muhlenberg students for a democratic society

Muhlenberg Hunger Strike Mentioned in The Nation Magazine

2009-06-14T01:42:00.001-07:00

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090629/featherstone

"Private colleges and universities, too, have seen tuition rise as endowments shrink. In May students at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, held a hunger strike to protest large tuition hikes and faculty layoffs; Vassar students used the same dramatic tactic to protest the elimination of a summer jobs program for students in need. "

Above is the link to an article that mentions the Muhlenberg Hunger Strike in the online Nation magazine. While we did provide a full press release with the report-back posted on our blog, and we are very happy that we were included, our strike encompassed much more than "large tuition hikes and faculty layoffs."

It first and foremost was an attempt to pre-empt maintenance and service staff layoffs, not faculty layoffs. We support all workers at our college, including our respected faculty. While many faculty signaled passive support for our work, they are privileged with higher degrees and aside from uppercrust administration, are least likely to suffer the fear and consequences of layoffs. After three workers lost their jobs in our Print Shop, our alliance with workers obliged us to take direct action to stop the bleeding that might have occurred.

Second, we were protesting unpredictable tuition hikes while proposing an option for students to make their tuition predictable; a tuition "lock" or "freeze" option. Ultimately, our proposal wouldn't necessarily have cut revenue from tuition, just made funding tuition increases with loans more manageable. While the activists certainly disagree that tuition hikes are necessary while so many lavish expenses are approved, we weren't protesting those expenses, mostly because we don't have open-door access to that level of decision-making; not even through our own Student Government. Our ask for greater participation in the budget process was key to an expanding campaign for a democratic community.

Also, the preceding paragraph in the article mentions that private colleges' endowments are shrinking. Muhlenberg's endowment is not. Our endowment has been growing and STILL our tuition rises unpredictably, without our consent, and STILL our dear workers fear layoffs.

There is enough financial wealth in the Muhlenberg wallet to control tuition increases and prevent layoffs. That was and still is our stance.

Finally, our third demand for a Socially Responsible Investing committee was omitted from the Nation article, yet it was a critical leg in our campaign for accountability and transparency. After being passed unanimously by our Student Government, the administration and Board of Trustees would not work openly with us on establishing a committee of faculty, staff, students, and alumni to help advise them on the ethical impacts of our investments.

As a Lutheran higher education institution in a country that spans influence in billions of lives around the globe, one would think that a proposal from a grassroots movement of students to help openly and democratically align our actions with our mission would be welcomed by our administration, as it was simultaneously at Drew University.

At Muhlenberg, that wasn't the case. We're still waiting on Student Government to present the Trustees response in the Fall, which, after so much bureaucratic red tape, failure to invite major supporters to present the resolution to the Trustees, and public opposition by President Helm, we are very worried.

The struggle for job security, tuition stability, and socially responsible investing will resume in the Fall and we invite y'all to help us, because it's an uphill battle everywhere we turn.

Muhlenberg Hunger Strike - Report Back

2009-06-08T15:25:00.000-07:00

Report-back from Alexis and Alex

The May 1 through 5 six-person Muhlenberg Hunger Strike was organized by members of Students for a Democratic Society at Muhlenberg College. Non-SDS members participated as well. All participants chose to remain nameless except for our press contacts, Zach Bills, Alexis Tannenbaum, and Alex Lotorto, because our action is insignificant compared to struggles of our working class allies who never have names in the media.

The SDS and non-SDS activists' most recent escalation was a rally on Friday, April 24 in front of the college administration building that culminated in President Randy Helm pinky-swearing to deliver a letter outlining our three concerns to the Board of Trustees who were meeting.

photo by Alana Torres

Ours was a rolling hunger strike that started on Friday, May 1st (May Day), an international day of solidarity for workers. If you need further history on May Day, you can read this piece on the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) website: http://www.iww.org/en/node/4706

Our stated goal was to keep at least two activists on a fluids-only hunger strike for at least 24 hours each. Alex struck through the duration of the action and lasted 100 hours, a little over four days. Alexis struck for one day and stopped for medical reasons while Zach Bills struck for 59 hours. Our total number of strike hours was over 250 by the time we ended.

Our first ask of the administration was to meet with us directly to negotiate on our demands, or "asks" as we called them to seem less threatening. We asked for simple reforms the College could work on to be a better institutional ally for working class students, staff, and oppressed groups in our society. The strike was our leverage to win negotiations on a timeline for enacting the reforms.

We initially gave them until Monday at 6pm to begin negotiations or else we would do a press release and announce to the campus asking more students to join the strike, but ultimately agreed to meet with them on Tuesday evening due to the national swine flu outbreak and their extra attention to that.

With the press release still pending, our meeting on Tuesday night took place in the castle-like Haas administration building in an intimidating conference room with the aging, straight, white, male Yale-educated college president at the head of the conference table. The Dean of Students and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid were also present. There were six student strikers, three men and three women, but no third party was present to mediate discussion, which was our mistake, because it was desperately needed.

The meeting we thought would only take an hour, lasted two and a half hours. Throughout, Alex was attacked directly for his activism, some of our activists had to leave to study for final exams, and the administration would not agree or even compromise on our asks. At one point the college president said it was because they "did not want to give us political capital."

They misrepresented and outright lied about facts regarding our tuition, layoffs at the college, and our investing and contracting policies. They denied saying things they had said in the past and gave us a packet of irrelevant facts to draw attention away from the asks we were making. More details are included below.

Their presentation about Muhlenberg reminded us of a "clean" coal commercial.

Ultimately, enough of the activists were intimidated out of continuing the strike during finals week that we decided to call it off before we could escalate it further with a public announcement.

Victories

1) Legitimacy: By having a high-level meeting, we established greater legitimacy for direct action campaigns regarding poverty and social justice issues at Muhlenberg. Also, we found further evidence that Student Government is only useful to a certain point: For the first two demands, job security and tuition stability, Student Government refused to accept them as resolutions. For the third, SRI committee, their *unanimous* resolution was treated poorly by the trustees and administration. What's our reaction? Direct action!

2) Student-Worker Alliance: Many housekeepers, maintenance folks, and drivers supported our campaign and we believe our strong relationship with them will yield powerful influence in the future.

3) Global Support/Momentum: Global solidarity for us has made Muhlenberg a frontline for social change. Our experience and momentum will carry us strong into the Fall and we will never surrender on our hopes for a more just community. Statements of solidarity were issued during the strike from the Spanish Student Assembly Co-ordinator (CAE) which brings together the faculty assemblies of Barcelona's four public universities, Philadelphia Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), a coalition of progressive student groups at New York University called Take Back NYU!, students of the New School in Exile from New School University, four activist student groups at Vassar College, and a student participating in a building occupation at University Leipzig, Germany. The 7 letters of solidarity are pasted below.

4) History: From divestment, banning water bottles, gender neutral housing, a sweat-free bookshop, and many other battles, we have added a new chapter to the people's history of Muhlenberg.

Our three asks that we thought we could win with our strike were:
"1) Job Security Now: a formal promise from President Helm to the community of no budget-related job layoffs at Muhlenberg College for one year beginning during the month of May 2009."

This was in order to protect food, maintenance, driving, and housekeeping staff from rising unemployment during the economic crisis. Recently, three college print shop employees lost their jobs because the College decided it was "inefficient" to keep them. In our meeting, the President denied that this was a "layoff" and showed us a chart of other institutions' announced layoffs with Muhlenberg listed as "0" zero.

In our conversations with workers in weeks prior, they expressed fear of losing their jobs due to further layoffs. According to them, the President had been ominously quiet for months regarding layoffs and a new budget was being considered with the Board of Trustees. Our goal was to pre-empt further layoffs by pressuring the President to promise job security for a period of time, initially one year. He refused to do so.

Alexis Tannenbaum, a student organizer for Students for a Democratic Society said, "Our men and women staffers are our friends and we support them. They are paid with our tuition money and deserve a promise of job security. One housekeeping employee familiar with labor union organizing complained to us that job applications state that workers can be fired at any time, for any reason, without notice, making it dangerous to organize and impossible to challenge employers. While it is illegal for an employer to fire workers explicitly for union activity, other reasons could be cited for termination. In response, during negotiations around the hunger strike the President repeated that if workers have issues with their employment, they have a grievance process to submit complaints to their bosses.

"Workers are not represented by a collective bargaining agreement or a labor union. Many of them are working class, without access to legal defense, representation, or other means of job protection," said Tannenbaum, "Many would be facing disaster poverty in Allentown, where rents are increasing, without Muhlenberg being a critical part of their income. Some of them walk to work and would not be able to find work nearby. Some of them support families on meager salaries. Also, many of them are women and people of color which raises questions about our intentions regarding race and gender if we do not promise job security. It is our call for everyone, especially students with privileges in the United States to defend people facing poverty."

"2) Tuition Stability Now: a formal promise from President Helm to pursue means of greater participation for students in the budget process and an opt-in tuition stability mechanism to make tuition increases more predictable and easier to budget for students and their families."

Since 2003 total fees for Muhlenberg have increased around $2,000 annually from $31,335 to $45,430 for academic year 2009-10, according to Muhlenberg College catalogs.

here is the tuition data gathered from our college catalogs:
Chart form:

Graph form (click to enlarge):

Alex Lotorto, also a member of Students for a Democratic Society, said, "Since my freshman year four years ago, I have been elected to student government and not once was the body ever asked to help decide on how our tuition money is spent or how fees increase. Instead, every year we get served a surprise $2,000 bump with only a few token students involved in mostly closed-door committees on spending. That isn't democratic or empowering for other students to enter the discourse.

"Also, financing your education should be predictable, that's why we want a 'lock' or a 'freeze' option. I came to Muhlenberg because it was the most affordable choice I had with need-based scholarships, but every year tuition has risen and I ultimately took out extra loans. How could I expect that? I've worked every break and all the college administrators, politicians, and bankers recommend is for me to take on more debt.

"Unfortunately, hardly any other institutions are much better because the student debt crisis existed long before Wall Street's. It's because real wages have declined since the seventies and greedy loan sharks, backed by both political parties, are using credit to make up for the buying power Americans used to have. Instead of wages, they pay us credit and charge us interest. For students, that means we take more student loans and credit cards to buy books. We know that isn't all Muhlenberg's fault, but we aren't asking them to cut tuition revenue with this hunger strike, just to make it predictable."

Alexis Tannenbaum said, "Instead of working with us during negotiations to set up a calendar to research and establish a new opt-in tuition payment plan, they just presented irrelevant figures about how Muhlenberg compared to other liberal arts colleges in price. We were talking about price increases. I think the President was either confused or just being disagreeable."

According to the Institute for College Access & Success, from 2000 to 2007 as Muhlenberg fees increased 42.7 percent, the proportion of dependent federal aid applicants at Muhlenberg with incomes less than $30,000 decreased 20 percent, the amount of those with incomes between $30,000 and $60,000 decreased 29 percent, and the amount of those with incomes greater than $60,000 increased 13 percent.

Charts and graphs about economic diversity:

"This shows how lower income, working class students are not choosing Muhlenberg as tuition gets bigger. The college touts its commitment to diversity, but as a working class student, it's intimidating to see the rising costs and live among so many students with class privilege. Something like a tuition lock would indicate further how Muhlenberg accommodates students from difficult economic backgrounds. In the Diversity Statement it says they want a 'democratic society' but that's just lip service with demographics like this," Lotorto said.

"3) Socially Responsible Investing Now: a formal promise from President Helm to support the formation of a Socially Responsible Investing Committee according to the resolution passed unanimously by Student Government."

Finally, we asked for the formation of an advisory socially responsible investing (SRI) committee made up of faculty, staff, students and alumni according to a resolution passed unanimously by the student government. The committee would help the administration and trustees align ethical impacts of contracts and investments with the ethical priorities of the campus community as closely as possible.

Many other institutions with similar endowment sizes have established SRI committees. Examples include Dickinson College, Barnard College, Bard College, Earlham University, Hampshire College, Loyola University Chicago, New School University, Seattle University, University of Vermont, Ohio Wesleyan, and Drew University.

Zachary Bills, a strike participant and senior business major, said, "For example, a campaign two years ago to divest from arms trade to Sudan and the genocide in Darfur revealed that a Muhlenberg-held mutual fund, State Street, owned stocks in arms dealers to Sudan like Chinese oil companies. A quick search on State Street reveals their large stock in Textron, the manufacturer of cluster bombs. These weapons function as land mines when they fail and are the number one killer of children in present Middle East conflicts. Before we divested, whether or not students at Muhlenberg agreed with their use, we were forced to pay for cluster bombs. We advocate positive investments too, like credit unions in New Orleans or solar and wind energy.

"The organizers of the Darfur campaign had to assemble it from scratch with a non-profit in Washington, DC. An SRI committee would offer a working group climate for advising the college through similar work on a rolling basis. It's also a low-cost institutional commitment towards making more informed investments. You can't argue with that."

