September 20th in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was a black disabled man who was shot unjustifiably by police officers, and his death has spark numerous protests in Charlotte alone.
Justin Carr was a protestor in Charlotte who was apart of the marches against Keith Scott's murder by police officers. He was shot on September 21st, or the 2nd night of the marches in Charlotte.

To understand why police as an institution systemically oppress African Americans, it is important to note the police's origin and history since the late 1700s. Police departments have their history tied in with the Slave Patrols of the South, who sought out and hunted down escaped slaves to return them to the plantations.  Last year, 30% of black victims were unarmed when shot by the police. And, this year, fewer than 1 in 3 black people were allegedly armed or suspected of a crime when shot by the police.

Barely 60 years ago, police were heavily utilized to repress the Civil Rights Movement, as seen with March in Birmingham, Alabama. Police repression continues today, as police have already targeted organizers involved with the protests happening in Charlotte.

Students for a Democratic Society advocates for solidarity with Charlotte during these tragic times, and reaffirms its commitment to actively stand against police brutality. Several chapters of SDS from North Carolina to Texas, have been involved in organizing campaigns against police brutality, to demand justice for all victims, and to build the fight for black liberation on campuses.


Stop Police Brutality!
Fight For Black Liberation!
Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win!

National SDS Stands With September 9th Prison Strike

In prisons across the United States, incarcerated workers toil away in sweatshop conditions for little to no pay. But, on Friday, September 9th, 2016, these prisoners will take action to end their servitude. Prisoners, with support from the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), and the Free Alabama Movement, have called for a nationwide work stoppage, and are calling for support from the outside. National SDS supports the September 9th national prisoner strike.

National SDS stands against the Dakota Access Pipeline

National SDS supports the actions of the Standing Rock Sioux people and the thousands of protesters who stand against the Dakota Access Pipeline and its attacks on indigenous land, water, and sovereignty. With support from indigenous communities across the continent, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North Dakota continues to protest against the 1,200-mile Dakota Access Pipeline currently under construction. Protest camps that began in April have steadily grown in strength to massive occupations thousands strong, as individuals from nearly 90 tribes, as well as official statements of support from more than a hundred, have poured in to support the people of Standing Rock. Construction of the pipeline has been periodically halted by protest and inspiring examples of direct action against construction sites, while a federal court reviews the pipeline’s construction permits.

National SDS Stands Against Israeli Attacks on Gaza, Demands End of U.S. Aid to Israel and to Fund Education Not Occupation!

In the span of less than an hour Sunday night, the state of Israel, the number one recipient of foreign military aid from the United States government, launched over 50 air strikes against the occupied Gaza Strip. Israeli warplanes pounded the entire Strip with artillery fire and airstrikes, ostensibly in retaliation for a rocket that was fired from Gaza into an open field inside of Israel which did not injure a single person. At least five Palestinians have now been injured by the Israeli military attacks, according to Ma’an news agency.