Word: pslm
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Critics of the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) have long held that the group’s tactics are coercive and therefore unethical. The Harvard community’s labor activists have remained silent on the issue, claiming they were fighting for “justice” but offering few tangible arguments in defense of their principles. At long last, however, some of the PSLM’s defenders have taken up the issue of “coercion.” They contend that the distinction between a coercive and a non-coercive action is ambiguous and ultimately...
When critics of the PSLM denounce their tactics as “coercive,” it is not because those tactics are intended to “induce” rather than “persuade” Harvard to institute a living wage. Nor do we believe that coercion is simply a means of making a desired outcome preferable to other alternatives. These definitions clearly include many forms of bargaining. Suppose I want my neighbor’s wallet. If I hold a gun to his head and demand that he hand it over, I am making...
...what does coercion mean to the critics of the PSLM? As we see it, coercion is the initiation of force as a means of obtaining a desired end, where force is the use or appropriation of an individual’s property without his consent. Initiation is the key term. If you are attacked, or if your life is in danger, you have the right to defend yourself, because you have a property right in yourself. The word coercion includes all forms of aggression, including rape, murder and military aggression, as well as many things (for example, pickpocketing or theft...
What we argue, when we criticize the PSLM, is that their tactics fall under this definition of coercion. The relationship between a worker and an employer is a contract to which both parties agree in the expectation of benefit. The employer offers wages; the worker offers labor. If workers feel their wages are inadequate, they have the right to suspend or cancel the contract and withhold labor. If employers feel workers’ labor is inadequate, they have the right to terminate employment. Employers must compete for the services that workers offer, and workers must strive to make their services...
...PSLM can’t approach “democratizing” Harvard with the same open-ended demands that it placed on Harvard’s wages. Without a clear, systematic program for the University, students will remain unconvinced...