Muhlenberg is a working member of the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges (LVAIC), giving the college significant leverage to hold managed mutual funds accountable to ethical concerns in a collective way.

Muhlenberg College is located in Allentown, PA in the gentrified west side of the city. There are 2,150 students. More information can be found at http://www.muhlenberg.edu/admissions/facts.html

#####

SOLIDARITY STATEMENTS

We, the students of Take Back NYU!, stand in solidarity with the students of Muhlenberg College. Students deserve an affordable, democratic education, and as fellow students we encourage the administration to meet all their demands. Solidarity,Take Back NYU!

http://takebacknyu.com/

-------------------------------------------------------

Philadelphia Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) supports the Muhlenberg students now on a hunger strike to improve conditions at their school. These difficult times call for radical change and a renewed spirit of democracy on campus. This is an opportunity for Muhlenberg College’s leadership to be an example for others. We ask that the administration respect the students’ concerns by negotiating with them in good faith.

http://phillysds.wordpress.com/

-------------------------------------------------------

Dear Muhlenberg students,

I write representing the Student Assembly Co-ordinator (CAE) which brings together the faculty assemblies of Barcelona's four public universities. From Catalonia we wish to show our solidarity with your cause.

In Barcelona we are fighting to keep education public and at the service of society rather than private corporations. Therefore we strongly oppose the raising of tuition fees, and therefore the exclusion of students from poor backgrounds, anywhere.

We believe that the precarity of the teaching body reflects a dramatic shift in the workings of the university institution; a shift away from the sanctity of knowledge and learning towards the socially detrimental forces of extreme capitalism focused on nothing more than increased productivity and profitability.

Therefore we believe that the students' demand that staff keep their job security is not only a great show of respect and responsibility on their part but also an important step in maintaining the integrity of their education. We believe that, as fee-payers, the students should have the last word in what happens with that money.

Furthermore, the unethical investment of tuition fees is a process which values money more than human lives and therefore should be stopped at all costs. We urge President Helm to resist from treating the student activists with repression, as this will only further legitimise their demands and deepen their resistance. It goes without saying that it will also completely discredit him within the university community.

In solidarity,
Comisión Internacional de la CAE
http://interuni-bcn.blogspot.com/

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We, an assortment of individuals affiliated with the New School in Exile, want to express our total an unconditional solidarity for the hunger strikers at Muhlenberg College. Their goals stand to benefit both students and workers - a spirit we should all be acting in. They are creative with their tactics and articulate with their demands, and we call for those demands to be met in full.

Solidarity,
some "New School-igans" in various states of exile
http://www.newschoolinexile.com

-------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Alex,

I send you and your friends many greetings and power from Leipzig in Germany.

I support your protest:

1) Job Security: a formal promise from President Helm to the community of no budget-related job layoffs at Muhlenberg College for one year beginning during the month of May 2009.

2) Tuition Stability: a formal promise from President Helm to pursue means of greater participation for students in the budget process and an opt-in tuition stability mechanism to make tuition increases more predictable and easier to budget for students and their families such as a tuition "freeze" or "lock."

3) Socially Responsible Investing: a formal promise from President Helm to support the formation of a Socially Responsible Investing Committee according to the resolution passed unanimously by Student Government.

and I wish you power for the next days! Here in Leipzig some people have occupied some university rooms since 19 days. We are protesting for free education for all people, against social injustice and so on.

Keep on protesting!

Theresa,
student at the University Leipzig

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Comrades, citizens, just a few days ago on May Day, or May 1, of 2009, students and workers at Vassar College marched in two rallies to protest the administration's retrenchment actions vis-a-vis campus workers. Administrators at Vassar such as President Catharine Bond Hill and Director of Human Resources Ruth Spencer opted to cut a majority of summer jobs for workers this year. We protested because such a massive cut will hurt the workers on campus. Vassar’s administration cannot legitimately claim “efficiency” in justifying this cutback (and, for that matter, other cutbacks) since the workers perform the essential task of cleaning the dormitories over the summer . Given that similar struggles are unfolding at Muhlenberg College, we, as students and activists at Vassar College, declare our sympathy, solidarity and support for the hunger strikers. "

Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o de Aztlan (MEChA) de Vassar, the May Day
Working Group, Student Activist Union/SDS, and Vassar Association of Class
Activists (VACA)

SDS Antiwar Working Group National Conference Call

2009-06-08T01:45:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I thought y'all might be interested in jumping on this national call and finding out what kind of antiwar work SDS is involved in. You can start right off with direct input into our antiwar politics! Check out the working group's link: http://sdsantiwar.wordpress.com/-Alex

Hey folks,

Let's come together for an SDS Antiwar Working Group phone conference! We need to talk about what we'd like to bring to the national convention and also make a plan for our working group for the rest of summer and fall.

*Please join us this Wednesday at June 10 - 9pm Central 10pm EST. The number is 712-432-1438 and the access code is 655029#.*

I am comfortable with facilitating this call if that's OK with everyone.
Please let me know if you want to add agenda points. Below is the list myself and some others would like to discuss.

Agenda points:

- We could plan and coordinate a national day of action for the invasion
anniversary of Afghanistan (October 7)
- We could decide on making literature for the national convention.
- We could talk about counter-recruitment work - Milwaukee is going to be
active this summer around counter recruitment work at Marquette University
and a major city festival and we'd like to make these actions everyone's
victory. It would be nice to get national support and also replicate some
demands and slogans.
- We should talk about whether we want to propose workshops or plenary
discussions for the convention.
- We could try to organize a meeting at the national convention for folks
interested in plugging into the Antiwar Working group

Thank you and please help out by calling people to remind them of this important call.

Daniel Ginsberg-Jaeckle, Milwaukee SDS

Student Organizing Camp in Upstate NY!

2009-06-07T23:27:00.000-07:00

Student Environmental Action Coalition:
Headwaters Summer Training Camp

http://www.seac.org/headwaters
Check it out^

Take time this summer to increase your skill set and sharpen your tools to be a more effective grassroots organizer on your campus! The Student Environmental Action Coalition is having a week long summer training camp in Upstate New York and we'd love for you to be part of it! Join us for Headwaters this July 26 - August 1st, 2009 at the Epworth Retreat Center in High Falls, NY.

As this generation continues to build our collective power, strengthening SEACs grassroots, regional, and national networks will be integral to a thriving and sustainable movement. Headwaters will empower you with the tools and to organize your fellow youth for social and environmental justice!

Workshops include, but are not limited to:
- Uprooting environmental racism and injustice
- Campaign planning
- Power mapping
- Nonviolent direct action in social movements
- Anti-oppression and collective liberation
- Fundraising (grassroots and grant writing)
- Local food systems
- Media, including web 2.0 organizing
- Permaculture & sustainable design
- Leadership development.

Part of the week will be open for SEACers to self-organize workshops, projects, screen printing, stamp making, writing or zines. We love popular education and know that the best teachers are often our peers! Additionally, we'll be doing a sustainability service project at the Epworth Center to leave it better than we found it.

Camping out is not required, but is encouraged. We'll cook our own meals in the kitchens provided. SEAC is a participatory organization and those who take part in Headwaters can pitch in to help create an exciting week of learning, sharing and fun!

If you are a SEACer (or even if you aren't!) and you are interested in helping to plan Headwaters or to register, please fill out the form below, by clicking the link. Or you can send your contact information to alayne@seac.org

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=cHdUMW5NLUtfU3k4ZUo3UDRu.....

Happy May Day! Ya Basta

2009-05-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

This is from the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, "wobblies") explaining what's up with May 1st:

May 1st, International Worker’s Day, commemorates the historic struggle of working people throughout the world, and is recognized in every country except the United States and Canada. This is despite the fact that the holiday began in the 1880’s in the United States, with the fight for an eight-hour work day led by immigrant workers. The recent historic marches and protests for immigrant rights, which began with “El Gran Paro Americano 2006,” have brought back into our memories May 1 as an important day of struggle. Although the history of the day has largely been forgotten in the United States, it is still actively remembered and celebrated today by workers, unionists and oppressed peoples all over the world. In fact you can still walk through neighborhoods in Mexico and find streets such as Calle Los Martires de Chicago in Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, commemorating the leaders of the eight-hour day movement who were imprisoned and executed.

It is not surprising that the government, business leaders, mainstream union leaders, and the media would want to hide the true history of May Day, portraying it as a “communist” holiday celebrated only in the Soviet Union. In its attempt to erase the history and significance of May Day, the United States government declared May 1st to be “Law Day,” and gave us instead Labor Day—a holiday devoid of any historical significance other than a three weekend holiday at the end of the summer.

The Story of the Eight-Hour Day Movement

In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions passed a resolution stating that eight hours would constitute a legal day’s work from and after May 1, 1886. The resolution called for a general strike (meaning a strike of all workers at all workplaces) to achieve the goal, since years of lobbying and legislative methods had already failed. With workers being forced to work ten, twelve, and fourteen hours a day, rank-and-file support for the eight-hour movement grew rapidly, despite the indifference and hostility of many union leaders. By April 1886, 250,000 workers across the US were involved in the May Day movement.

The heart of the movement was in Chicago, organized primarily by the anarchist International Working People’s Association which believed in using education and direct action to create a free and revolutionary society based on the end of capitalism, the end of inequality based on class, race and sex, and where working and oppressed peoples and communities were able participate and have a meaningful voice in society. Their movement was based in the working class immigrant communities of the city, mainly among Germans, and was centered around a vibrant radical community that included daily and weekly newspapers in several languages, cultural clubs, youth groups, choirs, sports teams and especially within labor unions.

Businesses and the government were terrified by the increasingly revolutionary character of the movement and prepared accordingly. The police and militia were increased in size and received new and powerful weapons financed by local business leaders. Chicago’s Commercial Club purchased a $2000 machine gun for the Illinois National Guard to be used against strikers. Nevertheless, by May 1st, the movement had already won gains for many Chicago clothing cutters, shoemakers, and packing-house workers. Many participated in strikes and hundreds of thousands- estimated between 300,000 and 1 million- participated in marches and parades on that day. But on May 3, 1886, police fired into a crowd of strikers at the McCormick Reaper Works Factory, killing four and wounding many. Anarchists called for a mass meeting the next day in Haymarket Square to protest the brutality of the police.

The meeting proceeded without incident, and by the time the last speaker was on the platform, the rainy gathering was already breaking up, with only a few hundred people remaining. It was then that 180 cops marched into the square and ordered the meeting to disperse. As the speakers climbed down from the platform, a bomb was thrown at the police, killing one and injuring seventy. Police responded by firing into the crowd, killing one worker and injuring many others.

The Story of the Haymarket Martyrs

Although it was never determined who threw the bomb, the incident was used as an excuse to attack the entire Left and labor movement. Police ransacked the homes and offices of suspected anarchists and socialists and hundreds were arrested without charge. Anarchists in particular were harassed, and eight of Chicago’s most active leaders in the movement—Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engel, Adolph Fischer, Louis Lingg, Michael Schwab, Samuel Fielden and Oscar Neebe—were charged with conspiracy to murder in connection with the Haymarket bombing. A kangaroo court found all eight guilty, despite a lack of evidence connecting any of them to the bomb-thrower (only one was even present at the meeting, and he was on the speakers’ platform). On August 19th seven of the defendants were sentenced to death and Neebe to 15 years in prison.

After a massive international campaign for their release, the government “compromised” and commuted the sentences of Schwab and Fielden to life imprisonment. Lingg cheated the hangman by committing suicide in his cell the day before the executions. On November 11th 1887 Albert Parsons, George Engel, August Spies and Adolf Fischer were hanged. Six hundred thousand working people turned out for their funeral. The campaign to free Neebe, Schwab and Fielden continued.

On June 26 1893, Governor Altgeld set them free because they were innocent of the crime for which they had been tried. They and the hanged men had been the victims of “hysteria, packed juries and a biased judge.” Evidence later came to light that the bomb may have been thrown by a police agent working for Captain Bonfield, as part of a conspiracy involving certain steel bosses to discredit the labor movement.

The Legacy of the Haymarket Incident

When Spies addressed the court after he had been sentenced to die, he was confident the repression of the government would not succeed. “If you think that by hanging us you can stamp out the labor movement . . . the movement from which the downtrodden millions, the millions who toil in misery and want, expect salvation—if this is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread on a spark, but there and there, behind you and in front of you, and everywhere, flames blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out.”

Nevertheless, rather than suppressing labor and radical movements, the events of 1886 and the execution of the Chicago anarchists actually mobilized many generations of radicals. Two lesser known but inspirational revolutionary women emerged out of this legacy. Emma Goldman- who would become a famous anarchist speaker, feminist and labor activist from the 1910’s through the 1930’s- was a young immigrant from Russia at the time, later pointed to the Haymarket affair as her moment of political birth. Lucy Gonzalez Parsons, widow to Chicago Martyr Albert Parsons, was born in Texas as a slave and was of Black, Native American and Mexican ancestry, played a leading role in campaigning for the release of the imprisoned activists. Active in anarchist and labor movements long before the Haymarket incident, she continued to play a role in labor organizing (participating in the founding of the radical Industrial Workers of the World), advocated for women workers, published an anarchist newspaper The Liberator and fought for racial justice up until her death in 1942 at 89 years old.

