Re: academia/organizing

PNFPNF@AOL.COM
Mon, 28 Jul 1997 19:31:47 -0400 (EDT)

One thing I wonder about sometimes is how effective was the entrance of
numbers (how many?) of late-60s activists into academic and related
organizing--and for how long. To be quite blunt, several of those I knew who
went into university library work were slowly "drawn into the system" to such
extent they now support, at best, the most limited sort of trade unionism;
others, working in more clerical areas (in university/college domains), have
seen their gains largely pushed back in recent years. But what about those
who determined to change/organize faculty? I ask in part because I've been
shocked that Sixties List's own pillar, Kali Tal, is being dismissed by
Arizona without any sort of due process (I think there's info. on this at
http://www.weeklywire.com/tw/current/feat.htm , if I'm remembering the URL
right). I also ask because, 1) in the general way, employer/employee
("owner/slave") relations, for teachers or secretaries or anyone else, seems
not really to have made much progress at any point, even briefly, since or
during the '60s movement, and 2) there were many then who said "You can't
make revolution without first educating and organizing the workers"--and few
of us did; clearly these two points are related, but how much good has come
of the little worker orgazing we did? I don't mean this necessarily
pessimistically; it's more like, what should we have done/do different?
Paula Friedman