Re: Yale TA strike and actions

[Patrick M Crowley <pcrowley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My Brother,

Thank you for your salute.. Yet I feel obligated to say that I posted our
press release not for your praise (though it is indeed welcome) but to
let our brothers and sisters in unions around the country that the
members of the Graduate Employees Organization, Local 2322 UAW are
willing to do what it takes to advance the cause of unionism.  It may be
hard, but we will find a way.

By the way, has anyone read the letter in the back of the latest edition
of the NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS about the "Hope For Labor?" ( I know, how
middle-class of me)  The only reason I mention it is because as a Union
member and a student of labor, I have seen too many academics think that
the editorial page of the NEW YORK TIMES can change the world.  I think
it is great that the letter was written, do not get me wrong.  But, at
the risk of cliche, "what have you done for me lately?"

To frame it in such ways disturbs me, but from too many encounters,
academics (a class that includes some of my closest friends), follow the
money.  They are like the bank robber Willy Sutton, who when asked why he
robbed banks, gave the common sense answer "Thats where the money is."

To the academics out there, and to those who signed on to the letter in
the back of the NEW York Review Of BOOKS, take the next step.  I am not
asking you to join us in the streets (though that would be great!). I am
asking you to take your skills to other places.  Leave the Harvards of
the worlds.  Teach at the Roxbury Community Colleges, The Fresno States, etc.
I am a product of a public education through and through- public elementry,
public hich school (Marshfield High), public college (Bridgewater
State).  It is a shame that the great progessive and radical teachers
hide themselves too often behind Ivy leaves.  Remember who radicalism is
to serve.

I do not mean to offend with this note, but perhaps to inspire.

In Solidarity,
Patrick


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