(no subject)

sixties@lists.village.Virginia.EDU
Sun, 19 Apr 1998 12:47:45 -0400

From: sixties-l@JEFFERSON.VILLAGE.VIRGINIA.EDU
Subject: Re: Activism (multiple posts)

(1)
From: "David Tillyer, CUNY" <DATCC@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

On Sun, 29 Mar 1998 22:33:32 EST MobyMeg said:
>Just wondered what people's thoughts are on why the level of student activism
>is so low-key nowadays. Obviously, we don't have a huge issue like Vietnam to
>wrap our attention around, but there are still opportunities for legitimate
>protest these days. What do you think stops people from doing it?
>
I'm pretty impressed by the level of activity around City College
and the rest of the City University of New York. Students here are
faced with a situation where the Mayor and Governor are both intent
on rolling back open admissions and curtailing all remediation. The
Board of trustees, almost all of them appointed by Giuliani or Pataki,
are trying to "raise standards" by making it nearly impossible for
students from most New York neighborhoods to get a toehold.

They've picketed and leafleted and gotten up at dawn to ride to
Albany (state capital) to speak to their legislators.

At least in New York, they are not "low key."
Peace, David Tillyer
English, City College of New York

(2)
From: Jango <Jango@aol.com>

Besides the fact that we are no longer fighting really big fights (Viet
Nam & The Draft, Civil Rights, Women's Movement, World Peace, even
Nuclear Power), and that there is no sort of coalescing of people from
all these movements into a culture of civil disobedience, I'd say the
main problem is that there is no true leftwing leadership in the American
landscape working to provide students with a vision of how things could
be. The pendulum done swung to the Right in 1980 and that's where it's
been ever since. Will it come back in our life time? Yes. I just wonder
how old we'll all be.

David Biddle
7366 Rural Lane
Philadelphia, PA 19119
215-247-2974 (voice and fax)
jango@aol.com