Word: pslm
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...spectre of Harvard past haunts today’s protesters. PSLM activists are intent on distinguishing themselves from their parents’ generation. Appel characterises the nature of the 1960s action as “spontaneous, rather emotional and very chaotic. They didn’t seem to be able to reflect on their organization at all and the constant infighting meant the protesters couldn’t form clearly defined goals for their action.” In contrast, Elfenbein summarizes the core premise of the PSLM’s campaign as “focus on the issues...
Beyond meticulous organization, the PSLM was conscious from the outset of the other factors conspiring to raise their media prominence into the stratosphere. Bartley concedes that there “was a definite visual intensity of the image which we didn’t even need to choregraph,” this photogenic nature of the strike stemming in no small part from the mystique of Harvard itself. But, across from the omniscient eye of John Harvard, the students realised that Harvard’s hallowed name was both a boon and a burden for their cause...
Julia B. Appel ’04 explains that at the same time as the Living Wage PSLM sit-in was taking place at Harvard, there were heated rallies occuring at Northeastern over the displacement of the university’s African-American center to the edge of campus. She observes that “there was no publicity for this action because the cache of privilege at Harvard gave us an edge...
Looking back, however, many PSLM members express disappointment at the way in which their status as Harvard students was hijacked by the media as the focus of their reporting. The role of the media is one of the prime distinguishing factors between the 1969 takeover and today’s protest. The Students for a Democratic Society didn’t come close to cultivating and nurturing a relationship with the media the way PSLM...
Bartley believes that some elements of the comparison between ’60s demonstrations and those of the PSLM are valid. “There is a direct link in methodology—we’re both part of a social movement which has used sit-ins. We needed to get across to students more that the sit-in was merely the next logical step in a lengthy trajectory of attempts to speak to the university administration...