Word: pslm
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Unfortunately, PSLM seems determined not to learn from its mistakes. The focus of DiMaggio’s op-ed was not higher wages, but the struggle for a “more just and democratic University and society,” in which students and workers would have far more influence. But at the moment, it’s entirely unclear how much democratization PSLM wants, or how much it would settle for. The call for student representatives on the Harvard Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, will encounter far more official opposition than the living wage...
...part, PSLM is a victim of its own success; soon almost all Harvard workers will be making well above the sit-in standard of $10.25 an hour, even accounting for inflation. Yet the group can’t simply declare victory. Throughout its campaign, the group steadily avoided any clear explanation of which wages are just and which are “disgusting”—and the point has been forced, now that wages are high enough for some workers to accept them. Debates over $11 versus $14 don’t lend themselves to protest signs...
...most of these issues are addressed by the College and the Faculty, not the Corporation. The debates in which PSLM is interested go beyond these considerations of how best to achieve the University’s mission. They involve to a second set of issues—namely, how to define what Harvard’s mission is. Decisions on whether the University should have raised its wages, bought property in Allston or divested from South African investments are only tangentially related to the “student interest,” narrowly understood; instead, they represent issues on which...
...Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) “has never just been about achieving a living wage,” as member Daniel DiMaggio ’04 wrote in a recent opinion piece. But the issue of higher wages for Harvard’s workers has also been the overwhelming focus of the group’s efforts for the past 18 months. What will take its place...
Answering these questions will require sustained investigation, even before PSLM undertakes an unprecedented political effort. Only immense student pressure could convince the Corporation and Overseers to dilute the power of the alumni, or could bring about the kind of constitutional convention that would be needed to iron out the details of representation. And students certainly aren’t of one mind on the issue—DiMaggio calls for an “enormous education campaign” to “convince” students that they are unhappy with the current system of governance...