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Sit-In!!
Main Story
Latest News
4:15 pm, May 8, 2001
SIT-IN ENDS
20 days, 2 hours, and 45 minutes after nearly fifty members of PSLM entered Massachusetts Hall, the remaining 25 exited as heroes in front of a throng of over 1000 people.The protestors left in response to the creation of a new committee to examine the issue of low-wage workers at Harvard. Unlike the previous Ad Hoc Committee, whose report PSLM criticized as insufficient, the new committee will include students and worker representatives in addition to faculty and administrators.
Each protestor received a red rose as they left the building at 4:15 pm. The rally began at 3:00, but the protestors waited to leave until the announcement of the new committee was posted on a publicly accessible website. In the interim, speakers ranging from Harvard workers to Ted Kennedy, who addressed the rally in an amplified phone call, shared their support for the Living Wage campaign. Richard Trumka, the Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO, opened the door for the 25 undergraduates, graduate students, and community members to step out into the fresh air for the first time in 21 days.
As the rally wound down, campaign members began dismantling Tent City, restoring Harvard Yard to its usual tourist-trapping traditionalism. Later in the evening, a truck labeled "AM-PM Cleaners" pulled up to Mass Hall to get out the smell of 3 weeks of unbathed protesters. PSLM just hopes the memory of their action will hang around longer.
9:45 am, April 21, 2001
At 9 am Saturday, Massachusetts State Representative Jarrett T. Barrios '90 arrived at Massachusetts Hall to bring breakfast to the protesters. His arrival indicated extensive support for the sit-in on all levels - from government, members of the community, faculty and students.
At about 6:00 pm Friday, Senator Edward M. Kennedy '54-'56 spoke to a crowd of over one hundred protestors outside Massachusetts Hall. He expressed his support for the Living Wage Campaign and the sit-in and deemed the issue one that concerned the dignity of workers. Responding to a request from protestors inside the building, Kennedy promised to call President Rudenstine to voice his support for the Campaign.
Shortly after Kennedy left, a group of students from the Progressive Jewish Alliance, a part of Harvard-Radcliffe Hillel, arrived to lead the protestors in a Shabbat service. Police refused to allow prayer books inside the building, claiming that they were a danger because they are flammable. After several minutes of loud chanting outside, the police acquiesced, and the service proceeded.
Earlier in the day, a rally hosted by the Living Wage Campaign drew over 250 members of the community. Addressing the crowd with a bullhorn through a window, Laure "Voop" de Vulpillieres '02 expressed her thanks for the support. "It's great to see so many of you out here," she said.
After the rally, supporters pitched tents in front of Massachusetts Hall, planning to sleep out that night to keep watch on the protesters inside.
Meanwhile, protesters inside the building denied the accusations leveled against them in the Crimson Friday morning. Without revealing its sources, the Crimson claimed that the protesters were leaving trash unattended inside the building, and that they were fighting amongst themselves.
"That's ridiculous," said Liz Thornberry '03 through an open window. "This is a well-organized effort. We have garbage bags. We're standing strong together."
The Crimson staff also published an editorial calling for the protesters to surrender, suggesting that the sit-in was eroding support from the movement, again without citing evidence.
Five protesters left the building Friday, leaving about 45 students inside.
6:00 pm, April 19, 2001
Shortly after 5:00 pm, approximately ten residents of Massachusetts Hall staged a counter-protest to complain that noise from the PSLM rally has disrupted their sleep and studies. PSLM responded by conducting a silent rally. PSLM has also issued a formal apology for the noise to the residents of Massachusetts and Matthews Halls.
The rally became noisy last night when PSLM expressed disapproval of the police's invasion of the safe space upon which protestors inside and police had agreed. At a rally at noon today, Amy Offner '01, who is leading PSLM's outside efforts, called for the petty space negotiations with police to stop and for substantive negotiations over wage issues with the administration to begin.
The first three floors of Massachusetts Hall are reserved as an administrative center for Harvard University. The fourth floor, however, serves as a dormitory for students at Harvard College. Students involved in the counter-protest were residents of the fourth floor and had not been involved in the sit-in.
