Word: pslm
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Activism should be about ends, not means. But in choosing to occupy Massachusetts Hall, the Living Wage movement has let its protest methods overwhelm its goals. And because PSLM is having such obvious fun occupying the building, their action is open to allegations of frivolity even if their motives are utterly serious...
Harvard administrators have shown respect for PSLM’s concerns about workers’ rights. As PSLM members Benjamin L. McKean ’02 and Amy Offner ’01 wrote on this page on Monday, the group has met with administrators “countless times” over a period of years. President Neil L. Rudenstine’s father and mother, both blue-collar workers, never earned a living wage in their entire careers, and he repeatedly emphasizes how deeply he understands the movement’s concerns. In response to PSLM?...
...fundamental concern for their welfare. As the disagreement is simply about how to handle an issue that is mutually recognized as important—though to vastly different extents—the use of force is clearly not necessary. McKean and Offner are wrong when they say they think PSLM can “use pressure to force the changes that [administrators] will not willingly make.” Unless PSLM starts setting University policy from Rudenstine’s occupied office, it will have to use reason, not pressure, to affect change...
...PSLM should capitalize on the common ground it shares with the administration. Instead it has created a great divide between itself and the administration by its rash and excessive actions. When the sit-in is over, administrators’ disagreement with the living wage campaign’s mission will be mild in comparison to their anger at the occupation of Massachusetts Hall. PSLM’s unlawful behavior has needlessly hindered the administration’s ability to do its work—the vast majority of which, even PSLM would agree, betters the University. It has also proved...
...essential that students constantly monitor the University to make sure that its actions are fair and just. But coercion is the wrong method for a campaign that is supposed to be about dialogue. Forcibly occupying Massachusetts Hall is not an effective way to protest economic inequality at the University. PSLM accuses Harvard of refusing to listen to its concerns, but it has not behaved in a manner that merits the University’s respect. It has given the moral high ground back to the administration...