"In general I think the motivating force for the University is negative publicity, so they pay attention to us relative to the amount of noise that we make," says Benjamin L. McKean '02.

The group has held about 10 public rallies since the living wage campaign began about a year ago.

So far this semester, PSLM members have stacked trash bags in front of the John Harvard statue, smacked a "Harvard" shark piata and stormed the Holyoke Center office of Kim A. Roberts, Harvard's director of labor and human relations.

"You need massive public rallies and demonstrations not just because they look pretty or it's fun to chant, but because that's how you really exercise power and bring large numbers of people [into the campaign]," says second-year law student Aaron D. Bartley, the founder of the living wage campaign.

Most rallies attract about 150 students and include noted speakers such as Cambridge Mayor Francis H. Duehay '55 and Fletcher University Professor Cornel R. West '74, both of whom have spoken this year.

An Atmosphere for Action

University officials say the mass demonstrations organized by PSLM are hard to ignore.

In the latest round of contract negotiations, the University's janitors, members of Local 254 of the Service Employees International Union, won significant wage increases, up to $1.15 per hour by 2002, ending a period of wage stagnation.