By covering up the history of May Day, the government, business, mainstream unions, and the media have attempted to hide an entire legacy of dissent in this country. They are terrified of what a similarly militant and organized movement could accomplish today, and they suppress the seeds of such organization whenever and wherever they can. As workers, students and community members committed to building a new and free society, we must recognize and commemorate May Day not only for its historical significance, but also as a time to organize around issues of vital importance to working-class people today.

Photos of 4/24 Rally - by Alana Torres

2009-04-30T09:55:00.000-07:00

"Promise you'll give this letter to the trustees? Pinky swear?"

"I pinky swear" - President Helm

The endless bureaucratic red tape erected to keep student organizers stressed, busy, and burnt out.

Speak Out on Tuition! 10pm Wednesday, Seegers Couches

2009-04-27T16:59:00.000-07:00

THIS Wednesday at 10PM at Seegers Couches, Muhlenberg SDS will be facilitating a speak out on the rising cost of higher education. Whether you blame the student loan companies, politicians, or the colleges themselves, come out and tell us your story!

Tuition and Fees at Muhlenberg College

Year________Total Fees_____Difference____% Change
2011-12______$51,044______(+$2,889)____+6% (projected)
2010-11______$48,155______(+$2,725)____+6% (projected)
2009-10______$45,430______+$1,995______+4.6%
2008-09______$43,435______+$2,555______+6%
2007-08______$40,880______+$2,640______+6%
2006-07______$38,240______+$2,210______+6%
2005-06______$36,030______+$2,205______+6%
2004-05______$33,825______+$2,340______+6%
2003-04______$31,485

Snacks from GQ will be provided.

We will transcribe your stories anonymously and deliver them to President Helm, personalizing the customers of the college for him.

Bring your books and notes to study for finals with us!

Muhlenberg SDS report-back from World Bank/IMF protests

2009-04-26T22:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Muhlenberg SDS members attended the World Bank/IMF protests in DC.

Global Justice Action protests started at 5:30am as delegates to the IMF / WORLD BANK scurried to their imperialism meeting trying to avoid us.

After street blockades using lock boxes and bodies failed to stop their busses, we converged together to march near the complex, away from the giant police presence in front.

We decided not to march in front of the complex, turned around...and got attacked, maced, and beat. A guy's knee was shattered while he was trying to help people up who had been pushed to the ground...fuck police brutality.

We gave a ride back to Harrisburg to the guy who got his knee crushed after his emergency room care. He's excited to help us organize at 'Berg!

*turn off the Democracy Now! stream to the right so it's sound isn't playing >>

Video by Alex Lotorto

Why SRI? Student Government's Socially Responsible Investing memo

2009-04-26T17:47:00.000-07:00

This memo was produced as a result of a month of research by Student Government Reps Xavier Olivares and Alex Lotorto via an Ad Hoc (temporary) Socially Responsible Investing committee.

It was presented on March 19th, 2009 to Student Gov't, then to President Helm, and then to the Board of Trustees along with Drew University's SRI Committee Charter that was established recently with cooperation between their Trustees and Students for a Democratic Society chapter.

p.s. We erected a big banner for the Trustees [that is now missing!! :( ] outside of Seegers Union where they were meeting that said "WELCOME TRUSTEES, SRI PLEASE!. President Helm will address Student Government on Thursday about the trustees response to the resolution passed unanimously by the Student Gov't.

If President Helm tells us that they were not interested in SRI, then it will be a fact that we have exhausted all of the formal channels to hold the Trustees accountable for aligning the impacts of our investing with the values of our community.

That means, start baking! We're having a bake sale!

Memorandum

To: Student Government

From: Student Government Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) Committee

Date: Thursday, March 19^th 2009

Subject: Facts and history from our charter to investigate the possibility of an advisory student, faculty, and alumni SRI committee at Muhlenberg.

Introduction

Socially Responsible Investing (SRI), also known as ‘ethical investing’, empowers shareholders to use their assets for positive change. SRI encourages investors to consider the social and environmental consequences of a given investment, as a factor equally important to, and reflective of, the investment’s financial performance…Universities, as owners of billions of dollars of stock, have incredible potential to use these methods and reform corporations to live up to the social and environmental standards that the schools themselves typically embrace.¹

SRI considers both the investor’s financial needs and an investment’s impact on society. SRI investors encourage corporations to improve their practices on environmental, social, and governmental issues. With SRI, investors can put their money to work to build a more sustainable world while earning competitive returns both today and over time.²

The concept of socially responsible investing (SRI) has been a part of American tradition since our founding including movements for civil rights, peace, labor rights, and many others.

In recent history, the idea of socially responsible investing was championed in the 1970s by three Yale professors who authored a book entitled "The Ethical Investor" (1972). They state that, "the 'moral minimum' of the shareholder to take such action as he can to prevent or correct corporate social injury extends to the university when it is a corporate shareholder." The impetus for the sudden swelling in interest stemmed from the discovery that universities may have had holdings in companies operating in apartheid South Africa.³

The conflict over investing in South Africa may have subsided, but the importance of SRI has only grown over the years. Barrons, The Financial Times and the Quarterly Journal of Economics have all commented that not only does SRI enact positive change, but it also "makes bank."⁴

Socially responsible investing (SRI) is a booming market in both the US and Europe. Assets in socially screened portfolios climbed to $2.71 trillion in 2007, an increase over the $2.16 trillion counted in 2003 according to the Social Investment Forum’s 2007 Report on Socially Responsible Investing Trends in the United States. From 2005-2007 alone, SRI assets increased more than 18 percent while the broader universe of professionally managed assets increased less than 3 percent.⁵

SRI can also extend beyond Wall Street to contractual relationships that are frequently negotiated between social institutions and companies. By having a bottom line of social impact, such as the Global Sullivan Principles, an institution can join a growing movement among colleges and universities to pressure companies in the education industry to raise their labor standards, environmental standards, and standards regarding profiteering injustices, for example.

Strategies ⁶

Social investors are using four basic strategies to maximize financial return and attempt to maximize social good.

Screens. Screens sift out stocks or mutual funds that do not measure up to certain investing criteria. In SRI, investors design that criteria based upon the values they bring to their investing. Once a short list of companies that meet those SRI standards has been determined, investors can turn to traditional indicators such as sales and earnings, assets and liabilities to make a final decision. In SRI there are two types of screens: positive and negative.

Positive screens identify companies based upon practices that in some way benefit society, such as sensitivity to the environment or exemplary employee relations.
Negative screens, sometimes called divestment, weed out poor SRI performers, including those that are polluters or that maintain poor working conditions.

Shareholder Advocacy. Rather than passively follow the activities of companies, socially responsible investors often engage management in the issues they consider important. Through shareholder advocacy they exercise their right as part-owners of the company to attempt to influence corporate behavior. This has leverage based on

Community Investing. Low-income and disadvantaged communities are often underserved by traditional financial services. Through community investing, investors can have a direct impact by placing their funds in communities in need. Community investing provides access to credit, equity, capital, and other basic banking products, which can be used for job creation, housing and social services. This financing is often provided by community development banks, which are similar to traditional banks but focus on community development in needy areas, as well as loan funds and credit unions.

SRI at Other Colleges and Universities

Socially Responsible Investment Policy for EARLHAM COLLEGE and the Earlham Foundation (Endowment, $214 million)

The Socially Responsible Investment Advisory Committee is a committee of both the Earlham Board of Trustees and the Earlham Foundation Board of Directors. The SRIAC is charged with the responsibility for proxy voting on corporate governance and social responsibility issues, for monitoring securities held by investment managers in separately managed accounts, for maintaining a list of excluded companies, for engaging corporations in order to change corporate behavior and improve society, and for engaging its constituent communities in education and consultation.
http://www.earlham.edu/policies/investing.html

Barnard College’s Committee on Socially Responsible Investing (Endowment, $126 million)

The Board of Trustees authorizes the President to designate an Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing for the purpose of advising the Trustees on the social implications of Barnard's institutional investment program and to advise the Board's Committee on Investments on the social and ethical issues that arise in the management of the College's endowment. Committee shall develop and adopt Principles of Socially Responsible Investment Practice.
http://www.endowmentethics.org/files/barnard_sri_charter.pdf

From Dickinson College’s website (Endowment, $287.7 Million):

http://www.dickinson.edu/finops/investments/sri/index.aspx?id=234
"The Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) Discussion Committee was convened by President William Durden in August 2007. Inspiration for the group’s establishment came from a proposal submitted the previous winter by students regarding the issue of divestment from companies in Darfur, Sudan. The purpose of this group is to familiarize the Dickinson community with the College’s investment policy and portfolio and to figure out how SRI principles mesh with Dickinson’s work as an educational institution. Vice President and Treasurer Annette Parker ‘73 and Associate VP and Associate Treasurer David Walker facilitate the meetings. The group is comprised of administrators, faculty, students, and alumni who represented a variety of disciplines and viewpoints."

A Sample of Schools with Committees on Socially Responsible Investing:⁷

Dickinson College - $287.7 Million
Barnard College - $126 Million
Bard College - $180 Million
Earlham University - $214 Million
Hampshire College - $30 Million
Loyola University Chicago - $373.2 Million
New School - $200 Million
Seattle University - $215 Million
University of Vermont - $290 Million
Ohio Wesleyan - $484 Million

SRI Committee for Muhlenberg

SRI is relevant since Muhlenberg needs to remain competitive with other small liberal arts colleges on social impact. Our endowment is currently $132 million and our community has already addressed Sudanese arms trade and signed the Global Sullivan Principles of Social Responsibility. Our mission statement and charter as a Lutheran college also make us accountable to justice issues.

Two years ago, student activists including Adrian Shanker, Jacy Good, and Barbara Macholz spent a year petitioning the college to divest from the top companies funding or supplying the Darfur genocide. After much frustration and exhaustion, they uncovered that the State Street Global Advisors mutual fund was the biggest culprit, but that Muhlenberg would not seek to divest from it because our funds are commingled with other LVAIC schools. After a few phone calls to State Street, Muhlenberg gave up on divestment from genocide, according to Kent Dyer, Chief Business Officer & Treasurer.

Generally, an SRI committee is comprised of faculty, students, and alumni who confidentially review the financial assets and business relationships of the college to report on the activities of our partner companies. The members, once appointed or elected, can sign non-disclosure agreements to legally bind them to secrecy about the monetary values of the stocks and contracts, but they are obligated to report qualitatively to the community about their findings.

They basically investigate and make verbal recommendations for investing strategies based on good and bad behavior. At Muhlenberg, all of our endowment is in managed, indexed, or hedge funds made up of many different stocks. Much of this analysis could occur electronically on a rolling basis as committee work at Muhlenberg is increasingly expedited in this way.

For example, a company like Heineken might receive a good status for providing free AIDS benefits to employees in Africa, but lose status based on their depletion of public water resources near bottling plants.

By reviewing research being done by SRIs at other schools and institutions and investor relations firms, a comprehensive index of companies can help Muhlenberg minimize our impact on injustice and maximize our voice in support of companies that make a better impression on the world.

To serve an effective and empowered advisory role, an SRI committee must be large enough and taken seriously. There should also be a mediation component for processing and indexing concerns of the community regarding the prioritization of social issues to be considered.

Women’s issues, LGBT equality, environmental sustainability, war, genocide, and prison profiteering, labor standards, and corporate governance are some of the issues that the community can consider.

¹ The Responsible Endowments Coalition, http://www.endowmentethics.org

² Social Investment Forum, http://www.socialinvest.org/resources/sriguide/srifacts.cfm

³ Pfaff, Danielle, http://www.tuftsdaily.com/1.1355599-1.1355599

⁴ Ibid.

⁵ Social Investment Forum, http://www.socialinvest.org/resources/pubs/documents/FINALExecSummary_2007_SIF_Trends_wlinks.pdf

⁶ Social Investment Forum, http://socialinvesting.about.com/od/sristrategies/a/SRIstrategies.htm

⁷ www.barnard.edu/sri/others.html

4/24 Rally Report-Back: President Pinky Swears to Deliver Our Demands to the Trustees!

2009-04-24T12:50:00.000-07:00

Preident Helm pinky sweared to deliver our three demands to the trustees!

Job Security Now: Promise job security to the workers of the college, no more layoffs.

Tuition Stability Now: Fund raise for education before buildings, open the budget process to community input, no more tuition hikes.

Socially Responsible Investing Now: Form a Socially Responsible Investing advisory committee of faculty, students, staff, and alumni according to the resolution passed unanimously by Student Government...

More news to come! Exciting stuff.

