After Nine Days, Protesters End Hunger Strike

Surrounded by more than a hundred applauding security guards, students, and union organizers on Friday, tears began to trickle down the face of Jamila R. Martin ’07.

For Martin it was a bittersweet moment. It had been over nine days since her last meal, and for the first time in more than a week, she would no longer be on hunger strike.

As a security guard walked up to the remaining hunger strikers and offered them a bowl of mushroom barley soup, Martin was still sobbing.

“I think it was really hard,” she said in an interview on Saturday. “We did get some concessions from the University, but it’s not clear how useful those will be. A lot of what still needs to be done hasn’t been done yet.”

AN ‘IMPOSSIBLE TREADMILL’

The hunger strike was organized by Stand For Security, a coalition of more than 20 campus organizations, to protest the wages of Harvard security guards hired by subcontractor AlliedBarton. Students who participated in the strike said the experience was physically taxing.

Over the course of nine days, the hunger strikers lived off nothing more than water and Gatorade, at times drinking more than eight liters of fluid per day. Water coolers kept on being refilled to ensure that none of the students became dehydrated.

Even with all of the drinks around them, Matthew A. Opitz ’10, who had participated in the strike since the beginning, found it difficult to keep himself hydrated.

“Staying hydrated is like an impossible treadmill,” he said. “We were told to drink 10 liters per day, but it just seemed like you lost whatever you drank. It was like a constant, never-ending struggle.”

As the hunger strike continued, the all-fluid diet began to take its toll on some of the students.

Last Tuesday, Javier J. Castro ’09 was hospitalized for dangerously low sodium and electrolyte levels, and on Wednesday, Opitz was admitted to Mount Auburn hospital and placed on intravenous saline solution.

Opitz said that a hospital nurse told him that the sodium level in his blood was supposed to be around 135 moles per liter, but his had fallen down to just over 127 moles per liter.

PSYCHOLOGICALLY TAXING

The night before the hunger strike ended, Opitz said he started to feel increasingly nauseated and woozy. He slowly paced across his room, sneaking glances at the clock every so often. Without any indication that the strike would, in fact, end the following day, he wondered how much his body had been through since he had stopped eating.

“It wasn’t regret, but a sort of paranoid panic over what to do,” he said.

More than anything, the hunger strike was psychologically exacting. Though the hunger strikers noted that there was a large number of students who demonstrated their support—either by showing up at the daily 1 p.m. rallies or stopping by to chat—there were also those who continually criticized the students’ actions.

After sitting outside in their makeshift camp across from Mass. Hall for most of the day, some of the protestors would return to find their inboxes flooded with messages highly critical of the hunger strike. Kyle A. Krahel ’08 said that comments discrediting the hunger strike and questioning the strikers’ motives were “mentally challenging to read.”

“The intensity of how people were responding heightened everything,” Martin said.

That was all in addition to the hunger pangs the protesters continuously had to endure. For many of the strikers, it was difficult to watch their roommates and other students lounge around the dining halls during meal times.

“Food is my favorite thing in the world. Eating is my favorite pastime,” said Kelly L. Lee ’07, who had been on hunger strike for the entire nine days. “You have a habit of eating, so it was physically very draining.”

The students found different ways to cope with this problem. Krahel said that whenever he was in his room, his roommates would hide food from him so that he would not be tempted to break his fast.

Opitz said he found himself breaking up the days into different periods. He no longer divided them into morning, afternoon, and evening, because it reminded him too much of meals. Instead, he started to view each day as a separate block, hoping that this would make the days go by faster.

DOING THE RIGHT THING?

There were times during the hunger strike when some of the participating students questioned whether it was the appropriate action to take.

Before the strike occurred, there were some doubts over whether the strike would have any real impact in enacting change.

“You’re always wondering, ‘Am I doing the right thing, is this the most effective strategy,’” Lee said.

Lee said she did not inform her family about her involvement in the hunger strike until the sixth day, but her mother suspected that she was participating in the protest.

“Support from family kept us going,” Lee said. Opitz added that some of the strikers’ parents fasted in solidarity with their children.

When University officials finally met with the students on Wednesday, the protesters were convinced that things were starting to fall into place and that hunger striking had been an effective tactic.

“We had to ramp up the pressure in some way because most of the students won’t be here for Commencement,” Martin said.

WHAT NEXT?

On Friday, the University issued a statement that reaffirmed its commitment to Harvard workers, stating that “the University’s employment and contracting practices should reflect a humane concern for the well-being of all individuals who work at Harvard, regardless of whether they are directly-employed for Harvard or work on campus for a contractor.”

The University also agreed to meet with students and other community members to access AlliedBarton’s wages and benefits for Harvard workers.But some of the students expressed regret about not being able to accomplish more from their protest.

“We went into it knowing that the strike wouldn’t be an endgame solution,” Martin said.

Though the hunger strike has ended, the students said that they would continue demonstrating to ensure that the administration follows through with its promises.

Krahel said that future rallies have already been planned calling on AlliedBarton to restructure contracts with their security guards.

“We’re going to hold [the University administration’s] feet to the fire,” he said. “This is not over. If they think they are placating us, then they are fooling themselves.”

—Staff writer Kevin Zhou can be reached at kzhou@fas.harvard.edu.