Early moves were made to orient the student movement along the lines of fighting for democratic rights, particularly with a focus on Affirmative Action. A meeting of various groups was held to discuss the possibility of developing such a struggle. While there was some hesitancy at first, the overwhelming mood was that of interest. It became clear that if such a struggle could be successfully mounted, it could become a catalyst for democratic rights work, not only in other areas of Harvard, but possibly at other schools.
In order to build the struggle, organization was necessary. Thus, the Task Force on Affirmative Action (TFAA) was constituted as a coalition to lead this struggle. The TFAA has to go down in Harvard's history as one of the broadest coalitions ever created. The TFAA was able to successfully mobilize the support of at least thirteen organizations, including students, workers, women's and minorities' groups. But the influence of the TFAA did not stop with the member organizations. It was also able to gather direct and indirect support from faculty, as well as other struggles (i.e., the Afro-American Studies concentrators and the TFAA had a relationship of mutual support, with the concentrators struggling to stop the new Department Chairperson's attempts at narrowing curriculum and her not rehiring talented and extremely qualified instructors).
The key to a successful Affirmative Action struggle was mass support. To be sure, this is not to discount legal work, but as can be seen from the experience of others using Affirmative Action, the law is truly the web of the rich and powerful. If democratic forces rely solely on the law, they will be held in court for months, if not years. Thus, base-building, mass action and educational work were seen as decisive.
The surfacing of the TFAA as a public organization (up to this time it had not announced its existence publicly, using said time to accumulate information for the publication of our complaint against Harvard's plan) at our first press conference coincided with the publication of our complaint and the commencement of our work towards a March 1st demonstration to "welcome" the arrival of federal reviewers of Harvard's Affirmative Action plan and practice. While some saw it a little differently, the overwhelming majority of the TFAA was well aware that the federal government was no friend of the students and workers struggling for democratic rights. At best, we expected the government to rubber-stamp Harvard's performance. But we were also aware that the arrival of the federal reviewers offered us a unique opportunity to bring our case to the national public and put the spotlight on the U.S. government for, not only its non-enforcement of Affirmative Action, but also its tacit and active support for national, racial and sexual discrimination, particularly as evidenced at Harvard.
The March 1st TFAA rally represented a momentous success for the democratic forces at Harvard. On a cold, misty afternoon between 200 and 400 students demonstrated in opposition to Harvard's discriminatory policies and the government's compliance. The speakers at the rally well represented the broad spectrum of the TFAA's supporters, including the Harvard Employee Organizing Committee, Radcliffe Union of Students, February First Movement, supporters of progressive kitchen worker Sherman Holcombe, and a TFAA spokesperson. This rally called attention to a variety of grievances felt by many sectors of the University population. For example, active discrimination had been exposed in the Harvard kitchens by Sherman Holcombe (and was discussed at the rally by one of his supporters), where the University was following a policy of non-posting of job opportunities and showing favoritism for young, white males. Sherman Holcombe, and later the TFAA, showed how this was part of the University's efforts to divide workers by pitting one sector against another.
THe spring was a period of further educational work. We, of the TFAA, are self-critical about this period, for this was a time when there should have been more active exposures of discrimination and more active showing of support for democratic rights. In attempting to correct this situation, the TFAA went into high gear in preparation for a May 2nd demonstration. This demonstration was aimed at again calling attention to unanswered grievances, as well as uniting broad support around several very specific programmatic demands, including: a new Affirmative Action plan, ending harassment of Sherman Holcombe, ending of the policy of non-posting of jobs, and a cessation of anti-union policies (directed against the kitchen workers and HEOC). The May 2nd rally successfully turned out the support of 100-200 people. The emphasis of many of the speakers was that while the academic year was ending (and thus, little work could go on around the specific demands), the struggle was far from over, and that students and workers should prepare for another year of intense struggle.
The Present Situation and Our Tasks
Conditions are rapidly changing since the fall of 1975. Not only is the University showing that it is far from interested in democracy, but the Federal government is openly showing its willingness to cut Affirmative Action for universities. This situation creates even broader tasks for the democratic forces, particularly the TFAA.
Efforts this coming year will be centered on actively mobilizing even greater support from campus groups, particularly students and workers, but also in broadening the scope of our work. This past year witnessed struggles at different schools in which Affirmative Action was used. In the face of what appears to be a national-level counter-offensive against democratic rights, all forces that can possibly be mobilized, particularly in the Boston area at this time, not only must be mobilized, but must be organized to resist these reactionary moves. Concretely, this means not only the sympathetic unity of various forces, but also the developing of some sort of apparatus to give form to our aspirations for unity in defense of democratic rights.
To further orient the struggle, the TFAA has realized that the lack of a concrete minimum program only helped to create gaps in our work. This coming year, based on the concrete situation, it will be important to develop such a program which can unite a broad section of the University population in active work.
In the face of a slowly gathering movement to crush the hard-won gains of women and oppressed nationalities, passivity is intolerable. The conservative forces have been mounting an ideological campaign against Affirmative Action for years. Apparently, they are now prepared to transform this ideological campaign into a political attack. Given this situation, the active motion of the University population in favor of democratic rights is crucial to resistance to the new Jim Crow