Dear President Helm and our Board of Trustees,

Our country is in the midst of an economic crisis that has been worsening since long before the current collapse on Wall Street and that is the rising cost of higher education. Banks and politicians have colluded to emphasize the importance of student loans and working many hours in addition to our education. Private colleges like ours are ratcheting up their tuition to appear competitive while fundraising for new buildings more than financial aid and job security for their workers.

While it may be argued who is most responsible, the banks, the politicians, or the colleges, there is a complicity across all three. When this is the case, it is up to the people to hold decision-makers accountable to democracy and social justice. So, we rally here today to encourage you to consider our three demands.

The first is JOB SECURITY FOR OUR WORKERS. Promise that there will be no more layoffs. The recent restructuring and layoffs in the Print Shop have left many workers fearful of losing their jobs. These men and women are our friends and we support them. They are not represented by a collective bargaining agreement or a labor union because it says in their contract that they can be fired at any time, for any reason, without notice, making it dangerous to organize and impossible to challenge employers. It's no surprise that in the face of a threat like that, many of the workers were nervous about coming to our rally today even though lots of them supported it and thanked us.

Many of our housekeepers, food servers, and maintenance workers would be facing disaster poverty in Allentown without Muhlenberg being a critical part of their income. Some of them walk to work and would not be able to find work nearby. Some of them support families on the meager salaries you pay them. Many of them are working class, without access to legal defense, representation, or other means of job protection. Many of them are women and people of color which raises questions about your intentions regarding race and gender. Please respect their struggle and keep our promise as a "caring college," PROMISE NO MORE LAYOFFS!

Our second demand, in addition to job security, is TUITION STABILITY. For the past six years since President Helm came to Muhlenberg, tuition has risen more than $2,000 every year, from 31 and a half thousand dollars to 45 and a half thousand dollars, a consistent 6% annual increase. Let's say that again, since President Helm came to Muhlenberg, tuition has risen more than $2,000 every year, from 31 and a half thousand dollars to 45 and a half thousand dollars, a consistent 6% annual increase. Students come to Muhlenberg under the impression that tuition will remain within their reach until they graduate, but their scholarships remain the same and tuition hikes come consistently.

This demand for TUITION STABILITY is justified. In your capital fundraising campaigns recently, a large focus has been on new buildings and capital investments, but what about HUMAN capital? What about fundraising for financial aid and faculty salaries?

We also believe that putting more heads together to work on the budget would give legitimacy to tuition levels and make Muhlenberg a more effective education institution. Since, in the last four years have you haven't approached the community for our input on the budget, we ask that starting today, you open up the budget process to members of the community in whatever way possible. Of course we respect the right to privacy for employees' salaries, and we support non-disclosure of anything sensitive to individuals. This is our school and something must be done to curb rising tuition before it reaches $50,000.

Tuition for college, for most of us, is a big investment in our lives, only smaller than buying a house. We ask, would you buy a house and not have control over what happens under your own roof? Would you let the mortgage bank or the realtor decide? Because that's exactly the case for a student attending Muhlenberg College.

Our final demand for the Trustees today, in addition to job security for our workers and tuition stability, is that you endorse the resolution unanimously passed by Student Government supporting the creation of a Socially Responsible Investing Committee made up of faculty, students, staff, and alumni to inform us how our investments and contracts impact issues like war and genocide, the prison industry, sweatshops, climate disasters, animal testing, Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender discrimination, and ongoing corporate corruption. We may all have different opinions on those issues, but we all support having access to the information and aligning the College's business ethics with the values of our community as closely as possible.

Many other institutions with similar endowment sizes have established these committees with great success. Some are:
Dickinson College - $287.7 Million
Barnard College - $126 Million
Bard College - $180 Million
Earlham University - $214 Million
Hampshire College - $30 Million
Loyola University Chicago - $373.2 Million
New School - $200 Million
Seattle University - $215 Million
University of Vermont - $290 Million
Ohio Wesleyan - $484 Million
Drew University.

Two years ago, Muhlenberg attempted to divest our funds from the arms trade to Sudan as a reaction to the genocide in Darfur. Jacy Good and Adrian Shanker, allied with many other students, spent an entire year navigating the red tape and formal channels to bring you their concern. Talking to Adrian and reading their archived articles in the Muhlenberg Weekly recently we realize that they were forced to devote all of their organizing might to winning your endorsement. Their exhaustion and frustration could have been avoided had a Socially Responsible Investing Committee existed to work with them on presenting the case for divestment.

As a result of that campaign, we discovered that the State Street Mutual Fund was holding the stocks in arms dealers to Sudan like Chinese oil companies. A quick search on State Street reveals their large stock in Textron, the manufacturer of cluster bombs. These weapons function as land mines when they fail and are the number one killer of children in present conflicts. Whether or not we agree with their use, we are forced to pay for them.

Managed mutual funds should be held accountable to the ethical concerns of their customers. Muhlenberg commingles our endowment money with all of the Lehigh Valley colleges, giving us significant leverage to pressure funds like State Street to stop supporting genocide, for example.

There are also many positive impacts our endowment funds can have when invested according to SRI. Currently there is a movement to establish local credit unions in New Orleans for people recovering from Hurricane Katrina and poverty-stricken areas of southeast Asia and Latin America, building communities. There are options to invest in clean energy like wind and solar and give incentives to sustainable solutions to global warming. Many institutions designate a small 1% of their endowment to be invested directly into struggling communities.

We are offering you all of our research including a draft of Drew University’s new SRI committee charter. We hope that this informs your decision-making and our strong support will persuade you to endorse the Student Government’s proposal.

"Resolved, we support the formation of a Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) committee at Muhlenberg made up of faculty, students, staff, and alumni. The committee should have the following basic responsibilities.

First, the committee should gauge the ethical priorities in the community by facilitating open dialog around issues of concern. These may include, but are not limited to, environmental protection, diversity, human rights, labor practices, equity, discrimination, and corporate disclosure.

Second, based on community dialog, the committee should develop and adopt Principles of Socially Responsible Investment Practices and hold themselves accountable to those standards.

Third, the committee should have a working relationship with the offices that negotiate with contractors and Finance Committee of the Board of Trustees that manages endowment funds.

Fourth, the committee should regularly investigate the practices of contracted companies and endowment holdings and provide a qualitative report on their findings to the community.

Fifth, upon request of the College, the committee should communicate with mutual fund managers about corporate holdings that either support or violate the ethics of the Muhlenberg community and persuade them to adjust their behavior.

Sixth, upon request of the College, the committee should work with LVAIC schools with which we commingle our investments in a collective effort to adhere to our communities' business ethics.

Seventh, the committee should be chosen by the President of the College, Muhlenberg Student Government, faculty, and staff members."

President Helm and the Trustees, faculty, staff, students are very interested in helping guide you in your decision-making that affects us. We look forward to a strengthened and working relationship with you. After all, we are “the talents entrusted to your care” like the name of your fundraising campaign.

Very sincerely,

2009-04-23T06:20:00.000-07:00

Click the image to enlarge!

This is Muhlenberg SDS' first newsletter!It has a lot of information a rad opinion on our campus with priorities in crisis. Check out the information by clicking the picture :)

Rally on Friday! Know your history!

2009-04-20T14:21:00.000-07:00

In 2005, students and workers united to win job security for their unionized employees. We have a long way to go at Muhlenberg, but we can win! Unite and fight!

Do's and Don'ts for the Dudely Organizer

2009-04-17T07:41:00.000-07:00

Since Muhlenberg SDS is currently predominately women, we feel it is important to share this great zine from our friend Robin in Philly. All men doing organizing (especially those considering joining with us) should keep this fancy masterpiece in mind. :)

Pass this around to your friends!

http://danthedude.wordpress.com/zine/

The Controversy: We don't get it...

2009-04-17T06:54:00.000-07:00

We see folks are enjoying our newsletter Comunicand o(link) we shared with the community in the Weekly. Someone said it's going to start "a controversy"... well, we hope so!

Except our friend said the debate will be our action, not the information we highlighted or rally next Friday afternoon. Really, Muhlenberg?

Well, the Op-Ed Editor of the Weekly told us they couldn't find room for our op-ed "What We'll Risk for Accessible Education,"(link) so we helped them out!

Although we loved "National stress out day carnival" (great idea!), our newsletter about tuition hikes, layoffs, and Socially Responsible Investing, Comunicando was a great addition to the op-ed section(link) after reading their cozying up to a Student Government full-pager about electoralism, a debate about the April Fool's issue, and three College Republican rants. Here is what it looked like:

National stress out day carnival

By KELLY FRAZEE

If you are like me, you are stressed out over final exams, papers, and the tons of other things you have to get done. What we all really need is to take a break every once in a while. So on Fri., April 17 join Active Minds, the new student-run mental health awareness, education, and advocacy club on campus and the Psychology Club, to take a break from your hectic schedule and have some fun with kickball, finger paint, four squares, play dough, snow cones, balloon animals, make-your-own stress balls and much more! On Fri.

Our Right

By JAMES KOURY (College Republican)

Since 1789, the United States of America has been guided by a unique and ground-breaking Constitution. The text of our Constitution represents the American spirit and values that were born out of the American Revolution. The Constitution lays the ground work for our government and the processes under which it operates.

Ungrateful nimrods

By ADAM YU (College Republican)

Over the years, the United States of America has been described as a terrorist, war mongering, too capitalistic, unfair, and many other colorful insults. This name calling game is far from the truth. Several weeks ago, a new insult arose from none other than the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon.

America must take action

By MATTHEW COBAUGH (College Republican)

With the news of the positive outcome of the Somali Pirate hostage situation, we can breathe a sigh of relief.�The situation has been rectified by the calm brilliance of America's Navy Seals. As a result, Captain Richard Philips can return home to his wife and beloved American soil.

An Insider's Guide to Student Government Elections

By ANNE OMINOUS (Student Government)

For most clubs and organizations, the election of a new Executive Board is often a simple and a private obligation. However, I also believe that when it is the election of the new Executive Board of Student Government, the students have a right to know who was elected, and more importantly why.

Letter to the Editor

April Fool's Joke Gone Too Far

Recent weeks marked another April Fools' Day, and, in the latest iteration of a dubious tradition, the staff of the Muhlenberg Weekly released their annual April Fools' issue. The fictitious articles contained in this edition are known for being lightheartedly off-color.

Laugh It Off

By MUHLENBERG WEEKLY EXECUTIVE BOARD

We are sorry to those we have offended with this year's April Fool's issue�.not. April Fool's! We stand by this issue, and have been told by countless students and faculty that it was hilarious and well-written. This has been a tradition with The Weekly long before we called ourselves the Executive Board, and we were proud to have upheld that tradition so well, with a cohesive issue that managed to avoid overtly offensive topics.

Re: Matt C.'s Scary Scary Op-Ed in the Weekly

2009-04-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

Muhlenberg Students for a Democratic Society is an antiwar organization that seeks nonviolent solutions to conflicts...

In response to Matthew C.'s fear-mongering Muhlenberg Weekly piece "America Must Take Action," supporting the "non-negotiable aggressive use of force" against Somalis, echoing former UN Ambassador John Bolton's recent insane proposal of declaring war on Somalia, we feel it is important to present the Muhlenberg community access to an actually informed opinion on the matter.

We're very nervous that reckless people like Matthew are going to be war makers some day. We hope that big broad social movements for peace andjavascript:void(0) justice will restrain his violent, coercive behavior.

Lesson for Matt: Please learn oppressed people's history of struggle before you endorse state-sponsored murder.

If you are to read the history below, you will notice that since the fall of the military regime in 1992, Somalians have been plundered, poisoned, and starved by warlords and foreign operatives.

The "pirates" originally identified as a coast guard unit to protect themselves from nuclear dumping and over-fishing of their coast, the primary source of food.

Once the warlords gained control of the operation by threat of force, they coerced the fishermen into their current behavior.

The "pirates" Matt wishes murdered are victims of a global system that has failed to provide them protection and alternative means of survival and self-determination.

Matt's scary scary piece:

http://media.www.muhlenbergweekly.com/media/storage/paper300/news/2009/04/16/Oped/America.Must.Take.Action-3714220.shtml?reffeature=textemailedition

Facts:

Democracy Now 4/14/09 Transcript.

The Two Piracies in Somalia: Why the World Ignores the Other?
By Mohamed Abshir Waldo, Journalist/Consultant

Much of the world´s attention is currently focused on the Somali sea lanes. The navies of big and small powers are converging on the Somali waters in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. The recent hijacking of the Saudi oil tanker and Ukrainian MV FAINA, laden with arms for Kenya, off the coast of Somalia by Somali pirates captured world media attention. War has been rightly declared against this notorious new shipping piracy. But the older and mother of all piracies in Somalia - illegal foreign fishing piracy - in the Somali seas is ignored, underlining the international community´s misunderstanding and partiality of the underlying interdependent issues involved and the impracticality of the proposed actions to find ways to effectively resolve the piracy threat.

