PSLM Joins National Student Activist Alliance

Local resident George U. Kucewicz, a member of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in the late 1960s, was on campus this weekend to observe the formation of a new national student activist organization. in Sever and Emerson Halls.

The Harvard Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) joined 72 other college activist groups around the nation to form what has been provisionally titled the National Student Labor Alliance (NSLA).

"The beginnings [of SDS] were not dissimilar to this," Kucewicz said.

The new group was the brainchild of a weekend-long conference on labor issues, organized by Arin Dube, a visiting graduate student studying in the Department of Economics.

Similar conferences were held at Stanford University and Kent State University also this weekend.

NSLA, an association of campus labor movements across the nation, would help students at other universities through the birth-pains of forming activist organizations of their own.

Daniel M. Hennefeld '99, founder of PSLM, explained that many students' experience with activism had atrophied after years of neglect.

"Students from other schools need formal support to start these things up," he said.

Local union activists, interested Cambridge residents and students from other New England colleges and universities also attended the conference in Sever and Emerson Halls, which drew 200 people over the course of the weekend, according to Dube.

"We need to have a Web site telling students how to set up a SLAC [Student Labor Action Committee] group, how to start a living wage campaign, how to make a poster," said Suzanne V. Clark, a senior at Brown University who attended the conference.

Dube suggested the labor alliance could function as a national Who's Who directory for student activists, featuring a database of student contacts working on particular labor issues.

He said the national organization would be particularly effective in handling issues not confined to a particular school or institution, such as the use of sweatshop labor to manufacture college apparel.

"Many of the problems we deal with are region-wide. With a national organization, we can have simultaneous action in different areas, which will put more pressure on the university system as a whole," he said.

In a conference call yesterday with activists at Kent and Stanford, students from Harvard, Brown and other area schools hammered out the nuts and bolts of the new organization.

According to its mission statement, the alliance would not be campaign-specific, but would focus upon fostering campus labor activism in general.

Although the group has not yet secured funding, suggested sources include the AFL-CIO and socialist organizations such as the Haymarket People's Fund.

Although speakers frequently brought up thecampus activism of 30 years ago, Kucewicz saidthere were some important differences between 1969and 1999.

"SDS was high on participation and low ondefinition. Nowadays, student activists havereversed that," he said.

"The politics are also different. A critique ofcapital isn't front and center," he added.

In addition, he said he did not believe the neworganization would have the same potential forupheaval as SDS, which participated in campusuprisings across the nation in the 1960s,including the 1969 student takeover of UniversityHall.

The labor conference that accompanied theformation of the alliance featured talks by some30 union leaders and labor activists. Paneldiscussions and workshops focused on labor issuesand corporate abuses in general, as well asspecific outlets for student activism.

While panel discussions were initially wellattended, attendance wanted as the conference drewon. The featured panel discussion yesterdaymorning--"Student Labor Activism: The Union SummerProgram and Beyond"--was so poorly attended thatit had to be rescheduled.

However, the opportunity to meet with youngactivists drew representatives from a broadspectrum of labor organizations. Daisy M. Rooks,who is in charge of campus recruiting for theAFLCIO, urged students to attend "Union Summer," aprogram which teaches organizational skills andencourages students to become labor activists oncethey return to school.

Right down the hall, a table run by theUniversity of Massachusetts Socialist Club and theLabor Militants party was piled high with leafletsurging passers-by to "fight for communism!" andencouraged students to ally with munitions workersto "cut off supplies to NATO."

"We base ourselves on Trotsky," said Anthony F.Cianciolo, referring to the Russian leader whoadvocated the export of communism to othercountries. "Democrats and Republicans are bothparties for corporations. We say workers need anindependent Voice.

Although speakers frequently brought up thecampus activism of 30 years ago, Kucewicz saidthere were some important differences between 1969and 1999.

"SDS was high on participation and low ondefinition. Nowadays, student activists havereversed that," he said.

"The politics are also different. A critique ofcapital isn't front and center," he added.

In addition, he said he did not believe the neworganization would have the same potential forupheaval as SDS, which participated in campusuprisings across the nation in the 1960s,including the 1969 student takeover of UniversityHall.

The labor conference that accompanied theformation of the alliance featured talks by some30 union leaders and labor activists. Paneldiscussions and workshops focused on labor issuesand corporate abuses in general, as well asspecific outlets for student activism.

While panel discussions were initially wellattended, attendance wanted as the conference drewon. The featured panel discussion yesterdaymorning--"Student Labor Activism: The Union SummerProgram and Beyond"--was so poorly attended thatit had to be rescheduled.

However, the opportunity to meet with youngactivists drew representatives from a broadspectrum of labor organizations. Daisy M. Rooks,who is in charge of campus recruiting for theAFLCIO, urged students to attend "Union Summer," aprogram which teaches organizational skills andencourages students to become labor activists oncethey return to school.

Right down the hall, a table run by theUniversity of Massachusetts Socialist Club and theLabor Militants party was piled high with leafletsurging passers-by to "fight for communism!" andencouraged students to ally with munitions workersto "cut off supplies to NATO."

"We base ourselves on Trotsky," said Anthony F.Cianciolo, referring to the Russian leader whoadvocated the export of communism to othercountries. "Democrats and Republicans are bothparties for corporations. We say workers need anindependent Voice.