11:58 am, April 19, 2001
As of about 12 noon, protesters inside Massachusetts Hall had access to bathrooms and had contact with outside supporters.
Filed 9:05 am, April 19, 2001.
With the number of Harvard University police officers outside of Massachusetts Hall growing rapidly at about 8:45 AM on Thursday, members of the Living Wage Campaign urged students to join them in support of the protesters. Members suspected that police officers would try to remove the protesters from the building, accordng to an e-mail sent out early Thursday morning.
Police officers were suspected of attempting to block protesters' access to the bathrooms.
Provost Harvey C. Fineberg '67 has explicitly stated he will not negotiate with the Living Wage Campaign about their demands.
"They're only negotiating about space issues, which is absurd," said Amy Offner '01. "They won't discuss a living wage."
A small group of supporters is maintained a presence outside of
Massachusetts Hall, holding signs and offerng encouragement to the
protesters inside.
Main Story
Filed at 2:00 pm, April 18, 2001.
On Wednesday, April 18, at 1:30 pm, approximately 51 students from the Harvard Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) occupied Massachusetts Hall, the 1714 building where Harvard’s President and Provost have their offices, in protest against Harvard’s continuing failure to implement a living wage for all Harvard employees. The Living Wage Campaign, a branch of PSLM, has had the support of unions, although workers were not involved in—or even aware of—the action. The sit-in is the culmination of more than two years spent pressuring the University to implement a living wage policy for all of its workers. The immediate cause of the action was the recent outsourcing of workers at the business school.
After entering the building, PSLM members informed administrators that they meant their action to be a peaceful measure demonstrating to the University that its labor policies were inadequate and unjust. The Harvard students occupying Massachusetts Hall see their sit-in as part of a larger tradition of civil disobedience. Many protesters brought texts by Martin Luther King and Henry David Thoreau into the building with them. Gabe Katsh, an active member of the Campaign, said "We do not intend any harm to the workers and residents of Mass. Hall, but we feel that this action is necessary, since Harvard has refused to implement a living wage."
The most important demand of the sit-in is a living wage, $10.25 an hour with benefits, adjustable for inflation, for all Harvard employees. Additionally, the protestors are demanding that Harvard join the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), a factory monitoring group with stringent guidelines PSLM is also demanding that the University stop cutting wages and benefits when workers are outsourced or reclassified.
Several other universities have active movements calling for a living wage, and the sit-in, a favorite tactic of 1960’s protestors, has recently been revived on other campuses. Last year, the Student Labor Action Committee (SLAC) at Johns Hopkins organized a sit-in to oppose their school's wage policy, which they had protested since 1996. SLAC's efforts, much like those of PSLM, had been ignored by the administration. They therefore concluded, "We needed to do something different to be heard." Their sit-in lasted for 17 days, from the end of February to the middle of March of last year. The University eventually agreed to increase wages—not before intimidating the protestors by shutting down their heat and asking about their financial aid status. Johns Hopkins, however, did not institute a living wage. At Tufts, students occupied the admissions office for 35 hours this past December, after a bisexual student was denied a leadership position in Tufts Christian Fellowship (TCF). The demonstrators hailed their sit-in as a success; the TCF was placed on probation by Tufts Community Union Judiciary and required to revise its constitution to comply with the university's non-discrimination policy.
When asked about escalating the camapign to a sit-in after more than two years of work, Ben McKean, an active member of the Campaign, stated, "We have to make it more of a national issue, which I think we have the capacity to do. Just this week, we had Senator Wellstone endorse the campaign, we had Terry McCullough, who's the chairman of the Democratic National Party endorse the campaign. We need to put this on the national radar in a way we haven't yet and this action will help accomplish that." McKean may be heartened by Dean Harry Lewis's now ironic comments, given in an e-mail three days before the sit-in: "I don't anticipate any change [in the way the University deals with PSLM], unless there is some important way PSLM deals with the University."
Questions? Comments? Please contact perspy@hcs.harvard.edu