A chorus of calls for tougher international action resulted in multi-national and unilateral Naval stampede to invade and take control of the Somali territorial and EEZ waters. The UN Security Council, a number of whose members may have ulterior motives to indirectly protect their illegal fishing fleets in the Somali Seas, passed Resolutions 1816 and 1838, giving a license to any nation who wants a piece of the Somali marine cake. Both NATO and the EU issued Orders to the same effect and Russia, Japan, India, Malaysia, Egypt, Yemen and anyone else who could afford an armed boat and its crew on the sea for a few months joined the fray.

For years, attempts made to address piracy in the world´s seas through UN resolutions have failed to pass largely because many of the member nations felt such resolutions would infringe greatly on their sovereignty and security and have been unwilling to give up control and patrol of their own waters. UN Resolutions 1816 and 1838, which were objected to by a number of West African, Caribbean and South American nations, was then tailored to apply to Somalia only, which had no strong enough Somali representation at the United Nations to demand amendments to protect its sovereignty. Also Somali civil society objections to the Draft Resolutions were ignored.

This massive "Global Armada" invasion is carried out on the pretext to protect the busy shipping trade routes of the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean from Somali shipping piracy, which threatens to disrupt these international lifeline sea ways. While there are two equally nasty, criminal, inhuman and exploiting gangs of pirates in Somalia, only one of them is publicized by the western media: the Somali shipping pirates attacking merchant shipping in these sea lanes, where the illegal poachers are also actively operating.

The Illegal Fishing Piracy

The other more damaging economically, environmentally and security-wise is the massive illegal foreign fishing piracy that have been poaching and destroying the Somali marine resources for the last 18 years following the collapse of the Somali regime in 1991. With its usual double standards when such matters concern Africa, the "international community" comes out in force to condemn and declare war against the Somali fishermen pirates while discreetly protecting the numerous Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing fleets there from Europe, Arabia and the Far East.

Biased UN resolutions, big power orders and news reports continue to condemn the hijackings of merchant ships by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden. If response to both piracy menaces was balanced and fair, these condemnations would have been justified. European Union (EU), Russia, Japan, India, Egypt and Yemen are all on this piracy campaign, mainly to cover up and protect their illegal fishing fleets in the Somali waters.

In all these piracy ballyhoo and campaigns, why is the other key IUUs fishing piracy ignored? Why are the UN Resolutions, NATO Orders and EU Decrees to invade the Somali seas fail to include the protection of the Somali marine resources from IUU violations in the same waters? Not only is this outrageous fishing piracy disregarded but the illegal foreign marine poachers are being encouraged to continue their loot by as none of the current Resolutions, Orders and Decrees apply to the IUUs, which can now freely fish in and violate the Somali seas. The Somali fishermen can no longer scare away the IUUs for fear of being labeled pirates and attacked by the foreign navies unlawfully controlling the Somali waters. Even the traditional Somali trading dhows are in panic of being mistaken for pirates.

a) The IUU Menace and Fish Laundering Practice

There is no doubt IUU is a serious global problem. According to the High Seas Task Force (HSTF), IUU does not respect national boundaries or sovereignty, puts unsustainable pressure on stocks, marine life and habitats, undermines labor standards and distorts markets. "IUU fishing is detrimental to the wider marine ecosystem because it flouts rules designed to protect the marine environment which includes restrictions to harvest Juveniles, closed spawning grounds and gear modification designed to minimize by-catch on non-target species….In so doing they steal an invaluable protein source from some of the world´s poorest people and ruin the livelihoods of some legitimate fishermen; incursions by trawlers into the inshore areas reserved for artisanal fishing can result in collision with local fishing boats, destruction of fishing gear and deaths of fishermen" says HSTF. In its report, Closing the Net: Stopping Illegal Fishing on the High Seas, HSTF puts worldwide value of IUU catches at $4 to $9 billion, large part of it from Sub-Sahara Africa, particularly Somalia.

IUUs practice fish catch laundering through mother ship factories, transshipment and re-supply at sea. "This means that vessels can remain at sea for months, refueling, re-supplying and rotating their crew. IUU fishing vessels never need to enter ports because they transfer their catches onto transport ships. Illegally caught fish are laundered by mixing with legally caught fish on board transport vessels", writes HSTF. Apparently, fish laundering, which generates hundreds of millions dollars in the black market is not as criminal as money laundering! Countries used for Somali fish laundering include Seychelles, Mauritius and Maldives.

As EU closed much of its fishing waters for 5 to 15 years for fish regeneration, as Asia over fished its seas, as international demand increases for nutritious marine products and as the fear of worldwide food shortage grows, the rich, uncontrolled and unprotected Somali seas became the target of the fishing fleets of many nations. Surveys by UN, Russian and Spanish assessors just before the collapse of the Barre Regime in 1991 estimated that 200,000 tones of fish a year could be caught by both artisanal and industrial fisheries and this is the objective of the international fishing racket

There is no doubt that the actions of the shipping pirates are reprehensible and this paper does not seek to justify or explain their odious actions. They must be stopped. But the notorious shipping piracy is unlikely to be resolved without simultaneously attending to the fraudulent IUU piracy, too.

b) The Origin of the Somali Piracy War

The origin of the two piracies goes back to 1992 after the fall of the Gen. Siyad Barre regime and the disintegration of the Somali Navy and Police Coastguard services. Following severe draughts in 1974 and 1986, tens of thousands of nomads, whose livestock were wiped out by the draughts, were re-settled all along the villages on the long, 3300 kms Somali coast. They developed into large fishing communities whose livelihood depended inshore fishing. From the beginnings of the civil war in Somalia (as early as 1991/1992) illegal fishing trawlers started to trespass and fish in Somali waters, including the 12-mile inshore artisanal fishing waters. The poaching vessels encroached on the local fishermen´s grounds, competing for the abundant rock-lobster and high value pelagic fish in the warm, up-swelling 60kms deep shelf along the tip of the Horn of Africa.

The piracy war between local fishermen and IUUs started here. Local fishermen documented cases of trawlers pouring boiling water on the fishermen in canoes, their nets cut or destroyed, smaller boats crushed, killing all the occupants, and other abuses suffered as they tried to protect their national fishing turf. Later, the fishermen armed themselves. In response, many of the foreign fishing vessels armed themselves with more sophisticated weapons and began to overpower the fishermen. It was only a matter of time before the local fishermen reviewed their tactics and modernized their hardware. This cycle of warfare has been going on from 1991 to the present. It is now developing into fully fledged, two-pronged illegal fishing and shipping piracy conflicts.

According to the High Seas Task Force (HSTF), there were over 800 IUUs fishing vessels in Somali waters at one time in 2005 taking advantage of Somalia´s inability to police and control its own waters and fishing grounds. The IUUs, which are estimated take out more than $450 million in fish value out of Somalia annually, neither compensate the local fishermen, pay tax, royalties nor do they respect any conservation and environmental regulations – norms associated with regulated fishing. It is believed that IUUs from the EU alone take out of the country more than five times the value of its aid to Somalia every year.

Illegal foreign fishing trawlers which have being fishing in Somalia since 1991 are mostly owned by EU and Asian fishing companies – Italy, France, Spain, Greece, Russia, Britain, Ukraine, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Yemen, Egypt and many others. Illegal vessels captured on the Somali coast by Somali fishermen during 1991 and 1999 included Taiwanese trawlers Yue Fa No. 3 and Chian Yuein No.232, FV Shuen Kuo No.11; MV Airone, MV De Giosa Giuseppe and MV Antonietta, all 3 Italian vessels registered in Italy; MV Bahari Hindi, Kenyan registered but owned and managed by Marship Co. of Mombasa. A number of Italian registered SHIFCO vessels, Korean and Ukrainian trawlers, Indian, Egyptian and Yemeni boats were also captured by fishermen and ransoms of different sizes paid for their release. Many Spanish seiners, frequent violators of the Somali fishing grounds, managed to evade capture at various times.

According to a report in the Daily Nation of October 14, 2004, even Kenyan registered fishing vessels are known to have participated in the rape of the Somali fishing grounds. In October 2004, Mr. Andrew Mwangura, Kenya Coordinator of the Seafarers Assistance Program (SAP) asked the Kenya Government to help stop illegal fishing in Somalia. "Since Somalia has been without government for more than 11 years, Kenya trawlers have been illegally fishing along the country´s territorial waters contrary to the UNCLOS and the FAO instruments, he said. SAP further reported that 19 Kenyan registered fishing vessels also operated illegally in the Somalia waters.

In arrangements with Somali warlords, new companies were formed abroad for bogus fishing licensing purposes. Jointly owned mafia Somali-European companies set up in Europe and Arabia worked closely with Somali warlords who issued them fake fishing "licenses" to any foreign fishing pirate willing to plunder the Somali marine resources. UK and Italy based African and Middle East Trading Co. (AFMET), PALMERA and UAE based SAMICO companies were some of the corrupt vehicles issuing such counterfeit licenses as well as fronting for the warlords who shared the loot.

Among technical advisors to the Mafia companies – AFMET, PALMIRA & SAMICO - were supposedly reputable firms like MacAllister Elliot & Partners of the UK. Warlords Gen. Mohamed Farah Aidiid, Gen. Mohamed Hersi Morgan, Osman Atto and Ex-President Ali Mahdi Mohamed officially and in writing gave authority to AFMET to issue fishing "licenses", which local fishermen and marine experts call it simply a "deal between thieves". According to Africa Analysis of November 13, 1998, AFMET alone "licensed" 43 seiners (mostly Spanish, at $30,000 per 4-month season. Spanish Pesca Nova was "licensed" by AFMET while French Cobracaf group got theirs from SAMICO at a much discounted rate of $15,000 per season per vessel.

Not to be outdone, in October 1999 Puntland Administration, gave carte blanche to another Mafia group known as PIDC, registered in Oman to fish, issue licenses and to police the Puntland coast. PIDC in turn contracted Hart Group of the UK and together they pillaged the Somali fishing grounds with vengeance, making over $20 million profit within two years. The deal was to split the profits but PIDC failed to share the spoils with Puntland administration, resulting in revocation of their licenses. Having reneged on their part of the deal, PIDC/Hart quit the country with their handsomely won chips.

Somali Complaints and Appeals on Illegal Fishing & Hazardous Waste Dumping

Another major problem closely connected with the IUUs and illegal fishing is industrial, toxic and nuclear waste dumping in both off-shore and on-shore areas of Somalia. Somali authorities, local fishermen, civil society organizations and international organizations have reported and warned of the dangerous consequences of these criminal actions. In a Press Statement dated 16 Sept 1991, the SSDF, which then administered the Northeastern Regions of Somalia, sternly warned "all unauthorized and illegal foreign fishing vessels in the Somali waters are prohibited, with immediate effect, to undertake any further illegal fishing and to stay clear of the Somali waters". In April 1992, SSDF Chairman, Gen. Mohamed Abshir Musse wrote to the then Italian Foreign Minister, Gianni De Michelis, drawing his attention to the robbery of the Somali marine resources and ecosystem destruction by unlicensed Italian trawlers.

In September 1995, leaders of all the Somali political factions of the day (12 of them) and two major Somali NGO Networks jointly wrote to the UN Secretary General, Dr Boutros Boutros Ghali, with copies to the EU, Arab League, OIC, OAU and to other involved parties, detailing the illegal fishing and hazardous material dumping crises in the Somali sea waters and requesting the UN to set up a body to manage and protect these waterways. They pointed out that since ICAO already manages the Somali airspace, so could IMO or a newly created organization run Somalia´s seas until an effective Somali national government is able to take control of it. Again, from 1998 to 2006, consecutive Ministers of Fisheries of Puntland State of Somalia have repeatedly appealed to the international community: UN, EC, African Union, Arab League and to individual nations, advising the members states of these organizations to help keep poaching vessels and crews from their countries out of the Somali waters. The Ministers also complained of oil spills, toxic and nuclear waste dumping in the Somali coast.

Somali fishermen in various regions of the country also complained to the international community about the illegal foreign fishing, stealing the livelihoods of poor fishermen, waste dumping and other ecological disasters, including the indiscriminate use of all prohibited methods of fishing: drift nets, under water explosives, killing all "endangered species" like sea-turtles, orca, sharks, baby whales, etc. as well as destroying reef, biomass and vital fish habitats in the sea (IRIN of March 9, 2006). Fishermen in Somalia have appealed to the United Nations and the international community to help them rid the country's shores of foreign ships engaged in illegal fishing. United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated 700 foreign-owned vessels were engaged in unlicensed fishing in Somali waters in 2005. However, FAO said it was "impossible to monitor their fishery production in general, let alone the state of the fishery resources they are exploiting….there is also strong suspicion of illegal dumping of industrial and nuclear wastes along the Somali coast", IRIN 09/03/06.

"They are not only taking and robbing us of our fish, but they are also trying to stop us from fishing", said Jeylani Shaykh Abdi, a fisherman in Merca, 100km south of Mogadishu. "They have rammed our boats and cut our nets", he added. Another Merca fisherman, Mohamed Hussein, said [Our] existence depends on the fish. He accused the international community of "talking only about the piracy problem in Somalia, but not about the destruction of our coast and our lives by these foreign ships". Jeylani noted that the number of foreign ships had increased over time. "It is now normal to see them on a daily basis, a few miles off our shores" (IRIN 09/03/06).

