Welcome to FINALS WEEK at Revolutions per Minute. Inspired by the developing tuition strike at Columbia-Barnard and other actions around the country, we’re focusing on workers and students organizing on campus. Our live guest, David Duhalde, will speak on the history of the Young Democratic Socialists of America, DSA’s campus-oriented arm and a crucial part of our diverse socialist movement. We also hear from Michele of CUNY Adjuncts on their struggle against austerity and for a human-centered approach to graduate labor. Finally, farmers’ protests have made global headlines as millions of workers fight back against neoliberalism in India. We’ll end our show tonight with a brief interview with Jagpreet of Queens DSA on these massive protests and the governmental policies that provoked them. To learn more about the Columbia-Barnard tuition strike, visit linktr.ee/columbiaydsa. Tired of austerity measures like those that threaten CUNY adjuncts? Tax the rich! This week, NYC-DSA, NYCC, Empire State Indivisible, and DSA chapters around NYS are throwing down to protect our communities from budget cuts. As part of their Tax The Rich week of action, their campaign is calling people across New York state to pressure Albany to Tax the Rich to fund our future. NY is facing a budget deficit of over 50 billion and we need Albany to act in the new year to pass over 50 billion in new taxes on the rich to save our state from catastrophe. Go to taxtherichnys.com to get involved.

Check- out Jamila Hammami, Co- Organizer for External & Labor Relations, on ART • WORK • PLACE: EMERGENCY SESSIONS II, VERA LIST CENTER FOR ART AND POLITICS.

Art Work Place Emergency Session II Webinar from Vera List Center on Vimeo.

Online emergency forum focusing on the impact of the current crisis on universities, debt organizing, and sharing resources, information, and ideas for solidarity, support, coalition forming, and strategies for going forward. The first hour of the online forum will feature five speakers on these issues; in the second hour, they will be joined by additional participants for breakout Q&A sessions. Hannah Appel, David Xu Borgonjon , Sami Disu, Jamila Hammami, Nicholas Mirzoef, Yuh-Line Niou, Sandy Nurse, Dean Spade, Naomi Zewde; chaired by Nikki Columbus.

Organized by Nikki Columbus and Michelle Millar Fisher, in collaboration with the PhD Program in Art History (The Graduate Center, CUNY), The James Gallery/Center for the Humanities (The Graduate Center, CUNY) and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics (The New School), where it is sponsored in part by the Helen Shapiro Lectureship.

CALLS TO ACTION

CURRENT EVENTS & PETITIONS

UPCOMING EVENTS

EVENT: #CUNYStrikeReady Teach- In: The Taylor Law: What is it? How can we fight it?

March 10th, 2021, two sessions on March 10, 2021 (choose one): Afternoon, 12-1:30pm & Evening, 7-8:30pm

In the face of layoffs, increasing class sizes, unsafe working conditions, and raises being withheld, our union has passed a strike readiness resolution. Since then, PSC members have experienced further assaults by the administration, including the withholding of contractual raises for some of our most vulnerable members. In building towards strike readiness we want to discuss and prepare for the challenges that the Taylor Law poses to public sector worker strikes. Come learn about this law and how PSC and other public sector unions have approached strike readiness. A concise panel presentation will be followed by open discussion. Bring your questions, concerns, and proposals!

Join us on Wednesday, March 10th to learn about the possibilities from our chapter grievance counselor, a labor lawyer and a union organizer. Please invite your friends and colleagues!

Check out the event on the PSC- Graduate Center website and for more resources (links to register below).

Featuring:

• Arthur Schwartz was General Counsel for TWU Local 100 during the 2005 transit strike and was also General Counsel  for the PSC in the early 2000s. He is currently running for New York City Council in District 3.
• Tina Moore is the Chair of the PSC’s Hunter College Campus School chapter, whose members voted overwhelmingly this fall to authorize a strike if safety precautions were not put in place.
• Marc Kagan is a graduate student and an Adjunct at Lehman College. His dissertation on TWU Local 100 spans the two transit strikes of 1980 and 2005.

