The Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) sit-in ended last Tuesday on a triumphant note. PSLM leaders declared they had won a “victory” for Harvard workers and for the cause of a living wage.
Victory? What victory?
Councillor Kenneth Reeves ’72 told PSLM not to leave the building until they came out with $10.25 an hour for all Harvard workers. But PSLM left having gotten only a promise that we can go away for the summer knowing Harvard will be exactly the same when we get back.
Some of the supposed accomplishments of the sit-in, renegotiations of some workers’ contracts and a moratorium on out-sourcing, are things the University would have agreed to without the sit-in, especially since the moratorium doesn’t even apply to the entire University.
It’s like the University took some old toys they were keeping in the backyard, wrapped them up in paper and string and presented them to PSLM as Christmas presents. Then they unwrapped them in front of all of us on Tuesday, ooh-ing and ahh-ing until we were convinced they got exactly what they wanted.
“But wait,” you say, “we got a committee we can actually participate in—the University is finally taking us seriously!”
It’s exactly that “I just fell off the turnip-truck” mentality that makes the University treat us with great aplomb in front of our faces and great hilarity behind our backs at Faculty Club shindigs.
The new committee is being formed to re-examine the conclusions of the old committee. Everyone knows that Harvard committees have all the effectiveness of a sieve in a downpour, even when they weren’t formed to rehash the “work” of another committee. In other words: none. According to Harvard, committees are appointed to create a façade of action and to delay decisions.
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