Describing the activity as "economic terrorism", Somali fishermen told IRIN that the poachers were not only plundering the fish but were also dumping rubbish and oil into the sea. They complained the Somali government was not strong enough to stop it. "We want the international agencies to help us deal with this problem", said Hussein. "If nothing is done about them, there soon won't be much fish left in our coastal waters". Musse Gabobe Hassan and Mohamud Hassan Tako of the Mogadishu Maritime and Fisheries Institute accuse foreign ships of illegal fishing and dumping of hazardous waste in Somali waters. "Somalia´s coastal communities who eke their livelihood from the sea are appealing to the international community for help stop the illegal fishing fleets from both the developed and developing countries that are robbing our marine wealth and destroying its habitats", they added.

Like the UN Security Council, Chatham House, an International Affairs Think-Tank, in a much publicized recent Paper on piracy in Somalia failed to present a balanced view of the issue and concentrated on the shipping piracy side of the coin. Roger Middleton, the author of the Paper, however, mentions in passing that European, Asian and African (Egypt and Kenya) illegally fish in the Somalia waters. In ignoring the principal IUU factor, the origin and the purpose of the shipping piracy, UN and Roger Middleton seem to be either misled or pressured to take this one-sided course by powerful interests who want to cover up and protect the profitable business of illegal fishing.

These crises of the illegal fishing, waste dumping, warlords/mafia deals and the loud complaints of the Somali fishermen and civil society have been known to UN agencies and international organizations all along. The UN Agencies and organizations, which have been fully aware of these crises, often expressed concern and lamentations but never took any positive action against these criminal activities. It appears as if they have also failed to inform the UN Security Council of this tragedy before it passed its resolutions 1816 and 1838 early this year.

Mr. Ould Abdalla, UN Secretary General Special Envoy for Somalia, who should know better, continued to condemn Somali shipping piracy in a number of press statements and rightly so though biased. In his latest Press Statement of 11/11/08 on the subject matter, he warmly welcomed the agreement by European Union member states to send ships to combat piracy off Somalia. "I am extremely pleased by the EU´s decision", said Mr Ould-Abdallah. "Piracy off the Somali coast is posing a serious threat to the freedom of international navigation and regional security". But he forgot to condemn fishing piracy, mention the Somali fishing communities´ livelihood security or to propose concrete actions to deal with the two inter-related piracies, which are like the two sides of the same coin.

An FAO study, Somalia´s Fishery Review by Frans Teutscher, Nov. 11, 2005, states, "In the absence of legal framework and/or for capacities for monitoring, control and surveillance, extensive illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) is taking place and considerable quantities of non-targeted by catch are discarded because they cannot presently be utilized". The report said that the foreign IUUs maximize their catch by fishing throughout the year without regard to the wider marine ecosystem, not respecting fish and crustacean spawning periods or irreparable damage done by their massive drift nets and use of explosives or the loss of local fishermen´s livelihood.

In a letter to the SSDF dated January 1998, Mr. Dominic Langenbacher, UNDP Somalia Resident Representative, expressed his apprehension of the danger posed to the Somali marine resources and environment by foreign vessels. "The concern of the international community is that the threat of toxic waste dumping, pirate fishing by foreign vessels and over fishing of Somali stocks could adversely, and perhaps permanently, affect the ecosystem of the entire region" he said. "Furthermore, Somalia currently has no provision to deal with potential oil spills or other marine disasters and has no capability to monitor and control her coastal waters and, if necessary, provide sea search or rescue operations", he added.

Dr Mustafa Tolba, former Executive Director of UNEP, confirmed that Italian companies were dumping lethal toxic waste in Somalia which might "contribute to the loss of life in the already devastated country". Dr Tolba added that the shipment of the toxic wastes from Italy that could also aggravate the destruction of the ecosystem in Somalia "earned a company, which ships the waste, between 2 to 3 million dollars in profits" (Sunday Nation, 06/09/92).

In a proposal for action to the UNDP for Somalia in early 1990s, Mr. John Laurence, a fishery consultant with PanOcena Resources Ltd, reports the catastrophic and heartbreaking illegal foreign exploitation of the Somali seas. "With regards to the controlled exploitation of the Somali deep sea fishing grounds by the huge foreign factory ships and vessels it is our opinion that the UN must get involved. This area is recognized as one of the 5 richest fishing zones of the world and previously unexploited. It is now being ravaged, unchecked by any authority, and if it continues to be fished at the level it is at present stocks are in danger of being depleted …. So, a world resource is under serious threat and the UN is sitting back doing nothing to prevent it". "Secondly, the Somali people are being denied any income from this resource due to their inability to license and police the zone" and " the UN is turning a blind eye to the activities of the fishing vessels whose operators are not paying their dues; which in any other circumstances would be enforced by any international court of law", argues Laurence.

Surprisingly, the UN disregarded its own findings of the violations, ignored the Somali and international appeals to act on the continued ravaging of the Somali marine resources and dumping of hazardous wastes. Instead, the UN and the big powers, invoking Charter IIV of the UN Charter, decided to "enter the territorial waters of Somalia……and ..…use, within the territorial waters of Somalia ….all necessary means to identify, deter, prevent, and repress acts of piracy and armed robbery, including but not limited to boarding, searching, and seizing vessels engaged in or suspected of engaging in acts of piracy or armed robbery, and to apprehend persons engaged in such acts with a view to such persons being prosecuted" (Resolution 1816).

It should be noted that there is no mention of the illegal fishing piracy, hazardous waste dumping or the plight of the Somali fishermen in the UN Resolutions. Justice and fairness have been overlooked in these twin problems of Fishing Piracy and Shipping Piracy.

The Illegality and Impracticality of the actions of the UN, NATO and EU

This Global Armada is in the Somali waters illegally as it is not approved by the Somali Transitional Federal Parliament (TFP). It is also unlikely it will achieve its stated objectives to curb the shipping piracy as it is now conceived. The TFP and the members of the European Parliament rejected these UN and European decisions to police the Somali seas (both the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden) as both illegal and unworkable. At a Press Conference in Nairobi on October 18th 2008, the Deputy Speaker of the TFP, Mohamed Omar Dalha, termed the deployment of foreign warships to the country's coast to fight piracy as invasion of its sovereignty and asked the foreign warships to "move out of the Somali waters". The Speaker questioned the intent of the deployment and suggested that the powers involved had a hidden agenda. He said if these powers were genuine in curbing the piracy they would have supported and empowered the Somali authorities, who would be more effective in stopping the menace. "If the millions of dollars given to the pirates or wasted in the warship policing there were given to us, we would have eliminated this curse", he said.

Several EU members of parliament (MEPs) called the EU naval mission to be deployed against pirates off the coasts of Somalia as a "military nonsense", "morally wrong" and having "no international legal basis". German green MEP Angelika Beer underlined the lack of international law to sustain the proposed European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) mission. "There is no clarity to the limitations of this mandate. Will the EU be able to sink ships and arrest pirates?" she asked. Portuguese socialist MEP Ana Maria Gomes gave a fiery speech on the "moral problem" of the EU mission, which, in her opinion, is only about "protecting oil tankers". "Nobody gives a damn about the people in Somalia who die like flies". she said (EU Observer of 15th October 2008).

Conclusion

The EU, NATO and US Navies can, of course, Rambo and obliterate the fishermen pirates and their supporting coastal communities but that would be illegal, criminal act. Yet, it may temporarily reduce the intensity of the shipping piracy but it would not result in a long-term solution of the problem. The risk of loss of life of foreign crews and ecological impact of major oil spill would be a marine catastrophe of gigantic proportions for the whole coastal regions of East Africa and the Gulf of Aden. In their current operations, the Somali fishermen pirates genuinely believe that they are protecting their fishing grounds (both 12-mile territorial and EEZ waters). They also feel that they exacting justice and compensation for the marine resources stolen and the destroyed ecosystem by the IUUs. And their thinking is shared and fully supported by the coastal communities, whose protectors and providers they became.

The matter needs careful review and better understanding of the local environment. The piracy is based on local problems and it requires a number of comprehensive joint local and external partners approaches.

Firstly, practical and lasting solution lies in jointly addressing the twin problems of the shipping piracy and the illegal fishing piracy, the root cause of the crisis.

Secondly, the national institutional crisis should be reviewed along with the piracy issues.

Thirdly, local institutions should be involved and supported, particularly by helping to form coastguards, training and coastguard facilities. These may sound asking too much to donors and UN agencies. But we should ask what it meant those who paid tens of millions dollars of ransom and their loved ones held hostage for months.

Fourthly, a joint Somali and UN oversight agency - like the present ICAO for the Somali airspace - should be considered.

Comunicando #1 Muhlenberg SDS' first newsletter!

2009-04-16T18:33:00.000-07:00

Click the image to enlarge!

This is Muhlenberg SDS' first newsletter! We inserted many many copies of these into the stack of Muhlenberg Weekly newspapers for the enjoyment of the community. We particularly enjoyed inserting them on top of two College Republicans' op-eds in the front cover. Also, the Weekly did not "have room" for our op-ed, so we helped them find some! :)

2009-04-15T15:20:00.000-07:00

A Campus in Crisis: Worker Layoffs and Tuition Hikes at Muhlenberg

2009-04-15T07:45:00.000-07:00

Tuition and Fees at Muhlenberg College

Muhlenberg SDS, as well as our anonymous employee allies, are concerned that in addition to the hiring freeze already in place, college administration is making decisions behind closed doors to pass on the effects of big bank failures and misplaced fundraising priorities to the most vulnerable among us: students and workers.
If the following conditions are inconsequential to you, that’s fine. But just as our dissent may not speak for you, your apathy certainly doesn’t speak for us.
Now that you have access to the information, you can’t claim ignorance. Now that we have invited you to ally with us, you can’t claim no one ever gave you an outlet. From now on, as Dr. King would say, your “silence is betrayal.”
………

Three workers in the Print Shop have been laid off due to “restructuring”: outsourcing to Fed Ex- Kinkos. Total fees for students will exceed $45,000 for 2009-10 after a 4.6 percent raise and six years of six percent annual increases.
While housekeepers and grounds workers are nervous about job security, high-level administrators probably get bonuses and raises (or a really nice house, pension, and $10,000 painted portrait…if you're President Helm).
We are students from working class families facing a number of difficult choices: transfer, take a year off, work multiple jobs, apply for more bank loans…
In the meantime, fundraising for the College has been focused on grand capital investments like buildings, not job security for workers and aid to students. Too much of the money raised is earmarked for “capital improvements.” What about human capital?
If this is really a 'caring community' then the administration and trustees ought to raise student-worker struggles to the top priority on their shopping list.
Without the diligence of our workers and scholarship of our students, Muhlenberg College would be a dump, last-place institution.
Not only do we deserve help, we deserve a say in the decision-making process. Our society was born based on "the consent of the governed" to preserve “certain inalienable rights” and that means no exception for corporate institutions like Muhlenberg.
The only way to ensure fair treatment for students and workers is to give us a much bigger seat at the table where decisions are made about our future. As of now, workers can be kicked around without a union and students only get a handful of token members on closed-door faculty committees that often make decisions out our favor.
Workers are faced with a hiring clause in their contracts that threatens termination “at any time and for any reason,” making attempts to organize a union or collectively bargain deadly to flirt with.
For students, one of many examples was the removal of the triple major and double major/minor option by the closed-door Academic Policy Committee two years ago. Those options made Muhlenberg a little less marketable in the education industry, so they got cut at the expense and without the consent of students.
Another is the top-secret Curriculum Committee that is revising our General Academic Requirements with only two student representatives that could not possibly speak on behalf of the entire student body.
When was the last time your major’s department asked the students’ input on the graduation requirements or structural changes?
We don’t even have access to the Board of Trustees’ contacts; know who they are, who they work for, or what they’re up to.
This is not an acceptable power relationship. We are going to change it.
We demand three simple reforms as a start:

1. Job Security Now: A promise of job security to the workers of the college, no layoffs.

2. Tuition Stability Now: Fundraise for education first, open the budget process to community input, no more tuition hikes.

3. SRI Now: The formation of a Socially Responsible Investing committee according to the resolution passed unanimously by Student Government which ends:

"Resolved, we support the formation of a Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) committee at Muhlenberg made up of faculty, students, staff, and alumni. The committee should have the following basic responsibilities.

First, the committee should gauge the ethical priorities in the community by facilitating open dialog around issues of concern. These may include, but are not limited to, environmental protection, diversity, human rights, labor practices, equity, discrimination, and corporate disclosure.

Second, based on community dialog, the committee should develop and adopt Principles of Socially Responsible Investment Practices and hold themselves accountable to those standards.

Third, the committee should have a working relationship with the offices that negotiate with contractors and Finance Committee of the Board of Trustees that manages endowment funds.