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When: March 10th, 2021, afternoon 12- 1:30pm and evening 7- 8:30pm Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Two sessions on March 10, 2021 (choose one):

• Afternoon, 12-1:30pm – Register here
• Evening, 7-8:30pm – Register here

SIGN- ON: #InsureCUNY

 

COVID-19 Open Letter for Universal Doctoral Student Health Insurance

A third of CUNY Graduate Center PhD students receive tuition assistance only &, unlike their fully-funded counterparts, are not guaranteed health insurance. This is unacceptable. Particularly so in the midst of a global pandemic. #InsureCUNY.

*Number of signatures on our Spring 2019 open letter demanding universal graduate assistant positions and access to health insurance.

Read more about the campaign here, and the letter published in Adjunct Project blog here.

To sign the letter and for more information on the Full and Fair Funding campaign, visit https://cunyadjunctproject.org/funding

Please sign here: COVID-19 Open Letter for Universal Doctoral Student Health Insurance

PAST EVENTS & PETITIONS

SIGN- ON, ATTEND, ENDORSE & SUPPORT

EVENT:

#CUNYStrikeReady Teach- In Listening Series 1: What’s Next?

The PSC has voted in favor of a strike readiness resolution, what’s next?

Join the first teach- in of our series on strike readiness! Co- Organized by the CUNY Adjunct Project, PSC- Graduate Center, Rank and File Action; endorsers of the Resolution for a Strike Authorization Campaign and Vote (more details below).

Be a part of an incredible teach- in with CCSAV Coalition members, endorsers, and other academic organizers, on December 3rd, 2020 from 5pm- 6pm. Register now for this digital teach- in.

Check out the resolution presented by PSC leadership, passed at the PSC Special DA 11.23.2020, with amendments from the Cross Campus Strike Authorization Vote Coalition (CCSAVC).

We will discuss PSC Strike Readiness Authorization campaign, cross- campus solidarity, barriers, & solutions moving forward. Our panelists will discuss the realties of race, migration, class, cross- title/ cross- campus organizing, & more.

Featuring:

• Saira Rafiee, Rafael A. Mutis, Izzy Plowright, Gerry Martini; Moderated by CUNY Adjunct Project Co- Organizer, Jamila Hammami

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Register to stay up to date with upcoming teach- ins in the series!

Register for the zoom meeting directly at the link below!

When: Dec 3, 2020 05:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Read more about this event and look at our collaborative jamboard here.

Read brief update here of #CUNYStrikeReady

Quick view of final resolution: “PSC Must Prepare for Strike- Readiness As Part of the Fight to Save Lives, Save Jobs, Save CUNY” Final resolution presented by PSC leadership, passed at the PSC Special DA 11.23.2020, with amendments from the Cross Campus Strike Authorization Vote Coalition (CCSAVC).

EVENT:

BOYCOTT WENDY’S! SUPPORT FARM WORKERS!

Join us! SUPPORT FARM WORKERS! All of our labor is connected!

The Adjunct Project and the DSC Student Life Services will host a reception and panel this Thursday, November 14th from 6pm- 8pm with the Alliance for Fair Food (AFF) and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) at the CUNY Graduate Center, room 5489.

CIW is a Florida-based & UN-recognized human rights organization led by migrant farmworkers from Guatemala, Mexico and Haiti. Through a powerful alliance with consumer allies across the country, the CIW has committed 14 multi-billion dollar tomato buyers and 90% of Florida’s tomato growers to eliminating the exploitation and extreme abuses that were once endemic to our agricultural industry.

CIW and AFF will be in NYC to mobilize folks for our Major NYC Boycott Wendy’s March on November 18th!

We look forward to seeing you at the reception & panel on November 14th, a long with the mobilization on November 18th!

Speakers: Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Alliance for Fair Food

Hosted by Adjunct Project & Doctoral and Graduate Students’ Council (CUNY)

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The Adjunct Project seeks to empower GC student-workers by serving as a resource to:

• raise consciousness about academic labor issues inside and outside CUNY,
• provide political education to GC adjuncts about ways to address these issues, and
• activate GC student-workers to improve their collective position as workers at CUNY.