Fourth, the committee should regularly investigate the practices of contracted companies and endowment holdings and provide a qualitative report on their findings to the community.

Fifth, upon request of the College, the committee should communicate with mutual fund managers about corporate holdings that either support or violate the ethics of the Muhlenberg community and persuade them to adjust their behavior.

Sixth, upon request of the College, the committee should work with LVAIC schools with which we commingle our investments in a collective effort to adhere to our communities' business ethics.

Seventh, the committee should be chosen by the President of the College, Muhlenberg Student Government, faculty, and staff members."

What We'll Risk For Accessible Education

2009-04-13T17:44:00.000-07:00

This op-ed wasn’t published in the Muhlenberg Weekly this week because the
editors “didn’t have the room.” Enjoy!
Last Friday morning, our friends at New School University attempted to use nonviolent civil disobedience to protest the bureaucratic red tape being erected by their president, Bob Kerrey, regarding the formation of a Socially Responsible Investing committee among other decision-making obstacles.
Instead of a proportionally civil response to the student occupation of a vacant building, President Kerrey ordered a massive demonstration of police force that included riot police dropping from helicopters, tear gas inside, macing, and beating supporters outside.
The student group responsible, New School in Exile, was formed after a sit-in in mid-December won some demands relative to the ethical concerns of students that had been ignored when using formal channels. Our member, Alex Lotorto attended and entered that occupation, like he did at NYU, putting his body on the line with hundreds of students who are struggling for democracy beyond the charade of "just voting."
This time, the students released a statement we identified with as Muhlenberg students, "If tuition hikes, lack of resources, diminishing student space, and a dozen other pressing university issues are inconsequential to you, that’s fine - irrational, but fine. But just as our action doesn’t speak for you, your apathy doesn’t speak for us."
Occupying a building is only one tactic to win the goods. It's one of an infinite number of creative ways social movements have induced change throughout our history; independence, anti-slavery, anti-war, suffrage, labor rights, civil rights, anti-nuclear, anti-sweat shop, environmental defense, anti-globalization.
Like America's history, the student movement in New York has broadened our capacity at Muhlenberg to win the same and similar reforms for our college. We are and will be taken seriously.
The Student Government, with the exception of Barrie Schessler's abstention, recently voted unanimously to support the creation of a Socially Responsible Investing Committee at Muhlenberg. President Helm has agreed to present it to the Board of Trustees who will be meeting on Friday, April 24th. It will be up to them to decide whether or not students, faculty, staff, and alumni can have an advisory role regarding the ethical impacts of Muhlenberg's business.
Also, Muhlenberg tuition has gone up another $2,000 in the midst of a massive economic crisis we are all suffering from. Workers at the college are getting laid off, the print shop employees are the most recent example. Our tuition has gone up six percent every year for the past six years, without a single student involved in reviewing the process, without "the consent of the governed."
As we apply for student loan after loan, the most fundraising for the college has been earmarked for capital investments like new buildings, not to keep tuition affordable or secure the jobs for the men and women who break their backs serving us. On Friday April 24th, Students for a Democratic Society will be sponsoring a student-worker rally where the visiting Board of Trustees and President Helm can't miss it. We will say, "No layoffs, no tuition hikes, and socially responsible investing! Stop building on the backs of students and workers!" Facing a giant, disinterested hierarchy, we will need your support. Come and be powerful, it's fun!

Muhlenberg Students for a Democratic Society
(sds)

Muhlenberg Student Government passes an SDSer's resolution on Socially Responsible Investing!

2009-03-27T08:27:00.000-07:00

Hey folks,

I introduced this through a temporary committee investigating the formation of a Socially Responsible Investing committee at Muhlenberg. It passed last night through Student Government without a single Nay vote. Only Barrie Schessler abstained.

President Helm has voiced, in person and via e-mail, opposition to this, so we still have a lot of work to do! Come to our next meeting on Monday at 10 to discuss next steps. We're serious about this! Our tuition is not for war and genocide!

-Alex

Socially Responsible Investing Committee Resolution
on behalf of the ad hoc Socially Responsible Investment committee

Whereas, Muhlenberg College should have an advisory, non-binding committee available to do research on the ethical impacts of its business upon request.

Whereas, students who pay tuition, alumni who donate, and employees who do work for Muhlenberg College in good faith should have the opportunity to participate in reviewing the ethical impacts of its business.

Whereas, the ad hoc Student Government committee on Socially Responsible Investing has presented a comprehensive memorandum outlining the facts and history of Socially Responsible Investing.

Whereas, we have discussed the issue of Socially Responsible Investing at Muhlenberg College with constituents and faculty. Feedback has been largely supportive.

Resolved, we support the formation of a Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) committee at Muhlenberg made up of faculty, students, staff, and alumni. The committee should have the following basic responsibilities.

First, the committee should gauge the ethical priorities in the community by facilitating open dialog around issues of concern. These may include, but are not limited to, environmental protection, diversity, human rights, labor practices, equity, discrimination, and corporate disclosure.

Second, based on community dialog, the committee should develop and adopt Principles of Socially Responsible Investment Practices and hold themselves accountable to those standards.

Third, the committee should have a working relationship with the offices that negotiate with contractors and Finance Committee of the Board of Trustees that manages endowment funds.

Fourth, the committee should regularly investigate the practices of contracted companies and endowment holdings and provide a qualitative report on their findings to the community.

Fifth, upon request of the College, the committee should communicate with mutual fund managers about corporate holdings that either support or violate the ethics of the Muhlenberg community and persuade them to adjust their behavior.

Sixth, upon request of the College, the committee should work with LVAIC schools with which we commingle our investments in a collective effort to adhere to our communities' business ethics.

Seventh, the committee should be chosen by the President of the College, Muhlenberg Student Government, faculty, and staff members.

Report-back from Funk the War 7: Iraq 6th Anniv. Ed.

2009-03-24T10:00:00.001-07:00

Last Thursday, March 19th was the 6th anniversary of the Iraq invasion.

Muhlenberg SDS was represented down in Washington DC for the SDS Funk the War roving antiwar dance party through downtown. Here is the report by Alex Lotorto!

FUNK THE WAR 7: Iraq 6th Anniv. Ed. from Alex Lotorto on Vimeo.

Muhlenberg Students Win Bill of Rights!

2009-03-24T07:24:00.000-07:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Alex Lotorto
Tel: 570-269-9589
Em: alexander.lotorto@muhlenberg.edu
Website: www.muhlenbergsds.blogspot.com

MUHLENBERG STUDENTS WIN BILL OF RIGHTS

After seven months of student campaigning, Muhlenberg College administration agreed last week to include a Students' Bill of Rights in the policy handbook before next school year.

In the fall semester, over 200 students helped author a draft presented to them by organizers for the Students for a Democratic Society chapter that outlined basic rights of privacy, expression, and nondiscrimination for students.

Rachel Brown, a first year student, said, "I'm really pleased that the administration is listening to what the students feel is important. We worked really hard to put the Students' Bill of Rights together and to make sure that as many members of the student body as possible were aware of our campaign. We're glad that so many students chose to support us and especially glad that our requests are being listened to."

The content was compiled from other institutions including Rhode Island College, Oberlin College, and Columbia University.

Alex Lotorto, a senior, said, "It's very important to have students' rights listed as a contract at a private college like Muhlenberg with so many different power relationships. Now, if students feel like they are being kicked around by other students, faculty, or staff, they have a document to defend them, just like in real life. It's by students, for students. It's very empowering, especially for us affected by gender, gender identity, class, age, race, and sexuality oppression."

To build support, SDS staged public readings, passed out flyers, and went door to door to gather endorsements. They facilitated a directly democratic online forum where all students were invited to change the document. After two days without blocking concerns from the group, the students' changes became permanent.

After a consensus was achieved by more than 200 students, the draft was brought to a Student Body meeting in December where any student could vote. There, members of Student Government and a president of College Democrats attacked the process for only including the affected community of students and not high-level administrators. Ultimately, opponents succeeded in blocking the draft from proceeding upward at that time.

In a Muhlenberg Weekly opinion piece from December titled "Legitimate representation," new Student Body President Jon Falk referred to the document as an "unreasonable reform" and SDS organizer Alex Lotorto as an "unreasonable objector" and "fanatic."

Ignoring many Student Government representatives' opposition to the process, the draft was presented by SDS organizers to the Dean of Students Karen Green in January.

After discussing the issue with a consultant, Dean Green agreed to work with the student endorsers on any changes to the draft in time for it to be presented to incoming students in August.

There are 2,150 full-time students at Muhlenberg College, located in Allentown, PA. Students for a Democratic Society is a student-run, multi-issue political organization currently working on a national campaign called Student Power for Accessible Education.

#####

Join Muhlenberg SdS for Funk the War 7!

2009-03-16T02:59:00.000-07:00

¡uoıʇɐʃɐɔsƎ ʇou uoıʇɐɔnpƎ :Ɫ ɹɐM ǝɥʇ ʞunℲ from Daniel Meltzer on Vimeo.

Funk the War 7 Call to Action: http://www.dc-sds.org/?q=node/96

Hey folks,

*Please pass this on to your friends on Facebook and e-mail lists*

You must RSVP by *Tuesday* to Alex 570-269-9589 if you are coming! Call for questions.

You’re invited to join members of Muhlenberg Students for a Democratic Society as we rent a van and take a trip down to DC *this Thursday* to dance our butts off at the DC SDS Funk the War 7. We will be dropping our beats and sweet dance moves on the war machine's favorite companies and think tanks to let them know that we've had enough of them profiting off of their wars.

We will be in DC to disrupt business as usual in recognition of 6 years of brutal war and occupation in Iraq and the escalation of the war in Afghanistan.

Last year, about 2,000 students showed up to dance around desks and big banners that said

"Fund Education Not Occupation". You can check out some info here:
Report Back text: http://www.dc-sds.org/?q=node/16
Report Back video: http://vimeo.com/2561824

Some of the roles you can volunteer for:
Leafleteer (handing out leaflets, sticking them in pockets, talking to people)
Chalker/Sticker...er
Medic (if you have EMT training)
Camera-person (get some cool footage for the media)
Drummer (bring your own)
Dancing fiend

There's a hip hop concert when it's over and we’ll bring free food!

The itinerary looks like this:

Leave Muhlenberg: 8:30am (ish)
Pick up folks along the way…
Arrive in DC: 2:00pm (ish)
FUNK IT UP: 3:00pm – 6:00pm (ish)
Leave DC: 7:00pm (ish)
Drop off folks along the way…
Back at ‘Berg: ‘round midnight to celebrate!

We’re asking for a donation between $5-$20 for travel, but no one will be turned away! There are only 15 seats!

Come be powerful!

-Alex

Students Bill of Rights?

2009-03-09T06:57:00.001-07:00

Hello Dean Green and President Helm,

I copied Student Government on this e-mail so there can finally be witnesses to our correspondence.

"We believe that a broad range of human perspectives, experiences, backgrounds, and opinions enriches the academic experience, stimulates intellectual rigor, enhances the quality of life on campus, and prepares our graduates for lives of leadership and service in a ***democratic***, pluralistic ***society*** and a diverse world." -Muhlenberg Diversity Statement

Students for a Democratic Society delivered the Students Bill of Rights, that was endorsed by over 200 students, to you at the beginning of the semester. We have not heard any feedback from you after quite some time. In light of the traumatizing involuntary medical suspension of one of our friends that claims you profiled her with an eating disorder she did not have, locked her in a house with threat of force, and forced her to fly home to California with two days notice, we are very concerned about your stifling response to our request for rights.

After our grassroots organizing was repressed by Student Government members and an authoritarian club president at the final fall Student Body Meeting, we asked to have a working relationship with you according to their desires for a top-down "proper", "formal" process to win an agreed-upon list of our rights as students. These rights were compiled from other, more democratic colleges such as Columbia U., Rhode Island College, and Oberlin College.

This is not something radical, it is something deserved. The ballooning student power movement, from New York, to the UK, to Greece, is empowering us to stand up to you.

What are your intentions? Why won't you work with us on the Students' Bill of Rights that has received so much support from students who feel the basic rights listed there have been violated by members of the Muhlenberg community? Don't you find it exciting that young people are looking to you for facilitation?

A right delayed is a right denied, you know.

Finally, we ask that you take no longer than March 20th to respond to us with a list of your concerns and changes to our document. We would like to communicate your ideas to the students who signed the petition so that they may give consent. We would like to see the Students' Bill of Rights added to the end of the Social Code in time for next year's incoming first year students

I hope you will be responsible allies of students and work with us, not marginalize us. The students who support this effort are justified. We hope that in the future, you will not take advantage of your power relationship over us and act as if working with us on a grassroots level is part of your job description. We would prefer to not have to write inaccessible letters like this to spark your attention. It's not fun or empowering. Thanks in advance.

Very very sincerely,
Alex Lotorto

Report back: The students were justified, NYU was occupied!

2009-02-25T18:13:00.000-08:00

The progressive student movement at New York University boiled over last Wednesday into nonviolent civil disobedience after two years of humble petitions, letters, and University Senate politicking failed to win greater transparency, tuition stabilization, and investment accountability to the ethics of the NYU community, particularly on issues of war, discrimination, and genocide.

The two-year old coalition called Take Back NYU! consists of 21 peace, justice, and multicultural organizations with thousands of members. They escalated their tactics away from the painful neglect of the NYU bureaucracy by occupying a cafeteria in the student center for 40 hours with about a hundred students, sit-in style. Their goals? To build their movement and finally have enough leverage to force the administration to respond to its students’ grave concerns.

One specific demand was the establishment of a Socially Responsible Finance committee made up of faculty, students, and alumni, elected by students, to align NYU’s budget and investing priorities with the ethical concerns of the community. For example, the SRF would pressure their mutual funds to drop investments from companies that make weapons like cluster bombs (Textron).

Thousands of students from all over the northeast came out with signs, instruments, banners, bullhorns, dance moves, and voices to rally outside of the building in support of the sit-in. Some slogans included “No tuition without representation!” “We shall not be moved!” “Make NYU affordable!” and a retro marching band-led chorus of “We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister.

True to form, the administration refused to negotiate with the students as they have the past two years. Instead, they cut off outside food access, heat, internet, and power to the cafeteria. They enlisted fear tactics by calling the homes of the students and threatening expulsion. They encouraged NYU security and NYPD thugs to violently suppress attempts to peaceably assemble. They made clear what their vision for NYU looks like: mace, billy clubs, lies, and deception.

On the final day, second tier university officials ordered their NYU security thugs to kidnap five student negotiators and raid the sit-in, removing the students by force. The remaining 18 NYU students were suspended, banned from their dorms, and now risk expulsion. No discussion of the students’ demands ever happened. President John Sexton made no statement or appearance.

To give their sit-in a context, NYU identifies as a “global university” with campuses in many countries including a new one being constructed in Abu Dhabi. Their endowment is about $2.5 billion, the largest of any private university in the country, according to their student press.

I personally participated in the sit-in because I believe students who pay tuition, faculty who receive salary, and alumni who donate to a college in good faith should not have to participate in a system that does not hold itself accountable for the ethical impacts of its business and investments.

I sit on our Student Government’s Socially Responsible Investing research committee, voted to endorse Muhlenberg’s divestment from the Darfur genocide, and believe that student ethical concerns at Muhlenberg, like NYU, have been stifled.

Student Body President-elect Jon Falk supports the creation of a Socially Responsible Investing Committee at Muhlenberg. Almost a month ago he praised the idea at a Student Government meeting by noting how the Shoah, or Holocaust, could have been stopped by divestment from the companies that profited from it.

I hope that we can see a quick establishment of an SRI committee here and that President Helm will back off his opposition to it expressed to me in a meeting last week. I take seriously my tuition’s sponsorship of unethical, violent, and destructive behavior. Tell your Student Government representatives and club leaders to support this effort and contact me to join a coalition around this issue.

Alex Lotorto writes on behalf of himself and not anyone else.

New School Occupation: Report-back for Muhlenberg

2008-12-24T21:31:00.000-08:00

The December 17-19^th, 33-hour student sit-in at New School University in New York City has many many strategic insights for progressive students at Muhlenberg.

The concessions that were won by the New School students are things that, in my opinion, are desperately needed reforms and changes at Muhlenberg.

Among other things, the students won more democracy on campus, social justice considerations in investing, scholarship help for during the recession, and leverage for future negotiations.

More specifically, a whole slew of votes on important committees, a Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) committee made up of faculty, staff, and students, and a hold on major capital investments until the recession is over in order to boost scholarships.

These three major wins are important for Muhlenberg because:

…democracy on campus…

Our faculty has meetings, but no real participation in campus governance, just like the students are token participants in closed-door committees on the curriculum and academic policies.

The Board of Trustees hears two, non-voting student voices that hardly dissent or relate the very real student struggles for equality and participation in decision making on campus.

...social justice considerations in investing…

An everlasting, profit-driven “War on Terror” is going to be continued by President Obama, complete with Bush’s General Petraeus and Secretary of Defense Gates, troop expansions, military budget “bumps”, and no end in sight…and is Muhlenberg’s endowment buried in war profiteer’s pockets?

In the last two years, Muhlenberg has contracted two multi-million dollar prison companies, Sodexo and Coleman Brothers. Sodexo has a horrible human rights record in prisons and Coleman Brothers is a construction dealer in the largest prison industry in the world.

…scholarship help for during the recession…

In the next year, we face a massive tuition hike, much higher than the 6% annual hike we’ve burdened for the last 7+ years. This year, President Helm has issued an excuse, begging for understanding and in the next two years, it is a very real possibility that we’ll break $50,000 in total fees.

We are going to see a massive Seegers Union renovation that is going to cost millions, while students suffering from the recession are struggling to arrange loans and pay debts.

…leverage for future negotiations…

The New School victory gives SDS chapters leverage on every campus. We can use the publicity generated by the action, the network of SDS support in NY and NJ, and the similar campaigns at CUNY, NYU, and Rutgers U. to mobilize and win concessions at Muhlenberg.

Interesting commentary and information:

New York Times blog
"The Columbia and New School Sit-ins Compared"
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/19/the-columbia-and-new-school-sit-ins-compared/?apage=1

The Villager

”New School in turmoil; Students occupy building, tell Kerrey, ‘Quit!’”
http://thevillager.com/villager_295/newschool.html

New School in Exile
www.newschoolinexile.com

Alex Lotorto is an organizer for SdS but does not write on behalf of that organization or anyone else.

12/2 STUDENT BODY MEETING - report back by Alex Lotorto

2008-12-05T13:04:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, Student Government held a Student Body meeting at which, a Students’ Bill of Rights to protect privacy, expression, and nondiscrimination on campus was brought up in New Business, the part of the meeting where any student can propose a resolution and any student can vote to pass it.

The first draft was originally compiled by organizers for Students for a Democratic Society (SdS) from other private colleges’ students’ rights like Oberlin College, Rhode Island College, and Columbia University.

For over a month, tables were set up where students could sign and receive information about the draft, two articles were published in the Weekly with information, members of SdS went door to door in dorms to gather signatures, and at least 600 Muhlenberg students were invited to join the Facebook group petition.

By Tuesday, over 200 students had signed, online or physically, a petition supporting the Students’ Bill of Rights. The College community was given three weeks to comment on the drafts by online forum. Many changes were made by student RAs, judicial officers, Student Government representatives, and multicultural students to address their concerns.

In my opinion, it was the most accessible student-driven initiative run on *zero cash* I’ve either witnessed or been a part of during my four years here.

On Tuesday however, skeptical Student Government representatives and a statist club president decided that it wasn’t “proper” for a document “by the students, for the students” to be voted on directly…by students.

It was proposed that the Students’ Bill of Rights not be passed, Student Government adopt the initiative, form a potentially months-old committee, and submit the draft to the administration to be changed without the student supporters’ consent.

The resolution that ultimately failed would have allowed the College administration to bring any changes they felt necessary back to a Student Body Meeting in order to be ratified by a two-thirds vote of the students.

Thus, by comprising a majority at the meeting, privileged, powerful students were able to delay our rights and effectively stifle the spirit of grassroots democracy on campus. Notably, the draft had been endorsed by four times as many students than were there on Tuesday.

One particularly cynical argument was that less than 10 percent of the College’s students had bothered to endorse the petition.

I argued, the significance is in *who* signed the petition: the students who feel like they need to be protected by a Students’ Bill of Rights, who hopefully will never make up a majority of students at a “caring College.”

Another Student Government member argued that “parts of the document contradict College policy,” even after all of the invitations for Student Government to give input.

With few exceptions, this exhibits the fear that many Student Government reps have of participatory decision-making where more than just their voice can be heard. One representative, writing in the Weekly, called this grassroots anti-oppression work “unreasonable reform.”

Ultimately, once a general consensus has been reached, the Students’ Bill of Rights will be added to the end of the Social Code, empowering students to protect themselves if other students, faculty, or staff violate their rights.

Here are some quotes that come to mind when reflecting on Tuesday’s meeting:

"Watch out for the fellow who talks about putting things in order! Putting things in order always means getting other people under your control."

– Barbara De Angelis

“A right delayed is a right denied.”

– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.”

– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights. Because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper."

– Larry Flynt

"Freedom is participation in power,"

– the Roman orator Cicero.

“If you want to be free, there is but one way; it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbors. There is no other.”

– Carl Shurz

Alex Lotorto is an organizer for Students for a Democratic Society, but does not write on behalf of that organization or anyone else.

Come to Obama's inauguration with sds!

2008-11-29T01:05:00.000-08:00

Hey folks,

**So SdS has officially co-sponsored the College-sponsored trip to Obama's inauguration on Jan 20th, which means we should get tickets for the bus!**

Info:
Tickets are almost all gone, but there's a waiting list!
Go to the Political Science suite on third floor Ettinger to sign up!
It's $5 bucks.
Leaves at 4:00am from Allentown, 7:30pm from DC.

A few of us are already going to participate in one of the many (or our own!) protests happening around the city that day.

One really groovy (permitted) march will be from Malcom X Park to K street/McPherson square sponsored by Peace Action.

The DC chapter of SdS will likely be doing something really fun and engaging for us to help with too! (and probably a party)

If you can't get a ticket for the 'Berg bus, I'll likely be going down for the three day weekend before for the Positive Youth Fest/punk show/workshop thing happening, so you can always come with me to that via Bieber/Greyhound/Chinatown bus.

Here's the current list of things happening from the organizing coalition's minutes:

-Alex

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ACTIVIST COALITION OF DC (ACDC...rock!)

-Mission: A progressive group dedicated to building capacity in DC through working together for more effective non-violent actions that are both locally and nationally catalyzed

-Working groups for medics, legal observers, lawyers, media, arts, accessibility, fundraising, and overall coordination

-DC is always put into the role of hosting national mobilizations. This group is working to rebuild and sustain our capacity to provide the necessary support for these actions

judging from previous years:

-Obama going to church in the morning
-motorcade to the White House
-swearing in at 12 noon, probably on the West side of the Capitol
-luncheon and then a parade, probably starting around 2pm
-president usually walks for some of the route, might be less security and more access this year because of a lawsuit (thanks Adam E!)

-Lafayette Park is mostly closed off from now until the inauguration

What we have planned so far

-Peace Center has permits for McPherson Square and Malcolm X Park and a permit for a march between them

-Jan 19th, Peace Action Montgomery is doing their annual MLK day protest at Lockheed in Bethesda.

-Jan 21st, big immigration rights/workers justice march on Mall

-Take advantage of the 2 million people coming to do massive outreach, education, and fundraising

- Jan. 11th – 20th – Witness Against Torture hunger fast protesting Guantanamo

- Peace Ball - evening of the 20th organized by Andy Shallal

- ArrestBush2009.com – 3000 people with black and white arrest bush signs in front of FBI building to surround Obama as he passes by on parade

- Local labor unions are planning something to target Mayor Fenty on or around the inaugural

- Code Pink celebration along the theme of War is Not Green

- Positive Youth Fest (punk youth fest with music and workshops) is the weekend before the 20th @ St. Stephens church

- Progressive Democrats of America is having conference the 18th and 19th

- People's Popular Power block march happy celebration (anarchists!)

What we would like to see

-Critical mass

-Some sort of anti-fascist activity

-community gathering spot all week (in Dupont?). ArrestBush2009.com has the permit

-coordinate mass action on J20 with 100 Days / Close Guantanamo events?

-police energy will all be focused on the parade route. Can we take some effective direct action elsewhere?

-focus on reaching and involving regular people, not just on trying to get Obama/media's attention

-print a bunch of signs for the crowd

-people want to celebrate: so let's throw the best party (reach people not media)

Messaging

-want it to be unified and not look like crazy leftists
-could use Obama's language (from his books or speeches) and connect it to what we want
-focus message around the first 100 days
-two lines of thought: try to reach Obama and try to reach the people who voted for him

Group reportbacks:

-make it new, keep it positive, don't make it a protest
-use obama's quotes
-print mass signs, or have a big sign making party for local community organizations
-banner drops leading up to J20th
-have a welcoming space with food, warmth, drinks, music
-signs that say "I hope for _____"
-blend with the crowd, don't separate activists and celebrants
-have local DC issues play a big role
-focus on preventing escalation in Afghanistan/Pakistan

Join SDS e-mail lists!

2008-11-28T17:15:00.000-08:00

Muhlenberg SDS is part of a national network of student organizers, so tune into any of these that interest you!

Most Important Lists

Muhlenberg SDS List
^^click 'Subscribe'

National Announcements List
^^news bulletins, calls to action, workshops, conventions, etc.

Regional Announcement Lists

National Working Committee

National Campaigns and Actions

Student Power for Accessible Education Campaign

RNC/DNC Actions